Nice!

Life is grand. Honestly, things like this really cheer me up.

The Ministry of Education is defending printing badges to promote its new Maori education strategy, a move derided by some principals as gimmicky and infantile.
Principals have complained about the badges, which sport phrases such as "I love Maori success" and "Wassup!". The total cost for the information mailout was $230,000, Radio New Zealand reported.

It such an uptight, protestant, New Zealand thing to mention the cost of everything.

Ministry deputy secretary for Maori, Apryll Parata, said she was disappointed in the principals' criticisms. The badges had been designed to prompt discussion and engagement between teachers and students, using language young people used.

I wore my badge all day. It definitely prompted discussion and engagement between teachers and students. Here are some examples:

• You look so gay wearing that badge Mister.
• Are those the dumb badges in the news?
• That's f**king stupid.

"And on the badges it simply says things like I love Maori success. If that's considered gimmicky then I think we've got bigger problems than we may have thought in education," Ms Parata said. She said if students found the language on the badges patronising, that was a discussion worth having in the classroom.

Awesome defence by Ms. Parata: let's slag of education. Always encouraging when members of the Ministry of Education do that. Considered gimicky? Isn't it a gimick? I mean isn't that the purpose of the badges?

As for the discussion about why I'm patronising the students, I think I'll skip it.

Looking forward to phase two badges: "Pakeha success is ok, too", "I love Chinese food", "The MOE is dumb"