Two
Published on August 31, 2025.
I hate being a teacher, sometimes. Part of the job means building a relationships with students. That means showing whanaungatanga. That implies aroha. That implies a level of care beyond the academics, beyond grades, beyond awards. You want to see them grow and succeed as though they were part of your own whānau, your own family, your own children.
Today, I learnt of the tragic news that one of my former students had passed away in a traffic accident. It was reported that the driver died at the scene and I believe my student to have been the driver. I hope they didn't suffer.
Earlier in the year, another student took their own life just a few days shy of the start of Year 13, their final year of school.
That's two students that I've lost this year.
Two that I taught. Two that I saw succeed. Two who showed a promising future. Two who willingly and gladly gave their time to help others. Two with some of the most wicked smiles that instantly lit up my classrooms. Two that I'll never see one day in the streets, happily telling me about the amazing things that they've gotten up to.
Strike One!
Published on August 20, 2025.
It was always going to be a long shot that the coalition government would come to the table with a proper offer for the kaiako (teachers). Surprise, surprise, they didn't. One percent raise over three years, lower than the rate of inflation, results in an effective pay cut. On average, kaiako are already paid quite a bit less than their counterparts over in Australia; certainly, quite a bit less than one minister thinks.
So, out we went! Many kaiako out in the morning with pickets, attracting the attention of our respective communities which includes the whānau (families) of our ākonga (students). Kaiako from high schools and colleges from roughly Wellington Airport to around Porirua going along State Highway 1 then met at parliament. When my husband and I arrived around 12pm, people were just beginning to seep in. I turned around and, suddenly, the party had started — the time to stand up, to fight back!
The last time teachers went on strike, the sympathy for us was fairly low given that parents had to keep their tamariki (children) at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and then through strike action that went on for so long that arbitrators were needed. Social media is no measure of true public sentiment but what I've seen so far has been a lot more sympathetic than in 2023.
Between successive governments failing to treat our nurses, junior doctors, and any other union with any kind of actual appreciation or respect whilst fattening themselves on increasingly bloated salaries, perhaps the public is getting closer to stopping blaming the little guy; those who are looking after their rangatahi (youth), their hauora (health).
It helps that the big guy has become so cartoonishly evil, as of late.
Not that I'm letting the previous government off the hook, they who let the previous negotiations drag on so long in the first place. We are stuck between Blue National and Red National. It's not clear to me that any major party really cares for or prioritises the public servants that could halt the brain drain.
I still think our best bet is a Green and Red National coalition, particularly young people increasingly turning to the Green Party as the nearest thing we have to the Left, to some kind of participant in the political sphere that represents things in line with the ideals of youth. Te Pāti Māori, too, could be the ones to step in to say the right things. I'm not convinced that either of them will convince Red National to do what needs to be done, however.
I don't think they care. We have no Left to look after us. As far as the politicians are concerned, they've got theirs.
Time for us to get ours! And the nurses, and the junior doctors…
Then, our profession might heal. People might stay.
(Oh, and you may notice in the videos that, despite the cold weather, I'm barefoot as ever — because, just like the people teaching your tamariki, #barefootishuman 🦶🏻)