Stop running around worried about the new curriculum, league tables, and jobs and employment. National testing will effect kids the most.
Schools are going to butcher the national standards, they will teach to tests, parade their good results, tell parents how good they are. Classrooms will suffer, kids will suffer.
When Ka Hikitia was delivered to schools many schools sent the packages back unopened. They moaned and it was a monumental cock up. Yes they sent back an awesome document because it had some maori potential badges in it. It was a protest about nothing. BUT it was a protest.
There is a simple solution for national standards, send them back, unopened, return to sender. Anne Tolley will be massively pissed. There will be an uproar from media outlets. John Key might have to say something smarmy. John campbell will have a sickofantic approach to this one. sainsbury might be a little surprised. The thing is that the Nat Govt are winning this sales pitch and we have no spokesman, or in NZEI's case no spokesperson or significant politically correct minority spokesperson.
Just to ruin my argument the media will look for a spokesperson, and those plonkers at the union and federation will get up there and encourage colleagues to mumble mumble.
Still it was a good idea, thanks Invercargill, let me know if all your schools are going to send them back, I will look at getting a big envelope ready.
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5 comments:
Hey Luke
The entire country should band together and all of us send the Standards back unopened! The strength of that message would be resounding. I am appalled today to read that NZSTA are dribbling on the " parents have the right to know warts and all where little Johnnie is ranked in class and Nationally". For the love of God is Ms Kerr insane? Does she not know one single thing about education in the 21st century? And why would she be advocating that these renegade Principals need to get on with it and provide the parents with this information! Why are we allowing the Nats to steam roll this move that will be an incredible failure for kids! Why is a National body advocating for us returning to the dodgy practise of the dark ages... Do you all still have your own school reports that told you , you were 10th out of 32 or worse 31st out of 32. What academis benefit did that provide you with? And did it ensure thatyour parents drank an extra flagon that night whilst reading the doom and gloom?
The NZEI and the NZPF should be ashamed at their lack of action on our sector's behalf we are being shafted but worse still our student learners are the victims in the political insanity!
In 1970, my English teacher came into the first session for the year and said, "Boys - I can educate you or get you School C; which one do you want?" Sadly - that post-war reality is returning.
How arrogant (or ignorant) are we? What makes this country's leadership "think" (a gracious term given this context)that New Zealand might be the only nation in the world to make standards work? No country has to date and, despite that evidence, our so-called leaders blunder on regardless.
Our professional organizations have effectively been muzzled - reduced to the status of mere apologists for a government hell-bent on bringing in one of the most damaging policies NZ education has seen in some time.
The New Zealand Curriculum - so full of promise - has been stopped dead in the water; and National Standards will ensure that it stays that way:a floating corpse; a monument to what might-have-been. This government's arrogant and ignorant pursuit of a poicy that plays so well on talk-back radio that it could well have been developed in that forum - one whose hallmark is so often the pooling of collective ignorance.
Instead, we're going back to having schools teaching to tests; and kids being ranked in class - how the hell is that progress?
Ranking kids performance against that of their peers makes about as much sense as ranking them according to height. Want to be the tallest? Hang out with short people.
We are being dictated to by a policy that is incredibly short on vision; short on evidence; short on credibility, and a long-way short of commonsense: New Zealand's kids are being short-changed. In short: save your small change and mark the standards documents "return to sender" and send 'em back.
kerry that is the long and short of it
Luke, great sentiment - send them back. I like what Marlene said, would be a brilliant message for Tolley and her Ministers if every school 'returned to sender'. Recently in our paper, the Manawatu Standard, reported that the world is awaiting how we interpret our internationally acclaimed curriculum, but will National Standards kibosh this? Have just received the magazine, Education Aotearoa, and there is quite a good article in there about the Standards.
I totally agree, Luke. I think most of us suffer from the "it'll be right"- syndrome. Many principals I have spoken to told me that we will just "undermine" it and we will be fine.
I think this issue might be too big to take that chance. We all know the devastating effects similar systems have had on other countries.
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