Gender diversity lessons aren’t appropriate and should be stopped, a primary teacher has told a parliamentary select committee. It is the “stuff of nightmares” Waitakiri Primary School teacher Helen Houghton told the committee. “I believe our professional integrity comes under threat when we are required to teach ideology that many in our parent communities, as Read more
When people today hear that John Henry Newman is being named a saint, the first question that likely comes to mind is: What can I take away from the example of a 19th-century priest and intellectual? Not only did he live in a very different time, but his day-to-day existence was quite different from what Read more
Pika Purotu and her priest, the Reverend Fakaofo Kaio of the Onehunga Cooperating Parish, are campaigning for children to spend less time attending funerals and more time attending school. They say children should spend a maximum of three days at a funeral – and only if the deceased is a member of their immediate family. Read more
The New Zealand Wars (1845–72) had a decisive influence over the course of the nation’s history. Yet Pākehā have not always cared to remember them in anything approaching a robust manner, engaging at different times either in elaborate myth-making that painted the wars as chivalrous and noble or, when that was no longer tenable, actively choosing to ignore them Read more
While many New Zealand and Asia Pacific children, teens and adults fortunate enough to have access to formal education are hard at work studying such subjects as science, math and the arts, the most important lessons to be seriously taught and hopefully absorbed – moral values – are being given little attention in most educational settings. Read more
Today families don’t appreciate teachers, Pope Francis told a parents’ organisation that supports education as both a scholastic and social effort. He said the relationship between education and the family is declining. “The educational pact is declining. The family no longer appreciates the work of teachers as they did at one time,” Francis says. “To Read more
Rotorua’s St Michael’s Catholic School was blessed, Sunday, by Fr Eamon Kennedy, principal Kristina Crouch posted on Facebook. “This blessing ensured that our school was prepared properly for the safe arrival of our tamariki and their whānau,” she wrote. Crouch said pupils and parents were given the opportunity to come together with staff and the board Read more
At the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru, New Zealand announced aid packages to assist Pacific Island Nations. Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern announced a $9 million package to make it easier for Pacific students to access education. Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced $10 million over three years to enhance free-to-air Pasifika TV service. Education “This initiative will Read more
Aucklander Laura McLellan says her experience working as a teacher Ranong, South Thailand, has had an immense impact on the way she sees her world and the people in it. Laura is working with a Marist community teaching English and social studies within the Burmese migrant community. She was a volunteer in the Marist Youth Read more
A team using computer modelling, Future of Religion and Secular Transitions (forest), has found that people tend to secularise when four factors are present: They are: Existential security (you have enough money and food) Personal freedom (you’re free to choose whether to believe or not) Pluralism (you have a welcoming attitude to diversity) Education (you’ve Read more