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Teacher Feature: Kari Morioka
There exist many storytellers in this world, but Kari Morioka, Archer Human Development Teacher and Soccer Coach, is a story finder. She helps Archer girls find and share their personal stories and voices while teaching them about their own development. And she loves every minute of it.
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The Story Begins When Morioka (or Coach Mo as she is known to most Archer girls) started her education at Harvard, she had every intention of becoming a school counselor. But thanks to the advice of a recruiter, she decided to start in the classroom. She loved it so much that she hasn’t looked back since.
Morioka graduated from Harvard with an A.B. and Ed.M., moving on to teach for 10 years before a brief stint coaching college soccer. From there she went on to teach at a private school for native Hawaiians. While there, a seasoned teacher told her something that changed her professional outlook, “They’re not going to remember anything you say, they’re going to remember if you loved them.”
“That’s the moment I became an educator instead of a teacher,” Morioka said.
Finding Home “When I moved to Los Angeles I really missed the sense of family and community that I had in Hawaii,” Morioka said. “I found that sense of
community and home at Archer. I truly love this place.”
Morioka first joined Archer as a Middle School soccer coach, then a long-term sub, eventually becoming a permanent member of the Archer family.
“Archer takes a whole person approach to teaching and learning. We strive to teach the girls to find that balance that works, and when they do teeter, we give them the skills to find their way back to the center,” she said. to learning that Morioka has come to appreciate, “It’s the way kids feel free to express who they are, being okay with their true inner self. Among the faculty, I love that there is a genuine appreciation of each other and a sincere support of what each other does. We’re each other’s champions.”
The human development program at Archer is based around the concept of counsel, using it to teach kids a “way of being with their story” without judgment, an open mind and an open heart.
“I see human development as a means for kids to understand their story and that they have a very powerful role in creating a story they want to tell,” Morioka said.
In human development, students learn how to care for themselves mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. They learn how to become observers of others and themselves along with the traditional subjects of human development.
