Andrew Dickens Afternoons

Isn’t it great when you hear grown-ups talking about the issues of the day and making sense? It’s something you don’t hear too often in our media, which is full of simplified slogan shouting in 10-second soundbites.So this is what I was thinking about listening to the Auckland Grammar school headmaster, Tim O’Connor, talking on Newstalk ZB this morning. He is part of a group called the Community Schools Alliance made up of principals from 42 schools around the country.The group is opposing proposals made by the Tomorrow's Schools Review taskforce, which has recommended a system of hubs to oversee groups of schools and take over many of the responsibilities of school trustees.This centralisation of school management has been described as ideologically driven by the current government and therefore a bad idea.What I liked about Tim O’Connor is that he didn’t get into Government or Working Group bashing at all, despite being pushed to do so. While he admitted the hub plan was ideologically driven, he didn’t dism