Listening to Our Children: Returning to the Heart of Te Mātaiaho
- Lian Soh
- Apr 28
- 2 min read
We stand at a crossroads. One path leads back to hope, vision, and trust. The other leads to silence. Our tamariki are waiting to see which we choose.
Listening to our children is something we say we do, but how often do we truly honour their voices? Surveys and exit tickets are a beginning — but they are not listening. They are not enough.
If we are serious about building a future our young people deserve, we must start where Te Mātaiaho taught us to start: With the kaupapa. With the vision. Not the content.
Somewhere along the way, we lost sight of this. We have leapt headfirst into rigid content — maths and literacy — as if they alone could mend the hurt our education system carries. But when we rush to content without standing firmly in our kaupapa, we lose sight of the people we are meant to walk alongside. We forget that our children live in a world radically different from the one we grew up in — and their needs are changing faster than a curriculum document can be printed.
The problem with any static curriculum, no matter who designs it, is that it cannot breathe. It becomes a cage instead of a vessel for growth.
The original Te Mātaiaho (March 2023) understood this...
This article is a must-read for all educators who are interested in curriculum reform.
Acknowledgements: The original article was published by Rebecca Thomas from Engaging Learning Voices. As the article has attracted considerable views it has been partly republished on Bay Science, with permission, to enable kaiako to continue discussions around curriculum reform in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Please contact info@bayscience.nz in the event of any errors/suggestions or if you would like to contribute a spotlight article.
