For example, our news media is currently talking about Telecom NZ’s decision to relocate their call centre to Manilla, in the Phillipines. This is nothing unusual globally. Telecom claim that no New Zealanders will lose their jobs in this move as there will be openings in other departments. Kiwis have been outraged at this move, saying that a Kiwi company should support Kiwi workers. But are these the same people who have invested in Telecom and want to make a profit on their shares? Can we afford to have our cake and eat it?
We glibly talk about our children being ‘a gift for a world we will not see’ and about preparing them for ‘their future not ours’ but are we really setting them up as well as we can? Do we really understand the impact that China will have on the world in the next fifty years or are we still complaining about the quality of that set of headphones from the $2 Shop? We spend a lot of time talking about how kids today have different kinds of brains and how their thumbs have evolved so that they can text message more efficiently and get through the next level of game play.
We’re missing the point.

Children are different because the world is a different place. We need to get over our selves on that one and get informed. We need to investigate how our jobs are going to be impacted by the changes in the world and we need to settle in for a bumpy ride. As teachers we need to think beyond what we are teaching our students and the way that we are teaching. We need to look at preparing our society for global change.
We have a new draft curriculum document available in New Zealand. Page eight of that document states that,

“Education has a vital role to play in helping our young people to reach their individual potential and develop
the competencies they will need for further study, work, and lifelong learning. It is by developing these
competencies that they are equipped to participate fully in New Zealand society and contribute to the
growth of its economy. Education is the key to sustaining our nation’s development and to its successful
transformation into a knowledge-based society. Education empowers our young people to stand tall as New
Zealanders, seize opportunities, overcome obstacles, and make a difference.”

The new draft encourages schools to design and develop their own curriculum. They are encouraged to do so in consultation with their own community and with input from other schools. I say that we need also to get input from futures thinkers and from people with a global viewpoint. We don’t just want our kids to participate in New Zealand society, we want them to participate in the global society.

Related posts:

1. Sparklers and Strawberries
2. Tablet Apostasy
3. Need

Every week I bought so many toilet rolls, so much washing powder, a bar of soap and all of the stuff necessary to maintain a young couple in a small flat. After a few weeks I realised that I had a lot of toilet rolls in the cupboard. I had several extra boxes of washing powder and enough soap to start a bathhouse (if we had a bath – it was a small flat so we only had a shower).

I realised that the list had a two way purpose. It served for a reminder for me to check what I was running low on and needed to replace as well as a reminder when I got to the supermarket.

This week in New Zealand, teachers will be having Teacher Only Days. They will get cautiously opening the doors of classrooms to see if the cleaner has done the carpets. Some people will be hauling out the curriculum documents and the school’s schemes and doing their planning – because their senior teacher needs it next week, or ERO are coming this term, this year or because that’s what they do at their place.

That’s why the Artichoke‘s latest post The Edublogger and Matthew Arnold is so important for teachers who are returning to work this week. The curriculum, the scheme, the planning is only as important as it is made to be. What is important is the teaching and learning, the thinking and doing.

Back to my shopping list. If you get stuck on the relevant documents you’re in danger of having too much soap and too many toilet rolls. Of kids ‘doing’ space every second year of their primary school lives. Of Auckland kids learning about volcanoes without ever setting foot on Mount Eden or picking up a lump of pumice at Takapuna with Rangitoto in the background.

Artichoke says,

“I think it means that what is authentic in you is the desire to learn.”

She talks about teachers being keen to think and learn in the own time – to even (shock horror) talk about it in their own time. Imagine that. Imagine if it caught on and the kids did it too?

No related posts.