ROGER PARTRIDGE: In defence of educational caution
- Administrator
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Occasional Saturday Satire
Education Minister Erica Stanford stands accused of compressing a generation of reform into two years. Her programme is “radical,” “ideological,” and risks turning children into guinea pigs.
Auckland University’s Professor Peter O’Connor calls it neoliberal “shock-and-awe.”
These are serious charges. History teaches us that haste in education leads to disaster.
Consider the cautionary tale of Charlemagne. In the ninth century, he rashly insisted that monks learn to read and write properly. The result? Mass literacy, the preservation of classical texts, and eventually the Renaissance. Europe is still recovering.
Or take Prussia’s reckless decision in 1763 to mandate compulsory schooling. Within a century, German children could read, calculate, and think systematically. The consequences were far-reaching and not all of them pleasant.
New Zealand, by contrast, has pursued a more measured path. For roughly two decades, we conducted our own educational experiment. Participation was compulsory. There was no control group. Withdrawal was not permitted. Results were studiously ignored.
When international assessments showed sustained decline, they were sensibly dismissed as culturally biased. When domestic data revealed troubling gaps, this was contextualised appropriately. Achievement fell, but intentions remained impeccable.
Against this backdrop, Stanford’s insistence on structured literacy and explicit teaching appears reckless. Why require children to decode words when they might infer meaning from pictures? Why insist on times tables when fingers remain perfectly serviceable? Why sequence knowledge when learning is a journey best undertaken without maps?
Most troubling is the lack of consultation. Education systems work best when those who built them decide whether they are working. That such figures now counsel patience should not be read cynically. It is merely prudent.
Better to proceed carefully. Perhaps pilot reading in selected schools. Monitor results for another decade. Convene a working group. Refresh the framework. Embed it in draft guidance. Then, if results remain concerning, consider consulting on a roadmap toward implementation.
Some argue that delay costs another cohort their futures. This is emotive – and dangerously impatient. After all, the system has been failing children steadily for years. Interrupting that trajectory so abruptly risks confusion.
Besides, if teaching children to read and do mathematics turns out to be a mistake, we can always reverse course.
New Zealand has long experience retreating from standards. It is one of our few remaining areas of genuine expertise.
This column was first published in The New Zealand Initiative’s Insights newsletter on 5 February. Roger Partridge writes at Plain Thinking
I agree it's good children learn their countries native language and history, but it must be the history and language that came out of the 1860 Kohimarama Conference.
This latest offering from you was written a manner reminiscent of the dulcet Overtones of the Great Garrick Tremain, who was able to create in a single cartoon, brimming to the lip with pure vitriol and overflowing with sarcasm , what you've managed to put pen to paper to write. Mate, you just smashed it out of the park. well done. I'm no bloody orator....but that was just pure gold, and it's not often I blow smoke up someone's arse.
I thank you Roger Partridge. Write more engaging and witty satire . It seems to me you may have a hidden talent.
That little effort of yours is going straight to the pool room.
Aaron.
Suitably cynical Roger.
I do hope that anyone who reads this understands satire!
"Pushing Maori on all children. Our two granddaughters (Pakeha) enjoy singing and speaking the Maori they're learning at school, with no detrimental effect on their ability to read and write English. Like many other nations, we have more than one official language.