Our daughter turned eight this week. She is a bright, happy and curious little girl with lots of friends. She’s in the bilingual unit at Westmere Primary. Cool principal and gifted teachers. Awesome, engaged whānau.
After school, she logs on to Study Ladder. She nails the homework fairly quickly, but it doesn’t take long for me to hear the annoying accent of the ever-perky DanTDM. She can’t help herself. She’d play Minecraft online all day if we let her. Hey, she’s a kid, and kids need supervision. So do teenagers.
This week our Minister of Education dropped a hell of a clanger. Hekia Parata announced that students would soon have the option of signing up to an “accredited online learning provider” instead of turning up to school. According to the minister, it’s time for New Zealand kids to “move into the digital age.”
Newsflash. They already are. It’s everywhere. Unavoidable. You’re soaking in it.
Cyber-schools. Stay-at-home-online-learning. COOL — community of online learning — is the hip new acronym.
I can see the appeal. Avoiding the Auckland motorway would be cool. As a person who works from home (and most parents don’t), I can imagine me and my child bonding after a late breakfast, and then shuffling off to our respective computers, still in our PJs. We could have lunch together and go for little walks down the beach, in between her virtual math and cyber science.
Yeah, right.
Much as I love my daughter, I’ve got stuff to do. And while there are definitely parents more useless than me, I wouldn’t be much chop even as a supervisor. When a lot of grown-ups aren’t that hot at “self-pacing,” you can’t expect teenagers to be.
My mum is a digi-kuia. But even she reckons we need to get kids off devices, that school isn’t just about the academics. She’s got a point.
One of the best things about watching our daughter grow up is to witness the joy she and her mates have for each other. We watch them play, hear them chatter, solve problems and use their imaginations. They openly hug and hold hands. Once in a while, they have a wee tiff. But because they’ve grown up together, they understand each other and sort through it. At school, kids learn to interact with children who have disabilities or come from different cultures and religions. They learn to ask for help and to help others. Danish schools even teach empathy — all groundwork to create fully-functioning adults.
How will cyber-schooling address those areas, especially for rangatahi from dodgy homes? And even now, when every student in the real-school classroom is online, how do teachers protect kids from all the dodgy cyber stuff?
Still, let’s not panic. The minister insists there’s no plan to substitute virtual schools for real schools.
Right. Let’s focus on building up real schools then.
I was on the BOT of a real school once. It’s like running a small country. Man, those teachers can multitask. They teach, coach, counsel, make resources, run kapa haka, organise fundraisers, patrol pedestrian crossings, make health checks — and then there’s those endless reports. They make sure every child is safe, fed and watered. They monitor how students interact with each other and try to build relationships with the community and iwi.
So where will these new online schools come from? The minister says that schools can be providers.
I’m having a flashback to Air New Zealand staff manning those self-service stations in terminals, helpfully showing passengers what to do. And smiling through gritted teeth, knowing that, if they did a good enough job, they could do themselves out of a job further down the track.
The minister helpfully suggested that an approved body corporate could be an online provider too.
There’s just one thing.
The Walton Family Foundation is in the business of charter schools. It spent one billion dollars to create a quarter of the 6700 publicly funded charter schools in the US. The foundation commissioned three reports into its own cyber schools. The findings led them to declare that all online public school instruction delivered by cyber charter schools had been a “colossal disaster” for most students.
“If virtual charters were grouped together and ranked as a single school district,” wrote the foundation’s Marc Sternberg and March Holley, “it would be the ninth largest in the country and among the worst performing.”
Mathematica Policy Research, which wrote the first report, notes that “maintaining student engagement … is considered the greatest challenge … placing significant expectations on parents (my emphasis) to actively participate in student instruction.”
You don’t say.
Critics suggest that the foundation confessing to the failure of cyber schools is purely strategic. By amputating the gangrenous cyber schools, the controversial charter schools have a better chance of survival.
Confession. I’m not 100 percent against charter schools. I’ve seen two in action, and one of them caters for families who are really struggling. Once in a while, the teachers at that school take the kids out or arrange a treat for them on the weekend. I figure that when a school is still looking out for its students on the weekend, that’s commitment.
But charter schools aren’t the end game. Yes, there are some useless schools and dopey teachers out there. But the government has to take the blame for much failure.
For example, when it comes to teaching Māori, teachers are like hen’s teeth.
And what about Māori underachievement? One answer is to strengthen existing schools, support the professional development of teachers, revive and bolster strategies like Te Kotahitanga and Ka Hikitia — and recruit new teachers by rebranding teaching as the noble profession, as something of value.
You can already learn te reo online — unless you’re in some spots up north where you can’t even pick up cell phone coverage, let alone broadband. But one of the special and unique characteristics of Māori education is our pedagogy — our way of teaching. Things like the teina-tuakana concept. The use of kapa haka to build teams and individual self-esteem. The incorporation of the Māori worldview across the curriculum. The role-modelling reflected in ritual. In tikanga.
And how about real-life human touch?
My sister Lisa is the principal at Whangara on the East Coast. She travelled to Finland to learn about their world-class education system. My brother Maru teaches maths in Māori at Te Kura o Te Koutu. He spent weeks in Mexico with his students who are fluent in Māori, English and Spanish. Our mate Angus Douglas took students from Te Wharekura o Mauao to Stanford University.
The best educators are always looking for new, innovative ideas from here and overseas. They want to nurture critical, flexible thinkers — to encourage creativity and collaboration. After all, education is about investing in our society and our future.
Instead, schools are drowning in paperwork, data collection and compliance. And unions are constantly in reaction mode. It’s depressing for teachers. There’s no semblance of trust, let alone respect, between the government and our educators.
It’s not hard to jump to the conclusion that it’s all about the dollar. According to the documentary “World Class? Inside New Zealand Education”, 400 schools have closed in the last 15 years largely on the advice of Treasury, which declared that bigger schools are more cost effective than smaller schools.
Look at the potential savings online schools could bring. Transport — think of all the cars and buses off the roads. Housing — all that real estate space created by downsizing or simply razing empty school buildings. Finance — fewer pupils means fewer teachers. And health — no more catching bugs and kutu off other kids.
The Ministry of Education is now seeking a response from the education sector to its seven new proposals for funding. The global budget will remove the split between funding for staff and cash for operations. In other words, the cost of teachers will have to be traded off against operational costs that schools face. Yes, those multitasking teachers will have to do the same amount of work but probably for way less money.
Teachers are planning a stopwork to get their heads around all this.
So, when the government and media start prattling on about how inconvenient the stopwork is for “all the workers,” the rest of us need to express some solidarity. Educators are workers too. And they are doing the most important work of all.
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Love your article and your
Love your article and your humor :-). Know what you mean about minecraft. Gee my boy would spend every waking minute on it if we let him. So, I thought id get him into coding. Yknow, teach him how to make his own mindcraft through coding for kids. Great concept but as you say, you have to keep them engaged and I dont know how to sustain that gentle guidance without doing it for him. If nothing else, the exercise provided me with an even greater appreciation of some of my school teachers one being Moana Jackson. (Thats my sense of humor now – shamelessly name dropping lol)
AMENI. Nailed it Moana.
AMENI. Nailed it Moana. Thanks – going to pass on for info to all. xxxx
Well put Moana! I read the
Well put Moana! I read the article about this ‘COOL’ initiative of Parata’s and thought..OH NO! This is not cool at all. You have highlighted some very very important points. Yes I agree send this article to the PM, and all the Ministers and schools. Our tamarikis and parents are finding school challenging at the best of times. Is Parata trying to completely tear asunder the social, cultural and mental fabric of our society?? Aue!
Thanks for airing what is yet
Thanks for airing what is yet another really concerning Minister-driven ideologically neo-liberal bit of idiocy. If you ask teachers they might argue that students already have far too much contact with computers and related technology. Many parents bemoan the fact that their children seem to spend an inordinate amount of time locked away in their rooms on ipads, iphones and laptops – they appear for dinner and slip away again. Now Hekia wants to legitimise this as another example of educational ‘choice’? Give me a break. It is about money and experimentation, not education. It is about ideology not pedagogy. And my response is not about letting schools off the hook either. The kind of citizenship we aspire to for our children and mokopuna is in hands of school leaders and their staff. They can crumble at every new initiative thrust upon them that is not educationally sound, or they can stand up and do something about it by demanding that their unions work together to resist fad-ism and help build an equitable education system — something unlikely to happen under this Minister.
After 23 years of teaching I
After 23 years of teaching I am often saddened these days that students are coming to school with less and less physical and language skills, as well as general knowledge, manners, respect and self-control. Teachers not only plan and teach the academic curriculum but we are really social workers instilling values and self esteem these days, playing a very valuable part in developing a work ethic and sense of responsibility in students. In other words we already make up the shortfall of many working parents. I shudder to think what it would be like for many students whose parents are already disaffected and place little value on education. We all know the ones. Their children are late to school daily, or don’t bother coming regularly, leading to students slowly falling behind their peer group and thus having less opportunities in their work careers later on. Cyber schools at home with parental guidance might start with good intentions but without exemplary language and typing skills, creativity and ability to bounce ideas off others, basic skills like scissor use or bouncing a ball (hand -eye-brain coordination), or the ability to work and communicate with a community will all have a serious side-effect on the physical, intellectual, social and emotional needs of children whose main education is in front of a computer for most of the day. There is no substitute for human face-to-face contact. It is vital.
I enjoyed this and have
I enjoyed this and have really liked other things you’ve written too Moana. Very clever and funny.
Thank you Tania. Gotta keep a
Thank you Tania. Gotta keep a sense of black humour eh?
Kia ora Moana.
Kia ora Moana.
Refreshing to see your response! Although I’ve retired after more than 40 years of teaching, I’m still passionate about the power of schooling to shape society, and I am totally convinced that this COOL initiative will not allow students to grow and develop as they need to if we are to have a harmonious and equitable society. The problems of insufficient space in Auckland to cater for the projected numbers of schools needed according to the planning formulas used in opening up new areas of housing — those problems need a better solution than this deal.
I know from 15 years of teaching students how to learn with and about Digital Technologies — including the awesome resources of the Cisco courses which have more than 1 million students enrolled — that students need and deserve much more than simply access to content, they need support in learning and assimilating such content, and eventually critiquing and perhaps contributing to improving such content. Teachers, too, deserve more professional freedom and dignity than COOLs suggest, as they shape the beliefs and values that will be carried forward into the future.
In summary, totally agree with you, Moana, and hope many more voices will be heard so that initiatives such as COOL do NOT get implemented, for I can see how they would worsen social inequalities rather than ameliorate them.
Kia kaha!
After reading all the
After reading all the previous comments, I doubt weather many teachers would have time to comment. A secondary teacher myself I have seen the effects of law changes that effect learning with little or no responsibility taken for the effect on the learners ability to make promising headway. Watching students blatantly disrespecting authority and parents or parenting, this concept will only distance our children more weather they learn anything or not. Why choose to be more distant? call up the whanau and listen to Poi E and ask “what can we learn from this”.
After reading all the
After reading all the previous comments, I doubt weather many teachers would have time to comment. A secondary teacher myself I have seen the effects of law changes that effect learning with little or no responsibility taken for the effect on the learners ability to make promising headway. Watching students blatantly disrespecting authority and parents or parenting, this concept will only distance our children more weather they learn anything or not. Why choose to be more distant? call up the whanau and listen to Poi E and ask “what can we learn from this”.
You have said it all Moana
You have said it all Moana and it makes so much sense. Seems funny that this issue pops up before the NZEI meeting with funding issues. Taking the heat and debate out of that maybe?
Vpxrw
Wow, glad to.hear your voice
Wow, glad to.hear your voice Moana. As a parent whose children are about to.be apart.of the new “super school” here in Chch, I have.many, many concerns. My youngest son will.be.okay as he fits in anywhere but one of the children in our care has very high needs for learning and behaviour and I know.he is.going to.be lost and learn even less than he is currently. He can’t go to any other primary school as all those.close are.combing with the super school, those a little further out are mow zonned due to parents.moving kids as soon as the announcment was.made. as to the cyber school.idea….I have two teens now who we don’t see.much after school as they are on their devices….there is no way I could guarentee that the school worlk would get done even supervising, my eldest knows more about computers than me and as he is doing a computer.programming course how would I know what was.playing and working. I seem to remember the Government somewhere along the way saying time to go back to the 3 R’s, isn’t that why the current system was introduced? Stop changing things and fine tune….listen to our teachers, they work with our children, they know what will work even those that don’t seem to be the greatest will be making a difference to at least one child. The education system shouldn’t be run by lawyers and accountants. Keep up the goodd work.Moana, I am.passionate about education and stand by you all the way!’ Ehara taku toa i te takitahi engari ko taku toa i te takitini
With every new device
With every new device introduced in our schools we chisel away a bit more of our humanity. There is a lack of empathy, communication skills and decency when you spend the whole day on a digital device. No matter how well you control it, there will always be those that take advantage of digital networks. Has no one heard of blended learning? What about Authentic Learning? It is rather sad that we are heading this way without any regard of the consequences and decent study. OUR CHILDREN ARE NOT GUINEA PIGS! Do your homework first and in your research you will see that hooking a child up to a computer twenty-four-seven is not the answer.
Go Moana well said with so
Go Moana well said with so many parents working how on earth are they expected to be supervising children’s learning at home. Children learn so much from interaction at school good and bad hopefully equipping them for their adult life in the world. Computers in the schools can fill the void of the digital age. Support the teachers with more resources and opportunities to give our future adults the best start. Why the Ministry never listen to “experts” when advise is sort is a mystery.!! Humans need the personel touch always.
Providing choices must be
Providing choices must be focussed on positive outcomes for students, not on what’s convenient for parents, or the government….
Feels like convenience, eh
Feels like convenience, eh Priscilla? Or an admission of failure and the inability to turn existing schools around.
I have taught my children at
I have taught my children at home for many years using the Correspondence School in Wellington. We had a break for a few years with our 2 youngest who went to the tiny local primary. They did really well there. My yougest went back onto Correspondence School for High School. The Correspondence School has introduced on line learning “as the way of the future “, well as a parent I felt it didn’t work very well. We had lots of meetings with the school to try and sort out problems. Alot of it boiled down to the fact that most of the rural kids, didn’t have access to good internet. Even those that did, often had days of trouble with their internet providers , so the children couldn’t access their work. They talked of providing hubs where groups could meet and have better internet access, but when you live remotely, that’s not practical. The other problems we found were that the school couldn’t keep up with providing the on line lessons. Also, when the kids had to access UTube to watch videos, they were inundated with inappropriate advertising. There are some amazing teahers/principals out there and we should be looking at reducing class sizes and employing more teachers, so our teachers can actually teach and make sure all students are involved in the learning process. Too many kids drift through school because they are not being engaged by their teachers who are overloaded by the huge class numbers. How do they think putting them into on line learning is going to interest or engage them, when they haven’t learnt self motivation in the first place?
Exactly. You cant even get
Exactly. You cant even get cellphone service around hunks of the Far North – its less “digital age” and more “dark age.” And it has to be an exceptionally motivated student to cope with online learning. Hard enough for my husband to resist FB and the SkySports remote. Good point too re schools keeping ahead with online content. Im hugely curious about which educators formed the advisory group to the Minister. Im sure she didnt come up with this by herself and she did travel to Finland just after my sister did – so why the obsession over the failed US model?
Moana I totally agree with
Moana I totally agree with everything you have said. I work currently at the Correspondence school and am very disgruntled by the out dated resources we are expected to feed to students and the increasing frustration of delivering online programmes to remote students. Young students need to develop motor skills and social skills before academic which will not happen with so called “cool schools”. Many parents do not realise what it takes to educate their own child and many are forced into it when their child is expelled from schools. Our whole education system needs an over haul and broaden the range of skills taught at teachers colleges especially in behavioural and learning difficulties as more and more children present with problems that are never dealt with.
Heckia like all Nat/Neo
Heckia like all Nat/Neo liberal politicians end game is to comodify and privatise education through a bulk funding model based on the linking of funding to the individual so that the same individual has to buy their education from a private provider who in turn is financed from the public purse. Of course there won’t be enough in the constantly reducing bulk fund so the consumer will have to top up more each year. We need to kick these people out and somehow construct a more equitable system where need not greed is the driver. I was an nzei rep negotiating bulk finding with Jenny Shipley in the early 90s when she was min ed after Lockwood in the sell everything Bolger govt, I know some thing about this stuff.
Kia ora. I agree with
Kia ora. I agree with everything you said. I am inclined to think (going on the ideology of the current government), that what this project really is about, is to create privatised competition against the state-run NZ Correspondence School, after which they could then argue that privatising correspondence/online schools is more efficient. A bit like under resourcing DOC and then putting up millions which can go to private businesses etc to get rid of pests by 2025. Or am I being paranoid?
Totally agree with you here!!
Totally agree with you here!!!!
Always good to have a range
Always good to have a range of views out in the open – lots to think about. As ever – so much depends on the individuals and the contexts.
Good Points Moana. I am the
Good Points Moana. I am the first of my family generation to attend a State Public School as all were unable to previously living miles away on the coastline and boarding schools were a necessity.I celebrate attending the public schools in my school years and later university……….I have read lots of letters from young women who attended and were forced to come into the cities from the country………there is definitely a broad range of perspectives to discuss………and I remember Dame Mira Szaszy fighting vigorously to debate how proud she was to have the opportunity to come into the city and attend Queen Victoria Boarding School….. I say cyber schools versus kids in isolated areas is the question …………
Thank you for these well
Thank you for these well considered thoughts. Part of the purpose of education is to prepare students to live the good life. One question I would like to ask Hekia is this: does spending more time absorbed on a digital device help students achieve the good life?
Well said. Many thanks, from
Well said. Many thanks, from a mother and teacher.
Hekia Parata needs to read
Hekia Parata needs to read your article Moana. We live in such a ‘Nanny State’ where common sense is no longer the norm. If there is such clear indicators that cyber schools DON’T work then why on earth are we going down this path. Our teachers should be supported in any strike action they take … those working parents ‘suck it up’ and sort out your children for a day to ensure they are looked after. There needs to be far more consultation with teachers, parents, caregivers and anyone with an opinion on the subject so our children – the future of NZ – have the best education options available for their needs.
How refreshing Moana, after
How refreshing Moana, after 41 years in education I have seen MANY Ministers of Education come and go,. Sadly, for whatever reason, many staunchly believe they have to change the sector because students aren’t achieving. School never actually excited me and it wasn’t until I moved beyond it I realised it did actually give me a lot more than I thought at the time. Obviously there isn’t enough detail associated to COOL schools yet, but I hope that we don’t lose sight of what is so good about schools in NZ. It is inevitable that the current Minister will eventually drop off the back of her current ‘wave’ and what will remain will be the many dedicated BOT’s, Principals and teachers who will continue to do what they have been doing … caring about kids! Please continue highlighting the issues Moana, schools and educators need constant support from people like yourself.
Peter, I come from a family
Peter, I come from a family of educators and have many friends who are gifted teachers and principals. We all remember those teachers who transformed our worlds. There is some deadwood out there and we need to keep switching things up but I facilitated a hui once with a very dynamic group of principals who the MOE wanted a response to re lifting Māori underachievement. This group came up with lots of great ideas, yet the MOE totally ignored suggestions from those at the coalface. It was extraordinary. Didnt make sense. No point. No wonder there is so little trust between MOE and teachers.
YES ! YES ! YES !!!!!!
YES ! YES ! YES !!!!!!
This is the most cogently
This is the most cogently worded argument that I have read against Parata’s latest folly. It should be sent to every MP now! One cannot help but wonder whether it is devised as a distraction from the global funding issue which they will probably push through as soon as teachers are on holiday. They have done that many times over recent years.
I hope Hekia takes notice of
I hope Hekia takes notice of your korero, as she has no inclination to listen to people who are actually in the industry. Another point to add would be, who would take care of these children at home when both parents have to work 1-2 jobs each to make ends meet. Why is the MOE following failed initiatives from the U.S? Stinks of something else, my personal opinion.
It’s not for all children.
It’s not for all children. But it be nice as a parent to able to have the option to choose. A solo mum who doesn’t work may prefer homeschooling , and digi school would be great for her, no fees, no uniform, lunch at home everyday, no bus tickets to pay, ok it lacks interaction with other kids, but I’m sure that will be made for when the neighbors kids get home after school, and at weekend sports events. considering the amount of bullying that goes on at school, I wouldn’t care to much about it, many children grow up being scarred for life becos of bullying from a young age, now no child need to be subjected to that crap ever again !
On the face of it, it makes
On the face of it, it makes sense. Only parents can homeschool now. You would have to be an exceptionally motivated and skilled parent (and your child would need to be the same) to be actively supervising/teaching your child day in and day out, ensuring your relationship doesnt implode and the parent has some kind of life too, just saying. Thats apart from the research I referred to which says the whole cyber-school thing they ran was an abyssmal failure.
A lot of bullying happens
A lot of bullying happens online too!
Id love some feedback on how
Id love some feedback on how schools manage that aspect and monitor students cyber-activity – and how happy they are with the precautions. We are always getting notices from school on cyber-saftey but you simply cant watch kids 24/7. I caught my daughter watching some relatively harmless but bordering on “skanky” music video lol.
Moana, schools have a lot of
Moana, schools have a lot of ability to monitor what students are doing online when in the school environment. As a teacher of a digital classroom, I can see everything my students are doing online during my class time, open and close sites, block certain sites and restrict/limit access to things I do not want them on. In conjunction with this, we have regular lessons on cyber safety. Most of the issues we face within school relating to cyber bullying is what is happening online at home on the weekends and after school. Unfortunately, we are often picking up these pieces within the school environment. Schools also have the ability to use strict filtering, more than most parents can offer, unless they are super tech savvy and know what to do. In terms of the people commenting on no fees and costs etc – what about the cost of the internet access, the devices? Not all devices are suitable for some of the online learning applications. I am concerned for the children that I deal with frequently – they have anxiety and mental health issues which we can help them with at school because we are there to pick up the signs and symptoms that often parents don’t realise. What happens to those children?
Awesome Megan. That gives me
Awesome Megan. That gives me confidence knowing you are able to control whats being viewed. Big effort on teachers parts. Ka pai. Id imagine you must need a lot of tech support in the classroom to keep everything running smoothly. And an additional thought, obesity rates now are going through the roof cos all of us are so stuck on computers. Something else to consider.
My first reaction was, as
My first reaction was, as single mother families have the highest poverty rates the cost of computer/s and online access would be prohibitive and under the ‘Future Focus’ law, solo parents are legally obliged to seek employment when they have no children under six. So a solo mum on a benefit is to pay for expensive IT services, stay at home to supervise and go out to work at the same time. I am so reminded of the 18th-19th century education in England; only the rich could afford books (computers and broadband connections and storage devices) and the children had their private tutor (home supervisor). There is no question about who missed out on an education in those times.
I can see all the benefits
I can see all the benefits you are talking about, but many more negatives. It can be a battle getting children to do homework, imagine that day-in, day-out. Next, my eldest is doing NCEA Level 2, I can help him with most of his subjects, but I’m sure glad he’s got a chemistry and maths teacher to answer his questions. For me, another thing to remember is that schools do so much more than academics; there is an abundance of social skills, collaboration, sports and creativity happening. My sons’ intermediate school did an amazing job at art, music, hard materials etc, they even had a TV studio – I don’t know many parents with the resources and skills to cover all those areas. So, I could not be more against the whole idea. I see it as either a money saving scheme or a diversion put in place to distract people from ‘global funding’.
Thank you Moana, we have to
Thank you Moana, we have to fight against this comodification of our children and the industrialisation of their education. We are a service sector not a manufacturing sector. Our kids are more than peas on a production line reflecting standardised outcomes to standardised inputs. These are humans- some who need more, some who need different, all who need to be seen and supported to be the very best they can be – not just sufficient to meet the needs of the market as workers and consumers. Thank you Moana, keep talking ( shouting). I will be.
Well thought through
Well thought through commentary Moana with great points ( cant believe Hekia has not thought of these or been advised of them) with a nice hint of humour!
I think Hekia has probably
I think Hekia has probably been advised numerous times about these and other associated issues. Unfortunately, when you have an agenda you can ignore the reality and common sense. We have a current Minister of Education whose prime goal appears to be undervaluing teachers while funding private enterprise and business. If parents decide to keep their children home and allow them to work online, then Hekia can further reduce funding for schools. Teacher Aides will become obsolete with the proposed cuts in funding for students with special learning needs as parents will keep them at home. I also suspect we will soon see some ‘Inclusive Education’ Charter schools being approved.
Let’s face it parents ..the
Let’s face it parents ..the world is now in cyber mode..parenting and teaching skills will not be exempted..WE CREATED CYBER AND THAT CREATION IS CALLING FOR MANAGEMENT..we can do it ..I TRUST IN OUR POTENTIAL LEARNING AND TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES..it won’t be easy for those who resist ..LET’S EMBRACE THE CHALLENGE TO BETTER OURSELVES
This is interesting. I manage
This is interesting. I manage over to early childhood centres and i am aware that the government clearly stipulated that every child should be in some sort of early learning before starting school. Through our sector the biggest thing is to develop our children socially emotionally cognitivally socially culturally physically spiritually. Where will that all go. I have been in this sector for over 12 years and i have seen a huge change in society. Be it through poverty be it through other disabilities but believe me there are more children coming through. These beautiful children and their whanau need other human contact. Maori need awhi we learn from hands on mahi we learn through tuakana/teina concept we learn through the scaffolding concept of a more developed student and teacher to teach them and awhi them through concepts. How are our children going to learn how to problem solve for themselves. I dont like this concept. I can visualise 2 of my whanau in our centre struggling through something like this and they will be lost and lonely because where will the help come from. ASK the children if they would like it. Hmm who wouldnt want to stay home sitting on a computer and being told they are allowed. I cant see anything to embrace here sorry i dont think this will work in my community. Great words Moana i tautoko your korero.