Citizenship - Richard Garner: Equipping a generation for the 21st century

Comment

Dropping in on the first citizenship lesson at North Walsham High School was an eye-opener for me. In my day, we never had any lessons about our rights and responsibilities in society. The only thing I can remember along those lines is my headmaster exhorting the sixth-form "not to consort with women of loose virtue" as he gave us an end-of-term address to prepare us for the outside world ahead of us. (It was, of course, a boys' school.)

This was, in short, an inadequate preparation for life beyond the classroom. There was no explanation of the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union. We did not know what communism was. (As we were public schoolboys, I suppose there was a real fear that we might be enticed by the idea of becoming Soviet spies.)

There was no explanation of the ideals and policies of the major political parties that vie for power in our modern-day society – although I think we could have gone on Mastermind to answer questions about the Whigs and the Tories.

This may all sound a bit petty, but the serious point is that, with such an inadequate preparation for dealing with a modern society, it made it far more difficult for us to play our part as citizens in that society.

I was educated in the Fifties and early Sixties. It is argued by some teachers that they felt even more restricted about talking about these issues in the Eighties after the Thatcher government introduced legislation which they saw as curbing the way they could talk about modern politics in the school curriculum.

It was introduced at the same time as the notorious "Clause 28", which stopped discussion of gay and lesbian issues in the classroom. The thinking behind the curb was to stop the political indoctrination of children. The practical effect was to limit discussion on important issues and create a generation of apathetic youngsters. It is no exaggeration to say it probably also led to the worrying decline in the numbers prepared to go out and vote in elections.

This is why I welcome the introduction of citizenship as a compulsory part of the school curriculum. I am confident it will not lead to political indoctrination of the next generation of schoolchildren. I am equally confident it will also lead to a generation of youngsters better equipped to deal with the demands of the 21st century.

Richard Garner is education editor of 'The Independent'