Kids need us to believe in their dreams

Some of my mokopuna have introduced me to the concept of a Transformer - toys which have the capacity to change from a vehicle or an animal to a robot action figure. They're fascinating in their evolution - with a twist of the wrist my mokopuna can make a completely new object out of the existing component parts; creating something wonderful and new out of the old.

It made me think about this concept of transformation. How do we transform the future of our whanau; creating new opportunities while yet still maintaining the essence of who we are?

Transformation, is a key theme that shines through in much of the work that the Maori Party and I have been working on recently. Whanau Ora, of course, is a major part of our vision to transform the lives of our whanau, and through them, our children, and our communities.

One of the things that I have been considering is the power of the human spirit. Our ability to overcome barriers, and to reach great heights, is often driven by our ability to dream big, and a determination to make dreams a reality. It is about believing in yourself and knowing you can make things happen.

I was struck by a recent news article which talked about gifted children, and the inability of teachers to recognise giftedness in Maori students. The article pointed to research by Jill Bevan Brown of Massey University, which described Maori concepts of giftedness, and the need to take a broader perspective of giftedness when it came to our kids.

It reminded me, that every child needs to have people around them who teach them to believe in themselves. They need teachers who can recognise the talents and gifts that they have, and nurture a strong sense of self, and confidence, regardless of where a child comes from, or how they act in class.

A well known kohanga song encourages us to accentuate the positive: "ko te taonga o taku ngakau, ko taku mokopuna, mokopuna korikori, hei aha hei aha ra, ko te mea nui ko te aroha, kaua e patu taku mokopuna, me awhiawhi mai, taku mokopuna korikori e." - the treasure of my heart is my grandchild; a very active grandchild indeed, but that doesn't matter, the most important thing is love, don't punish my grandchild, instead love them, and nurture them.

The point is, that a child is innocent. Yes, sometimes they are haututu [mischief], but if you can harness that energy in a positive way, you can not only give our children a great start to life, you can nurture whanau values in the classroom.

It is not always a cultural issue, every whanau has its own unique set of beliefs, ways of doing and seeing the world. Every child also comes from a unique context. Sometimes that has its own challenges, however we must learn to be able to widen our view of acceptance, normality, and what counts as "gifted".

I was sent a letter from a young mother recently, which outlined her son's experience with school. She told me of her son's difficulty with unexpected change, his consistently challenging social behaviour - and what it told me most was the difficulty that schools had with her boy. Schools were intent on ensuring the mother had done what she needed to do to classify her son under the right diagnostic category; calling on the expertise of the special education service; child psychologists; paediatricians and others to help define his days.

While it is important to ensure all the right help and support is available, this mum never wanted to let go of the fact that this same boy had wonderful aspirations of becoming a veterinarian, a computer programmer, a dog trainer, a bull rider, among many other dreams.

Schools are challenged by many children with different issues, and backgrounds, but we need to look at ways in which we better support teachers and schools to be able to work with all of our kids. The first place we need to look is home. We need schools to recognise the different contexts that these kids are coming from. We also need them to teach our children to feel good about themselves, and to help our kids believe in their dreams, and their ability to achieve them.

Like the saying goes "only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be".