Has Ms Hekia really backed down over class sizes?

Today’s announcement that MS Hekia has backed down over class size sounds good, but watch out for her to come back at us. She says that the Government was trying to save $43 but you can be sure that she will try to retrieve that amount somewhere else in the education sector. I don’t believe for a moment that we have seen the last of this issue.

We cannot stop then pressure we have collectively exerted on the government. Our kids are still not safe.

Then there’s the asset sales issue. Now that we have started, we must keep the pressure on.  It is about time that NZers woke up and sniffed the political BS!

Half truths and withholding information--or lies?

Many National Party members must be feeling like they have woken up in Canterbury today, because the statements and non-statements from their leaders are freezing them out.

A strange analogy you may say, but the last few months have shown us just how cold the National Party has become. We have seen a hypocritical nastiness that flies in the face of public opinion.

In New Zealand we have always prided ourselves in our belief that everyone should get a fair go. Way back in Peter Fraser’s time in the 1940’s we established an education system that had a basic tenant that every child should be able to reach his/her full potential and that it was the State was the guardian of this lofty belief. Over the years we built on this and achieved a result for our children that were the envy of most countries around the world.

Why is it that under National Governments, that our ‘pride’ is attacked? Why is it that national seeks to turn the clock back to the bad old days, where, how much education you received was more a factor of the wealth of your family?

Not only has the government eroded the potential for New Zealand children and young people, they are hiding behind unreleased reports and fudging the real issues; making statements claiming research to support their case that has been solidly rejected in most circles.

There is a growing groundswell in the community that strongly disagrees with the actions of Ms Parata and John Key. I would not like to be a back-bench National Parliamentarian, trying to defend my government’s latest actions. Their Saturday morning clinics will be rather stressful at the moment. It is over to these politicians to take the message back to their caucus and try to reverse the recent announcements.

I go back again to some of my previous arguments. Even if it was true that teacher quality was the main contributing factor to the success of our children, just where do these teachers come from? The ‘super-teacher tree’ does not exist.

I challenge of our politicians to gain a real understanding of what it is really like in many of our classrooms. The photo-shots we see on TV where Ms Pararata or John Key visit schools are managed and manipulated. Of course they are taken to the classrooms of so-called ‘great’ teachers. Perhaps they need to see what many teachers face, on a day to day basis. That would difficult to manage and may present some unexpected results. Any visit is going to be artificial and will not show what is happening at the grassroots level.

So what can we ask of Ms Parata and John Key?  Simple--- just listen and take in what the teachers have been trying to tell politicians for many years. Our schools reflect society and schools alone cannot fix social inequalities. Instead of attacking teachers, work with them.

If there is no change, I feel for young teachers, entering the profession and I fear for the students who will fail in increasing numbers. Yes, we need to raise achievement levels. It is not good enough that many children leave school, unable to function in the wider world. The answer to this dilemma is not to be found in our schools alone.

Hey---- nealry 15,000 hits now!

I am a long way from one million, but at least its all heading in the right direction.
  Thanks.

THE RIVER ALWAYS FLOWS-- Chapter 11

     Once again, I was struck by the power my dad seemed to wield over the group. I had many more questions for him, but for now, other more pressing matters were playing out.

     ‘Take our prisoners to the storage room---it’s solid enough there and I don’t think they will be trying anything,’ Dad ordered. The look he sent my way was one that I hadn’t seen him employ often. Gone was the indecisive man I knew as my father.

     The guards led us to some steps leading down to the storage area. It was empty and only a few chairs and some mattresses laying the floor provided any level of comfort. It was cold too and the clothing we wore was not enough to ward off the chilly temperatures. Before the door was locked, a bundle of woollen blankets was thrown in.

     ‘You wouldn’t get these if I had my way the guard yelled from the other side of the door.

     ‘We need to get out of here,’ Ted pronounced. ‘I know what these bastards do to their prisoners.’

     ‘My dad would not allow that,’ I said confidently--- on the surface that is.

     ‘You reckon---- then you don’t know him very well. How can he not be aware of what happens?’ The look on Ted’s face was enough to send shivers down my back. ‘Why do you think we were raiding their bloody prison if it wasn’t to get our guys out? Hopefully, they were successful. Going by the attitude of the guards, I’d say that we at least rattled them.’

     ‘I want to see my dad alone,’ I said quietly. ‘I don’t believe he’s changed into some sort of a monster.’

     ‘Mick patted my shoulder. ‘Look kid; when it comes down to surviving, none of us know what we’re capable of. With your dad, I don’t know. I’d love to know how he worked his way up so high. He acts like a bloody head honcho and those men respect him. I’m bloody confused.’

     ‘Whatever----I’m going to get some shut-eye and maybe an idea will come to me in my sleep,’ Ted announced and immediately rolled up on one of the mattresses and fell asleep.

     ‘I never could do that--- drop off,’ Mick said, ‘but he’s right of course. Hit the sack kid.’

     There were too many questions for me to dip out like Ted, but the last few hours had taken a toll on me, so I too crashed.

     The door crashed open. ‘You’re coming with me,’ the guard said grabbing me roughly and dragging me to my feet.’

     ‘Hey--- he’s only a kid!’ Mick yelled. He jumped up and tried to wrestle me away from the guard. One of the other guards rushed in and smashed Mick with the butt of his weapon. Even in my half-awake state, I noticed that it was old--- no flash ray guns for this guy. Mick fell to the floor and I was bundled out of the room, with Ted’s voice ringing in the background, protesting at the treatment Mick had received.

     I was dragged back up the stairs along a corridor behind what had once been a café and into the cold blast that felt like it came from the top of the mountain.

     ‘Hurry up ya mongrel!’ the guard shouted above the wind. I knew from the past that the weather could change in an instant on the mountain. I was hurried towards one of the chalets near the café. The guard pushed open the door and shoved me in, then left. Dad was sitting behind a desk. A plate of food and hot tea sat waiting--- hopefully for me. Dad motioned me to the seat on my side of the table.

     ‘Time to talk son,’ he said, pouring my tea and adding two sugars. He remembered. ‘I guess I owe you an explanation.

     ‘Yeah, Dad--- how the hell did you get mixed up with that lot. I know I didn’t notice much back at home about----the world, but in the last day, I’ve seen heaps. What the hell’s going on ------How did you get here dad?’

     ‘Same as you son--- one minute I was there, and the next, well----here.’

     ‘But how ---Why us?’ I wanted answers.

     ‘I’m not totally certain, but I suspect that it all has something to do with that Luden guy you seem to be associating with. I know we are not in our own time and even though it’s all a bit far-fetched for me, I guess I can accept the time rift thing, but Luden is beyond me. The talk of aliens is one step too far. Others believe it though, particularly the Reclaimers.’

     I should have laughed my head off at the explanation I had just listened to. It was like an excerpt from a television science fiction show. For the moment I put aside my cynicism. So I’ll go along with the time-shift stuff, but how the hell did you get mixed up with the Reclaimers and even more crazy--- you seem to be the boss around here.’

     Dad scratched his head. That was something he used to do when he was figuring out how to pay bills with non-existent money. It drove Mum mad.  ‘It

all happened pretty fast son. I think you’ve only heard one side of the story--- from Luden and his crowd. Believe me, there’s another one you should hear.’

     ‘Try me Dad.’ I prepared to hear yet another implausible explanation.

     Dad pushed some food towards me; steaming soup and buttered toast. ‘When I left the house--- I’d had another argument with your mum.’ A dark look danced across his face for a moment before he continued. ‘I only wanted a bit of space, so I took the boat, intending to row for a while. That often worked for me when I wasn’t handling our situation at home. I know you thought I was a useless prick. Anyway, I rowed for about twenty minutes and pulled the boat up onto a bank where I liked to sit. There was a nearby off-road rest area so I headed towards a bench seat there. It’s all kinda fuzzy from then on. One minute I was sitting on the seat and then in the next, the light changed and the smell--- yeah, that really got to me. I thought a truck had dropped off a load of rubbish, yet it wasn’t quite like a rotting smell, more like a chemical residue----.’

     ‘I was in a crash, I think.’  Dad looked annoyed at my interruption so I zipped it.

     ‘The light--- hell--- and the sky, if you could call it that. The river was still there, only it was a wicked looking colour----a grey gungy colour. The boat was still there on the bank where I had left it, so I headed towards it. That was when a bunch of weird looking men approached me. One of them shouted something about me being part of Luden’s’ group.’

     ‘The Reclaimers--- what a bunch of tossers,’ I said. Dad’s face said to shut the hell up, so I did.

     ‘I think you’ve really got the wrong picture of them, son. If it wasn’t for them, there would be no order around here. Times are tough and we need a strong government.’

     I may have been young, but his explanation was crap and I reckon he knew it too. ‘Come on Dad--- for Christ’s sake--- they bloody arrest and torture people--- Ted told me that! They weren’t exactly easy on me either, so you’re talking bullshit.’

     Dad drew in his breath as if to launch into another load of lies. ‘I wondered at first, but they have a plan. If it wasn’t for the Reclaimers and tier new Police, New Zealand would have gone back to the dark Ages and there would be no law.’

     ‘That’s rich, coming from you Dad. When did you give a stuff about the law?’

     ‘Things are different now. Since most of the world’s buggered now, apart from a few places trying to recycle their way back, well--- we are the only place that can feed itself and have some sort of civilization. The world is a very different place now.’ Dad’s face took on a look of holy virtue. It was enough to make me want to puke.

     ‘So you’ve been sucked into their bullshit and now you’re some sort of boss around here?’

     ‘I had to work at it. For some reason they accepted me and made me an officer and now that many of my fellow officers have been killed, then I’ve risen to the top of the Reclaimers in Taranaki. We have links to most of New Zealand via our short-wave network. Yes it’s going back to technology that was used way back in the Twentieth Century. Most of it came from Government stores and museums, but it works. Now, what am I going to do about you and Mick. Ted’s history, but I may be able to work something out for you two, if you let up with your mouth for a while.’

     ‘Don’t go thinking we want to join you lot. I want to know more about Luden and what he’s trying to do. From what I’ve seen, they have knocked out nearly all of your flash technology and now you’re back to the old fashioned weapons. Those buggers have brainwashed you Dad.’

     The door crashed open and a distraught guard came in. ‘The other two have escaped Sir,’ he said. ‘They busted out through the top window. They won’t get far and they’ll be freezing. Do you want me to send out a party to hunt them down?’

     ‘No,’ Dad said thoughtfully. ‘Let’s leave them. The cold will do our work for us. We have bigger issues right now. Send in the communications officer. I need to contact our Auckland headquarters.’

Get real National! It's a different world now.

I think that the National Party strategists (read Treasury) live in a time warp. They base their view of what it is like in the classroom on their own experiences from thirty years or more ago. They think that the classes they attended, which were often 30 plus students were easy for the teacher to handle. In a sense they were correct, but that is not how it is for today’s teachers.

As a teacher from that era, I know that things were different then. We complained when our classes reached 38 and we fought hard to improve the conditions in our schools. Over time, we succeeded.

What has also changed is the massive increase in ‘problem children’ coming through our school gates. In many schools, a great deal of teacher time is taken in ‘classroom management.’ How often have you heard from your teacher friends, that if it wasn’t for about 4-6 kids in a class, I could actually teach.’

Teachers teach, but they also have to manage the issues that students bring with them from home. If there are no books in the home, if students are hungry, hung-over, high and a myriad of other labels, then think what it is like, even with small numbers.

Even schools who have counsellors, youth workers, social workers and hard-working teacher aides, struggle to ‘educate’ their charges. What I have described is not limited to Decile one schools. The issues I have listed can be found throughout our schools.

Did we have these problems back in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s? Yes we did, but the number of students exhibiting one or more of these issues have grown exponentially.  Are we better resourced to handle this? Up to a point, yes, but the capacity to deal with today’s social problems is dependent on a forward thinking Government. You can decide if we have such a supportive Government.

I am angry that schools are seen as the agents to handle these problems and that the teacher at the ‘chalk-face’ (Mmmm what is the new descriptor here?) is the main linchpin in the ‘new reality.’ We have a Government who would rather give money to private schools, to enable them to have smaller class sizes and to send their own children to enjoy the obvious benefits. For the rest of us----just chuck us the crumbs!

Can't wait to see the website up and running

Yes the website is coming along beautifully. I wish I could show you now, but I need to be patient. I need of course to have the books for sale. There will be three initially and a fourth soon after. Then a series of three will appear. We will wet your appetite with some stunning pictures of the site of the Orpheus wreck.

This time around, I hope it all goes so much better. I shall even have the books on Kindle/Amazon for those not wanting hard copy.

OK--- will keep you posted and I will put up my website name soon.

Neil

Read the early chapters of my books

Before I put up more chapters of
1) Roskill
2) Talk To Me
3) The River Always Flows

                       Read the early chpaters. Sorry if they are a bit hard ot find amongst the 360 plus blogs.