Converation thread

What benefit does anyone get by learning the language? It is not a universally spoken language so instead of trying to force people to learn the language, life skills should be taught, financial skills to be taught, parenting skills taught and respect to all around us and most importantly teach that with rights come responsibilities. The comment made above about we are forced to learn math and English skills that we may never use in our later lives is totally untrue. The importance of math is so undervalued that is the reason we have so many in our midst have no financial skills. If we wish to travel or do business any where in the world English is the means by which we communicate.

As stated in the first response, it is about unification and a sense of community for the country. Whilst I understand and see your point about other life skills we should learn, that was not the question that was asked. I too think that those skills, although I don’t know how they would do it, should be taught as the benefits would reap through society and generations to come. As for the question that was asked, which was, Should Te Reo Māori be compulsory in schools, some of what you want to be taught such as respect, is something that is deeply embedded within the Māori language for…  Read more example. As to address my comment about the math and English skills, I guess I was vague. What I meant to allude at was that we are taught compulsory math for majority of school, often learning skills such as Pythagoras, trigonometry, how to write film essays etc. Whilst I’m sure those skills will be useful to a small minority of people with whatever professions they chose to pursue, they are mostly useless to society which is held true due to most of the older generation not knowing these skills and many kids who have left school, not remembering a single thing about these. Obviously basic math and English skills will always be used, but those skills are ones we learnt at a very young age. The Māori language is a dying language because we have let it become one. It used to be banned in schools where they were just trying to abolish the language as well. If you know anything about linguistics you would know that language is deeply important. It has culture, history and connects people. New Zealand is Māori land, English speakers colonised it, not the other way around.

I appreciate your perspective on the unification and community-building potential of making Te Reo Māori compulsory in schools. You've brought up a really interesting point about how learning this language could help instill respect, which is indeed a vital life skill. However, consider this: if the primary goal of education is to equip students with practical skills for their future, then shouldn't the curriculum focus more on universally applicable languages like English, Spanish, or Mandarin?

The point you've made about the importance of language in preserving culture and…  Read more history is absolutely valid. Yet, one could argue that making a language compulsory might actually lead to resentment rather than appreciation and genuine engagement.

As for the less applicable aspects of Math and English that you mentioned, that's a debate in itself. Is it the content that's the issue, or how it's taught? Perhaps we should be focusing on adapting our teaching methods to make these subjects more relevant and engaging, rather than dismissing them as useless.