What's up with our schools?; The Maverick and His Machine; The World’s Banker; For Richer or Poorer

What’s up with our schools? Allan Peachey
(Random House paperback, $27.95)
A top-quality teacher in every classroom: that’s Rangitoto College principal Alan Peachey’s simple formula for a successful education system. It’s a recurring theme in his book, which puts an alternative case for what should be done about schools.

As Peachey tells it, schools began their decline when a number of things conspired after the election of the Labour government in 1999. Peachey is straightforward about where he stands. While he rejects educational politics, he is keen to pursue politics as a private citizen. In 2002 he stood for National on the list, failed and went back to his principal’s job.

The first straw in the wind was a visit from the Education Review Office. Rangitoto College’s performance had put it in the upper echelons of the country’s large secondary schools. After highly favourable reports in 1995 and 1998, he was shocked by the 2002 review, which occurred while he was on leave for the election campaign. The report described Rangitoto as dysfunctional, despite having its best academic year and continuing its run of sporting ­victories. The school was described as being on the verge of collapse, run by a dictatorial head.

Peachey acknowledges his style is to lead from the front. But he thinks most schools sink or swim depending on the quality and style of their leadership, the same as for any organisation. When challenged about their findings, the ERO officials backed down and rewrote the report. Peachey came to believe only one thing had changed: he was politically untrustworthy, prepared to challenge the educational powers that be and needed to be put in his place. He was also dropped from the Sport & Recreation New Zealand’s talent identification taskforce.

This destroyed Peachey’s faith in the ERO and further affirmed his belief in why the self-governing Tomorrow’s Schools exercise has failed. The other reasons are the growth of the sector’s bureaucratic arms, the government’s move to abolish bulk funding of teachers’ salaries and the inability of school boards to pay teachers on merit — a move strongly opposed by the teacher unions.

He has not given up hope. “The transformation of New Zealand schooling is possible, but it will take huge shifts in thinking away from a centrally controlled and risk-averse, micro-managed system to one which puts much greater emphasis on the quality of leadership that the right type of principal can provide. There will also need to be a much greater emphasis on local governance structures.”

He outlines the NCEA debate as a politically motivated compromise between the retention of a ranking system based on norm-referencing and a more flexible standards-based assessment.

Like most teachers, Peachey sees improvements in the NCEA compared with old-style exams. He would be disheartened by the recent turn of events and subsequent inquiry by outsiders to solve a political embarrassment for the government and its officials. He concludes that if left to the teachers themselves, most of the problems would have been foreseen and solved before they got out of hand.


The Maverick and His Machine Kevin Maney
(Wiley paperback, $29.95)
This is the latest and most authoritative of the many books about Thomas Watson and the IBM empire he founded. It’s the first to be based on Watson’s voluminous personal papers held in the IBM archives. The story of how a near-bankrupt seller of scales and time clocks became the founder of the world’s most powerful organisation of its time is well known. But Maverick contains a wealth of previously secret detail on how Watson bet the company on tabulating machines in the 1920s, invested heavily during the depression and went on to launch the computer age. Watson was a tinkerer in the grand tradition of American invention but also had a powerful business brain and strong sales skills. He is credited with creating today’s corporate culture that values motivated employees and lifelong loyalty.

For Richer or Poorer Linda Gough
(Allen & Unwin paperback, $25)
In this age of civil unions, the traditional wedding register for dinnerware and manchester has been replaced by do-it-yourself guides on how to get rich. For Richer or Poorer is based on a successful Australian version and can’t be faulted for its excellent advice and comprehensive detailing of every aspect of joint living. Other studies have established the superior earning power of two over one. But such partnerships are fraught with problems, such as profligacy, ill health and conflict. All are sensibly covered. Not for reading on the wedding night but easily digested on the honeymoon.

The World’s Banker Sebastian Mallaby
(University of New South Wales Press paperback, $39.95)
Few Australians have had such an impact on the world stage as James Wolfensohn, even if his name is hardly a household word. As the outgoing president of the World Bank, he is synonymous with the war against poverty, a wholly new role for the organisation that has shaped the global economy for the past 60 years. The World Bank has far more critics than supporters and Wolfensohn himself is as admired as he is unpopular. His genuine crusade against poverty has softened his imperious reputation toward others. This engrossing account is essential reading for anyone wanting to keep up with an issue that some see as a greater threat to the world’s future than either terrorism or global warming.