Whitewashing

Removing te Tiriti from kura.

Children in school forced to the desk
Finger the atlas and study the text
Lies and opinion presented as fact
Taught to accept, and never to ask

Song: Chumbawamba.

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I don’t know how many times I can say I’m shocked by what this government is doing. Still, this one is pretty yuck to anyone who respects te Tiriti o Waitangi, who loves our children learning te Reo and about our own history and culture, and who wants to see more equal outcomes for Māori students while acknowledging differences rather than pretending they don’t exist.

Stacking the pack.

Something we’ve seen demonstrated in recent years is that if the things you’re doing run against the grain of perceived wisdom or fairness, it helps to stack the pack in your favour, be that the US Supreme Court, the Waitangi Tribunal, or indeed the Teaching Council.

On Monday, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced she was taking action to “lift the quality of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and restore trust and confidence in the governance of the education workforce”.

I didn’t realise there was an issue with trust and confidence, but things are often that way until you see what seems to be an unnecessary takeover.

Education Minister Erica Stanford announced that the Government was taking action to “lift the quality of Initial Teacher Education and restore trust and confidence in the governance of the education workforce”. Photo: Mark Mitchell.

The Ministry will take professional standard-setting functions from the Teaching Council during its reorganisation. Currently, there are seven elected members and six ministerial appointees. By the end of the month, this balance is expected to be reversed, and next year, the number of members will be reduced to between seven and nine, with only three elected by teachers.

If we saw this sort of centralisation and power grab from a Labour government, National would be screaming blue murder about state control.

PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said the minister was being “incredibly selective” with her use of Teaching and Learning International Survey (Talis) data. Perhaps she’d been taking lessons from her colleague, Karen Chhour, who’s quite skilled in that area.

Abercrombie said, “If the minister is going to use Talis data, she should also look at the Talis data that says the biggest cause of stress for New Zealand teachers is government changes, and that only 14% of teachers believe the Government values them.”

That seems sensible, if unlikely, and there is probably even less chance of them taking note of the following, which Chris added:

“We should also look at the fact that New Zealand teachers are the third most stressed in the world, work the second longest hours in the world. If we’re going to look at the Talis data, let’s look at all of it, not just cherry-pick it like this minister is doing.”

Clearly, there are good reasons for the Teaching Council to be independent of the government. However, if you were the Minister and looking to implement measures that teachers would disagree with, then a takeover would be just the thing.

Removing the Treaty.

Ok, so now that those pesky do-gooders at the Teaching Council have been nullified, it’s time for some more changes…

Yoiks, that was quick. Why on earth would they want to do something like that? What problem are we trying to solve?

The current legislation came into effect in 2020, and Stanford said the Treaty clause had “made no difference to raising the achievement of tamariki Māori”.

Firstly, that’s quite a short period of time, especially one that contained Covid, which likely has influenced results, and also, if it’s “made no difference”, then why rush to get rid of it?

Well, back in June, Erica Stanford was subjected to an attack by anti-Māori lobbyists, Hobson’s Pledge, a bunch of entitled old men who choose to spend their time killing Māori initiatives. While many of us are appalled at the way this government has treated Māori, for Hobson’s Pledge, it’s not enough; they want more and have run attack campaigns against MPs like Erica for being insufficiently racist.

So, what’s problematic about what we have in place? It’s a bit unclear, but School Boards can meet this requirement by ensuring the curriculum “reflects local tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, and te ao Māori” and making instruction available in te reo Māori.

That doesn’t seem so hard, to include local customs, traditional values, and knowledge, as well as a Māori perspective. As for te reo, it’s an official language, how can that be up for consideration?

Back in June, when it appeared Stanford was going to leave the Treaty clause as it was, and not remove it, Hobson’s Pledge called her National’s “wokest” minister, which just sounds silly.

Stanford received “emails and messages and all sorts of things telling me what an awful person I am, but all based on complete and utter rubbish, complete lies”.

ACT wanted the clause removed, Hobson’s Pledge wanted it gone, but Erica was going to leave it in place, so what happened?

Despite highlighting that Hobson’s Pledge were a bunch of dishonest bullies, Stanford appears to have rolled over at the last minute and given the racists what they want.

Even for these guys, this one caught me by surprise, and I posted:

Shouldn’t our Education Minister be more interested in the Teaching Council and sector unions than in pleasing Hobson’s Pledge?

Susan responded, “They might remove the requirement (which means they won’t have a box to tick), but it’s doubtful many actual educators (Charters excluded) will go along with it. Just another stupid idea to garner racist votes. What next - no requirements for safety vests for ECE kids on excursions or teacher supervision of school crossing guards?”

Debbie’s words also summed up how I was feeling, “I really do think I could cry right now...and every other day with this racist shit show. How the hell did we get here? What the hell is wrong with us?”

Hobson’s Dredge.

Needless to say, a few others have also expressed their thoughts on this action by Erica Stanford.

Chris Hipkins said, “It’s a step backwards for our education system. Māori kids don’t do as well in our education system as non-Māori kids do.

I do think school boards have a responsibility to lead a change to ensure that we fix that. I don’t think there’s anything threatening about that.”

Erica Stanford anticipated resistance and said on Newstalk ZB, “The unions will have a go. But actually I’m just out here fighting for kids and what is the best for them, and I’m interested in outcomes and not what the unions have to say.”

Honestly, Erica, try listening to the unions. They want what’s best for our kids a heck of a lot more than Hobson’s Pledge does.

Stanford denied that she had listened to that organisation, but Hobson’s Pledge was in celebration mode and emailed their supporters, saying, “We won.”

They continued, “After months of pressure from Hobson’s Pledge supporters like you, and direct attacks on our group by Education Minister Erica Stanford, the very clause we warned about, the one Minister Stanford said we were ‘lying’ about, is being scrapped.”

I thought I’d check out their page for any gloating, but this was the only post they’d made since. Take a look and consider that the people who posted this are the same ones who seem to be setting the direction of our education system.

Russ said, “I am sure that in Britain, where I lived for forty-odd years, this would be prosecutable as a hate crime. What scum these people are.”

Anna said, “Oh. My. God. Is this what we’ve come to? That this sort of shit is being exchanged within our community?”

Allan: “That says it all, really. Entitled pricks living on the fantasy of a 'legacy' of a so-called superior culture that they themselves had nothing to do with and contributed nothing to. Most of them are too ignorant even to understand the concept. Some are calculatedly malicious. I would bet that some of their great-grandparents were wiping their asses on rags at the bottom of the garden.”

I’m not sure how these people imagine Europeans were living at the time, but for the vast majority, it wasn’t in palaces or castles.

Hobson’s Pledge weren’t the only right-wing jerks celebrating, and David Seymour said it was “a major step forward for education in New Zealand”.

Act’s David Seymour was full of praise for the move. Photo: Michael Craig.

Seymour claimed, “I’ve heard from parents exasperated that their child’s education has turned into an eternal marae visit with karakia before every class and Māori words littered through their maths questions.”

I can imagine the sort of people that might contact Seymour over that, but just because a few racists froth at the mouth at the use of te reo doesn’t mean we should change our school system to meet their prejudices.

Pure disgust.

Watching the 1 News report on this last night, I posted:

I feel so angry at National taking Te Tiriti out of our schools to please racists.

What the hell are we doing?

Patrick noted that we were “Letting the 8% wag the dog.”

Josephine said, “I’m beyond angry. I’m hurting. What have Māori done to deserve these attacks against us? Are Māori really that bad? Te Tiriti o Waitangi allowed the settlers to come and live on this whenua.”

Annelies was even angrier and said, “I am FURIOUS. I am furious at Hobson’s pledge gloating. I am furious at Seymour and his smug weasel face. I am not just furious at the removal of Te Tiriti from schools; I am furious that the teaching council has effectively been silenced and taken over by the government. Evidence, plain and clear, that we are becoming an Autocracy and that democracy is in ruins in New Zealand.”

Manawa wrote, “They’re fighting the war against te Tiriti. Co-governance scared the bejesus out of them, and they’re following through. No more educating people about our real history so they can be brainwashed and controlled.”

I thought Erica was perhaps one of the less bad ones, certainly in terms of racism, but these actions do no credit to anyone other than Hobson’s Pledge, and that is pretty messed up.

Have a good Parihaka day, folks. One day, these pricks will be gone, and we can return to being a country that is trying to address issues caused by colonisation, not keep them as they were.

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Ngā mihi,
Nick.

To end today, here’s Whitewashing Again by Chumbawamba: