This post is only MY opinion BTW.
I’m Home-Educated and I think children should in the future be taught politics in school.
Before the May 6th General Election I was very naive, I didn’t care about politics, it seemed like some dry boring subject that dull people learn about and followed, to me it was something I wouldn’t do and video games are more my thing.
Anyway, it wasn’t until my dad said “I bet you can’t make a political website, AND maintain it!” where I learned and loved politics. I researched it, made the website, won the bet and in the process I fell in love with the subject, but other children haven’t really had the chance to learn about politics when it is one of the most important system in the UK, it changes laws, it effects our lives, it changes every single thing we do and it is good to know about.
Most teenagers won’t take up a subject without experiencing and liking it, if it wasn’t for my dad challenging me to take up politics then I would have spent most of the time with no career plans and studying subjects (other than art) that I don’t really enjoy, a quote by my father is “people don’t change people are changed”.
People need external stimuli to change themselves, most of the time people will continue on the current path until something stops them and they have to change with the stop. The government needs to encourage wider learning of many subjects that aren’t really covered by schools today.
One day someone who attended a class teaching politics might change the world for the better, even if it’s a small and fairly unimportant change its still makes a difference, if I was a political teacher it would make my day to know that the student that studied at my school in my class became one of the most influential people in the UK and made the country better, it would put a smile on my face and a spring in my step.
We are seen as this uncaring country where most teenagers when asked “who’s Harriet Harman?” it would be replied with “erm…” or “isn’t she a news reporter?” teenagers may think that politics is boring but if given a chance may learn about and love it.
Politics isn’t the most known thing among teenagers the majority adopt a don’t know, don’t care attitude and it clouds their judgement on the matter I would love to abolish this.
A good example is Politics in the US we should aspire to their methods, they care deeply about their government and country to the extent where they learn the workings of modern politics in school, they have local elections and school presidency, it may seem like child’s-play but it is preparing them for the next step if they want to peruse that school-time hobby, into a a life-time career.
It would be a great achievement if the government let teenagers in school learn the subject that otherwise would be swept under the carpet, instead of it be picked up by those students when they are adults if they learn young, they learn more along the way to adult-hood, we also risk making it so people who haven’t learnt at a young age might miss going to university and miss their potentially dream job.
I think that children should be encouraged to be interested in local politics, the youth parliament is a little too far to travel for some students and teenagers, also the local elections can be easily missed. I think we should have an easier accessible and more localised parliamentary system, where you don’t need to be elected to have a say in local matters that both interest and concern you and your daily life.
If we invest in young lives then later on in their life the government investment will return with more than the original time and resource put into those children you will get a generation of eager politicians, which will fight for what they believe in good or bad , we need that kind of attitude.
That is why I believe students should be encouraged to study politics, if they don’t like the subject they study the normal main-stream courses like what exist’s in schools today.
Yesterday I made a facebook group to show support for getting political teaching in schools, you can join if you have a facebook account and just if you want politics should be taught in school.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=129584130410455&ref=mf
Author: Caleb Law age: 13
