HANALEI — For 45 years, Diane Daniells has been teaching preschool on the North Shore.
Her first little class took root in 1974 at Wai‘oli Hui‘ia Church just after she moved to Kauai from Maui. Four years later she moved across the street and started Menehune School in its own building.
Wednesday, after helping to educate hundreds of kids through the years, Menehune School graduated its last class and closed its doors.
It was a celebration of every child who walked through the school and of all the learning that took place within the walls. And for her farewell speech, Daniells encouraged students and parents to continue making the world a better place.
“I told the parents, ‘tie their hair back,’” Daniells said, just hours after the ceremony, as she readied picture books and little tables for a garage sale outside. “Let them experience the world and learn.”
The comment drew chuckles from the crowd — Daniells is known for having kids pull their hair back in class so they can better focus. The speech was meant to continue the legacy of teaching kids how to respect people and other living things, and to continue the fostering of creative curiosity.
Sitting among the oak children’s chairs she bought 40 years ago, Daniells recalled her first class at the Wai‘oli Hui‘ia Church. When she moved to Kauai, she lived in a treehouse at Taylor Camp in Ha‘ena and drove to Hanalei daily to teach.
Her first classroom was rented on a trial basis, and continued once those three months were up for the next three or four years.
“Then I moved to this property (where Menehune School is now located) and into a little green building right at the front,” Daniells said. “We tore that one down after we built the building for the school.”
The property that houses Menehune School has been sold, but Daniells and her husband Mark are staying in Hanalei. She’s got some children’s book ideas up her sleeve — particularly stories about Spike, the rooster that was part of their family for 12 years.
Her eyes lit up when she talked about Spike, the adventures the children had with him and the other animals that wandered through the school, and the third-generation preschooler that she taught recently.
She’ll get around to putting those stories on paper, she says.
Until then, the Daniells family has plenty of projects to keep them busy, starting with the garage sale they had going on Wednesday at Menehune School — happening until all the odds and ends are sold.
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Jessica Else, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0452 or jelse@thegardenisland.com.
