For Want of a Better Word Friday 16 April 2010

Well, I'm not using text language...

Boardgamers are outraged. Bored gamers are rejoicing. A new version of Scrabble will accept proper nouns, including names (Meatloaf?), brands (McDonald’s?) and places (Macau?). The aim is to encourage more young people to play the boardgame; young people who don’t have the patience or the vocabulary to play ‘traditional’ Scrabble. In other words, most young people. Harsh? Perhaps. But no one’s denying that the English language has gone to custard. Why else would Scrabble throw out its rulebook? The purists aren’t happy. They’re intent on protecting their beloved game. But it seems Scrabble is the last bastion of literacy. It’s the only domain to be ruled by the dictionary. And in the war for words, the Scrabble board is the final frontier. But why would a teenager learn to spell a simple but irrelevant word like ‘buoy’ (9 points), when the longer but popular name ‘Beyonce’ will score 14 points?

In New Zealand, youth literacy has proved a headache. Back in 1999, the Government launched a literacy taskforce, with a daft and unattainable goal: “By 2005, every child turning nine will be able to read and write”. Universal literacy, along with hovercrafts and jetpacks, didn’t arrive by 2005. Five years on, the stats are still pretty grim. The Government says one in five students leave school without adequate literacy skills. The media are often blamed for dumbing down our language. Schools are blamed for being too lenient. Parents are blamed for failing to encourage literacy in the home. And governments are blamed for not spending enough on remedial education for struggling students. The current government has launched a literacy ‘crusade’. The results won’t be seen for years, but there are high expectations that the policy will succeed.

Literacy remains a problem because society does not place a premium on the skillful use of words, especially by youth. ‘Text language’ is an adequate form of communication, because it gets the message across. Error-laden essays are often deemed acceptable as long as it’s clear what the student is trying to say, regardless of how they say it. Incorrect grammar in everyday conversation is overlooked, because no one is pretentious enough to correct someone else’s speech. There is no incentive, and no imperative, for young people to master the English language. Of course there are exceptions. Many students enjoy and excel at English. They enjoy communicating, and they are highly adept at it. But for the majority of their mates, learning English is little more than a chore.

The United Nations has declared that this is the ‘Literacy Decade’. It’s an odd concept, but the justification is sound: one in five of the world’s adults cannot read or write. One in five: the same statistic used to highlight the number of Kiwi kids who leave school without adequate literacy. It’s a strange comparison. Millions of children in developing countries have never seen a classroom or a textbook in their lives. Our youth are much better off. Yet many are not ready to communicate effectively in their adult lives. What’s required? A cultural shift. And there is no reason why that shift can’t begin on the Scrabble board. If you’re going to use an obscure word, you might as well learn to spell it.

Follow The Leader Sunday 14 March 2010

Happy buzzwords about leadership. Are you feeling inspired yet?

I’ve always been suspicious of people who claim to be “leadership experts” or “motivational speakers”. According to who? In reality, it seems many of those on the speaking circuit don’t have anything original to say. In fact, many of them resort to tired cliches about “climbing mountains”, “reaching your dreams”, “fulfilling your potential” and “becoming everything you’ve ever wanted to be”. Sadly, we’ve become accustomed to this mumbo-jumbo.

When we talk about leadership, it seems we start speaking another language; a language of cliches and catchphrases, with a sprinkling of “deep” quotes from Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Oprah Winfrey. How many times have we been told about “passion” and “potential”? Do we really need to be told that leadership is not about “power”, it’s about “people”? Many motivational speakers wrap up this empy rhetoric in different ways, and somehow, they sell it to their audiences. We get a buzz. We laugh. We may even clap. But then we go home and think, ‘Hang on, does that help me to understand leadership? Does it give me any tools to become a better leader?’ Often, the answer is ‘no’.

In New Zealand, leadership training for youth is woefully inadequate, especially in high schools. Many schools have poor selection criteria for appointing student leaders. Those who are chosen are often given no mentoring or advice, and are left with little responsibility. Some schools invite leadership experts to provide seminars for their senior students, but many of these programmes fail to equip students with a practical understanding of how to lead. As a result, many young leaders fail to develop their talents. Some principals have told me that they feel ill-equipped to provide their students with more robust leadership coaching.

Some organisations are working to fill the gaps. For a decade, the Halogen Foundation’s National Young Leaders Days have drawn large crowds of high school students. Having gone to the event when I was at high school, I seized the opportunity to speak at this year’s forum. I have no intention to “motivate” or “inspire”. Nor do I claim to be a leadership expert. My aim is to challenge and frustrate the students. Some of them switch off. But most of them get it.

“It seems unreasonable, and a bit ungrateful, to feel frustrated in being presented with such a vast amount of opportunity in this day and age, but I guess that frustration is really just a representation of my fear,” wrote one student in an email to me after last week’s Young Leaders Day. For a high school student, it’s a remarkably honest realisation. These are the kinds of conversations about leadership we need to have.

Dead In The Water Saturday 13 February 2010

Marineland: a chequered past and an uncertain future

Most New Zealanders, including me, have fond memories of their childhood visits to Marineland. The animal attraction, proudly placed on Napier’s waterfront, has been one of the cornerstones of Hawke’s Bay’s tourism industry for 45 years. In its heyday, Marineland’s performing dolphins and seals attracted thousands of visitors each week. Now, the gates are shut. The grandstand is empty. The dolphins have died. The crowds have gone. Marineland sits in the shadow of its former glory. In today’s Your Weekend magazine, I report on Marineland’s past, present and future. In the 1970s, dozens of dolphins died. As early as the mid-80s, the future of the marine zoo has been uncertain.

I travelled to Napier to interview the key players. Gary Macdonald, the former manager of Marineland, resigned in November after admitting he had falsified reports about fur seals which had been taken from the wild. Macdonald gave 37 years of his life to Marineland, but now says it’s time to let go. He was, and still is, Marineland’s staunchest ally. One of his critics is Ada McIlroy, the widow of a former Marineland manager, who spoke to me about the dolphin deaths in the 1970s. McIlroy, who remains hurt by the way the dolphins were treated in Marineland’s early days, wants the marine zoo’s gates to be closed for good. But Napier Council’s tourism staff could shed almost no light on Marineland’s future, because the Council has not decided whether to close it, or revive it.

We photographed McIlroy in her garden, standing on the spot where her late husband had buried two dolphins which died while under Marineland’s care. The official documents paint a bleak picture: a long list of dead animals from the 1970s, identified only by a serial number. The dolphins, which were caught in the open ocean, could not handle the stress. In the years since, Marineland’s animals have been well cared for. Many have lived much longer than expected.

But although Marineland has left a strong legacy for Hawke’s Bay, it has also left a stain on New Zealand’s reputation as an ecologically-progressive nation. In 1991, Marineland was banned from catching wild dolphins. It has also been prevented from importing zoo-bred dolphins. Marineland’s supporters say the zoo could be turned into an animal hospital, or a breeding zoo for endangered dolphins. Its detractors argue that marine zoos have passed their use-by date. Whatever decision is eventually made by the Napier Council, Marineland’s 45- year history will not be easy to erase from New Zealand’s history books.