The Rebels Have a Worthy Cause . . .

But Not the One They Think

So we now know that there are 225 primary schools whose Boards of Trustees have decided that they will not comply with government policy to introduce national testing in reading, writing and arithmetic. Great. What next?

Now this is a hoot. Firstly, and contrary to much of the commentary on this bold move by the Boards, we respect what they are doing. For a moment, let's lay aside the fact that it was clearly orchestrated. We know are not dealing here with a spontaneous uprising by diverse Boards of Trustees all over the country, but a carefully planned "solidarity" move, with official spokesmen already appointed, to front the rebel group. It was political act.

But it is illustrative nonetheless. We want to congratulate the rebel group for making the extremely valuable point. They have reminded us that schools do not belong to the government, nor to society in general, although both have an indirect interest. Schools belong to parents. (We gratuitously assume here that the respective Boards of rebel Trustees have consulted long and hard with the parents of the children at their schools and are reflecting their wish that National Standards not be introduced. And so, good on them for standing on principle.)

We want to thank publicly the various spokesmen for highlighting their belief in, and support for, something we have long held to be of vital importance: that parents, not government are responsible for the education of their children. So, OK, we know that one of the lead spokesmen, Simon Mitchell is a Labour Party activist. We also know that the teachers union, the NZEI, is keenly behind the move by the rebel schools. But, hey, these are but small peccadilloes in the larger landscape.

We hear that the government has planned an escalating series of punitive moves, culminating eventually in the dismissal of Boards of Trustees if they continue their recalcitrance. We scorn this approach. It is wrong because it asserts something inherently perverse--the primacy of the government over parents and families when it comes to education. So, we propose a far more enlightened response.

We submit that the Minister of Education should publicly acknowledge the prior rights of Boards of Trustees, who have a fiduciary duty to parents and their children, to settle these matters for themselves. But, lest any rebel Board of Trustees might (on the off-chance) have failed to consult widely and carefully with the parents whose children they are responsible to educate, the Minister should announce an end to zoning restrictions for the rebel primary schools, so that parents would be free to remove their children from such schools, should they wish, and enrol them in a compliant primary school of their choice.

The rebel Boards of Trustees would of course have no choice but to heartily endorse this move, since their sensitivity to parents wishes can be assumed as a given, non?  And after all, such a government policy change would be entirely consistent with the principle they have already indirectly espoused--the prior rights of parents and their schools to set and determine the education of their own children ahead of governmental rules and regulations.

And to aid parents in their decision making, the list of rebel schools has already been published widely. So, it is a safe bet that any local primary school not on that list is going to be supporting and implementing the application of national standards testing in reading, writing, and mathematics. We noticed immediately our local primary school is a rebel school. A short distance away is a compliant primary school. We know what we have to do. It's now over to you, Minister to change the zoning system and let us do it.

We cannot leave without referring to a citation found in a fellow-blog, Keeping Stock.

And we'll leave the final word for this post to a supporter of National Standards who has posted this on his Facebook page:

The reason I already love National Standards in primary schools: Lucy's first report listed her as just below the national average in reading. I was a little shocked. The teacher said it might be because she had some time off with the final leukemia treatments but ... Daddy put some major effort in (& so did Lucy). Today, teacher says she's on Level 16 & in top 3 in class. Thank you Anne Tolley.

Speaks volumes, really.