Head of English teacher says he won't teach draft curriculum
The Head of English at an Auckland college says he won't teach the proposed new English curriculum and is urging other teachers to boycott it too. The draft curriculum released earlier this month comes with a list of suggested texts including Arthur Miller's the Crucible, Edgar Allan Poe's the raven,1984 by George Orwell and Dubliners by James Joyce. The draft document makes no mention of Te Mataiaho a learning frame work grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Northcote College head of English David Taylor spoke to Lisa Owen.
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National Business Review
4 days ago
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TGIF and welcome to the end of another working week. Here's a recap of your daily dose of international business and political news. First this Friday, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone and agreed to further trade talks to resolve tariff disputes between the world's two largest economies, Bloomberg reported. Trump said the trade relationship with China had got 'a little off track' but said 'we're in very good shape with China and the trade deal'. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would all represent Trump at the trade talks, Bloomberg noted. Meanwhile, the BBC said Trump will visit China at some stage to help repair the fractured trade relationship after a "very good talk" with President Xi. No other details were revealed about the suggested trip. Elon Musk. Elsewhere, tension between Trump and billionaire businessman Elon Musk escalated in full public view. Trump called Musk 'CRAZY' in capital letters on social media, and suggested he might target Musk's government contracts, CNBC reported. Trump wrote that Musk was 'wearing thin' by the end of his tenure as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 'I asked him to leave,' Trump said. More broadly, the S&P 500 fell during Thursday trading, led by a drop in shares of electric vehicle maker Tesla, after Trump said he was 'very disappointed' with its CEO. Musk responded saying 'without me, Trump would have lost the election'. Bloomberg reported that Trump's comments about ending Musk's government contracts and subsidies could cut to the heart of the businessman's fortune, especially at Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies. Trump, meanwhile, banned people from 12 countries entering the US from Monday local time, while seven other countries faced partial bans. He said that would protect Americans from 'dangerous foreign actors', the BBC reported. Trump noted a recent attack in Colorado as an example of foreign nationals entering the US without being 'properly vetted'. ECB President Christine Lagarde. The European Central Bank cut its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 2% overnight, while it also lowered its inflation expectations because of a stronger euro and lower energy costs, CNBC reported. One governing council member did not support the decision to cut rates, ECB President Christine Lagarde said. Eurozone inflation fell below the 2% target rate in May to 1.9%. The ECB's latest economic projections suggested inflation to average 2% this year, compared with a 2.3% forecast set in March. Finally, people in English-speaking countries including the UK, US, Australia and Canada were more nervous about the rise of artificial intelligence than people in the largest EU economies, the Guardian reported. The poll of 23,000 adults in 30 countries also showed a quarter of people globally still don't fully understand what AI actually is. The poll also revealed very few people wanted AI-produced online news stories, films or advertisements, but most people predicted that AI would become the primary producer of all that content in the future, the Guardian noted.
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From Tobaccogate To Gendergate: Casey Costello's Pattern Of Ideology Over Evidence Continues
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Otago Daily Times
29-05-2025
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Speech contest winner gets ‘heart-warming' response from peers
Receiving a roaring haka was a "heart-warming" moment for a Dunedin secondary student who took top honours in a Māori speech competition. King's High School student Zane Rakete-Gray, 16, won the Korimako senior English contest at the Ōtākou and Murihiku Ngā Manu Kōrero regional speech competition at the Dunedin Town Hall yesterday. Zane placed first in both impromptu and prepared speeches categories. For his prepared speech, Zane spoke about what the world could look like in 2085 if the present coalition government got its way. "There won't be a competition like this in 2085, our language will be dead, the land will be destroyed beyond repair and our environment will not be good enough to live in." The competition was a good way to express his culture to the rest of the country, if not the world, he said. "It just shows that there is still people who can speak Māori." When he was announced the winner, a haka erupted in the town hall from his peers in the King's and Queen's High Schools' kapa haka group, He Waka Kōtuia. "It was a bit heart-warming." For the Ta Turi Kara junior English contest winner Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Otepoti student Ngaki Kiore, 14, speaking was about showing her peers they could stand on a stage and speak their minds. "There is a place for you here, whether you speak te reo Maori or not." Ngaki's sister Matoia Wilson won the senior English competition in 2009 and Ngaki was proud to follow in her sister's footsteps. Her speech was about connection to her ancestors and why her Māori correspondence school's curriculum offered the best opportunity for students to succeed, Ngaki said. "At Kura Kaupapa we are not just based off learning, we are based off how we can grow in ourselves." About 40 speakers from 23 schools across Otago and Southland took part n over two days. Zane and Ngaki will be joined by Pei Te Hurinui Jones senior Māori contest winner Hana Davis and Rawhiti Ihaka junior Māori contest winner Kyra Bachelor-Tata at the national finals in Whanganui this September.
