Education Should Be a Politics Free Zone
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Politicians don’t tell doctors how to treat patients
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Politicians don’t tell lawyers how to manage legal issues
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Politicians don’t tell dentists about managing dental care
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Politicians don’t tell engineers how to design roads, buildings, bridges, etc
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Politicians don’t tell psychologists how to help people
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Politicians don’t tell builders how to construct buildings
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Politicians don’t tell pharmacists how to dispense medicine
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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
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Politicians don’t tell mechanics how to fix cars
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Politicians don’t tell accountants how to keep accurate accounts
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Politicians don’t tell funeral directors about managing bereavements
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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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Should come with an irony alert.
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 ??
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.