February 18, 2014
Kura hourua no boot camp
One of Northland’s two partnership schools opened this week with high expectations from the community.
Te Kura Hourua O Whangarei Terenga Paraoa grew out of the Leadership Academy of A Company, a residential hostel that provided accommodation and extra activities for boys attending Whangarei high schools.
Pouwhakahaere Nathan Matthews left his job as senior lecturer in education at Massey University to lead the new school.
He sees it as an opportunity to provide a type of education that will benefit young Maori.
Dr Matthews says despite its military overtones, the kura is not a boot camp.
"It reflects the Maori Battalion but it does have a military overtone too it but it is more about living up to the high ideals of our tupuna who went away and fought for us, the price of citizenship and all that stuff you hear, it was more based on that and instilling that pride on our young Maori males up here that perhaps has been eroded over the years," he says.
Dr Matthews says the whanau have been made aware they will be expected to offer greater support and involvement that if they were sending their rangatahi to a mainstream school.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH NATHAN MATTHEWS
http://www.waateanews.com/play_podcast?podlink=MTU0NzE=
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