Content
Critically Endangered: Male Pre-School Teachers
Harald Breiding-Buss reports from the Christchurch Men in Early Childcare Summit held in March this year.
Dave Dobbyn
The Montessori Model
As Montessori-based education turns 100, Brendon Smith visits one Montessori pre-school in west Auckland to find out just what makes them different.
Running Like Dad
When Liz Oakes set herself the challenge of completing a half marathon it was memories of her father and his passion for running that kept her going.
Family Politics
Mark Stephenson attended the government-sponsored Social Policy, Research and Evaluation conference for us and came back with an inside look of New Zealand social policy making.
Finding HelenUK man Hamish Norton* came to New Zealand to find his daughter, Helen, who he says was abducted.
Parenting: Terrible Twos
Editorial
Has The World Turned?
By Brendon Smith
As we were watching sport, did the world turn?.
I was in front of TV last week, dinner still warm in my tummy, paper spreadlazily around, waiting for the rugby, when for only the second ever time, Iliked what I was hearing on Shortland Street.
A potential sperm donor was insisting that the child must have a father figure, or at least a male around, or it could be him. Now, this is Auckland, so the girl is gay, but at least the sperm donor insists that the child’s needs come first. The look on the ditzy girl’s face when the penny dropped, like she had been so going to have a baby with no male involved, but wow, what a good idea. Now we can negotiate the sharing and caring and off we go.
I don’t know how far this storyline will go, but it makes me proud that our state broadcaster has tied the plot’s next star to a father character.
Then, from a computer, of all places, I noticed a heading called Long Termeadership, and, before I could think, ‘What about the megabytes!’ my mousehad nailed it. Up came John Campbell, with his nicest smile on, about a youth mentoring scheme that maintains contact for ten years, taking video records every six months, and helps urban children, using the kiwi outdoor environment.
Matt Kerr, experienced outdoor adventure instructor, has discovered thatexposing kids to risks and guiding them as appropriate, remaining interested and monitoring progress makes a difference. Do not get me wrong, this is not funny. After years of more and more children being supported by thegovernment, with no guarantee of a positive male in their lives, the tide isfinally turning. but they make it seem like rocket science
It may be shifting numbers, but among the wins claimed by the governmentrecently was that the number of registered DPB beneficiaries actuallydropped in the last year. A small step perhaps, a result of a buoyant jobmarket maybe? I think it coincides nicely with the case of a father who won the right to decide whether IVF eggs inseminated with his sperm could be used by his ex-wife, then said no. That and many other recent effortsand mentors. encouraging fathers
Also within this country, at a Preschool Teachers conference recently, it was claimed that NZ has the lowest number of Male Early Childhood Educators in the western world. If this statistic was ‘least women’ in say, ’sport coaching’, we would have a national crisis, actionwould be forced on us immediately. Yet, as covered by Harald B-B in this and previous Father and Child Issues, children benefit hugely from interaction with adult males from their earliest years, so surely it should be considered negligent to run such a centre with no adult males present or entertaining?
Who knows? I might wake up in the morning, hear the Prime Minister insistthat of the 20 free childcare hours, 10 are to be with an adult male, plus that the DPB now has a compulsory children’s developmental needs. The Warriors beat the ref, and the Chiefs beat the Crusaders, yes! [Ed—that was a fluke!] I raised both hands in triumph knocking dinner crashing onto the carpet. A cat meowed and the TV hissed, but had the world turned?
