When the OECD started monitoring education systems in the year 2000, New Zealand was one of the top performers.

University of Auckland education professor Peter O’Connor credits our performance with the fact that our wide curriculum balanced rich academic knowledge with arts and other creative subjects.

But O’Connor says the country’s fall from grace began after the 2008 election, when the curriculum began to narrow, starting with the introduction of National Standards in 2010.

※We had a grinding focus on literacy and numeracy - let’s test to make sure we have the standard child,§ he says.

※One of the things that we’ve seen is a drop-off internationally since those failed policies.§

In today’s episode of The Detail, O’Connor recalls asking his then five-year-old daughter what she wanted to learn at school. Her answer was simple: blood.

※The thing about schools is because of standardised curriculum, you don’t learn about blood until you’re 13,§ he says.

In O’Connor’s ideal world, his daughter, and all other children, would be able to go to a school where their curiosity is encouraged, where learning is messy, and imaginations can run wild.

※She should be able to go to a school where when the teacher asks her a question, she can be playful with the answer,§ he says.

He says that our education system now is killing that imagination, and that things will get worse with the changes the coalition Government is making to the sector.

The changes include a mandatory hour each of reading, writing and maths every day, a clearer curriculum, and an increase in testing.

It’s that final point that O’Connor believes is particularly problematic.

※We know that from international evidence that regimes of constant testing not only doesn’t lift achievement, it also damages the way that children think about being playful with learning,§ he says.

And O’Connor says that playfulness and imagination aren’t just essential for children’s development, but for our world.

※Empathy is a basic, and that’s why the imagination is so important. To be able to imagine someone other than yourself and what their life is, is so vitally important in our times now.

※If we can’t imagine ourselves differently, if we can’t imagine the world differently, this is as good as the world gets.§

Peter O’Connor will be holding a session on the impact schools have on children’s imagination in Auckland on the 27th of August as part of Auckland University’s annual Raising the Bar event. Find further details here.

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