Unruly schools
A friend has been a relief teacher at 21 schools in the Auckland area for over 20 years. She tells me she is not allowed to respond when a student misbehaves, threatens or bullies.
Besides classroom disruptions; bashing those who show promise or who are different; students are also using
social media to abuse other students, without consequences.
Values, respect, kindness to others, diversity, diligence and self-discipline are no longer being taught. Whoever is running education thinks they are being modern and inclusive; but at this rate we will soon go to the bottom of the OECD.
My friend said there was only one school that had respectful students. That school was Marist. For the first time, she heard long-forgotten words; please and thank you.
Cellphones should be switched off and left at the front of the room until the end of school. Supervision needs to be ramped up. Teachers should be allowed to give advice to calm students down. Tolerance of differences and diversity need to be taught. Action should be taken faster, not ignored, when the signs of abuse are seen. And the students who want to succeed should not be in danger of being bashed.
Gillian McAven, Glenfield.
Sunny side
I agree with Matt Heath (NZ Herald, September 26) questioning whether daylight saving is a backward step. With climate change and the consequent rise in temperatures, especially in summer, I feel it should be added to the list of things that we need to rethink, along with fossil fuels, plastic use, cars, etc.
Daylight saving, once reasonable as it allowed us to extend our sunlit leisure activities further into the evening, is now limiting what we may come to value more – the cooler parts of the day. Sunlight equals heat, and an extended available sunlight period equals an extended hot period, making the time when it is cool enough to do outside activities, cook, dine, sleep etc, later and later.
And if you want to take advantage of the cool period in the early morning before you head off to work, with daylight saving it may be still dark for much of that time.
Once beneficial, for some of us the practice of putting our clocks forward from spring to autumn is now becoming disadvantageous for more of us, and potentially the community as a whole.
S Parker, Mt Eden.
Required debrief
There has been much commentary recently on the Government's handling of the Covid pandemic and whether an inquiry is warranted.
Following the Christchurch earthquakes, it was recognised that the response in terms of emergency management was less than ideal. As a result, the Co-ordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) was developed and is now recognised as the key to effective
emergency management. An important part of the system is the post-incident debrief which aims to analyse the effectiveness of all agencies involved and also of the overall incident management.
It is rare to find any response to be perfect and that no improvements are to be gained from a critical review of all elements in the scenario.
For the Government or any agency involved in the management of the pandemic to suggest that nothing is to be gained from an inquiry would be to waste the opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses in the actions taken, missed opportunities and to review the performance of all agencies involved.
It would be a great pity if politics were allowed to deny us the chance to learn critical lessons for the management of future emergencies of such large scale.
George Williams, Whangamatā.
Success penalised
Your article on De La Salle College (NZ Herald, September 26) gives serious cause for concern.
Here we have a school in a poor area with a high proportion of Pasifika students achieving results above average. Success like this requires dedicated teachers, willing students and supportive parents. It also requires adequate funding, which the local community simply cannot supply.
Evidently the old strategy of reinforcing success is not being applied; in fact, rather the opposite: the school is being penalised for being successful.
One wonders whether this move is deliberate policy or an example of sheer bureaucratic incompetence.
Peter Baran, Te Atatū South.
Dubious tactics
Now we learn that the police service faked crimes to evade database protections (NZ Herald, September 27) in a pointless search for the two possibly Covid-positive women in Northland who had committed no crime and had actually been granted government permission to travel.
The police responsible and the senior politicians who knew the facts and deliberately misled the public should be publicly shamed and punished.
Congratulations on superb journalism.
Stewart Hawkins, St Heliers.
