Education and How To Do It

January 31st, 2004 - 17:26 | 3 comments

So other recent news was about media studies being taught at primary school level. Seems like a good idea to me, assuming that it’ll teach kids to be media-savvy. There are so many news stories that push a sensationalist angle while less exciting but worthy stories go unreported that the world view from the media is, in my opinion, very different from reality. From the media it’d be easy for a kid to assume that everybody in every profession is corrupt in some way - the only innocent party being Joe Public ‘man on the street’, who doesn’t really exist. That’s got to be quite depressing for some kids, so any teaching that the media isn’t a true picture of reality should be a good thing.

I suppose the alternative view would be that in teaching kids to be cynical they will be less inclined to believe anything anyone says. This would, indeed, suck. How do you govern people who are taught to distrust? However if you teach them this in conjunction with a desire to insist on evidence then we’d really be getting somewhere. 49% of people saying “the Hutton Report is a whitewash” when they know absoloutely nothing about it and are basing this on ‘politicians are always corrupt’ is just dumb, but 49% of people saying “it’s a whitewash and we can prove it” would be a force to be reckoned with.

Citizenship has been a part of the secondary school syllabus for a while now, which also sounds like an excellent idea. How many people do you know who know next to nothing about democracy? Voter apathy has to be sorted in some way or we’ll all go to hell in a handbasket, so teaching people from an early age why democracy is important looks to me like a great step forward.

I’m growing to dislike this phrase in the media, as reasoned arguments are invariably ignored in favour of soundbites, but given that I know you’re all intelligent enough to be able to back up what you say and are willing to listen to opposing views, here it is:

What do you think?

-----

3 Responses to “Education and How To Do It”

1 Simon Jan 31st, 2004 at 6:56 pm

Citizenship? Sounds a bit corny if you ask me. Voter apathy? Yeah, I fall into that catergory. Why? I can’t tell the difference between the parties to be honest. Whats that? You’re gonna lower taxes? Heard that before. What, you haven’t lowered taxes? I understand, you need to fix the mistakes the last lot made first. Whats this? Despite calling the previous lot idiots you are supporting their policies now anyway? Sure, you renamed them and reordered the priority list a bit but its still the same isn’t it?

Ok, maybe I am a little misinformed, but as far as I can tell, despite having little confidence or trust for the government, there is practically only one or two real ways of running this country without totally changing everything, and everything else is just a variation on that way. Sometimes people focus on one thing, sometimes on another, but whichever party gets into power they will soon realise, if they had not already, that they are pretty much going to have to do the same stuff the previous lot did. Oh, and make one big mistake as well. Everyone has to. Its about the only difference between each term. Poll tax I believe was Maggies big one, the war in Iraq and related topics has been Blairs.
As far as what I want from a government, thats going to change as I change. For instance, for the past 15 years of my life things relating to education have been quite important to me. Now I about to leave uni and it won’t be long before I will be thinking “f**k the students I want lower taxes…” My focus will move towards employment regulations etc. With some forsight I might look into pension policies and health care. These will become more important to me as I get older. Then, if I have a family, all of a sudden I will be back to education. As I move along this path however, so does everyone else, each person at a different step. It probably all averages out, with some fluctuations. Basically, if you vote you vote for yourself. You don’t care about stuff which doesn’t affect you. Everyone else votes the same. Chances are it all cancels out and its the same story.

Democracy? Is it really as good as it claims? Seriously, as a hopefully free thinking individual, especially one who is often out of sync with my peers, behind the times, ahead of the times, or just so far off the current trend as to not matter either way, do I really think that a political system based on majority rule is in my best interests? Seems a bit unlikely though I can not offer a counter example for a better system.

The thing I do like about the, shall we say, western developed systems, whatever system that really is, is the ‘freedom’. I can be myself, make a whole heap of choices for myself, and not have to worry about some berk in an SS uniform coming up and arresting me for being subversive.

Well, at least it used to be that way. With all this terrorism stuff lately, it seems that signs of regression are starting to appear. In attempting to protect our freedoms are we instead going to end up restricting them, for the greater good?

I know there are systems in place which if I knew the true details of I would probably be disgusted with. Perhaps the CIA is an example, though I can not say for sure. I do know however that any such actions made by these bodies help to preserve our way of life, and I am happy to let them exist, hidden out of sight, their actions mostly transparent to my every day existence. I will not be happy though if any such body or system is forced to visibly raise its head, however, in a way which forces me to alter the way I go about doing things or thinking about things.

I like to think myself as free of taboos. Whatever beliefs or morals or agendas I may have, I like to feel that I can discuss or think about anything without having to accept those things unless that happens to be my wish. Will there come a day when I will no longer be able to do this? Will there come a day when no matter what my beliefs, in line with society or otherwise, that speaking out of turn will net me a whole load of trouble? I hope not.

Well, those are my thoughts and fears about politics and what not from a birds eye perspective shall we say. These are based on my probably inaccurate observations and my misinformed reasoning, but I think them fair. I would be happy for someone to point out where I am being stupid and idiotic mind, providing they can actually give me something other than their own inaccurate and misinformed observations and reasoning. If that is not possible I would still be happy to discuss. Where would the fun be in only discussing things people know the answer to?

Oh, ask me about my opinions on more specific and shall we say local politics and I shall likely as not tell you to bugger off, since I lack interest or knowledge in such areas. I will discuss however, if someone is willing to supply the necessary information
2 Paul Feb 1st, 2004 at 5:50 am

Gees read some of that NF stuff. feck me if that aint the biggest load of bull ive ever read. talk about propoganda. Hell in a handbasket indeed!

Erm. whats a handbasket?
3 Andrew Feb 3rd, 2004 at 12:45 pm

To be honest I don’t know what a handbasket is, other than a basket carried by hand. I assume the phrase means hell in an all-in-one package.

The way I see it there are three reasons that you should always vote.

1. Contrary to popular opinion, governments do do more good than harm. We only hear about the bad parts as they are the most sensational, but a hell of a lot goes by under the radar. The political parties do all have different approaches to governing, even if some policies will always overlap. For example (in a very broad way): big government = Labour, small government = Tories, somewhere in the middle = Lib Dems.
The old one dimensional left/right idea is still used a hell of a lot considering how silly it is. The political spectrum is much more three-dimensional than that, and I feel that a lot of people find that one opinion of theirs is one one side, then base their opinions on matters they don’t know about on which side of the divide they fell last time. None of the parties can be classified this way. I personally tend to agree with the Labour Party, but there are times when the Lib Dems conform more to my views. Even, (very very rarely - dammit I didn’t mean for this to be biased) the Tories can get it right sometimes.
So it is worth voting as there are differences.

2. If you don’t vote for the ‘reasonable’ parties, the extreme parties will become increasingly powerful. They probably aren’t actually gaining any support, it’s just that the minority who vote for them are becoming a greater percentage of the voting public. A ‘front-bench’ member of the UK Independence Party said that letter bombs at the European parliament are just desserts for European government (yeah, I know a Lib Dem front bench member said something about suicide bombers recently, but she got sacked). The National Front has something like 4 council seats now. Their manifesto is totally racist and abhorrent to anybody with a basic understanding of genetics, yet they are gaining strength. Do you want to see people in power who think that you can be judged by the colour of your skin above all other criteria? What’s to stop them suddenly deciding that anybody who doesn’t drink alcohol is substandard, and should be legislated against? It’s just as valid an argument. While the main parties are certainly not without their faults, they at least have policies founded on logic and are willing to listen to alternative points of view. That’s my definition of a reasonable party, as I appreciate that the boundaries are in some cases blurred (the Green Party, for example).

3. This is overused, but I’ll say it anyway. If you don’t vote, you don’t have any right to complain when things happen that you don’t like. I know you’re not like this, Simon, but a lot of people decide that life is easier if they decide that all authority figures are corrupt. Combine this with a belief in God and suddenly nothing is ever your fault. It’s great. However I would say that being a reasonable person means seeing the faults and the good in the world around you. If you don’t like something, say so. If you do, say so too. You are a person of more value to society and, I would say, a better person all round, if you don’t simply say ‘nothing to do with me’. If it’s something you don’t understand, fine. But everybody has things that they do know about, that they know how to achieve properly. Being bitter about everything, as an increasing number of people are, causes depression, apathy and a whole slew of negativity which doesn’t help anybody achieve anything. Richard Feynman said that you don’t have to be responsible for the world you find yourself in, and of course that’s true. But it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to fix it if you can be of service, which everybody can in one way or another. If reasonable people stop taking an interest in the world around them the only people left will be unqualified for the job.

That last argument kinda wandered, but hopefully I got my message across.

In conclusion: Voting is terribly important. You don’t have to understand every issue to make an informed opinion, you just have to judge as best you can, using the knowledge you have. While a system based on majority rule may seem unfair to the people on the edges, a system without the participation of such individuals would be disastrous. Anyway, governments aren’t there just to follow public whim (thank goodness), they’re there to lead. We have to put the best people in place to lead us, and that’s a choice which can only be made by the individual.

—

-----

Commenting Policy: Thoughts, observations, argument, debate and all other conversational wonderments are encouraged, but personal attacks or general trolling will result in your comment being deleted and your account/IP banned. If you're nice, however, you get strawberries.