Writing an Opinion Piece

Aotearoa (New Zealand), has a very strong Maori presence. The original settlers of New Zealand were Maori, and Maori culture is still strong. Many Pakeha people try to promote Maori culture and express themselves as being Maori, but I believe this is wrong. Many people today still follow old Maori traditions, and there are still white supremacists around as well. There used to be many white supremacists groups in the world, but they have crumbled to a shell of what they used to be. They performed illegal activities and because of this, the police and the Maori were against them. There are still many Pakeha and many Maori in New Zealand today, but very few of them speak fluent Te Reo.





From the 2018 census of New Zealand, there were 775,836 people in New Zealand that were Maori, making up about 16.5% of the country. New Zealand has the largest Maori population in the world, and they are the second-largest ethnic group in New Zealand behind Pakeha. Pakeha make up 70% of New Zealand's population and Maori make up 16.5%, then they are closely followed by Asians which make up 15.3% of New Zealand's population. There are 773 marae in New Zealand and many other Maori structures. Although there are many Maori structures in New Zealand, many Maori people in New Zealand, and people promoting Te Reo throughout the country, only about 3% of New Zealanders actually speak Te Reo.





Maori culture shouldn’t be forced on people, but they should be able to decide for themselves if they want to learn Te Reo. Te Reo is a language that is not very common, so I can understand why people are pushing others to learn it. Te Reo is not very common at all in countries other than New Zealand, so it is important for us to have a strong Maori culture. Te Reo is important in New Zealand, but it shouldn’t be shoved down our throats. If someone doesn’t want to speak Te Reo, then they shouldn’t be forced to learn it in school and be forced to listen to Maori speakers and singers. Many people say that Maori should be taught in schools because we are from a country that was originally Maori, but I believe that some schools go a bit overboard. Many students greatly struggle to learn English, so imagine how hard it would be for them to learn a completely new language. Maori is an entirely different culture, and schools seem to think it is a good idea to force this culture on students. If a culture is forced on students, it can make them reluctant to learn it, and it may even make them defiant.





People say it is good to learn another language so that you have more options in life. Many people like to learn a different language so that they can travel to a different country. People might learn French before they travel to France, but it is not essential. There is no country that has Te Reo as its main language, and very few countries have many Te Reo speakers at all. Since there are no countries with Maori as their main language, there is basically no incentive for people to learn the Maori language. Te Reo is in a better position than it was a few years ago, but it is still not a very common language. I believe it is good if more people learn Te Reo and make it a more common language, but only if they want to. Not many people make an effort to learn a language if they are going to have no use for it, and that is why uncommon languages don’t often get more common, and can even completely die out. If a language dies out completely it is essentially erased from existence, and that isn’t good by anyone's standards.





In conclusion, Maori culture is not the most important thing in the world. People can learn to speak Te Reo if they would like to, but lots of New Zealand school students are forced to. Teachers should not force Maori culture and Te Reo upon us, and we should instead focus on learning what we want. It can be very hard for some people to cope with school, and it can be even harder for people to cope with a whole new culture. I personally know someone who hates having to learn Maori culture. If people want to learn Te Reo and Maori culture, then they can take the Te Reo class. We sing lots of Maori songs and have Maori culture pushed on us, but if people don’t like what they are being taught, then they won't learn. Maori culture should be optional in schools, and Pakeha people do not all need to try and learn Maori.

Opinion Pieces

An opinion piece/editorial is a piece of writing where the author expresses their opinion on a topic and tries to convince people that their opinion is right. 

Here is a link to an editorial that I read:https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/119385975/coronavirus-a-matter-of-when-not-if

I partly agree with the author of this article and think that there should be more done to stop the coronavirus, but there was no need to attack the government.  The author of the article said that our government needed to do more to stop the coronavirus and they needed to act quickly.  I agree with this, but they wrote it in quite an aggressive way that sounded like they were having a go at the government.

Algebra Week 4 Term 4

This is the problem and I will explain how to work it out -  

5(6x−2)+9=179

30x + −10 + 9=179

The reason I did this working is because 5 x 6x = 30x, so I simplified it to just say 30x.  5 x -2 = -10, so I combined those as well. I also needed to add on the 9 at the end still. This got me to 30x + -10 + 9 = 179

30x -1 + 1 = 179 + 1

Now I am making this a balanced equation.  -10 + 9 = -1, so I simplified it again. After I had done this, I used -1 to make this a balanced equation.

30x = 180       30x/30 = 180/30

Now I divide to work out the value of x.  30x/30 equals x. So 180/30 = the value of x.

180 divided by 30 is 6, so that is the value of x.

x=6

I have liked algebra this week, and the group work has been ok. Can't wait for more maths next week!!! : /

Algebra Substitution

Here is a link explaining substitution:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XsdlWhJFcjg2EOgoddUyjtyCQIbQva7doLJzL2uuoQI/edit#slide=id.p


This week we have been doing substitution in maths.  It has been cool.  I liked it.  It was interesting.  I did the substitution.  I did it good.  So did other peeps.  We did some group work as well, and it was... interesting.

Algebra Reflection

I have really liked algebra for this term.  It has been interesting to learn different techniques to solve the division.  I think group work isn't a good idea, and nobody seems to like it.  Some people find it easy, and some people find it too hard.  The people who find it too hard just don't do anything, and the others end up doing it all.  I prefer doing individual work, and working things out on my own.

`My experience in groups

The group norms that our class has come up with are
1. Listen to each other
2. Participate in your group
3. Be patient

I try to listen to everyone in the group and participate, but quite often my group members don't.  I often do all of the work and even if I try to get them to, they just don't participate. 

I could try to get my group more motivated, but if they aren't going to do anything then it is hard for me to get them to.

I am grateful for being in a school where I can be put in groups and can get an education, but it could be better.

Philosophical Math Drawing : /

This is our cartoon about maths that I did with Louis.  It is saying that good mathematicians may get distracted, but great mathematicians are focused.
The group norms are good because they are necessary for group work, but I still don't like working in a group.