Wednesday was a good day in the fight against NS
When I rose at 6.30 on Wednesday to go through my usual routine, I had no premonition
that the day was going to be a good one in the fight against national standards. Actually,
calling it a good day is somewhat overstating it – the day, as it turned out, would be better
described as a satisfying and hopeful one. But heading a posting ‘Wednesday was a
satisfying and hopeful one in the fight against NS’ would not have had that ring to it,
drawn in the punters.
So as I said, I went through my usual routine: stoked the fire, drew the curtains for a
foggy look down the Waikato River to the golf course; welcomed my nine- and five-year
old granddaughters who had been dropped off for breakfast, boxed lunch, hair, and
unfinished homework (my nine-year-old asked me for some information but it appears I
gave a little more than required ‘Thanks for the update’, she said); then milk coffee for me
and some indignant snorting at the Herald, before taking the children to the bus (making
sure my answers to their questions did not contain any more information than was strictly
required – I had already been told ‘I only asked you whether Japan was in World Cup not
for your life history’).
All par for the domestic course.
Then it was decision time: what writing was I going to do today? Would I need to feel
that sense of urgency in my belly? The answer was – kind of, so I went to the coffee shop
(I live in central Cambridge), the same one I have gone to for over 25 years (and features
in a Network Magazine article from the ‘90s called ‘The Cappuccino Strategy’) and had a
– yes – cappuccino to fire up.
The topic was, to be honest, far from a fire-in-the-belly matter, but it was one that I was
having some difficulty with. You see, Garry de Thierry, the esteemed principal of Rotorua
Intermediate, had read an article on leadership in Doug Hislop’s Education Today in
which I had written things like: ‘In schools, management by measurable objectives makes
education understandable to those who don’t understand the curriculum and a nightmare
for those who do.’
So unsettled had it made him that he complained it had ruined his weekend, and long
weekend at that. Now weekends are inviolate to principals, especially long weekends, and
from historic experience of being an inspector in the area, especially Rotorua principals.
The upshot was that Garry (in a fit of Gallic pique worthy of his delusional ancestor
Baron Charles Philippe Hippolyte de Thierry) decided to share the pain with his
unsuspecting colleagues and invite me to explain myself at an after-dinner presentation at
a Rotorua principals’ Okoroire retreat.
One of the problems I face in preparing for talks these days is that any work I do only
seems worthwhile if it is grist for the web site mill, so I think written instead of oral.
Would you believe that at one stage I considered basing what I had to present on the
structure of Christmas Carol?
So I sat down at my desk, and my aging senses, sharpened by the Italian brew, allowed
better counsel to prevail. In the end I was quite pleased with the outcome, but my advice
to Rotorua principals is that if they can avoid the after-dinner part they would be well
advised to do so.
Then unfolded the kind of pattern to my day to which I’ve become accustomed. I rang
John Gerritsen advising him about something interesting coming up from the NZPF and
giving him a backgrounder. Some principals rang with some information. Then Kelvin
Davis was on the phone wanting to confirm some details about a posting he was going to
base a parliamentary question on. I also gave him a similar backgrounder to the one given
to John Gerritsen.
At 1.00 off to the gym (Anytime Gym, great concept) making sure I’m back to hear
Kelvin ask his question (about Roger Goulstone and Valley School and the games the
ministry is playing). He was most adroit in his questioning, eliciting some mocking
laughs, but then came mild bombshell, if somewhat delayed in registering, when he
forced Tolley to give the most up-to-date figures on school compliancy. She said 1922
charters had been analysed and 1389 had been found compliant. Because neither of the
two Kelvin’s have had the benefit of participating in the numeracy project, the actual
number of compliant schools took a while to register: wait for it! 533 with more to come.
That figure is massive. Well over a quarter of New Zealand primary schools have
principals and boards of trustees going against the grain of defying the law in the interests
if a principled stand for the children of New Zealand.
Ethically-compliant schools you are not alone.
The satisfying and hopeful day was well on its way.
Then came the BTAC newsletter. It was a beauty: concise, practical, powerful, with a
sense of momentum, and, above all, and what I have been advocating for – a strong sense
of community, of supporting each other, of the need to break down isolation.
I was elated and rang Perry to congratulate him.
And while I’m on congratulations – congratulations too, to the NZPF. From various
sources I know a lot about the ins and outs, but in the end you have come up with the
goods – well done to all, from Peter Simpson down – I’m convinced that education
historians will marvel, compared with what has happened overseas, at the unity and sense
of purpose displayed. And congratulations too, to the NZEI. The advertisements are spot
on, and so have been your newsletters and general resolve.
Now back to the BTAC newsletter (which, to return to theme, could only have been as
effective as it was because of the general unity in the profession).
Regional BTAC meetings – Yes! Fantastic!
Advice on how to handle the ministry letter. Yes – mainly bluster in it, so don’t falter.
The ministry is required to negotiate and you are allowed to follow your due processes.
Yes – everything in writing and laboriously overseen by you and the board.
The legal advice sits fairly quietly on the BTAC page, but in my view, the grounds
for the legal challenge (being kept under wraps for the moment) are very, very
promising.
Then there is the matter of the data for the 2012 Annual Report and national
standards. In one sense, this is the next crunch point for schools, from my point-ofview, it is more a major crunch point for the ministry.
One of the difficulties with getting the national standards’ message across to parents is the
complexity of it – but the message about league tables and the associated labelling of
schools and the subsequent labelling of children who attend them, is straightforward and
potent.
Recording the numbers and percentages of children above, at, below or well below
standard, and being ordered to send them to Wellington provides a dynamite argument
against national standards.
It is a huge opportunity to finish them off. Skilfully used, I predict that a significant
number of further schools will decide to join the ethically-compliant.
Tolley is aware of this and will try and give assurances – accept none of these and go full
throttle. Tolley, in the long run can only delay, indeed, will only want to delay, so accept
nothing that smacks of national standards’ type reporting of school data.
To complete my day, I received a call from a principal recounting a farcical set of
exchanges between the school and the ministry over the bluster letter. And he had done
everything beautifully, recording every Marx brothers’-type exchange.
On this web site, I have reported how the ministry is threatening to get tough after the
election if National is returned, my intuition tells me now, however, pondering John
Key’s personality and how things are developing, we could well have a new minister of
education and a radical change of policy, though face-savingly disguised from seeming
so.
Yes – a satisfying and hopeful day. So much so that I was emboldened, perhaps rashly so,
to tell my granddaughter that I didn’t want the information I was about to impart her to be
proceeded by a comment about not wanting my life history.