Reasons why New Zealand exists
The reason I am writing this essay is because my geography teacher thinks New Zealand does not exist. However, I know that New Zealand does exist.
My Mum moved to New Zealand from Scotland and lived there for over 20 years before coming to England. While in New Zealand my Mum's best freind was born in N.Z. and her son has been there and told me all about it. My mother has New Zealand citizenship and her freind and her son both have New Zealand nationality. This is legitimate proof that N.Z. is real.
I think that my teacher does not believe in New Zealand because the All Blacks play rugby so well that they mostly win! My freind Alex supports the All Blacks and has a top representing their uniform.
Satellite pictures have been taken of the Earth and show its countries. I've even seen New Zealand is in the atlas and my mother has been to many places such as Auckland. Also, New Zealand has a national flag which looks like this.
English people settled in New Zealand a few hundred years ago. Before that the Maoris people ruled New Zealand and they called it Aotearoa. This means the land of the long white cloud. I have got a Maori tribes doll. On Friday my aunt and cousin are arriving from New Zealand and they will bring their own photographs of the country.
I expect there are many more reasons why New Zealand exists however these are all the ones I can think of for now.
30 comments:
1a) How did you mother know that she really was in New Zealand and not somewhere else?
1b) Is your mother telling you the truth?
2a) Is the passport real? If it looks real, how do you know it is not for a make-believe country?
3a) Just because you have a black shirt with a white feather on it does not mean that a whole country exists!
4a) Just because you have seen pictures (of places) called New Zealand, does that mean they are actually there? If I was to draw an island and then get it printed into a book.. would the place become real?
5a) My son has a doll called Buzz Light Year.
Mr Raven Ellison cannot prove that New zealand doesn't exists and the only way we could prove to him that it does exist is go there with him. (that will never happen)
i know this does not prove that it does exist but my teacher moved there and sent back postcards with New Zealand stamps on them.
from alex (one of your students in 7GP)
Hi,
There is no possible way that anyone can proove that it exists. But Mr. Raven-Ellison cant prove that new zealand dosnt exist !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway i voted and i said that new zealand does not exist ( Just so Jack can pay Mr. Raven-Ellison £1,000,000,000,000. Mwa hahahaha)
by Ellen (one of the 7GP students)
Mr. Raven-Ellison,
The following is to be taken in the good-humoured nature it was intended... :)
"Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children."
William Makepeace Thackeray
Having stumbled across your blog, I was absolutely shocked to see that you posed the question, "Is your mother telling you the truth?" to a 12-year-old girl.
Is disrupting the family unit by instilling a feeling of parental distrust in your pupils part of Langtree's 2007 Geography curriculum? If not, I see no good reason to cause a child to question the trustworthiness of their parents.
If I were a 12-year-old girl, I am certain that the notion my own mother may have lied to me would never have occurred to me. I find it hugely irresponsible of you to introduce this concept into the fragile, developing psyche of an impressionable young child.
What else has her mother been lying about? Maybe, "Don't get into cars with strangers", or how about, "You should always stop, look and listen before you cross the road"?
Furthermore, with feedback such as:
"Is the passport real? If it looks real, how do you know it is not for a make-believe country?"
and
"Just because you have seen pictures (of places) called New Zealand, does that mean they are actually there? If I was to draw an island and then get it printed into a book.. would the place become real?"
You have confused me. Your pupils have presented perfectly good evidence to support the argument that a country called New Zealand exists. Whilst I applaud any effort to encourage a higher level of thinking in our children, asking kids of this age to engage in a priori speculation may be a bridge too far. You are seemingly presenting 11 and 12 year old children with the task of examining the nature of reality. Is this really a Geography question or does it fall more within the area of Philosophy?
One pupil presented evidence of New Zealand on a map - A MAP for Christ's sake - surely the cornerstone of any Geography student's reference material, then you go on to question whether a Passport known to have been used for international travel validates a country's existence. Are you a Geography teacher or an Immigration officer, Mr Raven-Ellison?
Now don't get me wrong - encouraging our kids to think is a good thing. I just believe that the way you have responded to your pupils is inappropriate (not to mention littered with spelling mistakes - PROOVE vs prove, RECIEVE vs receive etc - and grammatical errors; inexcusable in the age of the computerised spell-check) and the nature of the assignment should have been more clearly defined - is it truly a question pertaining to the science of dealing with the earth's surface, as shown in the character, arrangement, and interrelations of such elements as climate, elevation, soil, vegetation and population, or are you asking a different question altogether?
Given your apparent fundamental refusal to acknowledge the existence of one or more locations on Earth, perhaps you should try teaching something else. :)
Regards,
Rob
Hi Rob,
You make some good points here and I am going to raise them with my Year 7 classes. It will be interesting to see what they say. Once I've heard some of their opinions I'll comment back... but for the moment..
1) thanks for the spellings (<: - this blog was born out of a lesson and pulled together very quickly. It's always good to see web 2.0 working fine and well!
2) your definition is not my definition of Geography. Where did you get it from? Geography is not just scientific, it is also artistic. The way we see and understand the world is also based largely on our experiences, politics and culture.
Best wishes and thanks!
Dan
PS - have you noticed the clustr map? Not one red mark for NZ yet. Odd, aye?
mr raven-ellison can't prove that N.Z doesn't exist,and we can't prove it does,but I like N.z so I say it exists.
This is from someone.
I confess I am the leader of the secret club pretending that newzealand exists.
Hi Mr Raven-Ellison, Molly here [Freddie's sister].
I think New Zealand does exist because I've seen pictures and videos that were taken there...
And also, if it didn't exist, how would the person who invented it manage to brainwash the entire world into calling it New Zealand? I mean, everybody calls it New Zealand and surely if it was made-up, then not everybody would know its name?
And if New Zealand doesn't exist, then what about the rest of the world? How do we know that the country we live in, the ground we're standing on, isn't an illusion? How do we know that life itself is real?
Hope you won't mind me muscling in, but I just had to reply. =]
i think this evidence is bad and good.
bad because it doesn't entirly prove that N.Z exists, good because you have spent time trying to prove that it exists.(more than the rest of langtree school could do)
I confess I am the leader of the secret organisation pretending that Newzealand exists. we hire actors to pretend to be from a contry called Newzealand. We really actually take peolple to Africa when they think they are going to Newzealnd.
WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH ROB EVEN IF WE ARE IN YEAR 7 IT DOESNT MEAN WE CANT ANSWER STUPID QUESTOINS AND IF U REALLY THINK IT IS THAT BAD GO AND SEE MR RAVEN-ELLISON!
Elli - I think you may have misunderstood what I was trying to say. I am sorry if my comment offended you in any way. I wasn't suggesting you weren't capable of participating in the debate because of your age, I thought it was a really tough question for anyone to answer, regardless of how old you are.
I was standing up for you guys! I thought some of the points your schoolmates raised to prove that NZ does exist were good, and was sad to see that Mr Raven-Ellison rejected them, that's all.
whatever you think, it is technically impossible to support your theory. I iz larry from 7km
A friend of mine said he was emigrating to New Zealand - we had a big party and waved him off, but I'm sure I saw him in a pub in Heckmondwike at the weekend...
I've started a blog
http://doesrobexist.blogspot.com ;)
hi,rob
i'm not sure what you did at school but it's obviusly funner and more challenging now. (2007) i personly love challenges and i think the rest do aswell. from alex
Well I live in New Zealand and NASA has taken photos of it:
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=4860
Lynne says:
My sister has moved, with her family, to New Zealand, she had to comply with some very strict NZ rules to live permanently in the country and to become a NZ Citizen. I don't think she's in a NASA photo though but it is a lovely place to live!!! She will vote, along with numerous friends, I hope, that it does exist (Thank u Bill)
Trying to get NZ upto the big circle on cluster maps.... just need a few more visits ;-)
hello! :)
newzealand must exist if people have been there on holiday or if they lived or were born there! and why would someone make up a country just for the fun of it, it dosnt seem right. no-one can prove that it dosnt exist but then agian no-one can realy prove that it dose exist i suppose.
from laura (some one from 7wi)
p.s i votd that it did exist...xx
i think that this is all stupid, so if your saying we have no proof of newzealand exsisting then how do we know that england is england and france is france ect....
New Zealand must exist because what would be the point of faking a big thing like that it would take time and effort and give me one good reason for why anyone would bother with such a thing. Also it would be costly and with all the countries in the world spending billions on armed forces and nuclear warheads i doubt they would have much cash left to support a fake country.
two words: effort and cost give me one good reason why someone would bother
So what happened? Did you prove New Zealand exists?
Its completely impossible to prove that NZ exists.. even if you fly there your teacher could still make the argument that you had actually gone somewhere else.
However I am sitting at my desk at work in Tauranga, New Zealand. So I know it exists! But then again I could be lying.. but Im not
I've been to New Zealand, and it was not like any other country I've been to. I saw loads of things such and the Kiwi bird and turatara. I also saw Rangitoto and Waitomo, and Several Maori. So New Zealand must exist.
WTF is the point in this blog i dont understand - do u people actually think NZ is not real
#I live in New Zealand u dumb idiots. Our culture is maori. Google it
I am born and raised in new zealand. I'm sure if you can purchase flights to new zealandit means it is real. There is real proof we faught in both world wars. No make believe country could fight in a real war. Famous people preform I'm new zealandevery year. No super star would pretend to preform in a fake country. The fact that you would even consider new zealand being fake is utterly stupid and I question weather you should be able to teach.
I live in NZ... though I don't know why I'm commenting here.
I just had to say, not all our culture is Maori, we are a vast amount of mixed cultures. Our Native Culture is indeed Maori :)
New Zealand is real. I live here, have the passport (which by the way gets me through customs and so must have some truth behind it). It is not a made up fairy land, we are here, New Zealand may be small and a newer country, but we are an independent and deserve recognition for our fight to become the country we are today.
We produce more then one third of the worlds dairy products with a population of around 4.4 million, we won the 2011 rugby world cup and are the home to many different cultures (our main one being Maori which has been previously mentioned).
Mr Daniel Raven-Ellison, I understand that this was merely intended as an innocent question for your class (well I hope it was). But in the future to avoid offending a country and possibly getting large amounts of hate, i would suggest that you think about the questions you put up online. Because once they are up they can not go down no matter how much negative attention they have drawn.
Yours sincerely,
a pissed off Kiwi
p.s. to the kid who said that we were found a few hundred year ago by the Europeans, it was actually less than two, 6th of February 1840, if you do not believe this is true we have a public holiday to remember it (its called Waitangi day- feel free to Google it).
*For all those concerned this is not hate*
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