Wendy Geus: Critical Theory Not on Nats’ Agenda

A May Reid Research poll found 70 per cent of people believed the Labour Government is not doing enough to address falling literacy and numeracy rates. Could it be they are too distracted with “smuggling left-wing nonsense into our schools”, as ACT’s Chris Baillie has opined?

A hilarious moment in the House recently had Jan Tinetti tied up in knots, this time not with Erica Stanford’s questions, but Chris Baillie’s. The education minister was trying to explain the benefits of incorporating critical theory into the teaching of maths. Her answer that children need to be taught to think critically had the Opposition in hysterics.

The goal of critical pedagogy is to confront society’s ‘social injustice and oppression’. How this fits into teaching a five-year-old 2 + 2 = 4 is a mystery.