Children must not be used to promote strike

HAVING devoted my life to teaching small children, I was upset and distressed by the photo and accompanying article on the principal and teachers of Donovan Primary School in Invercargill actively using the children to promote the NZEI strike under the loose guise of ‘‘it’s time for a brighter future’’.

Let’s start with the first premise of teaching and that is you, the adult, are the servant of the child; not the other way round.

When I was tutoring, this is what I taught my student teachers to strive for in their classrooms — to lead without controlling, to step back from your own personal expectations. There is also little space for the self gratifying pursuit of acceptance.

When we disconnect our work with the children from our own personal need for validation, we are able to better serve the children in our care. We free ourselves to focus more on their needs.

This does not mean that we have to abandon personal fulfilment and not strive for better working conditions, but it is not the responsibility of the child to fix the teacher, or to fix the school.

Being in charge makes us more responsible, not less. Being in charge makes us accountable, so my suggestion is find your support from elsewhere.

It is no more appropriate to seek security through control of teachers than it is for them to seek security through control of children.

D. Johnson Macandrew Bay

Costcutting options

HAVING read William Harris’ opinion piece on Syria (ODT, 7.8.18), and noted that it consists of utter bilge, it strikes me that, with the University of Otago finding itself a bit short of funding, there are some opportunities for costcutting that would have negligible negative effects.

Rather, these would contribute to the perseverance of the international order, to peace between countries and peoples, and to the greater good of society.

One of these costcutting measures would be the wholesale disestablishment of the department of globalist sycophancy and russophobia (also known as the department of politics).

I am sure other savings could be made in several other departments or study areas, in particular the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies; [the department of] media, film and communication; and the Centre for Sustainability.

If those staff whose pontificating positions were lost in such a restructure really had something useful to say, and which others wanted to hear, I am sure they could find an alternative livelihood through funding platforms on social media. Malcolm MoncriefSpittle

Dunedin

Who was to blame?

REGARDING the story ‘‘Cyclist injured after colliding with car door’’ (ODT, 30.7.18).

The second paragraph said: ‘‘Emergency services were called to Main South Rd about 11.50am this morning after a male cyclist collided with a car door.’’

Although strictly accurate, I doubt that the cyclist deliberately cycled into the car door and suggest that the door may instead have been opened abruptly into the path of the cyclist.

If so, it merits a quite different headline; perhaps ‘‘Cyclist injured after car door opened in their path’’.

Such a headline, on the adverse impact of opening a door into the path of a cyclist, may help motorists avoid doing this. This is different from your headline which subtly suggested the cyclist was at fault.

In the interests of making things safer for cyclists, this matter should be cleared up.

Could you please let us know — did the cyclist aim deliberately for the door, or was the door opened abruptly into the path of the cyclist?

Charlotte Flaherty

Northeast Valley