The most recent plea was by a state school sixth former Pritesh Raichura from North London, writing in The Times last week whilst on work experience. Pritesh wrote that the politics must be incorporated into the curriculum if the government wants young people to be politically aware and active, particularly as they have the ability to help shape the form of the next government by the time they finish their A-levels.
In the article, ‘Make politics lessons compulsory says sixth former’, Pritesh said: “Nowhere in my school career have I discussed UK politics, the parties and their policies, the voting system or the way the government works. So when most of us leave school, 18 years old, we have not even learnt about what each party represents or why it is important to vote”.What are your experiences of political education at school? Is the lack of political education the main reason that young people are not voting? Or is this the tip of the iceberg?
Posts
I don't think it should be taught in schools.
At the end of the day different people support different political parties for a variation of reasons - they will always bias towards one or the other.
No matter how hard teachers try they would never truly be able to escape giving a bias towards their own personal option and without even realising could preach one over the other...which of course in not their place.
It is up to people to find out and make their own decisions. But then again at the end of the day whoever is in power doesn't make a difference - Different face, same bullshit.
No matter what they try and promise they will never be able to deliver, so again -Different face, same bullshit.
-Josh West
origamikid.wordpress.com
Hi Beth,
There is a key difference between schools and colleges/universities. At school, you are taught that a certain point of view is the right one, and the consensus view is the one that gets promoted. My son, for example, got a detention for question human-caused global warming - the teacher said it was "scientifically proven" but my son has just read a book that points out many, many flaws in the research.
The problem, for schools, therefore, is that kids will be taught a point of view that may not necessarily be valid, particularly if, as used to be the case, the teaching profession is largely left leaning.
My view is let kids be kids. As a nation we are spectacularly bad at knowing what is good to teach and what is not - for example, it seems we teach younger and younger kids about sex, and what happens? We have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe. Correlation or causation, you decide.
The reason kids aren't interested in politics is because they hear their parents not being interested in politics. We adults get told that we should vote because people died to win us that vote. That's undoubtedly true, but when we have governments that really don't deliver on promises and lie through their teeth, it is hard to encourage our kids to take an interest.
Personally i think we should teach our kids citizenship and not politics. How to be respectful of others, particularly minorities. To be proud of their country and their heritage. A young adult who understands his place int he world and why our country is seen as a beacon of hope by billions worldwide is one who will be better able to call our politicians to account.
I might be too old for your study cohort, but my view might or might not help regardless.
Some interesting topics and well written topics going on in your blogs - keep them up!
James Young
Very interesting comments both of you, thanks for visiting. I understand what you are saying about it being difficult to teach politics without being biased. I agree that this is a very strong argument against political education in schools. Afterall, perhaps it is better that young people find their own way in politics rather than being conditioned to see one party positively over another.
However, as Pritesh mentioned, don't you think it would be worthwhile for young people to be taught how the political system works? Even if they are not taught about individual parties?
P.s. Thank you very much James, I intend to keep the blog posts coming! :-)
This is great information – its encouraging to see online education is becoming more widely accepted and the benefits are backed up by a range of studies.
www.gurukulamuniversity.in
Hi Beth,
The real reason could be much more subtle. It could be argued that it is in the major parties interest to prevent a large percentage of the public learning about politics at a young age.
Although I have no empirical data to back this up (I have not looked) I suspect there is a far larger majority of non - voters among those who leave school at 16 (voting if they desired when they turn 18 of course) compared with their counterparts who go to university.
The last thing any of the major parties wants is a large body of young idealistic voters that could have a real say in changing the political landscape. Especially when that group are likely to come from poorer backgrounds. (For the major parties) Much better they remain politically ignorant until such a time when any youthful pangs of idealism are well and truly extinct.
Just a thought...
Interesting article, added his blog to Favorites