Dr Nicholas Tate: Is the Death of Reading Inevitable?

In France, the September return to school – la rentrée – is always accompanied by la rentrée littéraire – the publication of large numbers of new books – as people look ahead not just to all the literary awards later in the autumn but to their own winter of evenings and weekends sitting curled up reading a new book. Or do they? This year, the rentrée edition of France’s conservative monthly magazine L’incorrect led with an article, ‘Is the death of the book inevitable?’, suggesting that reading may be the very last thing that many French people are likely to be doing.

Barrie Davis: New Zealand is Christian

In The Post, 6 July, reporter Sapeer Mayron answers the question: “Was Aotearoa ever a ‘Christian nation’? Short answer: No.” That presupposes that there is something called ‘Aotearoa’ and The Post reporter seeks to realize it by naming it. So, it is propaganda which may be discounted and dismissed.

However, considering the question further reveals how establishing Christianity in New Zealand achieved “the deliberate lifting of a people of lower culture to full equality in political, social, and moral communion with one of the most advanced races in the world.” (Sir Apirana Ngata, 1928)

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 12/9/24

Govt prescribes targets for an ailing health system – and boasts of a “targeted” approach to lift kids’ literacy, too

The establishment of targets in our health system isn’t news.

In March 2024 the Government announced health targets for cancer treatment, childhood immunisation, emergency departments and wait times for first specialist assessments and elective treatment.

Ele Ludemann: Better way to learn

Education is one of the most challenging ministerial portfolios and one in which ministers often struggle to gain support.

Education Minister, Eric Stanford has only been in the role for a few months and is already making positive, and largely popular, changes.

Christine Braid: National wants to change how NZ schools teach reading......

.......but ‘structured literacy’ must be more than just a classroom checklist

If it wins the election, the National Party has vowed to shake up how children are taught to read and write. Part of this education overhaul includes a pledge to require the teaching of “structured literacy” in all year 0-6 classrooms.

For many in education, the announcement is welcome. It signals a move to an explicit and systematic form of teaching reading that educators, researchers and parents have long been calling for.

Curriculum changes must tackle the lifelong consequences of NZ’s alarming literacy and numeracy declines

Literacy and numeracy are under the spotlight as Aotearoa New Zealand grapples with how to improve student performance in these basic skills.

At the beginning of 2023, the government rolled out its new history curriculum. But further changes to the curriculum were deferred to put the focus on maths and literacy.

This decision followed a damning report revealed that by the age of 15, two out of five children are either only just meeting or failing to meet literacy standards.

Dr Michael Johnston: Don’t delay literacy for children struggling with oral language

In an article in the June 11-17 edition of the New Zealand Listener, speech-language therapist Karena Shannon argued that our education system over-values literacy and under-values oral language.

Shannon correctly noted that oral language is “innate” in human beings, whereas literacy is “constructed”. All human beings, barring certain developmental disorders or brain injuries, will successfully acquire oral language without being explicitly instructed, provided it is spoken around them when they are infants. On the other hand, literacy is a technology. It is not a cultural universal and must be explicitly taught.

Kevin Donnelly from Australia: Letting kids set the standard is far more likely to hinder than help

Stewart Riddle’s bizarre claim that improving the literacy levels of indigenous children, espec­ially in remote communit­ies, might not be a good thing should not surprise. Ever since English sociologist Basil Bernstein in the early 1970s described working-class children’s speech as “restricted” and the speech of middle-class children as ‘‘elaborated’’, teacher educators have disagreed over what it means to be literate and how literacy should be taught.

One approach, represented by Riddle’s argument that there are multiple definitions of literacy as definitions change over time and differ across cultures, is that the language children bring to the classroom must be valued in preference to teaching Standard English.