John Robertson: The Curriculum Revolt Nobody Voted For

New Zealand’s public schools are staging a quiet revolt, and hardly anyone is admitting it out loud. More than a thousand schools — yes, a thousand — have decided they no longer care what Parliament has legislated. The Government removed the requirement for school boards to “give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi,” but schools are pressing ahead as if the law never changed.

John Robertson: Burn the Treaty Course, Torch the Rituals, Make Schools Secular

Preschool, primary, intermediate, college, university. That’s the education chain. At least, it should be. But in New Zealand it’s not education anymore — it’s indoctrination with a feather cloak. From the first day to the final year of university, kids are marched through spiritual rituals dressed up as “culture.” Karakia before morning tea, haka and nose-rubbing ceremonies on demand, atua in the curriculum, wairua in the textbooks — religion shoved down their throats without consent.

John Robertson: You’re Not a Racist — You’re Just Done With Religion Disguised as Culture

Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 2)

New Zealand was meant to be a secular democracy. Instead, we’ve got a government pushing a bill that wraps spiritual beliefs in “culture” and slips them into our schools.

This isn’t about honouring heritage — it’s about normalising prayers to gods in taxpayer-funded classrooms, without ever calling it religion. Because religion gets criticised — but culture? Culture is sacred. Mandatory. Untouchable.

Dr Robert Bartholomew: The Māori Astrology Craze - Stop Teaching Pseudoscience to Our Kids

Astrology is alive and well in some New Zealand classrooms thanks to the Education Ministry’s push to give indigenous knowledge equal standing with scientific knowledge.

In recent years government ministries have produced an array of online resources intended to enlighten teachers and students on the wonders of the Māori Lunar Calendar or Maramataka. Unfortunately, most of these resources are woefully uncritical and fail to mention that there is very little science to support it.

Dr Will Jones: Christian School Worker Sacked for Sharing Social Media Posts Criticising LGBT Teaching Wins in Court of Appeal

A Christian school worker who was dismissed after sharing social media posts criticising the teaching of LGBT relationships at her son’s school has won a key Court of Appeal battle related to her dismissal. The Mail has more.

Michael Laws: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and the myth of fairness

The Platform’s Michael Laws critiques TVNZ and RNZ for what he calls the indoctrination of DEI principles. He argues that state-funded media actively promotes identity-based hiring and policy decisions under the guise of fairness.

Laws takes issue with TVNZ’s extensive coverage defending DEI policies and linking them to the Treaty of Waitangi. He points to a 13-page article criticising Donald Trump’s rollback of DEI initiatives in the US while advocating their expansion in New Zealand.

Dr Michael Bassett: Beware of 'Te Tiriti' nonsense.

Last week there was a TV interview with a lawyer called Roimata Smail and someone from The Women’s Bookshop. The gist of the TV story was that together they were circulating to all schools a small booklet called “Understanding Te Tiriti: A Handbook of basic facts about Te Tiriti o Waitangi”. The booklet confirms what any knowledgeable person should know by now: anything that uses the term “Te Tiriti” is likely to be bullshit, pure and unadulterated. It’s the recently manufactured version of the Treaty of Waitangi, not the one that was actually signed in 1840.

Peter Williams: UPDATE: A Book of Waitangi

My copy of Understanding Te Tiriti: a handbook of basic facts about Te Tiriti o Waitangi arrived by post today. This is the booklet, written by lawyer Roimata Smail, which has been distributed to every secondary school in the country.

My initial response was that if this is the level of textbook and reference source that high school students are provided with these days then heaven help our future. It is barely 30 pages, is comprised of simplistic language and unsupported claims and is the kind of pamphlet that might be appropriate for children at the oldest in years 7 and 8, the intermediate school level.

Peter Williams: A Book of Waitangi

A short radio news item caught my attention the other day.

“A copy of a new book about the Treaty of Waitangi by lawyer Roimata Smail has been gifted to every secondary school in the country. An anonymous donor has paid for Understanding Te Tiriti: a handbook of basic facts about Te Tiriti o Waitangi to be sent to the schools.”

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Donated Treaty book to schools - fact or opinion?

Has an Anonymous Political Donor to Schools Sabotaged National, ACT & NZ First? Will Children be Educated Not to Vote for them, as of Next Week?

The State-owned Broadcaster has just announced, "Every high school in NZ is set to receive a copy of a new book about the Treaty of Waitangi following a surprise donation by an [anonymous] Auckland couple". One News says the book, "Understanding Te Tiriti", is "a guide to NZ’s founding document". Except that's not the book's title. Its "Understanding Te Tiriti: A Handbook of Basic Facts about Te Tiriti o Waitangi". That is no small difference. What some people call "Facts" are not what others call "Facts". Our schools teach there's a difference between "fact" and "opinion". This book self-identifies as Factual. That's merely an opinion of its author.

Centrist: Indoctrination or education?....

Indoctrination or education? Anonymous donor gifts partisan Te Tiriti handbook to all NZ high schools

An anonymous act of generosity is bringing Understanding Te Tiriti – A Handbook of Basic Facts by lawyer Roimata Smail to every high school in New Zealand.

Guest Post: Ancestors and the Culture Clash

A Guest Post by Sisyphus posted on The Goodoil

For an upcoming university course, one of the requirements is a stay on a local marae in order to get properly acquainted with Māori culture. None of us in the course are ourselves Māori, yet we must fulfill this requirement to pass.

One of the main requirements is that we perform a mihi. Which, if you don't know, has you list out a number of things, including your spiritual mountain, river, boat (which your family brought to NZ), tribe and a number of other things, ending with your name.

Parmjeet Parmar: Uni’s compulsory Treaty courses damage learning experience

From next year, the University of Auckland will require all first-year students to complete a ‘Waipapa Taumata Rau’ course covering the Treaty of Waitangi and traditional Māori knowledge systems.

ACT has a number of concerns about this plan. Firstly, students’ time is precious.

We fund universities to prepare students for their careers, and that requires time spent specialising on subjects relevant to their chosen majors.

Professor John Raine: Refocusing our Universities on Excellence

Many will have raised a glass to the 27th March Government announcement of the establishment of the University Advisory Group (UAG), which will consider the effectiveness of the current university system in supporting teaching and research. There are key issues to address around the university business model, operational efficiency, and the loss of political neutrality.

Denis Hall: The utter futility of trying to force a reluctant population to learn Te Reo Maori

I am going to indulge myself here - and commit cultural heresy by speaking the truth again.

Sigh.

English is a stand alone language - it is the global language of literature and diplomacy and science and engineering - and in fact everything that people (humans in general) need to do.

Maori Language is not any of those things. Not even close.

In fact is not spoken or understood by ninety percent of people who claim to be its own people - but our deluded and dangerous and time wasting and culturally unsound and strange Ardern Labour Green Government - is working overtime to force feed it to the rest of the population - many of whom are already bi-lingual in other international languages - like for instance - Mandarin - spoken by BILLIONS.

And “Our idiot government” do all that with lashings of indoctrination, brain washing and propaganda all day and every night on our TV Screens.

Yeah - we know - we have all seen it - but what to do?

Denis Hall: The utter futility of nation-wide wall to wall maori language indoctrination?

I think this Essay will also be about the TRAVESTY of the subversion of truth in New Zealand’s twenty first century society.

Why do I keep hammering this issue?

Because the cost and the lies and deceit embedded in all this will come back to haunt this nation of ours - and we need at least some honest analysis of what is being done to us.

Teach Maori language by all means - but inserting a language that most people are not interested in learning - into the primary and necessary language - just causes widespread resentment.

English is globally important - and absolutely essential - and in New Zealand it is being abused and contaminated and disrespected by our sub-par establishment.

Ron Smith: Education and Propaganda

A functioning democracy requires institutions that provide for its citizens an unfettered opportunity to participate in the decisions that affect their lives.  It also requires a free and unbiased media, especially in regard to that part of it that is in public ownership and under official control.  I have commented on the manifest deficiencies of the New Zealand media in this respect on earlier occasions.  See, for example, my ‘Public Service and Public Propaganda’ of August 2011, which focussed on National Radio and the persistent radical bias of the bulk of its presenters and guests. 

But there is a third leg to the democratic ‘stool’ and that is an education system that seriously prepares its future voters to play a part in determining the sort of society in which they will live, rather than be merely election fodder.