I went from a North Shore primary to Secondary School and then on to Teachers Training College and ended up teaching for 46 years as a travelled primary teacher at the New Zealand ‘chalk face’.
My experience allows me to say that I never saw or heard that speaking Maori in schools was forbidden or wrong.
Indeed, children who could speak Maori in the playground were looked up to as skilful.
So, why have we got stories of intolerance circulating? Is it to foster supposed support for a NZ underdog? As a teacher, I was able to say that there was no bullying on my watch in the playground. If a school has bullying, it is because adults have absented themselves.
Personal presence is the answer to cessation. This does not absolve the parents of bullies from responsibility.
