Paul Henry always had a knack for cutting to the chase. That’s why his succinct line about Act’s education discipline policy will hit the spot with so many teachers.
“Let’s be honest, there are a lot of little sh*ts in classrooms and we need to address that if we’re to lift education standards.”
So Act want to give teachers more power to throw the little sh*ts out of the class.
How many teachers around the country will be saying “amen’ to that. Only under their breath and very quietly of course, because their unions – you know the ones that support the Labour Party – think this is an appalling and unworkable policy.
They want “more learning support, more mental health support, and we need to make sure our children are supported and cared for.”
Whatever that means.
The unions seem to believe there isn’t really a problem.
Except Act point to a 2024 Education Review Office report which shows half of teachers dealt with a disruption issue every lesson and 47 percent said they lost up to 50 minutes a day managing challenging behaviour.
It’s a bit like Act’s policy on attendance. After all, the the most obvious truism of all is this: if you’re not at school you can’t be learning. An uneducated population quickly becomes a very poor one, in every sense of the word.
Regular attendance at school, that is being there 90 percent of the time, increased to 68.8 percent in the first term this year from a low of 53 percent in 2023. That’s still not flash but it’s way better than it was.
A good deal of that increase has to do with David Seymour’s attendance action plan which, like the discipline policy, includes financial penalties for parents who don’t meet their responsibilities.
One case of parental slackness has been brought under those new rules. It was in, where else, the eastern Bay of Plenty. The outcome was predictable – the parent didn’t show up to court. Some people are just useless.
The Act discipline policy is another link in a chain of initiatives which can only improve our education standards.
Most of them are blindingly obvious moves back to methods that had been successful for a hundred years before new philosophies on teaching began to emerge in the 1970s and 80s.
The MLEs, modern learning environments or open-plan classrooms were a disaster. Child centred learning was a failure. An unstructured and knowledge-poor curriculum was shambolic.
Thankfully they’re being stepped back as we desperately seek to return to the positions on education achievement tables we occupied only a quarter of a century ago.
Removing phones from kids during school hours is another significant move.
Surely it was proved during the golden years of New Zealand educational achievement - that is the century or so from the Education Act of 1877 - that best results are achieved through structure and discipline.
Any parent just knows this instinctively.
Getting the “little sh*ts” out of the classroom fits nicely into a toolbox of ideas which will appear retrograde to those of a progressive persuasion.
But our education standards have deteriorated markedly this century. Trends of improvement are encouraging.
This latest Act policy is worth a go to keep up the momentum
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
Whatever that means.
The unions seem to believe there isn’t really a problem.
Except Act point to a 2024 Education Review Office report which shows half of teachers dealt with a disruption issue every lesson and 47 percent said they lost up to 50 minutes a day managing challenging behaviour.
It’s a bit like Act’s policy on attendance. After all, the the most obvious truism of all is this: if you’re not at school you can’t be learning. An uneducated population quickly becomes a very poor one, in every sense of the word.
Regular attendance at school, that is being there 90 percent of the time, increased to 68.8 percent in the first term this year from a low of 53 percent in 2023. That’s still not flash but it’s way better than it was.
A good deal of that increase has to do with David Seymour’s attendance action plan which, like the discipline policy, includes financial penalties for parents who don’t meet their responsibilities.
One case of parental slackness has been brought under those new rules. It was in, where else, the eastern Bay of Plenty. The outcome was predictable – the parent didn’t show up to court. Some people are just useless.
The Act discipline policy is another link in a chain of initiatives which can only improve our education standards.
Most of them are blindingly obvious moves back to methods that had been successful for a hundred years before new philosophies on teaching began to emerge in the 1970s and 80s.
The MLEs, modern learning environments or open-plan classrooms were a disaster. Child centred learning was a failure. An unstructured and knowledge-poor curriculum was shambolic.
Thankfully they’re being stepped back as we desperately seek to return to the positions on education achievement tables we occupied only a quarter of a century ago.
Removing phones from kids during school hours is another significant move.
Surely it was proved during the golden years of New Zealand educational achievement - that is the century or so from the Education Act of 1877 - that best results are achieved through structure and discipline.
Any parent just knows this instinctively.
Getting the “little sh*ts” out of the classroom fits nicely into a toolbox of ideas which will appear retrograde to those of a progressive persuasion.
But our education standards have deteriorated markedly this century. Trends of improvement are encouraging.
This latest Act policy is worth a go to keep up the momentum
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
5 comments:
"Getting the “little sh*ts” out of the classroom fits nicely into a toolbox of ideas which will appear retrograde to those of a progressive persuasion."
Ah the modern meaning of 'progressive' - I'm glad it can also mean a progressive decline in health or a progressive disease which is more appropriate to the methods of the left.
I can't say I had any teachers that were inspirational or anything close to that cliched Hollywood trope we see in movies.
But I had quite a few in High School who made it plain what the score was.
Often their comments were along these lines.
"I'm not here to babysit you"
"I'm not going to force you to be here so leave if you don't like it"
"It's up to YOU, where you go from here" ETC.
Unfortunately, these days such comments would be seen as a cop out, dismissive and non-committal.
But I interpreted these at 13 as the need to take responsibility for yourself.
EVERY school kid needs to learn early and fast that life will not be easy. If you don't want to prepare for life after school?
Fine. See how far that attitude takes you.
NO ONE WILL CARE
Those teachers made that sentiment very plain.
A lack of corporal punishment either at home, or at school is a factor in the appalling attitude s if some kids today.
Blame all these do gooders for the laws that were passed banning any physical restraint of what is clearly unacceptable behavior.
These were not unintended consequences - it was stated at the time, and now we have the proof.
We happen to have in NZ , the worst stats, in under achievement having the longest tail of that, , classroom behaviour , youth suicide and more.
Iniquitous progressivism , as already mentioned is the culprit.
It was the brain child of American Dewey , and quite unlike, what the early settlers brought to NZ. Clarence Beeby and Michael Fraser were its main advocates. Schools became an agency for socialism instead of academic learning . Hard work, an individual's responsibility for his own actions , discipline , intellectual rigour correcting mistakes , a knowledge rich curriculum and most of all effective teaching methods were all thrown out . Play way , entertainment , fun , do your own thing . sloppy work is OK, socialising is paramount ,........
Consequently we now have in our standard classroom children walking and rolling around the classroom , in and out of the classroom , high level of noise as they talk in groups , nothing completed , constant rudeness in inter-actions with the teacher and others .......
Congratulations Beeby and Fraser . You became national heroes but you were completely wrong , Your legacy is a country with a education system that was once the envy of the world but now bottom on everything .This includes classroom behaviour . where learning cannot occur because of the 'free' little brats cannot be properly disciplined. . Gaynor
Young people need and appreciate boundaries. Similar to other mammals in nature. Mothers guiding their young and disciplining when needed. Basic stuff really, but somehow the intelligent human species over thinks everything and stuffs it up
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