"He aupuni palapala koʻu.” proclaimed Kauikeaouli in a speech on the day of his accession as King Kamehameha III in 1825. “My kingdom is one of literacy." Only ten years of age at the time, Kauikeaouli was himself a student learning to read and write the Hawaiian language set to the new alphabet.

The first Hawaiian law relating to education was enacted in 1839 and was oddly titled “The Business of Females.” The law reflected a prevalent belief in the United States at the time, that women have a significant role in educating the young.

The law clearly expressed that children should be educated. Those words still hold value for us today.

Below is a translation of the law.
This is the approriate business of all the females of these islands; to teach the children to read, cipher, and write, and other branches of learning, to subject the children to good parental and school laws, to guide the children in right behavior, and place them in schools, that they may do better than their parents. But if the parents do not understand reading, then let them commit the instruction of their children to those who do understand it, and let the parents support the teacher, inasmuch as they feel an interest in their children, let them feel an interest in the teacher too.