Awanui Black and his son Wiremu are fluent te reo speakers. Photo/file
Awanui Black and his son Wiremu are fluent te reo speakers. Photo/file
It's a sad but true fact that your kids are cooler than you.
Annemarie Quill
Their fingers swipe through smartphones while you stab blindly like a klutz. They instinctively know how to style clothes that you need to consult Anna Wintour for. And their pronunciation of te reo is 'meke' (a word my 7-year-old taught me), while many adults in New Zealand have a bungling or no knowledge of one of our official languages.
It is the younger generation that is keeping te reo Maori current and alive. A 4-year-old will equally recite tahi, rua, toru as one, two, three.
Most children I know of, primary-school age or under, are professional protesters.
When it comes to picking up their clothes off the floor, having showers, or eating vegetables they can launch an uprising to rival Gandhi's salt march.
But I don't know any child who protests against learning or speaking te reo, or English for that matter. It is their parents, not the children who are in a tailspin this week over news that New Zealand schoolchildren would learn Maori under Labour's long-term plan for te reo.
People took to social media in droves to argue the 'for and against'.
A New Zealand Herald online poll, which asked "Should te reo be compulsory for Kiwi kids?" revealed 79 per cent of respondents said no, 19 per cent said yes and 2 per cent were not sure.
It seemed even the Labour Party itself was not sure, reticent about nailing its colours to the mast on its te reo policy.
The Maori Party's Te Tai Tokerau candidate, Te Hira Paenga, claimed Labour had endorsed his party's policy for compulsory te reo in schools.
But I don't know any child who protests against learning or speaking te reo, or English for that matter. It is their parents, not the children who are in a tailspin this week over news that New Zealand schoolchildren would learn Maori under Labour's long-term plan for te reo.
Labour's Maori Affairs spokesperson said earlier this month: "We've made a clear commitment that te reo Maori will be compulsory in our schools."
But this week it was reported that she, and education spokesman Chris Hipkins, seemed more vague, saying Labour had an "aspirational" target for Maori to be taught in all schools.
Mr Hipkins told the New Zealand Herald Labour "certainly wouldn't use the phrase compulsory" for its long-term te reo policy but that he would like to see kids have the option and availability in schools.
"Whether in fact that was compulsory, that's a discussion for another day."
All children at Matapihi School are second language learners and fluent in te reo Maori and english. Photo/file
People tend not to like things that are compulsory, like taxes or paying for parking, or work.
As far as the school curriculum goes, it has been a given the world over that mathematics and English remain compulsory subjects.
Reading, writing, spelling and having a working knowledge of numbers is essential and relevant not only for future employment but also in everyday life.
If things being relevant and useful are arguments for topics being compulsory in the curriculum, then one could also find many things within the maths and English curriculum that would struggle.
For those who use the relevance argument to oppose te reo in schools, one could challenge whether - unless you are an architect or engineer or in the scientific field - you actually use simultaneous equations in everyday life.
Come Friday night in the kitchen, few of us whip out Bunsen burners and dissect bulls' eyes. Or sit and draw perfect circles with compasses. Despite spending years learning about triangles, sines, cosines and the theory of Pythagoras, I can't think of one experience I have had with a triangle since school. But few would argue that mathematics is not relevant, or essential, not just for those who go on to study in scientific or mathematical fields.
I cannot imagine parents protesting that children learn music at school. We don't have nights by the fire playing Bizet's Carmen on the recorder but we still learned it at school.
So it should be with languages.
A new generation of te reo speakers would add to brand New Zealand, cementing our identity, which is crucial in tourism and business.
Having to learn the structure of another language makes one more proficient in English grammar and vocabulary. Learning Latin - a so-called dead language gave me the best grounding in words that I still use today.
Once one or two languages are mastered, more become easier. So to those who argue Mandarin or Spanish would be more useful, these would still be possibilities in high school study.
Being multilingual has benefits beyond technical linguistics. Like learning music, it encourages brain development.
Learning languages opens doors to culture, history, philosophy, understanding of different perspectives, and tolerance.
A new generation of te reo speakers would add to brand New Zealand, cementing our identity, which is crucial in tourism and business. It would be a real acknowledgement of pride in New Zealand's unique heritage.
Should it be compulsory?
Facebook poster Aaron Littlejohn has the following to say.
"With te reo Maori we have a language that already surrounds us, is part of us and helps us unite as New Zealanders - the path to understanding and appreciation of the uniqueness of New Zealand's cultural beauty lies within this language. If people would step back and accept this, maybe we wouldn't be having stupid arguments. Should it be compulsory? Should it be compulsory for New Zealand children to learn about an important part of their cultural make-up? I think so. At the very least it should be encouraged. It will take the majority to change their views before the Maori language gets the recognition it deserves."
I agree that learning te reo should be encouraged in schools. Students can decide which language they want to specialise in later in high school. While there are resourcing challenges, in primary school I think learning a language as well as English should be part of the curriculum.
