Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why is it so hard to do the obvious thing?

I've been thinking overnight about the news yesterday that a second Christchurch school has decided to put the walls back up in their classrooms and abandon those modern learning barn style spaces that we were doing in favour of going back to the traditional single class. 

The school is Shirley Boys High. 

And then last year, Rangiora High School did the same thing. 

Something that Rangiora High School's principal said struck me. 

He said, the results have been a huge shift in engagement, in attendance, in achievement. 

It is not what I was expecting. I was expecting a small shift, but it has gone through the roof. It's made a massive difference in everything in the school. 

And that reminded me a lot of what the principals and the teachers said after we banned the phones in schools. 

Remember that we banned the phones, and suddenly they were saying, well, the difference is huge. 

But all we've done in both cases is the obvious thing, isn't it? 

I mean, obviously, if you take the phones away from kids, they're gonna be less distracted. 

They're gonna learn better, they're gonna talk to each other more, they're gonna play outside more. 

And obviously, if you put 30 kids in a room by themselves, there will be less noise than if you have 120 kids in a big space together. 

Why is it so hard for us to do the obvious thing? 

Why was the Ministry of Education so hellbent on doing the wrong thing? 

Because if you listen to educators or everybody else who's involved in this, they will tell you it was virtually impossible to get a school upgrade unless you agreed to take all the walls down and buy in, and yet, obviously it was a really big mistake. 

It feels a little bit like the Ministry of Education went through a weird experimental phase that has cost our kids, with everything from classroom styles to weird ways to teach English when they didn't have to do it. 

And when common sense would tell you that it wasn't gonna work, why is it so hard when it comes to schooling for us to do the obvious thing? 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, I've been thinking overnight about the news yesterday that
a second christ Church school has decided to put the
walls back up in their classrooms and abandon those modern
learning barn style spaces that we were doing, you know,
in favor of going back to the traditional single class.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
The school is Shirley Boys High. They're the ones who
had just done it. And then last year rang Yielder
High School did the same thing. Something that Rangyelder High
School's principal said struck me. He said, the results have
been a huge shift in engagement, in attendance, in achievement.
It is not what I was expecting. I was expecting
a small shift, but it has gone through the roof.
It's made a massive difference in everything in the school.

(00:36):
And that reminded me a lot of what the principles
and the teachers said after we banned the phones in schools.
Remember that we banned the phones and suddenly they were saying, wow,
the difference is huge. But all we've done in both
cases is the obvious thing, isn't it. I mean, obviously,
if you take the phones away from kids, they're going
to be less distracted, they're going to learn better, they're
going to talk to each other more, They're going to
play outside more. And obviously, if you put thirty kids

(00:59):
in a room and by themselves, there will be less
noise than if you have one hundred and twenty kids
in a big space together. Why is it so hard
for us to do the obvious thing? Why did the
Ministry of Education? Why was it so hell bent on
doing the wrong thing? Because if you listen to educators
or everybody else who's involved in this, they will tell
you it was virtually impossible to get a school upgrade

(01:20):
unless you agreed to take all the walls down and
go buy in style. And yet obviously it was a
really big mistake. It feels a little bit like the
Ministry of Education went through a weird experimental phase that
has cost our kids with everything from classroom styles to
weird ways to teach English when they didn't have to
do it, and when common sense would tell you that
it wasn't going to work. Why is it so hard

(01:42):
when it comes to schooling for us to do the
obvious thing? For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,