An Example of a Level 5 introduction for Inquiry Assignment.

This Term’s Inquiry unit was called ‘Standing Strong’. The main idea in this unit was all about standing up for what you believe in through empathy and integrity.
Empathy means having an understanding for the ideas and feelings of other people. While integrity means sticking to your own principles and making honest choices based on what you believe.

We have talked about many different people who have had to fight to stand up for what they believed in such as Martin Luther King and Gandhi. Often standing strong can be really hard and cause many issues such as discrimination, mistreatment and often imprisonment.

As a New Zealand Example of Standing Strong we focused on the invasion and annihilation of Parihaka in 1881. The reason for using Parihaka is that it was the birthplace of ‘Passive resistance’ and the idea of non-violent protest.
This is a good example of people Standing up for themselves in the face of oppression, violence and injustice. It would have been easy for the people of Parihaka to fight the Pakeha, however they believed that acting in war would only bring more war upon the people of New Zealand. I will discuss the events at Parihaka more in section 2.

The intention of this Inquiry unit is to give us a better understanding of the importance of standing up for our beliefs and ourselves. It encourages us to consider the struggles of those who have gone before us in order to make our lives the way they are today. And helps have empathy for Maoris grievances about land confiscation and Parihakas huge loss of lives.

“Raise your hand before closing your ears” – Ask before you turn your back.