The New Zealand Youth Choir celebrates winning Choir of the World at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales. Photo / Supplied
Win for NZ Youth Choir
What a marvellous achievement for the New Zealand Youth Choir to be crowned Choir of the World in Wales recently. This after their victory two weeks previously in the European Choir Games in Denmark. One can only imagine the enormous amount of work that went into achieving these goals under the guidance of conductor David Squire, who won the Most Inspiring Conductor Award.
All this makes a nice contrast to New Zealand’s obsession with sport and especially rugby, when the country seems to go into mourning even if the All Blacks win a test but don’t do it convincingly enough. Sport is a great pastime that supposedly keeps one healthy, disciplined and promotes lifelong friendships. However, being a member of the NZ Youth Choir, or any choir for that matter, would tend to do the same thing and that’s without the head knocks.
The big thing now will be to see if David Squire will win some sort of King’s Birthday or New Year’s honour for helping to gain this internationally recognised victory for helping to promote New Zealand so positively on the world stage.
Bernard Walker, Mt Maunganui.
Bootcamps
It is interesting to learn that Oranga Tamariki is not going to release information regarding future offending after attending bootcamps. But most people aren’t stupid and the obvious conclusion to draw is that the reoffending rate must be high to the point of embarrassment.
But what to do? Well, if you reoffend, then it’s back to a stricter camp, such that offenders eventually just won’t want to have to go back. But it also begs the question as to just how much education as to the rights and wrongs of life are these people getting, and it’s also fair to say they probably have, in most cases, been let down by dysfunctional families.
So, at least try and fix that part of what is a complex equation, but in the end, make sure that there are consequences.
Paul Beck, West Harbour
Concert radio
In the past, the concert programme offered a rich and varied journey through the wonderful world of music. These days, it feels more repetitive and lacks the spark it once had. Music has the power to slow the pace of life and soothe the troubled mind – a gift worth sharing in all its depth.
Perhaps a gentle spoken introduction could guide listeners through themes like Percy Grainger, European folk and gypsy traditions, South American and Japanese music, early American tunes, solo instruments like the cello or clarinet, and the voices of great tenors – just a few of the many possibilities that could inspire and uplift.
Brian Cross, Kerikeri.
Literacy and numeracy
I wonder how much of the shocking decline in literacy and numeracy exam results can be attributed to the changes in the way teachers are trained?
A century ago, when my mother entered the Auckland Teacher Training College, actual entry was preceded by a year in the classroom as a “pupil teacher”. This had two major benefits. Firstly, the teacher involved had an assistant who, as they were there for a year, could become very helpful. Secondly, the trainees had the opportunity to find out if they were actually suited to teaching. This eliminated many unsuitable ones before money and time were wasted on them.
Today, however, teacher training has become far more academic. The Auckland College of Education was actually absorbed into Auckland University early this century. Our literacy standards used to be among the best in the world, but you cannot handle young children as though they are “adult students” and expect them to absorb the basics at the essential - almost subconscious - level.
Jeanette Grant, Mt Eden.
War in Gaza
The militant group Hamas is running the Gaza Strip where the war is still going on. In your letters to the editor, (Anne Priestley, June 17) writes that leaders should say “stop” and take action. Israel is blamed for all the damage that is done to the people and their country.
We never hear what Hamas’ part in the war is. They are hiding in schools and hospitals for their own safety and so offer up their own people in this war and Israel is blamed for that but if Hamas would love their own, they would never hide in those places.
I certainly do not agree with all that Israel is doing but we have a saying: where two fight, two are guilty. Never in the media do we hear what Hamas is doing to their own, only Israel’s actions. A “stop” should be asked equally of Israel and Hamas.
D Hoekstra, Henderson.
Coalition Government
Is there no end to the dreadful decisions this coalition Government is making? Brooke van Velden, stating that to cast out more than 500,000 books from the National Library will be “beneficial” to the taxpayer, trimming about $1m in storage costs.
The Bible, Quran, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, and Charles Dickens are still relevant today, as Romeo and Juliet being performed in Auckland this week attests.
This Government has no compunction to change any and everything as they see fit, usually ignoring specialists in their field, such as doctors, nurses, teachers, scientists. The mind boggles.
As Oscar Wilde said, “A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
Sharon Marks, Te Aroha.
Ratepayer money
It seems a bit rich for the Government to castigate local councils for wasting our rates money, when it’s clear that most of their meagre income is spent on basic public facilities.
Meanwhile, we have so much funding of questionable initiatives by central government, squandering public money. “Rejecting official advice” and relying on anecdotal evidence to make policy is unacceptable and yet seems to be how this Government operates. There are so many examples: Huge spending on failed experiments in punishment, such as bootcamps and Three Strikes, and building mega prisons - this money would be better spent on prevention and rehabilitation.
Instead of fixing public health, millions are funnelled into expensive private health companies, exacerbating the desperate shortages in the public hospitals. In education, pouring money into publicly funded private Charter schools, where the numbers who have taken up the scheme are tiny, resulting in massively more funding per student compared with the public system. To top it all, we have the expensive Doge-inspired Ministry of (de)Regulation, where government is employing large numbers of bureaucrats to look for other bureaucrats who might be wasting public money doing unnecessary work. We seem to be living in cloud cuckoo land!
Vivien Fergusson, Mt Eden.
The proposed container park at Te Puna, in the Western Bay of Plenty is crazy. The stretch of road between there and the port is some of the most congested in the country. Other industrial areas nearer the port would be more appropriate; increasing truck traffic on this part of SH2 would only exacerbate a huge traffic problem.
Neville Cameron, Coromandel.
I read in the Herald (July 17) that the National Library will remove religious books and books by William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens to save $1 million. According to the article, the books will all be shredded and recycled. Has the National Library thought to offer these books, at no charge, to appropriate organisations for their use? Surely this would be a better solution than shredding.
Janet Boyle, Orewa.
Dress it up how they will, this looks to me like cultural vandalism. Perhaps we should call it vanVeldenism.
They used to do this sort of thing in China, during the Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It makes New Zealand look like the last refuge of dimwits, with a government that cannot understand anything except how to give more tax cuts to the rich.
This is the government that wants the next generation to learn how to read, but is apparently sending the works of Virginia Woolf to the shredder rather than to school libraries.
Arch Thomson, Mt Wellington.
Commerce Commission chair John Small has jumped the gun. The existence of ride-sharing companies is still up in the air due to the non-payment of taxes with this business model. Exploiting both the drivers and the taxman. I will expect him to resign as his credibility is lost.
Ian Gaskin, Tuai.
I’m not surprised open-plan classrooms have not worked. Learning needs to be focused, and teachers need to be able to monitor their students and ensure all are catered to. Open plan was way too new age, some might consider a bit woke even. As long as students get tailored education that maximised their potential, everyone wins.
John Ford, Taradale.
Our petrol is shipped 8500km from Singapore and costs $2.20 per litre and our milk only travels 200km and costs $3.40 per litre. Something is wrong here.
Richard Murray, Henderson.