The decline in educational standards has been brought about by the Education Ministry’s, and the teaching profession’s, steady abandonment of the traditional pedagogical notion that the principal responsibility of the teacher is to impart knowledge; and its replacement with the idea that the purpose of education is to make the teacher’s pupils and students feel good about themselves.

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Known principally for his political commentaries in The Dominion Post, The ODT, The Press and the late, lamented Independent, and for "No Left Turn", his 2007 history of the Left/Right struggle in New...