Problems of cross-cultural communication can easily be found in the classrooms of a pluralistic society, exemplified by Hawaii, where students come from many ethnic backgrounds. While the institutional setting of the classroom may demand certain types of communicative and learning behaviors--aggressive, competitive, and verbally outspoken--many nonwhite students view this style of communication as being "haolified," a pejorative term indicating behavior typical of Caucasians. Consequently, the environment of the student outside of the classroom reinforces behaviors incompatible with the culture of the school, thus causing academic failure which has a parellel in the larger social and economic concerns of adulthood. Aggressive competition as cultural imperative has been institutionalized, effectively impeding the social mobility and well being of groups such as the native Hawaiian. Solutions to this problem must involve both personal and institutional change. (MKM)