Once again, she is taking an inexplicably stupid thing in schools, ditching it, and going back to common sense.
This is something close to my heart at the moment because I have to make a decision in the next six months or so about which school we send our son to.
But I’ve basically already made the decision, and it will be the one school in the area that has single classes instead of open plan, modern learning spaces.
It’s the school his best friend from kindy is now going to. It’s also the school another parent I know has just sent their child to.
All of us are doing it for the same reason: we want to avoid open plan learning spaces.
We know, like most parents know, that if you stick a hundred kids in a big room and tell them to pay attention to the teacher in front of them, they can’t.
They get distracted by the loud noises coming from the other kids over there.
Why the Ministry of Education forced this in schools will probably baffle me for the rest of my life, because there is no logic to it.
No one who has kids, or spends time with kids, can really believe kids can concentrate and learn with 100 voices chirping all the time.
Which idiot came up with this? I’d love to know.
I tell you what, the legacy of this Government could well be that it finally turns around our up-to-now decades long decline in education stats.
That, along with the ban on phones in schools, and the hour a day of reading writing and maths, and the expectation that kids must pass existing standards, actually gives our kids a chance to learn as well as kids in any other developed country, like we used to.
And if that is what happens, given how crucial education is to a country’s success, Erica Stanford will remain as I see her:
The MVP of this Government, if not of the decade.
Or, of this generation.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.
5 comments:
Stanford was my MVP until her debacle with the ridiculous "clauses" in the education bill. Now she is the reason I will 100% switch my vote from National to one of the other coalition partners. She's obviously a nasty piece of work and ideologically blinded. Education is just too important and, legally, meant to be secular.
Hekia Parata implemented the open classroom schools. An idea that had already been deemed a failure in France at that point in time. To me the fault rests on her shoulders. We know MoE officials are leftist losers, and she took their advice.
Indeed, we must support Erica Stanford, who I believe is doing her best to get education back on track. I feel that she gets criticized unfairly by those who do not understand the challenges and obstacles that she faces - not least from the Ministry.
Having worked at NZQA and interacted with the Ministry of Education, I remain enormously disappointed. Many good people but too many of those who had little or no subject matter expertise going into management and, of course, the bullying was sickening. I have said all of this before, but it needs to be reiterated until something is done - unqualified people in management abusing excellent staff out of employment; framing good staff by making false public allegations of errors in reports etc; plagiarism and taking credit for the work of their staff. Calculated attempts to ruin the reputations and careers of others. I watched all of this going on in my own unit. Any attempt to stand up for yourself or complain was met with threats that you will lose your job. The same bullies who did this stuff were setting education policy and controlling assessment.
I saw this stuff and much else twelve and more years ago, and those unqualified "managers" are still there on fat salaries. Highly paid research managers and statistics managers who have never done any research in their lives, in some cases holding no tertiary qualifications of any kind, and who can barely find the average of three numbers. They then abuse Ph.D holders out of their jobs and, further, out of their professions.
It stands to reason that this obnoxious behavior was superintended by the top people who, of course, ultimately emerged with fat bank accounts, titles and honorary degrees. If I were in charge today I would have those “leaders” in court, restructure both organizations and get rid of the rot that has harmed our schoolkids for twenty years.
David Lillis
Erica Stanford has made a bigger mistake that she should fix . Remove ethnicity requirements from the curriculum completely . Then she can parade in your National woke MVP of the year
The Ministry should be cleared out....... huge dame done in many areas.
This week I bought an item costing $106 - then decided to take 3 packets. The sweet shop assistant needed a calculator to work out the $318 bill.
EXACTLY, Basil !!
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