Dear John: Labelling, testing kids not the answer

Kim Peita.

On his first day back in office John Key asked for fresh ideas to tackle child poverty. As an advocate for the Northland region we want to help deliver these fresh ideas.

This is the first in a series of letters from Northland leaders with their ideas on how the government should be addressing child poverty. Acting principal of Moerewa School, Kim Peita, knows about poverty because she sees it on a daily basis at the decile one school.

Dear John,

I have heard that you are looking for fresh ideas to tackle child poverty.

You, and anyone else who is genuinely interested in ending child poverty in New Zealand, really need to read the book Twelve Thousand Hours: Education and Poverty in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

I am an educator and I have the privilege of working in Moerewa.

I get to see every day what most people don't and that is a real sense of community and connectedness. I get to see real strength and determination.

I also see struggle on a daily basis. Child poverty in New Zealand is very real.

I have no doubt that education can play a significant role in ending child poverty. Alas however John, I fear that your ideas and mine and my community's are poles apart.

In the book, Ann Milne opens her chapter with the quote "The point of education is not to escape poverty. The point of education is to end it".

The thing that I fear the most, John, is that your neoliberal attitude towards public education predetermines a predictable and simplistic response, namely National Standards rhetoric, to a very complex issue.

You see testing, standardising and labelling children, who already have a bunch of negative labels attached to them by virtue of birth and geographic location, do nothing to create a community of hope.

Your education policies do nothing but close down critical imaginative responses that lie within the community.

So instead of asking "What does this student need to academically succeed?" the question should be, "How can we eliminate inequities in the distribution of resources and power that shape academic outcomes?".

My challenge to you John is that if you are genuinely interested in ending child poverty come and talk with us at a community level, that's where you will find your answers.

Yours sincerely

Kim Peita
Acting Principal
Moerewa School

• We want your help: Leave us a comment on Facebook or our our website, send us a message or email reporters@northernadvocate.co.nz with your ideas on how child poverty should be tackled. All feedback will be submitted via Whangarei MP Shane Reti to the Prime Minister's office.