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Public speaking, especially when the topic is something she cares deeply about, is something 15-year-old Maria Walker-Kinnell is excelling at.
Recently the Year 12 Ōrewa College student won two Auckland competitions – the Lion Young Speechmakers competition and the Ngā Manu Kōrero secondary school speech competition.
Her love of thinking on her feet and getting her message across will stand her in good stead, as she plans to study law and pursue her interest in politics.
She belongs to the National Party, and wants to be Minister of Education one day.
The topic for her Ngā Manu Kōrero speech was about the transformative power of voting, but it is her Lions speech, on the subject of the NZ education system, that she is proudest of.
“I got to choose my own topic, and education is something I have strong opinions about,” she says.
Both competitions had an impromptu section, where competitors have to come up with a topic on the spot and prepare a speech in just a few minutes.
Walking the stage, sharing her thoughts and ideas was, Maria says, a brilliant experience.
“I was getting applause and that motivated me to ramp it up even more,” she says.
Maria will compete in the nationals of both competitions later this year.
Short excerpts of both her speeches are below:
Lions speech
New Zealand’s education system is in crisis. In the past decade our scores have fallen to today’s harsh reality of a 40 percent student illiteracy and innumeracy rate. The days when the world envied our education system are over and these declines coincide with a rise in student-led learning. The profound transition towards student-led learning signals a departure from the traditional expert-led educational framework. The allure of student-led learning, while appealing in its apparent student autonomy, inadvertently undermines the very essence of education by removing structured expertise. Most devastatingly, student-led learning exacerbates inequality, depriving low-income students of essential mentorship. This is why I care! Because a good education is the only way kids like me can change our circumstances. Kids from low income households with parents who scrape by as cleaners and checkout operators. We have the right to achieve more than what we were born into.
The student-led system needs to be destroyed to fix education. The only way it will change is if people speak the truth. If you believe in setting kids up for success in effective teaching environments, join me in the fight against student-led learning.
Ngā Manu Kōrero speech
“I understand this [voting] sounds like a lot of work and you may think your voice doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. Well it is a lot of work and it may not always make a difference. But what is guaranteed to achieve nothing, is doing nothing. Suffragette Kate Sheppard said “do not think your single vote does not matter much. The rain that refreshes the parched ground is made up of single drops.” And you know what, sometimes it does make a difference.
