Our education system has become an ideological battleground. Tensions between priorities in education pervade the profession and bring political charge to even the smallest of decisions about life in the classroom. As if being a teacher wasn’t complex enough!
Now, more than ever, we need to have courageous conversations about how we have ended up here, and how to carve a better path forward.
The future of our democracy depends on future citizens who can tolerate hearing ideas they don’t agree with, and who can express their own opinions respectfully without descending into heated personal conflict. Our young people need to learn how to have conversations with people who see the world differently. They need to learn how to express themselves, and to live alongside others who do the same. We need to be teaching our young people how to think, not what to think; how to converse, not what to say.
Our young people need to hear different narratives, perspectives and beliefs, co-existing in the world around them. They need to learn what respectful disagreement looks like. They need to learn how to express a dissenting point of view without compromising their relationships.
We need to show our young people that viewpoint diversity is valued, alongside other kinds of difference. If you are dedicated to defending and expanding young Kiwis’ free speech, the Free Speech Union is here to support you.
It won’t be easy. But by embracing free speech as a core principle in education, we can lead the way for democratic values to thrive in a rich and dynamic society for generations to come.
Join a community of teachers who recognise free expression as an essential ingredient in a healthy education system – both for themselves and for the young people they teach.