Letter of the week: John Laurenson, Devonport
I retired after 23 years as headmaster of a large mid-decile secondary school in early 2020.
I had lobbied both Labour and National to do something positive about private schools.
Were they aware that the taxpayer annually funded several million dollars to allow private
schools to give scholarships to students (read: the best) from poorer schools to move to private schools? Were they aware they paid more than $50 million each year just to keep private schools in business?
In the best tradition of user-pays, I suggested letting the schools keep their taxpayer gift, but to take students suspended for poor behaviour from state schools. Let the scholarship pay for their uniform; stay in hostels, if required; and also materials.
Private schools would pick up the most needy children, and with their better resources and lower teacher-student ratios they would have a far better chance of success than an overworked state school.
They would also do their bit to help society, rather than drawing resources from it.
If private schools objected, as was their right, they would lose their access to taxpayer largesse.
My thoughts fell on deaf ears, maybe Simon Wilson's thoughts (Weekend Herald, September 2) will do better than mine.
A quality education
Simon Wilson (Weekend Herald, September 25) argues for a better distribution of our education dollar, both of public and private funding. He highlights what he calls the "reinforcement of existing social hierarchies" arising from the wealth gap. This translates, in educational terms, into the "haves" winning, the "nots" ... not.
What Wilson has raised is a subject for a most serious public debate, with participation encouraged from all points of view.
As a deeply grateful public school Old Boy, (the very finest school to my mind), I would hope the quality, rounded educational experience I enjoyed and profited from can be more widely copied.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
Liberty versus harm
Re: The aim of 90 per cent vaccination, the harm principle and the rights of anti-vaccination (Weekend Herald, September 26).
The harm principle, as stated by John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) says people should be free to act however they wish unless their actions cause harm to somebody else. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection.
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against their will, is to prevent harm to others.
The phrase "your freedom to swing your fist ends where my nose begins" captures the general sentiment of the principle.
Ron Czerniak, Northcross.
Tragedy and courage
What courage and grace the families of the three children so brutally taken have displayed (Weekend Herald, September 25). There can be nothing more heartbreaking than the loss of such innocent vulnerable lives, and their responses felt like rain on a parched desert.
The best that can be hoped for is that they will achieve some small measure of peace knowing that the love and prayers of Aotearoa are behind them.
When the incomprehensible happens, we need to cling to a belief that people are intrinsically decent, and that these tragic events are an aberration.
We need some good news, so let's create our own. It would be so uplifting if we collectively did one kind deed, unsolicited and un-heralded for someone else. Big or small, it would re-affirm how amazing New Zealand and its people are. To trot out a much-used expression, "pay it forward".
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
