I haven’t been convinced that Winston has found his issue this year that will propel NZF over the 5%.
Demanding Government Departments drop their Māori names is petty and demanding domestic gangs are redefined as terrorist groups so the military can be sent in is borderline insane, however, his critique of the new insane science curriculum however is a 5% threshold crosser…
School science curriculum: Teachers shocked at leaked draft – ‘Where’s the science?’
Science teachers are shocked that an advance version of the draft school science curriculum contains no mention of physics, chemistry or biology.
The so-called “fast draft” said science would be taught through four contexts – the Earth system, biodiversity, food, energy and water, and infectious diseases.
It was sent to just a few teachers for their feedback ahead of its release for consultation next month, but some were so worried by the content they leaked it to their peers.
…it doesn’t mention chemistry, biology or physics once yet mentions Mātauranga 55 times! It is education so dumbed down to give the precious little angels a cultural cuddle because they are so easily triggered these days they will get social anxiety’s if anything is too hard.
There is a real sense that our kids are not getting ahead educationally and that school has morphed into a baby sitting for our kids feelings.
Gen Xers and Boomers grew up in an educational philosophy that stated ‘Be the best you can be’. The idea was you were in a constant competition with yourself to perform with personal excellence in the field you did best in.
It unfortunately also used Bell Curve graph ruthlessness that ensured 50% failed regardless of whether they actually passed. That created generations of lost potential. Instead of reform the Belle Curve mentality, we went completely the other way with Tomorrow’s Schools in dumping all the responsibility onto local communities without any of the resourcing.
That manifested a completely different philosophy.
Millennials and under were brought up in an educational philosophy of ‘everyone is special’.
You can quickly see the problem.
Schools seem to have been given carte blanche to define educational achievement as they like with the most important factor being the feelings of the child.
It seems to have produced a brittle generation who require constant nurturing and cuddles rather than stoic self reliance and independence of critical thinking agency.
Removing the science from science so that it is dumber and easier so the precious little kids don’t feel dumb is only making us weaker.
Winston may have finally found his issue.
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Takeaway from the other day’s Productivity Seminar. Low decile schools lead the pack in Te Reo. Go figure.
So what do you mean? Are you saying those schools score higher in Te Reo? Could that be because Māori are overly represented in low decile schools and they may have had more exposure to the language?
I think we’re seeing just how weak Chippy is as leader: a poor candidate with poor policies. If he gets over the line, it will only be because the Tories are even weaker.
These curriculum changes are so extreme that it’s hard to imagine they would be accepted in any other country. Are there think tanks and N.G.O’s supporting this? Who is funding such organisations, if any? Is the country being used as a laboratory to test these ideas, prior to further deployment, as the Mont Pèlerin Society were doing in the 1970s/1980s?
The only effect is the country becomes even more of an international laughing stock.
Hooray for Haus.
If Winston had his way, creationism and the “Young Earth Theory” would be taught in our schools. Either that or the kids would be writing on slates, and chanting their times tables.
Interesting. One seminal post-apocalypse story, featured the survivors as those who knew their tables, and could do long-division sums and algebra, and maybe geometry, in the absence of devices and modern communications as can I.
When you can produce eyewitnesses to macroevolution there will not be any reason for opposing views on origins, until then people should be free to understand what evidence we do have with whatever worldview suits them.
Bonnie, evolution is evolution, macro vs micro, it’s all on a continuum. You are simply repeating a creationist cannard regarding a distinction and proving you know jack shit about the subject.
There is a massive difference between a change in existing species (information) & how those species arrived in the first place. Your refusal to accept the difference shows that only a naturalist explanation is acceptable to you & that you are incapable of allowing others to see different explanations for the same evidence. All you need to do is create a living cell or even easier (?) bring a dead cell back to life & there would be no argument that naturalism provides a sound explanation for the origin of life.
Interesting how everyone has a strong political views on this without seeing the document. Yes, with what comments and information are publicly available it would appear the traditional science building blocks are not there, but shouldn’t we each personally read the document before making unsupported political claims and assassinations?
I’m definately interested in reading it. Please post the link. Although according to Martyns story I won’t be able to read the words physics, chemistry, biology. Sounds like there will be earth system not including soil physics, bio diversity not incuding biology and infectious diseases not including cell chemistry. How does that work?
Did you not read the part where this is a ‘draft’ that has been ‘leaked’ by concerned teachers.
Good article Martyn. Thank you.
You may well be right about it.
You give much food for thought.
Well done Winston Peters. The dumbing down of education has been progressive and effective, and the proof of the pudding is in the ignorami peopling the Beehive. The sexualising and confusing of children, especially via unproven genderID ideology does disturb parents, and rightly so.
Well we’ve seen what happened with the history curriculum why would we think they were going to stop there.
You mean actually teaching NZ history? Oh the horror.
I’m with Winston on this one. There’s so much scientific illiteracy among our MPs. I think David Seymour may be the only one with a science background. The rest are all lawyers, arts, sociology, and they may or may not see what’s been going wrong here. If only they could appreciate the beauty behind the periodic table, and how stunningly brilliant to was of Mendeleev and others who figured this out in the 1800s, and what insight it offers to the understanding of matter. Or when they go on about EVs, if they actually understood what electricity is. If they could understand the simple beauty behind the standard formulae: F = ma, V = a x Ω, KE = 1/2mv sq, PE = mgh, and so on, that back in the day every high school kid doing physics knew about. Or if they actually knew what DNA stood for. I could go on.
And is it really true that “it doesn’t mention chemistry, biology or physics once yet mentions Mātauranga 55 times!”? This is beyond parody.
It must not happen, unless we want to produce a generation of scientific ignoramuses.
Education is the answer to how to get people out of poverty but unfortunately they have been taken over by an out of touch group of public servants who want to use our young as lab rats for a social experiment.
Barn like classrooms were no one can study in a quite space just because it is cheap . Poor pay and conditions dumb down the teaching and lord the Maori language over everything to stop arguement by calling people racist who challenge the move.
And from this morning’s O.D.T.
“Welcome to the University of Stuff That’s Not Too Difficult.
“We hope you will make the most of your years here, and will feel fully supported by the inclusive curriculum developed by our government partner, the Ministry Through the Looking Glass.
“Now, we see you have enrolled in two of our most popular courses: ‘What Makes That Happen?’ and ‘Why Does It Matter?’. Excellent choices.
“Sorry, what’s that you say? You were looking for a paper in science? Oh, goodness me, no, nobody talks about that kind of old-fangled thing round here any more. This is a university of the present, not one rooted in the past, we’re proud to say.”
OK, you can wake up now. That was just a nightmare. Well, sort of.
This week we have learnt that moves are afoot to introduce a new school curriculum which skirts around the margins of science and what traditionally are considered the most difficult subjects, especially in the last years at secondary school.
Science teachers around the country are up in arms about an early draft of a school science curriculum which, alarmingly, fails to mention both the most basic of science disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, and biology, and concepts such as atoms.
Instead, the draft suggests pupils get their science knowledge for life by being put through 13 years of learning about four “contexts”, namely the Earth system; biodiversity; food, energy and water; and infectious diseases.
Yes, physics, chemistry and other subjects like maths and statistics can be difficult.
They are not for everyone.
But it is vital that young people are educated, to as high a level as they can cope with, in such complicated science.
We note with fervent hope that this is said to be only an early draft, sent to just a few teachers for comment and then leaked.
That implies there is still plenty of time for common sense to prevail.
When it comes to science, basic principles haven’t changed for many decades. Science is science is science.
There is not a lot of room for wokeism here.
I agree, if I get your drift TG. It appears things are no longer called what they used to be, but principles are principles. Hopefully those principles are embedded/ integrated into the four contexts: learning about earth system; biodiversity; food, energy and water; and infectious diseases seems a pretty good coverage of what’s important with a fair bit of scope for more.
Let’s all become dumb Maoris, dumb Pakeha and dumb Islanders and get colonised by Chinese and Indian engineers, doctors, computer scientists and other Stem. Meanwhile farmers will continue to pay our way.
Peters identified the target perfectly:
The Sociology and Education Dept/ghettos within our Universities, teacher training institutions and Ministries.
The University of Waikato is particularly noteworthy for turning out gobblegook speaking magical thinkers:
“……they will be teaching the chemistry and the physics that you need to engage with – the big issues of our time – and in order to engage with the excitement of science and the possibilities that science offers……”
-Cathy Buntting
RNZ Morning Report 5 July 2023
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018897157/new-way-to-teach-science-in-schools-proposed
A great opinion piece on this in The Standard. https://thestandard.org.nz/new-curriculum-science-to-be-taught-in-the-context-of-the-great-challenges-of-our-time/
There are some serious questions posed in this piece, ones that need answering before any sort of valid opinion could be formed. The hand wringing and political assassinations over a leaked draft is mind blowing; all of it is based on a few comments from a few who have seen the leaked document, and it would seem that there is a variety of views, not all negative.
Wiston Peters is doing no more than seizing on something in the hope that he can recover some votes. There is no indication that he has read the document; true Winston opportunism; interesting how many fall for it time and time again – did they learn nothing from his last performance in parliament.
Enjoyed this. Appears that more than ‘science’ is at stake. Keep with the old, the so-called reductionist way of seeing the world, or adopt an alternative view, supported by reorganizing curriculum content and the promise of joined-up learning.
Kinda reminds me of the ‘literacy wars’: basic skills or a whole-meaning approach. That too is a current focus at Ministry level.
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