Education Should Be a Politics Free Zone

By
Allan Alach
-
50
1020

  • Politicians don’t tell doctors how to treat patients

  • Politicians don’t tell lawyers how to manage legal issues

  • Politicians don’t tell dentists about managing dental care

  • Politicians don’t tell engineers how to design roads, buildings, bridges, etc

  • Politicians don’t tell psychologists how to help people

  • Politicians don’t tell builders how to construct buildings

  • Politicians don’t tell pharmacists how to dispense medicine

  • Politicians don’t tell the military how to train soldiers

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  • Politicians don’t tell sports coaches how to prepare their players

  • Politicians don’t tell mechanics how to fix cars

  • Politicians don’t tell accountants how to keep accurate accounts

  • Politicians don’t tell funeral directors about managing bereavements

  • And so on…

 

Get the picture?

So why is it that politicians, from any political party, feel they can tell educators, at any level, how to work with their students?

Why is that politicians can visit a few schools in New Zealand, and overseas, and immediately feel qualified to produce an education policy?

Yes, National, that means you.

Educators at all levels have many years of studying, followed by practical experience, to inform their work. But as we’ve seen over the past 35 years, politicians from all parties believe that they have the secret to quality education.

Sure, politicians can set goals for the education system, just as they do for health, for example. But it should be left to the experts (e.g., education academics and teaching professionals) on developing ways to achieve this.

In this light, here’s a petition on that very subject.

Teach, Don’t Preach: Creating a Politics-Free Zone in Our Classrooms

“To the government of New Zealand and all politicians,

It is time to put our children first and ensure that they have the best possible chance for success. We want what is called a bipartisan (non-political) approach to education.

This isn’t new…… the PPTA were advocating for this in 2011.

As educators, we are deeply concerned about the constant changes in direction that occur every time we have a change in government. Instead of focusing on what is best for our children, politics often gets in the way, and we are forced to constantly change our approach to education. This is not only frustrating for educators but also detrimental to the learning outcomes of our children.

We believe that it is time for New Zealand to take a page from other high-performing countries and remove education from political interference. We want a non-political, bipartisan approach to education that is based on research and best practices, with a 30-year vision that only changes when new research or best practices emerge.

As educators, we are state servants and must follow government mandates, even if they are not in the best interest of our students. This is why we are asking the government and all politicians to adopt a bipartisan approach to education, so that our future generations have a better chance of success.

“Maa te huruhuru ka rere te manu – many feathers allow the bird to fly.”

We urge you to support this petition by signing up and joining us in advocating for a better education system for our children. Together, we can make a difference and ensure that New Zealand’s education system is based on research and best practices, rather than political interests.”

 

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50 COMMENTS

  1. Nobody is telling Teachers HOW to teach.

    As a society we have the right to instruct teachers WHAT knowledge we have them impart to our youngsters.

    Subtle but important difference between the HOW and the WHAT.

    Worth addressing?

    As an example educators are instructing manual additions in maths, horizontally across the page when every docket, invoice, set of accounts, etc. in the real world add up vertically down the page.

    Surely, armed with some real world knowledge, an educator would teach vertical manual addition like past generation upon generation, have been taught?

    I just sense a disconnect in academic led educators in regards what the real world knowledge is required by our young adults. As I said in an earlier comment to you. Do academic educators go out in the real world and ask what education young adults need to function effectively in a productive society?

    That is why the politicians are involved. Society voices their opinion to their representatives.

    If a cardiologist does their job correctly, to suit society, the state leaves them alone. If the cardiologist stuff up and is not helpful to society the peoples representatives (the state) intervenes.

    The politicians are getting involved in education for the reason teachers are not teaching what society wants them to teach.

    Pretty simple.

  2. Allan – Nice, but in many ways Labour is just as guilty as National in playing around with Education – example, Tomorrow Schools Labour 1980s, NZ History across schools without resources/support Labour 2020s…

  3. Education should be a politics free zone – now you’re talking, Alan. Tell it to those who came up with the dishonest history curriculum in our schools, and foisted maatauranga Maaori upon the science curriculum.

  4. Well Allen, in answer to your question politicians would say they tell teachers what and how to teach because otherwise the educationalists would bring their own vegan, anti-capitalist, ‘let the children be free’ muddle-headed values to the classroom.

    And because politicians and the public lost respect for teachers starting from about the 80s.
    And because most parents don’t trust your educational theories.

    And all those other occupations have practises and standards based on independent measurement of objective outcomes.

    and the individual practitioner is accountable for results. No bull about ‘it takes a village’ to fix a car or build a bridge.

  5. Allan please tell me; given the education system has been run by teachers for the past decade (or so) how does that explain the truly horrific levels of educational achievement in New Zealand? It’s very easy to state “keep politics out of education” but then you have a crack at the opposition for wanting to turn the clock back to a time our educational standards were considered very high. You also ignore the gross politicisation of the classroom via the woke curricula kids today are subjected to. Partisan much? We are in agreement on one thing; our children deserve much much better than they are getting.

  6. The obvious problem with this article is that the PPTA is in itself political in nature.

    Effectively what you’re saying is that Labour must have hegemony over education (which it pretty much does) but look at the results of this. This is why National feels it must step into the fray.

  7. Unlike builders, coaches, plumbers and accountants etc, teachers are paid by us and are public servants. If the results of their teaching culminated in good education results, political interference would be minimal. From what I can see teachers generally, support the existing syllabus which, for what ever reason isn’t working. I guess some interference is justified. I’m not down playing the change and workload teachers face.

  8. I agree.
    Get back to basics.
    Ideology, does not belong in schools.

    Allow teachers to teach and report progress to parents.

    We need the security of a strict curriculum so that kids can move “seamlessly” from school to school as dictated by need.

    School boards should hold the principal to account and ensure that schools protect the safety and ensure the wellbeing of kids. Surely, individual schools can vet and hold teachers to account without a bloated bureaucracy in the background.

  9. Your previous columns have been good & this one starts well with my only question regarding the “politicians can set goals” part of the discussion. While my own education was from 1966 – 1975 with about half in a church school and then finishing in state schools I was conscious even then that social engineering was prominent in some teacher’s goals (you can easily predict the views of each system) & the passing of time has only reinforced those views. While I believe that freedom of choice is essential we also need to be able to agree to disagree when whatever worldview we hold leads to irreconcilable differences over some subjects while respecting those with different views.

  10. Focus on cost cutting, politics and not the quality of the education is a big problem. Not just primary, but at university level as is the scary level of intolerance being taught under the ‘woke’ umbrella.

    It’s got to the point where judges are not hiring from woke law schools Stanford and Yale as they are being encouraged into cultural elitism and refusing to hear others view points. The opposite of the law. You don’t have to like what someone has to say, but we need to allow for anybody to say it and have proper debate not censorship to happen.

    “Federal judges announce they will refuse to hire clerks from Stanford Law School after woke students and diversity dean ambushed conservative member of the bench: ‘They terrorize people into submission and self-censorship'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11929519/Federal-judges-announce-refuse-hire-clerks-Stanford-Law-School-woke-students.html

    ‘We will not hire any student who chooses to attend Stanford Law School in the future,’ Ho said during a speech to the Texas Review of Law and Politics.

    Yale and Stanford Law Schools are some of the most prestigious law schools in the country, having produced numerous prominent leaders, including Presidents Bill Clinton and Gerald Ford, at least five current US senators, and four current Supreme Court Justices.

    Ho called the treatment of Fifth Circuit appellate judge Stuart Kyle Duncan ‘intellectual terrorism.’

    Duncan was shouted down by hundreds of students and berated by Stanford Diversity Dean Tirien Steinbach during his visit to the law school last month.

    Students called him ‘scum,’ asked why he couldn’t ‘find the c***,’ and screamed, ‘We hope your daughters get raped.’

    Steinbach is currently on leave and Stanford has ruled out disciplining the hecklers, who by the school’s own admission violated its free speech policy.

    Duncan was greeted with posters along the walls of the prestigious university – saying he had committed crimes against women, gays, blacks and ‘trans people’ in reference to a case.”

    Woke universities are also banning the word ‘field’ as being racist. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/equality-not-elitism/michigan-and-california-institutions-ban-the-word-field-as-racist

    They can’t pay the university lecturers much https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-18/rmit-uq-now-among-universities-accused-of-underpaying-staff/12565528 or allow difficult content anymore https://nypost.com/2022/10/04/nyu-professor-allegedly-fired-after-students-say-class-was-too-hard/, as it’s more important to pass anybody who pays, claw back money from underpaying teachers, cancel language, people and history, in today’s woke world.

    • intolerance/naivity has always been a feature of student life anyone remember the campus maoists or radical feminists etc etc…not saying any particular cause is good or bad, just that students who reject conformity tend to be the biggest conformists to whatever their new ideology is

  12. Teach all the creative kids how to tune a guitar, mix art paint, write creatively, grow vegetables and build beautiful things. The rest of them? Put the little shits down’t pit w’ th’ poor wee ponies. We already have far too many people educated beyond their intelligence. Take national party MP’s for example. Knowing how to cypher does not a human being make.
    ( I’m joking, mostly.)

  13. Politicians don’t tell doctors, lawyers, engineers, builders etc etc etc etc…

    Uhhhhh, yes they do, buddy. Politicians are a scourge, they’re in everyone’s business, infecting all professions.

  14. We need a better education system for our children of that there is no dispute.
    The “educators” are certainly not up to it.

  15. Sorry but you’re a bit delusional if you think politicians don’t do all that stuff you just listed. I don’t know about your pay-grade but at the bottom of the heap the view is of predominately politicians’ backsides, with a smearing of grease to ostensibly keep things going the way they like it. A politician will tell you black is white and prime you for a lifetime of shooting up their preferred brand of iatrogenic cocktail. They influence each and every sphere of ‘education’ and ‘research’ – remember Tuskagee? Also, you can tell me Frank Biden is not a politician, but you can’t deny his family connection; go and look up Mavericks – education via computer – is that what we want for our youth ??

  17. My observation and education tell me that the list of political confines above is not entirely correct. Sorry but as an adult student of human and societal behaviour I know that all those statements at the start cannot be right and could produce sources to prove my certainty. But I haven’t read the whole post and know that the list may have just been an example of common beliefs amongst the peeps. And ask why should politicians not have some ideals and rational practicalities that they think should be part of the education system for the betterment of individuals and the country?

  18. Oh get real. Labour dip their toes into the education sector all the bloody time. Stop being a partisan hack. Look at the bullshit around charter schools, which were getting good results yet Labour ditched them.

  19. No different to what Labour did really with the history curriculum. They may not have written the policy themselves. But they appoint the educators who will do their bidding / politically aligned to produce the program. That is what will happen with the proposed National party education policy as well. I would bet my house (if I had one) that you would not criticise this coming from Labour. You Sir are a giant hypocrite. As an aside, it is time to cut teacher pay and give it to the nurses. The younger generations are all learning on-line these days anyways and some of the decrepit dinosaurs in the classroom just simply cannot keep up. They are more akin to supervisors than providing learning. Hardly skilled.

  20. First and foremost teach the basics – writing/numeral literacy and general knowledge (e.g. geography). Then teach the kids basic critical thinking, i.e. stimulate their minds so they don’t automatically believe everything you say – make them question your claims and find out if what you taught them is even true! This is how teaching used to be done, until the entire industry was taken over by woke female teacher unionists (the number of based male teachers still willing to kowtow to the current teaching environment must surely be approaching zero at this point???).

    • @Nitrium You present some vitality of ideas in practical vein rather than the cutting criticism eruption of two above you. This just points to the paucity of thinking and negative minds of many that keep decimating and denigrating everything of local effort done here. Circular and self-defeating. Why tell us we are a bunch of shite every time they open their trapdoors!
      And I’ve got to balance my criticisms too – must remember – to express positives for good effort as well as success.

  21. But June 12th is the start of “school pride week”. Keep politics out of school huh? National are the bad guys in education for wanting a focus on the basics, and not te triti?

  22. How about a Race and Religion free zone in education too while you’re at it. Let’s stop this government and any future one, from pushing blatant rubbish like Mauri (spiritual force) into Science, pretending that Matauranga Maori is equal to science (no, they’re totally different things) and Maths (“Being numerate in Aotearoa New Zealand today relies upon understanding diverse cultural perspectives and privileging te ao Māori and Pacific world-views”).

  23. None of those occupations or professions listed (except the military) are taxpayer-funded. By and large, teachers are taxpayer-funded, so our elected representatives are therefore entitled to tell them what to do.

    “As educators, we are state servants and must follow government mandates, even if they are not in the best interest of our students.” That is a worrying statement in itself.

    It seems to me that, teachers are very happy if “left wing” politicians give them instructions, because most teachers are left wing, but should a “right wing” government take office, they don’t want to adjust accordingly.

    • Indeed Mr Cashflow.
      Where was the teacher outrage over implementing the new warped history narrative, or having to spin maths in a Maori cultural way?
      Or the gender woo taught in primary schools and celebrated with special (grooming) pride days?
      I guess it’s not politics if you are completely blind to your own bias.
      Teachers tend to just want to preach.

  24. Allan Allach – “keep politics out of education”. Goes on tirade against National. How about putting as much effort into explaining why our educational standards have slipped for decades, and not just blaming ‘neoliberalism’. Most of the developed world is neoliberal/capitalist yet the likes of South Korea and Finland leave us in the dust in student achievement.

    • It would be useful to acknowledge how South Korea and Finland are different to NZ. Apples are not oranges. Cultural homogeneity helps everyone stay on the same page for one. That’s the case with South Korea, but look beyond the OECD achievement stats and it’s not all sugar and spice. As for Finland, I wonder if the indigenous Sami have the same achievement stats. The reasons for underachievent are many and simply looking to comparisons doesn’t really find answers.

      Yes there IS something not quite right here. The teachers? Their training and professional development? The curriculicum? The way the curriculum is taught? The classroom context? Lack of informed policy? A myriad of external factors beyond the control of teachers, the school or education policy? Beyond my pay scale. Or is that the wrong attitude.

      • Agreed. Homogeneous societies have some advantages and I recall one of those prison programmes that showed Sami and Inuit are imprisoned at higher rates etc. I’m sure there’s good and bad we can learn from places like Finland.

  25. Indeed.
    The political interference is not only from the right but also from the left and the inclusion of wokeness in the curriculum. These ideological demagogues have basically fucked whatever good education NZ may have once had.
    A plague a’ both your houses.
    You could always try grow the fuck up…

  26. education has ALWAYS been political to some extent…morning assembly, the empire is good, capitalism is your friend I could go on….the real problems in education stem from ‘child centred’ schools you are not in school for ‘personal development’ but to learn stuff…your psycological needs are a job for your parents rather than them excercising ‘parent power’

    • Political and theatrical – Birch wanted us to have a little recitation about our love and loyalty for country and arms crossed over chest too? Like the USA – big on showbiz but don’t often show their biz, when it’s being up-front time. We’re good about making education available to our citizens, in theory, when we can see a pay-off, and the version of good we choose is up for grabs too.

  27. The question is then, how do they want the children to turn out?
    Do they want children to be fodder for the factories when we start a Chinese style economy.

  28. Apparently those raised and educated in the ‘best education system in the world’ created a society with appalling problems and about the worst performing schooling in the world in. Education seemingly didn’t work.

    Certainly one result that came through was that we produced hundreds of thousands who know all about teaching and learning. Unfortunately they’re not teachers, school leaders or educationists. The best thing would be for all teachers with half a brain or more to get out of it – leave it up to the experts.

  29. The mere fact that you are asking us to partake in a petition makes this political. Bring back charter school, which did a great job, and maybe I’ll sign it.

    • See, you do occasionally have good ideas Yuri. But tell me, which political party in the UK is hostile to grammar schools because of their supposed “elitism”?

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