Post by Kiwi Frontline on Oct 6, 2019 4:52:48 GMT 12
Sunday Star Times 6/10/19
MODERN AGENDAS A RISK IN NZ HISTORY CURRICULUM
Damien Grant (‘‘Dame Whina vs The Avengers’’, Focus, September 29) is right to be cynical of the proposal to make the teaching of New Zealand history compulsory in our schools. Will the Ministry of Education prepare a warts-and all history, or a revised and sanitised version? What we don’t need is, as Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash, put it: ‘‘This is how history is done now. People wait until they have a need for some history and then they customise it to suit their purposes.’’
Maori are keen for a compulsory history of the New Zealand Wars, the British and colonisation and avoiding any serious discussion of, for example, the holocaust that was the Musket Wars, the invasion of the Chathams and the genocide of the Moriori, and Te Rauparaha’s blood-drenched rampage through the South Island. The main purpose here seems to weave a new korowai of victimhood for ideological and financial gain.
I am in favour of New Zealand history being taught in schools, but it has to based on fact and not the elevation of sensitivity over truth. It must be factual, it must be complete, unbiased and, most importantly, it must be acceptable to all New Zealanders.
RICHARD PRINCE, Tauranga
Grant rightly warns of the danger of teaching kids a ‘‘politically correct and sanitised history’’and rightly explains that it’s basically about the control of thought.
It is worth noting that, at the same time, any Christian teaching is being removed from schools and replaced, not by neutrality but by the ideology of identity politics we now see all around us. Although adorned in rainbows and proclaimed in female voices, it too is about control: it conquers by dividing.
GAVAN O’FARRELL, Lower Hutt
Gisborne Herald 4/10/19
HISTORY RELIES ON TRUTH, FACTS
My response to Meredith:
Story telling belongs in literature. History is about the truth and verifiable facts.
This may be unpleasant at times, but it is the only thing that releases people’s aspirations and hopes.
Story-telling “history”, based on “personal stories”, can only subvert justice and engenders prejudice.
Thanking you.
STEVE ASPDEN
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
MODERN AGENDAS A RISK IN NZ HISTORY CURRICULUM
Damien Grant (‘‘Dame Whina vs The Avengers’’, Focus, September 29) is right to be cynical of the proposal to make the teaching of New Zealand history compulsory in our schools. Will the Ministry of Education prepare a warts-and all history, or a revised and sanitised version? What we don’t need is, as Neal Stephenson, author of Snow Crash, put it: ‘‘This is how history is done now. People wait until they have a need for some history and then they customise it to suit their purposes.’’
Maori are keen for a compulsory history of the New Zealand Wars, the British and colonisation and avoiding any serious discussion of, for example, the holocaust that was the Musket Wars, the invasion of the Chathams and the genocide of the Moriori, and Te Rauparaha’s blood-drenched rampage through the South Island. The main purpose here seems to weave a new korowai of victimhood for ideological and financial gain.
I am in favour of New Zealand history being taught in schools, but it has to based on fact and not the elevation of sensitivity over truth. It must be factual, it must be complete, unbiased and, most importantly, it must be acceptable to all New Zealanders.
RICHARD PRINCE, Tauranga
Grant rightly warns of the danger of teaching kids a ‘‘politically correct and sanitised history’’and rightly explains that it’s basically about the control of thought.
It is worth noting that, at the same time, any Christian teaching is being removed from schools and replaced, not by neutrality but by the ideology of identity politics we now see all around us. Although adorned in rainbows and proclaimed in female voices, it too is about control: it conquers by dividing.
GAVAN O’FARRELL, Lower Hutt
Gisborne Herald 4/10/19
HISTORY RELIES ON TRUTH, FACTS
My response to Meredith:
Story telling belongs in literature. History is about the truth and verifiable facts.
This may be unpleasant at times, but it is the only thing that releases people’s aspirations and hopes.
Story-telling “history”, based on “personal stories”, can only subvert justice and engenders prejudice.
Thanking you.
STEVE ASPDEN
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers