School Makes it Worse

The poor self-image is probably the greatest disadvantage that the Maori child suffers in competition with the Pakeha. He would like to dissociate himself from being a Maori, from minority group status and become successful like the Pakeha; but it is impossible for him to do so. He cannot escape categorisation on the basis of his physical features. Gradually he gets his identity right and he rebels against Pakeha authority that shackles him with minority group status and its attendant disadvantages. Maori children are cooperative and conforming in the infant school. It is in the middle standards about the age of seven and eight when they have worked out their identity and its full implications that they become anti-social and disruptive in school.

School and Pakeha authority worsens the situation for the child by its failure to put a positive valuation on Maori identity. The teachers in the main are monocultural and don't even take the trouble to pronounce Maori names correctly. It is no wonder that school for Maori children becomes a place of failure, a place to leave as soon as one turns fifteen.