Nickie Muir: Have faith in our teachers

Saturday morning witnessed an unusual sight in Whangarei.

A rare species, under pressure from extreme social climate change, massed together in a noisy march towards the CBD. A rare species, because like nurses, they come from a profession that is one of the last of the true vocations.

They're not in it for the glittering social status. They don't do it for the photo opportunities or to gain access to the inner sanctums of power. And they're certainly not in it for the money. Novopay has made sure of that.

Teachers. In New Zealand, like nurses, teachers are one of the few groups who go out of their way to get their voices heard at a time when they are least likely to inconvenience those they serve ie kids. In other places, like Argentina, where they once went on strike for a year, teachers know that industrial action is most effective when parents can't send their kids to school.

Those who saw the march in Whangarei might have thought it was about not being paid. It would be a good assumption given the stress with the Novopay system - but it's a wrong one.

That teachers had taken a Saturday morning - a time when many parents will be on sports fields and are unlikely to notice and a time which will not cut into any learning time, paints a clear picture of the teaching profession in New Zealand being that of a vocation and not of a business or public service.

Most teachers do it because they love it and feel they can make a difference. Lately, however, it seems as though the teaching vocation has come under attack.

There was talk on Saturday about the Global Education Reform Movement, or Germ, and the increased pressure that teachers are under to test rather than teach. The talk around what teachers are experiencing today sent me fossicking through old boxes to uncover an old copy of Bertrand Russell's brilliant; The Functions of a Teacher one of his collection entitled Unpopular Essays. Written between 1935 and 1950 it tracks his concern over the rise of fascism and the contributing factors to social unrest.

He laments the increasing control that governments wish to have over what happens at the chalkface and how limiting that can be to a rich education. "(these days)... most teachers are overworked and are compelled to prepare their pupils for examinations rather than to give them a liberalising mental training.

"The people who are not accustomed to teaching - and this includes practically all education authorities - have no idea of the expense of spirit that it involves."

Russell felt "if democracy is to survive, (pupils need) the kind of tolerance that springs from an endeavour to understand those who are different from ourselves." In other words; a broad education.

In the latest Unicef study NZ came 4th out of 33 countries in literacy, numeracy and science. That's a good report card in getting the basics right.

This doesn't address issues of housing or child poverty, which contribute to educational failure but for which teachers cannot be blamed. If I'm not mistaken, what the teachers were asking for on Saturday is for this Government's recognition of their knowledge and understanding of the kids. A little faith in their professional expertise in deciding how best to educate the charges that we as parents entrust to them every single working day.

And a gentle suggestion that if we really want to get to the top of the ranking perhaps we should follow the policy of the countries who are already there and not the ones floating far below us.