Politicians, leave our kids alone

Several times last year I wrote about the dangers of politicians, from any party, being involved in the development of curriculum, its design and its implantation in schools and classrooms.

Seems I’m not alone in this, going by this article:

Ex-Education Ministry staffer says new school curriculum heavily politicised

‘A former Education Ministry employee says development of the new school curriculum was heavily politicised, causing extensive rewrites and sidelining subject experts.

Claire Coleman made the allegations during a submission to Parliament’s Education and Workforce Select Committee on the government’s Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill.

She told the committee the bill would politicise the education system by giving the government more direct control over the curriculum and over teachers’ professional standards’

People/organisations with vested interests (this includes politicians, especially governments, regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum, as well as corporate influencers, and religious groups) should not be permitted to have control over education, curriculum and teaching. 

You might argue that this isn’t a problem, surely a government has the right to ensure that education meets their standards, after all they are the government. 

Would you be of the same opinion if a government that didn’t follow your personal political preferences was in power, be it on the left or the right, especially one dominated by an intense ideology?  Or maybe a theocratic government seeking to impose its religious beliefs? Imagine a government dominated by Brian Tamaki, if you want an extreme case.

Back in the ‘good old days’ before governments were captured by overseas ideologies (from 1984 onwards) we could depend on whichever government was in power working in the best interests of its citizens and its children, and so there was minimal ministerial interference in the provision of education, whether under a Labour or National government. Sadly times have changed.

The only way out of this conundrum is to remove the content and operation of education from direct government control. You can’t pick and choose the times when a government is allowed to dominate education and when a government isn’t allowed to do this. 

‘I know from my recent experience at the Ministry of Education the dangers of allowing a public service to be politicised,” she said.

“As a curriculum writer, I was asked to disregard the evidence, the research, and decades of my own experience.

“I watched colleagues run back and forth to the Beehive for approval, watched academics and sector experts be removed from writing teams in favour of corporate resource creators, and saw curriculum documents change radically over a matter of hours in response to the latest red-pen notes from ministers.

“Public servants and their expertise were routinely disregarded, bullied, and removed for not aligning with a predetermined outcome.”’

This leads to a Ministry of Thought Control!  

‘We don’t need no education

We don’t need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Teacher, leave them kids alone’

It doesn’t take a degree in rocket science to understand why an ideological government (such as the present one dominated by Atlas Network influences) seeks to impose its ideological philosophy on children. 

If you disagree, I suggest you read this article that Mountain Tui recently linked to:

How the Atlas Network is shaping your life, even if you’ve never heard of it

The whole article contains a wealth of information about the Atlas Network, its origins and current practices and so I really implore you to read it. However for the purposes of this article, this quote from Milton Friedman is revealing.

‘Friedman said the rejuvenation of liberalism would probably take many years. And to be successful, liberals would have to influence the climate of opinion slowly over time:

“Men legislate on the basis of the philosophy they imbibed in their youth, so some twenty years or more may elapse between a change in the underlying current of opinion and the resultant alteration in public policy,” he argued.’

This is an updating of the old saying “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man”.  

An example from the USA: 

‘In red states, legislators have introduced and passed bills to restrict what can be taught in the classroom about the country’s history, barring discussion of concepts related to race, ethnicity, colour, or any topics that promote a “negative account or representation” of the country’s history.’

Does this seem familiar? It’s not too dissimilar from Seymour’s moves to rewrite the New Zealand History Curriculum, something that he has gloated about in recent weeks.

So do you now understand why the current government (or any ideologically driven government) seeks to dominate and control education, especially the development of curriculum and how it is taught in schools? And why governments seek to establish tight controls over teachers, who are the key people in ensuring the agenda is implemented? 

You will be aware, of course, of the ever tightening compliance requirements placed on teachers, the hurdles they need to jump to maintain their teacher registration. Comply or else…

Ponder on this quote from the Atlas Network article:

‘When they say they’re defending “freedom”, what type of freedom are they actually talking about and whose freedom are they defending?’

That is a good question. I’d suggest that the answer has little to do with people in the street whose interests are not being served or met by the current developments in education.

We know from history, especially overseas, that the conservative governments on the right, in thrall to their financial backers, seek to limit children’s education to basic skills that enable them to work as wage slaves to create wealth for the capitalists. 

As I’ve previously highlighted this was clearly explained by Brazilian educator Paolo Friere in his book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. They don’t want an educated population who can think for themselves.

Another USA example – I’m sure you are aware of the intense spin coming out of the USA government over the ICE killings in Minneapolis. Even though the video evidence is crystal clear, the US government spokespeople insist on labelling Alex Pretti and Renee Good as terrorists, belonging to left wing groups and who were intent on injuring or killing the innocent ICE agents who were forced to defend themselves. As Orwell wrote in his book Nineteen Eighty Four, 

‘The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.’ 

Orwell was very prescient, his error was in writing about a world controlled by an extreme left government, whereas the actuality is that it is a world controlled by the right that is removing our liberties.

Controlling all aspects of education, as the present government is doing, is a step on this road.

Happy?