Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Half Maori boys leave school with no qualifications


You have to ask why Maori boys are doing so badly at school - and consequently after they leave school. I don't think it is the school system, I actually think the problem area is before they even get out the door to go to school.

Maori families have to take the can for a lot of this. They are bringing up their boys to be lazy, unmotivated, aimless pricks who just want to go to school to play sport - and come home to watch videos and play more sport. How many Maori parents read books to their kids ( the library is free), how many of these parents teach their kids the alphabet and how to write their name and hold a pen correctly before they go to school. How many of these parents assist their kids with their homework - or are they too busy at the pub?

Are Maori parents assisting their kids with their schoolwork. Nah, probably not. Too busy telling them how to light a cigarette, use an x-box, open a beer bottle on the corner of the kitchen table, and how to kick a rugby ball. They already know how to swear. Parents then wonder why their kids end up on the benefit and why they have to help them fill out the form to apply.

Actually, I wonder if many of them have breakfast.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't understand.

Anonymous said...

You may wonder if they have breakfast, but you obviously don't care. Did you learn any compassion and respect at your home, or just how to bitch and moan with expensive technology?

Anonymous said...

i gather your article is a question. But i doubt you will find the answer since you have already fabricated your own one...that we the maori race are all vary lazy and are a highly uncapable group of people.

food for thought in a simple way for you...maybe you can chew on this while you remember your days of having a provided breakfast for you as a youngster...

your question or more like a racial jab posed as a comment is ill reaserched...very scary considering you seem to be in publishing!

I am a full time teacher teaching students in the age range 12-16

RACE plays absolutley no part at all in the huge problem that all of us in the community will eventually have to face of kids not setting out to fullfill or achieve their potential.

This problem is purely a social economic one. I KNOW THIS because i teach kids of all the same rase in the very homogenous nation of JAPAN. Where its basically one race and one singular culture. The area that i teach is in a poor social economic area of tokyo and i will highlight for you ssome of the issues i deal with on a EVERYDAY BASIS.

1. KIDS NOT EATING BREAKFAST
no money...no parents or gaurdians who are AVAILABLE to always be there to monitor the kids largley due to ALWAYS having to work to keep afloat.

2. KIDS WITH NO MOTIVATION TO LEARN
without a stable eenvironment at home i ask you...will you go and tutor those kids personally during your time off...will YOU TEACH THEM TO READ AND WRITE AND SOMEHOW MAKE IT FUN?

3. ABUSE
I see kids with bruises and marks WHY?
good question. do you know how HARD it can be for young parents who consistantly struggle to pay the rent and pay the bills POWER, GAS, WATER?

jobs arent easy to maintain and when its a constant struggle which seems to never let up and end with no space to let off a little steam and enjoy ones life as well...yes a beer seems like a good escape and maybe it will be the only time where i dont feel like a failure in society because of the eternally unforgiving masses of people who dont know what the struggle of being poor is like.

you need to really see that these issues are the things that we need to tackle. and its not about race because these problems whcih you have confused as being due to race, happen all over the world regardless of who your parents are and what race or culture you were born in.

yeah you are right. the problem isnt the education system soley. the PROBLEM is with everyone, everywhere who would sit and bitch about a race of people instead of seeing what the real problems are in the community and then not offering to help or do anything about it. YOU go and start up a reading program. You go and tutor after school homework help. YOU MAKE IT FUN for kids who have to live in a household where they dont have the luxuries of dreaming thier future as it seems like an eternity away from them...no shoes, dirty uniform, no lunch, parents always WORKING. and yes US MAORI people might not be working directly under YOUR honky nose...but in the sewers and on the roads...cleaning your toilets and stocking your supermarket shelves with products that we might be able to afford to buy...
driving the trucks that deliver products for YOUR needs and oout in the cold winter or under the hot summer sun harvesting produce to be delivered on YOUR table. yes, yes, yes it might be a bit to swallow for you but you need to recognise that without this LAZY race of people you would be swimming in your shit and piss...with no KAI on your table and with shitty roads to drive on and with unsanitory toilets to crap on. JUST think about that before you go and say how damn useless we are.

and just for the record mate...after we were tired, sweaty and swollen from helping our koro and nana out at the farm...we would sit for our kai then we all studied and did our homework together. I might be a one off to you but my challnge to you is this!

go and offer your help where you can, not to a race of people, but to all of us who are struggling to make ends meet.

Anonymous said...

3rd anonymous
Great post with many very important points that are valid and true.
However, there's always one isn't there?

Dave isn't like that.
I know his family circumstances and you're wrong.
You could be rigth as that is a valid assumption but in this case it isn't.

53% is monster. full stop. it's monster.
even with all the monies thrown at it over the past 10yrs it's still monster.
For a % of people they rather spend their money on themselves rather than their family. you don't aknowledge that at all.
similarly, for many people the issues you highlight of being on the borderline is veryy true.
but it isn't just socio economic.

alienation isn't just socioeconomic.
many Maori boys do manage and do well even with trying circumstances.

I think one (one of) of the things is a culture of entitlement due to underpriveledge (and dare I say it one of "you robbed us so we deserve it attitude"

This is not helped by generations of benefit dependency being allowed to continue.

That's not allowing for those (probably few) who live in the black economy as well as claim benefit as well. either because they feel entitled or that they can get away with it.

I think we don't value our teachers at all, the MOE certainly doesn't.
I was on a school board for 3yrs and the whole system is smoke and mirrors.
The MOE controls the money, they control everything.

The teachers union and principals union protect themselves as best they can and keep the parents at bay.
this is because they are the professionals so have ascendancy.

The MOE keep adding to teachers workloads both pastorally and professional development and the teaching load not to mention management and admin tasks.

instead of full resourcing them with admin and aides so they can do TEACHING.

then there's the teaching environment itself.
because of the bullshit PC system disruption is sooooo rife that teaching doesn't happen or is broken down for many kids by the few.
I'm not speaking here just about those with empty tummies but all in the classroom.

we don't remove those kids from the class or school quick enough and we havenm't got a decent system (funded separate from the schools)
to ensure teaching goes on for those who want to learn.

then there is the PC crappology of prizes for all and the NZ egalitarian way.
This is not real world and if you don't train kids for the real world how do you expect tham to manage and achive?

so in short yes there are many many factors but they all come from a mindset and it isn't just socio economic.

So now you can apologise to Dave as you got it wrong about him.
He's a forgiving and good guy so it will go down well and you'll get good karma.
Note I didn't say nice. Because he's not nice just straight.

MikeNZ

Anonymous said...

Hi Anonmous 3

from a previous post by dave on this site about John Key's speach on the underclass.

"The weird thing is that I, as a full time worker,have been receiving more assistance from the state than a childless couple on the benefit. Its called family support and I receive it because I am part of our low wage economy, but am not part of Key's growing underclass, purely because I got off my ass and got myself a job after being made redundant (again). That led to another job which although it is even less pay, it is better"

MikeNZ