Don’t get busted by thought police
Our children should not be used by adults trying to change the world.
My wife and I debate giving our kid a quality private education or abandoning him to the wastelands of the state system where he will have his masculinity undermined by a gender neutral uniform and be encouraged to embrace cultural if not intellectual diversity.
Thankfully for our child, Mrs Grant doesn’t share my 18th century views on child-rearing and can’t see how girls wearing pants heralds the final eclipse of The Patriarchy or even why that would be a bad thing. Even she, however, may reach a tipping point if the Greens get into government.
Their declared policy is to make teaching Maori in government schools mandatory. Labour’s education spokesman, Chris Hipkins, rather than seizing on the opportunity to throw the Greens under a bus, said Labour was open to the idea.
This policy is morally flawed. If you want to teach your child Maori, Spanish or vegan cooking, then great. But what right do you have to tell other people what languages their kids should learn?
There is much harping about the anti-democratic nature of the current US government, but what can be more authoritarian than forcing people from other cultures to learn your language?
Green MP Marama Davidson declared it is New Zealand’s responsibility to save the language. She is wrong. If people of Maori descent, or Europeans who identify as Maori, want to save it the responsibility sits with them.
Maori themselves are voting with their vocal cords. Some 80 per cent are unable to hold a basic conversation in te reo, with the young abandoning the language. Only 50,000 can hold a conversation in the native tongue. Despite heroic efforts by the teacher unions, Maori Television and John Campbell, the language is bleeding out.
This is disappointing. It’s a distinct part of our cultural heritage, a taonga, even. My child is picking up many words at daycare. He may want to learn more. I’ve made the effort to memorise the anthem, although it never seems to stick.
None of this justifies bullying non-Maori, or Maori children, into learning the language against their will. The Left sees no problem with using the education system as a form of thought police to create the society they prefer rather than providing children with the skills necessary to succeed.
The Greens can claim English was, historically, imposed on Maori and this is merely redressing the balance. They are wrong. Punishing Jack for the sins of John isn’t justice. It’s oppression.
We owe children a duty of care and should not use them to pursue social agendas.