Pāngarau is not an option

Every kaiako is a kaiako pāngarau. They may try to deny it, and many try to avoid it but if you are teaching in a kura teina there's no getting away from it.

Let's compare it to another context. Let's say parenthood. 

Being a parent is damned hard work. Nobody gets an instruction manual. I was lucky though, because I had my mum and my grandmother nearby. I'd learned to bath, dress, change and feed a baby when my younger siblings were born. I was accustomed to entertaining little kids and babysitting bigger kids.

But being a parent was so much more than any of that could have prepared me for!

When you become a parent you find yourself having to do things you never learned about in school... or anywhere for that matter. You're responsible for paying bills and buying food, nursing little ones through all manner of afflictions, making sure they're polite in public and honest at the shop on the corner. You have to manage temper tantrums and heartbreaks, playground dramas and nightmares.

So what did you do? How did you learn to be a parent?

Imagine if, after accidentally getting soap in your baby's eyes you decided to just stop bathing him. It's too hard, I might do more damage, I'm just not cut out for it, I just don't have a baby-bathing bone in my body.

Sound familiar?

Being a kaiako is like being a parent - you can't pick and choose which responsibilities to want to accept and which you'll just opt out of. As a kaiako you are responsible for each ākonga, for the whole child. It's your role to fan their sparks of curiosity into bright flame. It's up to you to provide them with the best opportunities to explore their world with understanding.

Chances are you became a kaiako because of a passion for te reo. You talk, read and write every day so teaching those things feels a little more comfortable and natural to you. What you don't notice is all the pāngarau you do in the course of a regular day. Pāngarau has be disguised in academic garb since way back, so it's not your fault you don't notice it.

Everybody thinks mathematically at some point in their daily lives. Including you. 

Instead of worrying about getting soap in the baby's eyes turn your attention to discovering the pāngarau that already flows around your world. Instead of resisting it and denying it turn around and let it reveal itself to you. Yes, mathematics. And be patient with yourself.

In the same way that you learned to be a parent by accepting the responsibilities that came with the role, and allowing yourself to learn as you go, you can be a kaiako pāngarau by accepting that it is an inevitable, natural and exciting part of your educational role.

Tīhei Pāngarau!