Shedding Light on Student’s Response to Mandatory Chapel

On a day to day basis, on school weeks, the Ka Mōʻī team reaches out on their social media platform, Instagram, to ask their readers about either school-related topics or fun questions to establish a positive and friendly reader environment.

Recently, the question was asked “How do you feel about Chapel?” on the Ka Mōʻī’s Instagram. The team was surprised by the number of responses to the question. However, what raised an eyebrow to the team was the tone that the responses were given in. Most responses were questionable and often did not reflect the appropriate mannerisms for Chapel Etiquette.

In reviewing the responses, I was able to come to the conclusion that most students share a common perspective on Mandatory Chapel: negative. As for myself, it’s not unusual to see a fellow classmate to share their unfiltered feelings on the manner. What concerns me is the student behavior towards Mandatory Chapel. Responses show that it’s a waste of time, or that the sermons are often looked over as repetitive or boring. With that said, obviously, something needs to be done. Either, students change their fixed mindset, or the Chapel service finds a different approachable manner to shift their service to a way to students that is intriguing.

A common solution would be to minimize the number of times students are singing and standing. Is it necessary to have more than one song at each service? Students would compromise to singing and standing to one song at the begging of the service and one song at the end of the service.

Another solution could be a shift in the narrative for the guest speakers. Perhaps, topics that talking more towards the scripture of the Bible instead of personal experience. Personal experiences do wield knowledge and insight but providing a deeper understanding of Bible scriptures would be greatly appreciated.