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Friday, October 22, 2021

Roger Childs: “Loaded” draft for consultation


No Significant Change Expected in the History Curriculum

There will not be any radical changes to the content and any additional content will be in line with what currently exists. Ministry of Education Report on the submissions to the Draft Curriculum for Year 1-10 students

The History Draft for Year 1-10 students came out in February and almost four months was allowed for submissions. But unfortunately this has proved to be a case of paying lip service to the process of public consultation, with no intention of making any significant adjustments to the document.

The draft, as many submitters and critics pointed out, was a highly flawed, uneven proposal riddled with factual errors and saturated with references to Maori history, heritage, tradition and knowledge. There were also serious omissions in the content, skills and understandings to be covered. But the Ministry didn’t want to know.

In line with their underlying maorification policy, the Ministry of Education is unashamedly undertaking a revision of all school curricula with a clear mission: to honour our past and obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. There is no intention of providing objectivity, honesty and balance in the interests of students who are 85% non-Maori, while the rest are part-Maori with a significant amount of colonist blood coursing through their veins.

Maori activists bent on indoctrinating our young people

The Ministry has been captured by Maori bureaucrats and academics, and their fellow travellers, and has the full backing of the Labour Government. The curriculum developers are empowered to carry out a key element of the He Puapua programme - to “maorify” New Zealand society on the road to joint Crown – Maori government by 2040.

The Proposed History Curriculum for children aged 5 to 15 is a classic example of social engineering and indoctrination designed to win over the kids to the cause of increasing separatism and growing Maori power in New Zealand. It is based on the long established principle of moulding compliant adult citizens by starting early.

A 16th century Jesuit and a 20th American psychologist have summed it up:
  • St. Francis Xavier: Give me the child until he is seven and I'll give you the man. (A quote also attributed to Greek philosopher Aristotle.)
  • B F Skinner: Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.
A process designed to get the “right” outcome

There was a general sense of enthusiasm and support for the draft curriculum content from both the education sector and the public. Report on the submissions.

There were over 5000 responses:
  • 4491 using an online survey (See more detail below.)
  • 488 in depth submissions
  • 168 learner surveys
  • 90 workshops. (Mainly organised by iwi and hapu.)
The Ministry didn’t seem to want thoughtful, in-depth, analytical submissions based on evidence, but were happy to receive superficial responses centred on a short online public survey. Here are the questions in that questionnaire:
  • Does the draft curriculum content reflect us as a nation?
  • What is most important to you?
  • What are the challenges in implementing this curriculum change?
The report stated that the consultation showed general support for the history curriculum content. However, it was noted that teachers were more positive about the content than parents/family and community members. Because of this, the report side-stepped that lack of positivity, and provided detailed analysis of the responses of five supportive groupings - students, teachers, Māori, Pasifika and Asian.

From all the submissions the final report identified five positive messages:
  • There was general support for the content.
  • Many saw a strong connection between the content and their identity, culture, and citizenship.
  • People were supportive of bringing Māori histories to the forefront of the content alongside other histories.
  • Getting together with hapū and iwi was seen as a positive step in the right direction, but resourcing and support would be needed.
  • There was acknowledgement that schools would have to play a significant role in determining whether or not the implementation is successful.
But the report did concede that some responses did emphasize that the history taught should be “objective”, “unbiased”, and “accurate”!

So any significant changes likely?

No, they won’t be allowed! The report made this extraordinary statement:

There will not be any radical changes to the content and any additional content will be in line with what currently exists.

So the He Puapua train will roll on. The huge emphasis in the draft curriculum on Maori history, culture and knowledge is fine. After all, as the report concludes: The draft curriculum content has been developed to reflect the significance of Māori histories in New Zealand and to honour te Tiriti o Waitangi and the partnership between the Crown and tangata whenua.

(So the final draft will have no surprises and will be published later in October, for use in schools in 2022. The Ministry will also release the final draft of Te Takanga o Te Wā (Māori history)).

Roger Childs is a retired teacher who taught History, Social Studies and Geography for 40 years.

7 comments:

DeeM said...

No surprise there!!
Just like Maori Wards and Climate Change Commission submissions.
The public submissions process is a complete farce! It is there to provide the illusion of consultation but the reality is that the original version always stands and any amendments only strengthen it.
Public submissions needs to be managed by an "independent" body NOT appointed by the government.
Unfortunately, in our woke world this would still be corrupted.

SueC said...

You cannot rewrite history.

Kiwialan said...

How can History be revised???? History is the study of the past, events that actually happened, facts and figures, archaeology, the list goes on. China hides events, facts and figures but is controlled by a totalitarian govt forcing one view on the population.... Ohh, sounds familiar. Kiwialan.

Alexandra Corbett Dekanova said...

Yes, no suprise, but nevertheless very sad. Now it is on parents, grandparents, other relatives to keep real history alive for the children, buy them good books while it is possible, tell them about your family history here in New Zealand, have them watch good documentaries so that they will get some knowledge of world history and especially of the long path the mankind had trodden till we achieved democracy. This is the way how we survived brainwashing in communist countries.
Alexandra Corbett Dekanova

Terry Morrissey said...

Education. “This new Reich will give its youth to no one but will itself take youth and give to youth its education and its own upbringing” (Adolf Hitler). That is what is being practiced with this NCEA. More indoctrination than education. (World Core Curriculum). Based on a curriculum from the UN’s Robert Muller who says his ideas were “based on teachings set forth in the books of Alice A Bailey.” She was in fact a Satanist. Cool.

Terry Morrissey said...

Sue C Said
You cannot rewrite history.
I assure you, a bloody judge can.
A quote from Sir Robin Cooke in 1987 in New Zealand Maori Council v Attorney-General, "the Treaty created an enduring relationship of a fiduciary nature akin to a partnership, each party accepting a positive duty to act in good faith, fairly, reasonably and honourably towards the other". And he decided on the treaty principles.
In 1989, plonkers in the Fourth Labour Government adopted the "Principles for Crown Action on the Treaty of Waitangi". "They [the principles] are not an attempt to rewrite the Treaty of Waitangi.”, But they have done so.

Charles said...

Walking down by the marina in Taupo last week, I noticed a troop of youngsters being chaperoned about the area by their teachers. Congregating at their pick-up point, the adults had them reciting in maori to occupy them. Since most of the kids were white I wondered why they were being fed a language with very limited opportunities to use. I would much prefer to have my offspring learn something valuable during their formative years. It seems more to be indoctrination than education. In my 75 years I have found German most useful at odd times, never have I required maori language. NZ has no future if it continues like this.