Seek The Truth
Archive for January, 2005
Stress – Death By Stealth
7 years ago
Stress is arguably the major cause of physical and mental illness in our society today. Stress can manifest itself physically in a variety of ways including high blood pressure, ulcers, fatigue, headaches, insomnia, weight loss, nausea and heart palpitations. I believe extreme internalised stress can also cause more serious illnesses. Stress is a major factor in suicide.
Mentally, stress causes decreased memory and concentration, indecisiveness, mental ‘blanks,’ confusion and loss of humour. Emotionally, stress causes anxiety, depression, frustration, anger, worry, irritability and short temperedness. Behavioural symptoms include fidgeting, eating disorders, drinking or smoking, crying, yelling, swearing, and other forms of acting out.
Untreated stress can cause you major physical, mental and emotional health risks, can destroy careers and relationships and in extreme cases, can cost you your life. To treat stress you firstly need to be aware of it. The simple steps are to identify the causes of your stress, prioritise them as to what is major or not, assign ownership to the stress ie: is it your problem or someone else’s? And then action some remedial steps to deal with the stress. The worse thing you can do is internalise or “bottle up” the problem. You need to identify the causes and do something about it. Being honest with yourself, and communicating in an open way to others are two pre-requisite requirements to successfully dealing with stress.
Sources of Stress
Stress can be externally driven from a variety of sources including work, significant events, (eg: deaths etc.) deadlines, physical environment or internally driven.
“Most of the stress that most of us have is self-generated. We create the majority of our upsets, indicating that because we cause most of our own stress, we can do something about it.” (1) This gives us a measure of control and choice.
Internal stresses may include lifestyle (not enough sleep, overloaded schedules), negative outlook (self-criticism, over analysing, pessimism), personality (workaholic, perfectionist, victim), and mindset (unrealistic expectations, all or nothing, taking things personally).
External stress is often the most blamed yet it is our reaction to the external stress, the way we handle it, which actually causes most of the problems.
Recognising that we create most of our own upsets or stress is the first step to helping ourselves.
Reducing Stress
The bottom line in reducing stress is simple: In order to manage stress, you must change. We can’t usually change other people; we can only change ourselves. We need to identify what we are doing to contribute to the problem and change.
- Change your behaviour.
- Change your thinking.
- Change your lifestyle choice.
- Change the situation you are in.
However, in order to change, you must identify the root cause or the real cause of your stress. Often you misdirect the cause of your stress or the target of your stress.
Identify it, deal with it, and don’t take it out on others.
Dealing with Stress
There are some simple and practical ideas to help manage stress:
- Decrease caffeine (it is a stimulant that actually generates a stress reaction in the body).
- A well balanced diet – decrease junk food.
- Regular exercise to drain off stress energy.
- Relaxation/meditation – time out, rest periods, listen to music, hot relaxing bath etc.
- Sleep – the most important way of reducing stress. Sleep is the cheapest and best medicine (chronically stressed patients almost always suffer from fatigue).
- Having realistic expectations of others.
- Reframing – this means to try and find the positive side of an otherwise negative situation – to find the “silver lining,” eg: my husband has left me – now I can be who I want to be, play my sort of music, re-decorate the house etc.
- Humour – laughter relieves tension. When you can laugh at yourself or the situation then you can deal with it more realistically and certainly less stressfully.
- Ventilating your stress – articulate it – create a support system, a problem shared is a problem solved. By talking about your problem to an empathetic listener who can provide concern, care, advice and encouragement, the stressed person can “get it out of their system.”
By talking about it, the person is identifying the problem, acknowledging it and is well on the way to resolving their stress. By bottling it up, internalising it or avoiding it, the person creates more stress, which will manifest itself in either physical, mental or emotional ways. You must express yourself. A good first step is to actually write down your thoughts.
- What is the problem?
- Who is causing it?
- How do you feel?
- How are you handling it?
- What is a possible solution?
Think about this for a day or so and then refine your list. Then prepare yourself to confront the problem or the person.
Conclusion
The most important thing with stress is to acknowledge it is there, identify the causes, prioritise, assign ownership and actually do something about it. Do not go into avoidance mode – the problem is not going to go away unless you deal with it. Do not internalise it. This makes it worse. Ventilate or express your thoughts on the problem. Write about it. Talk about it. Do something about it. Finally, if you have
been guilty of misdirecting ie: blaming someone else or taking it out on someone else, a simple brief acknowledgment and apology will go a long way.
(1) David Poulsen
Canadian Journal of Continuing Medical Education
April 1995
The Power of Positive Thinking
7 years ago
Apart from plain common sense, much has been said and written about the power of positive thinking – Dale Carniegie, Norman Peale, even Forest Gump to name a few.
There is a strong metaphysical school that links positive thinking with the ability to self heal – Louise Hay writes strongly about this link. Alternative cancer treatments suggest visualisation and various positive karmas to cure cancer.
Many influential thinkers and leaders of the 20th century are living testimony to the power of positive thinking to overcome adversary eg: Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King.
Positive thinking is a lifestyle choice, it is a personal philosophy choice, it is both a physically and mentally healthy choice, it becomes habitual and it promotes a far more fulfilling, rewarding and enjoyable life and career as well as guaranteeing more meaningful and happy relationships.
Sports psychology, business mentors and various forms of counselling all promote the value of positive thinking – identifying, accentuation, duplication and enhancing the positive things in people’s lives. It is focusing and dwelling on the good points of self-image and self-esteem, the good things happening in your life and looking for the good in others.
It is about looking for and maximising the positive qualities and features in the people we mix or work with. It is about looking at the positive qualities and values of our partner rather then dwelling on the negative. It is about what we can do rather then what we can’t. It is about our friend’s good points rather then their failings and as teachers, what is good and positive about our children and our school rather than the opposite. It is sometimes easier to see the failings and faults in people and systems by focusing on the narrow and the specific rather then looking at a wider picture.
Developing a habit of positive thinking involves the concept of ‘will’. ‘Will’ is the capacity to choose among alternative choices particularly when; definite ideas and principals of conduct govern the action. Willed behaviour is deliberately aimed rather then stemming from instinct, impulse, or reflex. ‘Will’ dominates every other aspect of an individual’s personality, knowledge, feelings and direction in life.
Philosophers see ‘will’ in different lights but the great pragmatic philosopher John Dewy sees ‘will’ not as an innate faculty but as a product of experience evolving gradually as the mind and personality of an individual develop in social interaction.
People with weak wills, will have difficulty embracing the concept of positive thinking and its consequential effects on the pursuit of happiness. Serial killers are notable for being loners with low self-esteem, poor social interaction skills and an incapacity to resist impulses or break habits.
Modern psychologists see the act of ‘willing’ as being manifested by:
a) Focusing on relatively distance goals and relatively abstract standards and principles of conduct – a global, generalist view.
b) Weighing up options and making careful calculations rather then quick, judgemental decisions.
c) Perseverance against obstacles and frustration’s in pursuit of goals and values.
Common deficiencies that prevent the development of strong will are absence of goals and standards (aimlessness), vacillating attention, incapacity to resist impulses, inability to forward plan, stick to a decision or decide among alternatives.
My premise is that positive thinking is a deliberate learned behaviour – it may be harder for some people then for others depending on the development of their personalities which is governed by their experiences. People who have suffered hardship, trauma, loss or accident are more likely to recognise and practice the concept of positive thinking.
The converse is a focus on the negative – what’s wrong with your life, your children, your partner, your friends, your job, your work place. Louise Hay argues that with extreme pre-occupation, comes a compulsion to blame – always someone else.
Negativity leads to the development of a pessimistic outlook on life, work and people. Negativity often manifests itself in complaining ceaselessly, sulking, moping, being bored, easily distracted, being re-active rather then pro-active and responding emotively rather then rationally. Whining becomes an art form.
There is an interesting contrast between the Warriors Rugby League team, (how do your know the Warriors have arrived in Sydney? The whine continues after the jet engines have been turned off), and the ‘Black Caps’ Cricket team. For the Warriors it is always the fault of the referee, the linesman, the video referee, the judiciary, the travelling, the coach, the contracts etc. For the World Cup Cricket team, there has been a quiet acceptance of their weaknesses and a positive belief in their strengths and abilities. When they lost, they didn’t blame the weather, the umpires or their mothers! They accepted they hadn’t played well and determined a will to do better and articulated a positive belief in their abilities and the outcome.
My conclusion is to strongly suggest that a focus on the positive rather then the negative makes you a happier, healthier person. It enhances your outlook and your relationships. It can become a learned behaviour but requires a focused will to change. A simple question to pose is whether you prefer to be in the company of positive, outward going people or negative, inhibited people. Try and look at the positive in children, colleagues, friends, and systems and focus and accentuate on the positive while trying to minimise or overlook the negative. At the very least, look at the negatives in the wider context of the whole scenario, the wider picture and the full story. Enjoy life to the full for it is a very finite condition and look at any school problems in the wider context of life. You will find they pail into insignificance.
Some Related Points
1. Positive thinking is a deliberate lifestyle choice.
2. Take a deep breath, count to ten and respond in a rational not an emotive way.
3. Don’t let trivial, minor things cause concern – look at the wider picture, the full context.
4. Assign ownership to stress and sources of stress.
5. Accept yourself. Look for the positive in yourself – list your positive points. Enhance these; work on your weaker points.
6. Accept others. Look for things to like about them rather than dislike.
7. Be honest with yourself, your maker, and with others.
“Reach for the Stars” Role Model Programme
7 years ago
A little known, but quite visionary requirement of “Tomorrows Schools” was a mandatory requirement for all schools to develop a Role Model Policy. The rational for this was to ensure that all schools recognised the importance of providing their pupils with exposure to positive role models from a variety of different aspects of life or to provide compensatory role models.
A little known, but quite visionary requirement of “Tomorrows Schools” was a mandatory requirement for all schools to develop a Role Model Policy. The rational for this was to ensure that all schools recognised the importance of providing their pupils with exposure to positive role models from a variety of different aspects of life or to provide compensatory role models.
The last New Zealand Census showed 55,000 children were growing up in homes without a male role model in the home. Overseas research suggests that where children are without positive role models, they will seek them from the world of fantasy and the media. There is plenty of evidence that supports the positive benefits of children having high expectations, setting goals and generally “aiming high.” The world of business, sport and employment has a multiplicity of examples of people who had a dream or a vision and attained it by working hard towards their goals.
At Matipo Primary School we have developed the concept of the “Reach For the Stars” Role Model Programme. It is a basically simple idea – bringing various speakers from all walks of life but who have one thing in common – they are all successful adults. We have had the mayor, national politicians, sports people, entertainers, and people from various employment occupations.
The children get exposure to a “famous” person they have seen on television. The role model talks about their life and career and how they got to their goals. Through questioning, we are able to draw out the values that were important to that person’s success – aiming high, setting goals, working hard, obeying your parents, doing your homework etc.
We are trying to get a wide variety of role model visitors, not just famous sports stars. People with interesting occupations – the 767 pilot, the women airforce helicopter pilot, the solo mother who completed a degree part-time are just as important and as inspirational as the All Black star.
Our positive role model programme is complemented by our Values Education Programme which also takes place at out special assembly time. Here the principal talks each week about a theme with a moral or values basis. Sometimes it will be developed from an example of something that has happened at school or it will come from reading a booklet series about various values. The common theme that prevails is to treat others, as you would have others treat you.
Schools can not isolate themselves from their socialisation obligations or from the necessity to full the moral values vacuum created by the breakdown of the traditional providing institutions – the church, boy scouts, guides, even the home. Through our Role Model Programme and our Values Education assemblies, Matipo Primary School tries to encourage our pupils to “Reach For the Stars”
Early Identification and Intervention of Children at Risk
7 years ago
The Columbine High School massacre has focused attention on identification and provision for children at risk.
Realistic observers can not help but observe that our youth culture has major problems. Many causes are blamed – television violence, the breakdown of the family, societal changes etc, and many reports, indeed gabfests, commissioned. Many an academic and professional career will be launched on the tragedy of Columbine.
An encouraging international trend is a recognition of the importance of early identification programmes for child mental health. The evidence in favour of early intervention is almost universal – the question is what form.
A Christchurch longitudinal study at the Christchurch School of Medicine (David Fergusson) has gathered data on 1275 children born in a four month period in 1977 and tracked the group since then. The study is acclaimed worldwide and is used to strongly advocate for early intervention. Says Fergusson “by age 7 or 8 you have enough information to make a prognosis.” Factors impacting on child mental health included social and economic disadvantage, impaired parenting, especially poor monitoring of children (the parents of the Columbine killers had absolutely no idea of their children’s demeanour or behaviour), inconsistent discipline, abuse, high levels of family conflict, high levels of mental disorder in parents, poor peer relationships and other individual factors. However, the study cautions against basing early intervention programmes based on any one factor. “Where the truth lies is not in the isolation of any one risk factor, but in the accumulation and patterning of risk factors.” The Christchurch study concluded that up to 15% of adolescents have mental health problems.
Patrick McGorry – Professor of Psychiatry at Melbourne University talks of a rising tide of mental disorders showing up in increased violence and youth suicide (New Zealand – highest in the world, Australia 4th). He sees the causes as being sociological and sociopolitical.
The adult world now is more competitive and less forgiving.
Jobs are more fluid and less accessible.
Families are less stable.
Communities are more urbanised and less subsistant.
There is higher material needs and pressures
Puberty is earlier
Mental disorders and disruptive anti-social behaviour have high instances of overlap. Some studies show depressive illness occurs in up to 7% of youths by age 15 and 15% by age 18 and depression can now be identified as the major predictor of youth suicide.
Some significant (but worrying) implications come from early intervention research. Professor Mark Fraser (University of North Carolina) observes a child who is aggressive at age 5 years, was equally or more likely to be aggressive at age 10 years and that poor school achievement at age 10 is a predictor of delinquency at later ages. He believes the combination of aggression and rejection by popular peers as the most “potent combination” (studies of serial killers would confirm this opinion).
Anne Williams – Adelaide Women & Children’s Hospital, also believes many warning signs appear in early childhood – “What you can measure at age one you can measure at age five.” Babies with insecure bonding often have relationship difficulties and peer problems later in life. (An interesting sideline to her research is that while maternal postnatal depression can cause behaviour and learning problems for boys, girls are immune. She speculates that girls many internalise feelings which later emerge as adolescent eating disorders and depression which effects more girls then boys).
A University of Queensland researcher, Margaret McFarland, studied detection of mental health problems in primary schools and found that because of the close and holistic nature of primary teaching, teachers were aware of potential at-risk children but for various reasons decide not to intervene (the process, the stress, the risk, the lack of resources).
David Fergusson agrees, “many children with problems are well recognised by their teachers, parents and peers by age 8. The problem is not so much in terms of recognition, but in a lack of response to the recognition.”
At Matipo School we articulate that we are a child centred school dedicated to children. We articulate that we advocate for children and that we cater to the whole child.
I concede that we haven’t catered to some of our children as well as we could have. We advocate strongly for our children in terms of resources, special needs, and some aspects of child protection and care. We try hard in the provision of a good quality balanced education. However, for other children we have been guilty of taking the easy option of doing nothing, of putting it in that too hard basket, for the reasons stated above – it’s too time consuming, too frustrating, there is a lack of responsive agencies, we buy a fight with parents and there is too much risk.
I would like to think that we could do better and make a more sincere commitment to our mission statement and to our children. We need to provide some compensatory intervention to children at risk of poor care, mental health disorders and varieties of emotive behaviour. We need to be aware of the warning signs:
Aggressive behaviour
Depression
Withdrawal
Poor peer relationships
Anti-social or deviant behaviour
Abuse
Family conflict/trauma
Socio-economic factors impacting on adequate care and hygiene
Effective parenting difficulties
Known parent factors – alcoholism, mental disorders
Where there is a combination of these factors or serious concern of one factor, the situation should be referred to the principal to investigate possible causes of action. Referral to Public Health Nurse and C.Y.P.S. are obvious options.
We are taking part in a pilot programme involving a social worker/counsellor internship with Unitech. The principal has access to funding and other sources for food, clothing and medical attention. I am going to establish a part time “field worker” position to work with a small group of “at risk” children (with care deprivation problems) and hopefully with their parents. The task will be to establish a rapport and trusting relationship with the children, to complete a needs analysis, to give the children reinforcement and security of their worth and to address basic caring issues. Hopefully, successful contact can be made with the parents to offer support and if necessary to put them in touch with supportive agencies.
At the same time our intern counsellor will work with cases referred on from our field worker or directly from the principal and if necessary cases will be referred on to outside agencies (see flow diagram).
The bottom line is that I intend to be more pro-active in trying to provide an early identification of children at risk and trying to do something about it. I have avoided the school being involved in child protection and social work provision but the harsh conclusion is that if we don’t do it, no one will, and we will have failed our children. Neither this school, nor society, can continue to look the other way.
Teacher Concern Parent Concern
Principal
Field Worker
Counsellor
Other Agencies*
* Other Agencies May Include: Public Health Nurse, Special Education Service, C.Y.P.F.S., Glenburn, Lawyer, Presbyterian Support.
The End Of The Flim Flam Boys
7 years ago
One of the few things we can say with any certainty is that change is inevitable and that predictability is a thing of the past. The pace of change as we enter the 21st century is probably greater then at any other time in our history. Major economic and cultural changes are occurring with increased urbanisation and the development of a global economy and the global world. Immense changes are taking place in the labour market and technological change continues unabated. “60% of current children in Year 3 will enter careers that do not yet exist, using technology that has yet to be invented.” (Ken Richardson I.C.P. Conference, Geneva 1993).
Education has changed in many ways to meet the needs of our changing economic and societal demands. Governments have urged us to produce a workforce that will be internationally competitive, life long learners and contributors to the knowledge based society. Schools have been urged to adopt the market force business model, be competitive with each other and market themselves for extra pupils. World wide there is a trend to self-managing schools, site based governance and decentralisation. (It can be argued that in New Zealand this trend may well be in reverse). An important role of a principal is to have vision – to have goals and aspirations for the future and to try and make some assumptions about what the future may hold. In this regard I wish to canvas what I believe will be some of the future trends in education as we begin our journey into the new millennium.
1. There will be a continuation and extension of the ‘internationalisation’ of education. The telecommunications world of C.N.N and the Internet will enhance this trend, along with the growth of multinationals and the global economy. The administrative and curriculum reforms which we have had in New Zealand since 1989 are part of a worldwide trend. Increased accountability, increased standards, increased qualification, local autonomy, curriculum changes in I.T, values and pre-employment training are all common trends in most countries of the world. Curriculum materials are being more commercially driven and some commonality of materials is evident particularly in adjoining countries.
2. There will be a continuing growth in teacher professionalism and of self-regularisation in particular. This is a logical extension of continuing decentralisation and of self-management. Teacher professionalism and performance accountability will come under increasing scrutiny. Teachers and teacher organisations will be under increasing pressure to be held accountable for the quality of classroom performance. Improved standards, adoption of best practices and measured outcomes will characterise a professional teacher sector. Control and disciplinary power over qualifications and membership of the teaching profession will be peer regulated as for other professions. Changes in employment, pay and career promotion will become quality driven.
3. There will be a reversal in schools to “core business” and a rejection of the entrepreneurial free market model. Schools will go back to meeting parental priorities: providing academic excellence, discipline and standards and subject and option choices. Niche marketing will still have a place in schools with particular strengths eg: music or dance or agriculture or outdoor education. However, those schools specialising more in media savvy and public relations rather than curriculum depth, the scam artists and the flim flam boys will either change to meet the needs of the community or ignore those needs at their peril. There will be a community expectation and demand that schools revert to traditional core purpose and values. The old adage “you can fool some of the people, some of the time, but not all of the people, all of the time” will take on new significance for some schools. Community tolerance and acceptance of other than quality education, high standards and expectations will force an end to an era of liberal experimentation and flirtation with a free market philosophy and place greater emphasis on genuine pedagogy and best practice teaching methodology. The age of the “flim flam boys’ will be over.
4. There will be an accelerated growth in the power and utilisation of the computer and the Internet as a teaching tool, rather then a marketing device. The potential of educational television as a school teaching tool was never reached. With the advert of widespread computer and Internet resources in most schools, information technology will bring about a learning upheaval. Already, it’s potential can be seen in distance education. Children in smaller country schools can study subjects in specialist areas not normally available to them eg: physics. The virtual school is within our grasp. Not only is there the motivational advantages of multi-media, multi-sensory and self pacing but there are also huge equity considerations in both subject provision and quality assurance.
5. Major changes will take place in continuing teacher development (inservice or professional development). As a growth in teacher ‘professionalism’ occurs so too will a trend develop for teachers to take more self-responsibility for their own continued growth. The expectation that professional development should be the responsibility (and the cost) of the state and school will change. Individual teachers will seek out professional development options of their own volition similar to other professional groups. Service delivery will change and the days of one day courses will be numbered. Longitudinal professional courses of study and curriculum development will become more the norm. There can also be an expectation that continued teacher inservice provision will be a requirement of continued teacher registration. Recent research in the U.S. shows that states with high standard pre-entry and inservice requirements lead the nation in student achievement in reading and mathematics (Education Policy Analysis Archives, Jan 2000 Linda Darling-Hammond). Again, the demand for improved pupil outcomes and quality of education will drive this change.
6. My over riding premise is that the demand for better quality education will be at the heart of the trends and changes I have outlined. Ideologically, there will also be some political flirtation with the concepts of performance based pay and parental ‘voucher’ systems. Both are likely to be non-starters for many reasons but primarily because their underlying philosophical concepts are not based on sound educational logic or ‘best practice’ models.
The future is evolving, is exciting and will hopefully bring more credibility to teachers and to the education system. There will be an increasing trend to sound educational practice. It will also mean a lot of hard work for teachers and educators but hopefully the hard work will be more meaningful and professionally satisfying.
Maori Education Issues
7 years ago
The greatest single issue in Maori Education is under achievement. Maori children are over represented in all the ‘negative’ educational statistics – reading recovery, school suspensions and leaving the school system without qualifications. Maori are also over represented in the ‘negative social statistics – health, justice, employment and family, 73% of all Maori births in 1997 were ex-nuptial. These statistics are both factual and damning.
The greatest single issue in Maori Education is under achievement. Maori children are over represented in all the ‘negative’ educational statistics – reading recovery, school suspensions and leaving the school system without qualifications. Maori are also over represented in the ‘negative social statistics – health, justice, employment and family, 73% of all Maori births in 1997 were ex-nuptial. These statistics are both factual and damning.
Sir Howard Morrison in a keynote address to the New Zealand Principals Federation Conference in Rotorua (Aug 1999) said: “it is long overdue that we not only recognise we have a ‘brown’ problem, but that we do something about it.” He lays the blame with the lack of strong Maori leadership. “We have not had Maori leaders of any calibre since the natural demise of those who served in the 28th Maori Battalion who came back and led their people.”
Richard Prebble in his book “I’ve Been Writing” (1999), quotes a 1988 American Study “Social Structure and Criminal Victimisation” (Smith & Jajoura), which found a significant association between juvenile crime and single parent families. The same study found the popular assumption of an association between crime and race to be false. The study also found that poverty is not a factor. Prebble claims the key factor in crime is “the failure to form and maintain an intact family.” P 33.
Given the factual background of the under achievement of Maori children, what can schools do to correct this situation in a general sense. Several practical ideas spring to mind:
- Compensatory, concrete literacy intervention for targeted Maori children.
- ‘Book Flood’ and ‘Books in the Home’ type programmes.
- Positive role model programmes.
- Homework centres, homework tutors and mentors.
- Parent education efforts.
- Early intervention programmes.
All of those ideas are within the realms of possibility for schools to implement and there is little excuse for not trying.
An idea beyond the realms of the schools would be a “Sesame Street” type of daily programme aimed at Maori children incorporating the highly visual and motivational power of television. The television expertise and educational media talent certainly exists in New Zealand to successfully launch such a programme. The funding should be a responsibility of the state perhaps in conjunction with the major Maori Trusts. Indeed, the funding could be part of the Treaty Settlement process.
However, I believe all of the above ideas, while practical and of benefit are really bandaid solutions. The real solution, like the problem is far more complex. It is societal and socio-economic and beyond the ability of schools and the eduction system to solve. Quite simply, I as a school principal, can not give a Maori child (or any other child for that matter), a stable, two parent family, who are employed, who have positive aspirations and values and by virtue of their employment have the economic resources to provide good nutritional health care, books and language experiences, that most middle class New Zealand families accept as the norm.
In analysing the academic achievement of children at Matipo School, as required for Equity Reports, over the last ten years, I have compared the results for maths, reading and spelling scores for three cohort groups – Maori, girls and all pupils, in the Year 4, 5 and 6 class bands. In almost every area, for every class band, our Maori pupils have performed equal or better then the other two cohorts. I don’t claim to have statistically significant clinical data to prove this, but this has certainly been the general trend over 10 years. On the few instances when this wasn’t the case, the low number of Maori children in that particular cohort slewed the sample to make it not accurate (ie: if there were only 4 Maori children in that age cohort, and 3 were failing, it invalidates the result).
Why then, do Maori children do so well at our school? Our school ethos or kaupapa is child centred. We individualise the teaching as much as possible, we are well equipped and resourced, we have a number of special needs programmes in place, we put a stress on values education and provide many ‘valued added’ or enrichment activities and have specifically targeted Maori children. However, as tempting as it is to use the above to claim credit for the success of our Maori pupils, the fact is (in my opinion) that our Maori pupils succeed because they come (in the main) from middle class, two parent families. Their parents are employed, have disposable income and correspondingly, have opportunity to provide better housing, nutrition, health care and educationally beneficial experiences for their children. They have middle class type values and expectations for themselves and their children. Education is valued and supported.
It is my contention that educational achievement is related to social class. The fact that so many Maori underachieve in education is not due to their “Maoriness” but to their social class. This is why schools are limited in what they can do to alleviate the educational under achievement of Maori. The answer lies in a socio-political solution. A stronger economy, better leadership both politically and within Maori and more Maori economic development programmes which create real employment opportunities together with the efforts of schools, educational television, and getting away from a ‘white oppressor’ mentality to a more positive, progressive development mentality, may contain the solution to the problem of under achievement of Maori pupils.
