Hey teachers, I love your work

A father-of-four in favour of modern learning has rallied behind teachers, saying his ‘‘guinea pig’’ child loves the new classroom styles.

Hularii Mckenzie said he felt teachers and schools were being unfairly criticised for trying out modern learning environments (MLE), as encouraged by the Ministry of Education.

Mckenzie started a Facebook page called ‘‘My child’s a guinea pig and loving the new cage’’, to give parents a place to vocalise their support for teachers using MLE, he said.

‘‘If you’ve got good teachers working that’s all you need . . . They know which kids can’t sit together, and the way they move between different subjects, it’s seamless.

‘‘You wouldn’t think it would be with three classes working in one big room, but it seems to be done really well.’’

Another Facebook page, ‘‘My child is not a guinea pig’’, was launched earlier this year, and questioned the evidence behind the sweeping changes to classrooms across the country.

While Mckenzie enjoyed reading the posts at first, he said he felt teachers were being criticised too much.

‘‘There was a lot of good information, I thought, some real stuff to think about.

‘‘But in the past couple of weeks . .. there was not a lot of support for the teachers and parents trying to make it work, and I wanted to express that,’’ he said.

Mckenzie’s eldest daughter, in year 4, loved the MLE classroom, he said.

Mckenzie’s daughter, who has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair, had to leave class regularly to see a physiotherapist and a speech therapist, and they felt they interrupted class a lot.

With modern learning, the specialists could visit her in a break-out room with minimal disruption, Mckenzie said.

‘‘I get that it’s not for everyone, and some parents will find problems with it. I don’t know if my opinion will change when my able-bodied son gets there, but who knows.’’

Pupils were not on laptops or tablets as much as some thought, he said.

‘‘They’ve got PE, the first hour of the day they spend writing in books with pencils at a desk . . . In my daughter’s class there’s only 10 ipads between a class of 60.’’

Blenheim mother-of-two Vanessa Beck said she liked the new Facebook page because she believed teachers needed more support.

‘‘I think teachers cop a lot of the criticisms because they’re at the coalface.

‘‘It takes a lot to get a message up to the Ministry [of Education]. And I don’t think parents tell teachers enough that they’re doing a good job.

‘‘It is a different way of doing things and it’s changing all the time, and I think we’ve just got to trust in what’s happening.

‘‘The only way you’ll know if it’s right is if you give it a go.’’

Beck said while she found flexible classroom spaces ‘‘weird at first’’, her daughter was ‘‘thriving’’ in a MLE classroom.

‘‘Now she’s found purpose in what she’s doing, she strives to complete her work and I think maybe before she just wasn’t challenged.’’

Rogerson, one of the creators of ‘‘My child is not a guinea pig’’, said she applauded Mckenzie’s page.

‘‘I continue to maintain my stance sent to the Prime Minister regarding the New Zealand education system and the WAYF [whatever acronym you fancy] Experiment.’’