Let’s not waste this opportunity to revive an enthusiasm for politics
The referendum in Scotland may be over, yet that’s just the tip of the iceberg: it will have a huge impact on everyone in the UK, yet we don’t know what that impact will be. How can we assist our younger people make sense of it all? Well, in England and Wales we have a national curriculum area of study for that.
With such a high turnout at Scotland’s polling booths yesterday, it’s evident that democratic participation in Britain can still be aroused. If the referendum has taught us anything, it’s that citizens young and old will defy the doom-sayers by engaging with politics when it touches a nerve and if their vote really could swing the balance.
On Wednesday, Alex Salmond urged voters to relish their moment of power and take advantage of it. With the special conditions of the referendum, numerous of those voters were under eighteen and still in school. They’ve now had a taste of that power and responsibility; how are they going to feel when it’s taken away from them at the next election?
Will they feel even more let down and alienated by politicians, or will they stand up and fight for a greater franchise? And how did their counterparts in the rest of the UK feel about seeing their Scottish cousins offered a power they’ve hitherto been denied?
In short, how do we ensure the passion that citizens displayed so plainly during the last few weeks doesn’t dissolve into alienation and resentment, yet is nurtured into a greater interest in and appreciation of the civic world around them?
Actually, we have a mechanism for this already: the statutory citizenship curriculum in schools.
The new programmes of study for citizenship aim, among other things, to ‘equip learners with the abilities and awareness to explore political and social matters critically’. This is what the area of study was designed for: to prepare younger people for their place in an ever-changing political, legal, economic and social world.
And there’s a huge appetite for it, as Aberdeenshire teacher Lynn Cooper discovered.
Yet let’s be honest: how frequently do we hear politicians extolling the virtues of the citizenship curriculum? Quite. As a result, it’s losing its footing.
So, while citizens of Britain are in the grip of an unusual surge of interest in the nation’s politics, let’s strike that iron while it’s hot and assist our younger people forge their futures in a changing nation. And politicians can lead the approach by lending the citizenship curriculum the weight of their public standing. For further guidance, see the relevant UK information.
