Mike's Minute: I wish I had the Minister's positivity around teaching

I wish I had the Minister's positivity around teaching. 

As you will have heard, we are short of teachers. We aren’t training as many teachers as we used to, so increasingly, we’ll need to bring more of them into the country. 

The Minister suggested—optimistically, I think—that it's about more than just pay. It's about resources and support, which I’m sure is true. But the question remain, does it solve anything? 

Does anything solve anything? 

Is teaching simply a profession —like so many others— that is no longer what it once was? And if that's the case, why would anyone choose to be a teacher today? 

Kids can be difficult. And if they’re not, schools are riddled with social issues that no teacher should have to deal with – yet they do. 

Teachers are more like social workers than educators now. Even with all the holidays, the numbers don’t lie: people aren’t enrolling in teaching like they used to. 

The trouble is, while teacher numbers are dropping, the number of kids isn’t. In fact, student numbers are expected to peak next year. So the gap widens. 

Bringing in teachers presents a twofold issue.  

You have to find teachers in a world where everyone is looking for them. They have to want to teach here. Is New Zealand really a magnet? 

I could try to reassure you by talking about the teachers I had – but we’re going back 50 years. They were, virtually all of them, ordinary. Even with age and some maturity, as I look back at the ones I remember, not a single one was exceptional or brilliant or even really, really good. They were average. In an average school. That turned out a lot of average kids. 

Is it possible the great teachers are, and have always been, the exception? The ones with the calling, the drive? The rest have merely been okay. 

Which, of course, doesn’t solve the problem. 

We have a lot to do with it. Society is a mess these days: held back, held down by anxieties, concerns, divisions, anger, frustration. A sense of loss, bewilderment, and upheaval that occupies pretty much everywhere, globally. 

And so we send our offspring —if we send them at all— to be shaped by a miracle worker. One we pay average money to. In what might be a leaky building. With minimal resources. 

We are setting it all up for failure. It’s complex. But if the Minister is right, and she can turn it around, she deserves a medal. If not beatification. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I wish I had the Minister's positivity around teaching. As
you will have heard, we are short of teachers. We
aren't training as many teachers, so that will require more
and more of them to be brought into the country.
The Minister suggested, I think optimistically that it was about
more than pay, It was about resource and support, which
I'm sure is true. The question is whether it solves anything,
does anything? I mean, does anything solve anything anymore? Is

(00:21):
teaching simply a profession, like so many professions, that is
no longer what it was, and therefore why would you
be one? Kids are snots, and if they aren't not,
schools are riddle with social issues that no teachers should
have to deal with, and yet they do. Teachers are
social workers more than they are teachers. And even with
all the holidays, numbers don't lie. They aren't enrolling the
way they used to. Now the trouble is, at the
same time teacher numbers are dropping, the number of kids isn't.

(00:43):
It's expected to peak next year, so the gap widens
in bringing teachers, and you face a twofold issue. I
would have thought, one, you've got to find teachers in
a world where everyone is looking for teachers. And two,
even if you find them, they've got to want to
move here and teach here. Is New Zealand really a
magnet the way it used to be. I could reassure you,
I guess, by suggesting the teachers I had, so we're

(01:03):
going back forty fifty years were virtually all ordinary, all
of them, even with age and some maturity. I look
back at the ones I can remember, not a single
one was exceptional or brilliant or even really that good.
They were average. They were average in an average school
that turned out average kids. Is it possible the great
teachers are, and indeed always have been, the exception, the
ones with the calling, the ones who had driven the

(01:24):
rest of merely okay, which doesn't, of course solve the problem.
We have a lot to do with it, of course,
as a society. It's a mess these days, held back,
held down by any number of anxieties and concerns in
attitude's division and anger and frustration, a sense of last
and bewilderment and upheaval that occupies pretty much everywhere we
go these days globally. And so we send our offspring,

(01:45):
that's if we send them at all. Are to get
shaped by this miracle worker that we pay average money to.
In what may be a leaky building with minimal resource,
we are setting it all up for failure. It's complex,
of course it is. But if the Minister's right and
she can turn it, she deserves a medal, if not beatification.
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