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Sunday Panel: Should education on NZ's past be compulsory?

Author
Newstalk ZB ,
Publish Date
Sun, 3 Feb 2019, 2:34PM
History teachers are calling for changes to how we teach our past at school. (Photo / NZ Herald)

Sunday Panel: Should education on NZ's past be compulsory?

Author
Newstalk ZB ,
Publish Date
Sun, 3 Feb 2019, 2:34PM

Do we need to do more to teach our children about Waitangi Day? 

History teachers have launched a petition calling for New Zealand history to be a compulsory part of the curriculum.

They say there's only one achievement objective in the entire curriculum which looks at the country's past.

History Teachers' Association chairman Graeme Ball says we're one of the few countries among those we like to compare ourselves to which don't teach its own history in any coherent way.

Auckland Chamber of Commerce boss Michael Barnett agrees that it is a good idea. 

"We are not well informed as people," he told Francesca Rudkin.

He feels that the conversation about Waitangi Day has become hijacked and doesn't deal with the reality of what happened. 

"Unfortunately, it's become a play on the past and the present."

Barnett says that there is a lot of bitterness and narrative-shaping by those annoyed by the idea of compensation. 

Podcast host Frances Cook feels that the more you know about something, the more you know how to work within it. 

"If you don't understand your past, it's more difficult to understand your present."

Cook says that when she went to high school, that they were taught a lot of World War II and Medieval England history but was given only a limited focus on local history.

She wants to see that change, but says we need to handle it in the right way. 

"Let's brace for a conversation about what version of history we're putting out, and are we going to teach the same thing at a school in Remuera as a school in Tokoroa. There is genuinely more than one perspective of what happened."

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