Politicising our children.

Let children be children for a while. Why worry little minds? Let them play and laugh. I was concerned yesterday Sago to hear the Children’s ‘word of the year’ (well 2 if we are being pedantic) was ‘climate change’. The second was ‘war’.

Children of 9 being taught at school about the Palestinian cause? Good grief.

Urmstongran

Let children be children for a while. Why worry little minds? Let them play and laugh. I was concerned yesterday Sago to hear the Children’s ‘word of the year’ (well 2 if we are being pedantic) was ‘climate change’. The second was ‘war’.

Totally agree, it’s too much, particularly after Covid.

I don't think it's at school GSM I think it's at home .

In Sago's example, the school is being criticised for not teaching the children about the Palestinian cause.
Schools have to be very, very careful on such issues. I was approached by parents during the war in Afghanistan to keep any mention to a minimum, rightly so as we had a lot of children whose fathers were in the military. However, others wanted to protest with leaflets in the playground, so the whole thing had to be dealt with with sensitivity and fairness. I wouldn't want to have to face this issue these days. I think any teacher should err on the side of safety.

If children see/hear the news there will be some who ask questions and even when a parent is very careful and nuanced in response at 9 they will be forming opinions. You cannot shut them away in a box.

My 11 year old grandson is very exercised about all sorts of things in the news and another wants to know all about the rights and wrongs of museums keeping (maybe stolen) artifact from other cultures.

Children are as varied as adults. One of my other grandchildren has clearly no interest in the "wider world" but does hate to see injustice in school or amongst his friends etc.

I don't think it's always driven by school or parents to be honest.

One of mine at about age 5 or 6 realised there was a crisis going on (can't even remember where) and she heard a lorry was taking relief - she was determined to send food and eventually we supported her in her need to be a "collection point" for items going to the lorry. It was a small village but we sent 3 car loads of essentials to whoever it was. I don't know where she heard about this but it might have been brownies...

Children have often got a very strong moral code.

And then parents worry why their young teenagers have anxiety issues or anorexia.

Children have often got a very strong moral code which is why they are easily persuaded about issues/religion. Adults need to tread responsibly.

Children do have a very strong moral code and it doesn't always match what the adults in their lives think, or approve of how they behave. I remember when I was teaching several children whose parents were smokers developing very fixed ideas about how awful smoking was. They picked up ideas from the news, what they read and what they heard. They were sometimes quite judgemental and in discussion would advocate quite severe rules about smoking and penalties for those who broke those rules. I doubt if the parents would have agreed. They often had very black and white opinions with little room for grey areas.
No doubt children can be (and have been) indoctrinated but only sometimes does that come from the parents. They also absorb information from the world around them. The news about Palestine and the numbers of programmes about climate change will probably be more influential.

Children are very knowledgeable these days. Surely it is better that they are aware of world events rather be worried about stuff on social media, such as not looking like Taylor Swift etc - or much worse - coming across pornography. the latter are reasons for anorexia or anxiety, rather than world events.

Dinahmo

Children are very knowledgeable these days. Surely it is better that they are aware of world events rather be worried about stuff on social media, such as not looking like Taylor Swift etc - or much worse - coming across pornography. the latter are reasons for anorexia or anxiety, rather than world events.

These are 9 year olds, our 9 year old GD , doesn’t go on social media or watch the news, she is far too busy playing games, drawing, crafting, watching TV and reading age appropriate books.

Soozikinzi

I don't think it's at school GSM I think it's at home .

I understand the mother expected such teaching. Lord knows how the child is being indoctrinated at home.

I don’t think that’s the norm Sago, in fact I don’t think it ever was for 9 year olds. By that age in the sixties I was watching the news, and reading the daily newspaper myself, we talked about things at school, and had opinions on what was happening in the world. Children now have access to so much more information, they can access subjects they are interested in, it’s not a tide that can be held back.

Germanshepherdsmum

Soozikinzi

I don't think it's at school GSM I think it's at home .

I understand the mother expected such teaching. Lord knows how the child is being indoctrinated at home.

Exactly!
I think it’s borderline abuse.
Someone on the FB page wants to fundraise to offer every child in the primary school a Palestinian flag.
It’s breathtaking .

The Mother backing the child advocating striking in school over Palestine is madness. She is 9, she has opinions probably from her Mother and what she has seen on the news.
However think of the problems this could cause, are there Jewish children and parents at the school, do these childrenhave relatives over in Israel in the military, worst of all are there parents who could be racist and see things from a different perspective.
I too believe it is admirable to have a child with strong views, but she us 9 and should be listened to but encouraged also to do age appropriate things and not be so intense.
I also feel strongly for the people in Palestine, it is horrific, but at 9 can she really have views of her own or are they those of the parents. It's not the teachers job to teach these children about war in Palestine, they have to be neutral at all times.

Sago

Dinahmo

Children are very knowledgeable these days. Surely it is better that they are aware of world events rather be worried about stuff on social media, such as not looking like Taylor Swift etc - or much worse - coming across pornography. the latter are reasons for anorexia or anxiety, rather than world events.

These are 9 year olds, our 9 year old GD , doesn’t go on social media or watch the news, she is far too busy playing games, drawing, crafting, watching TV and reading age appropriate books.

I'd be very surprised if your GD was as uninformed as you seem to suppose. Children can do all those things and still be aware of what is going on in the world.
The idea that they can't possibly be doing such things, or knowing about them, puts them in just as much danger as leaving them to just access social media, the news and the internet, without supervision.
Children will grow up with these things. A child who sees something on the news, is shown something on a friend's phone, or sees their parents on their phones needs to be able to discuss it. Saying they don't know puts them in the position of having to conceal what they do know

I think Sago's GD sounds very typical of a Year 4 child. I have been in a playground in the past few years and have never seen any KS2 children indoctrinating others or promoting political causes. (I think the latest conversations were about a series of cat books (?), and football matches).
Incidentally, and as an aside, because I visited Anne Frank's house last week, I have been invited as a one off to speak about the Dutch occupation and resistance to Year 6 children next week. Apart from a brief mention about yellow stars and swastika flags, I see no need to take more than a cursory glance at these issues. Instead we will be concentrating on the goodness seen in people who risked their lives at that time, which is in line with the age appropriate National Curriculum. No concealment of facts, just engaging 10 Year olds befittingly.

I don't think children indoctrinate anybody I do think they discuss all sorts of things.
I wonder though if a year 6 child was to ask you a question about what was happening in Israel and Jewish people there would you just refuse to answer?

👏👏👏 Joseann.

Glorianny, nobody can claim to be ‘informed’ unless they understand the points of view of all parties to a disagreement. You surely can’t expect that of 9 year olds. Being informed inevitably leads to picking sides, influenced by whatever those with influence (in this case parents) tell you - is that really what you want to see in children of this age?

My dd age 8 at the time saw the news on tv about the Biafran famine in the 80 s. She wanted to help so decided to raise money by making lavender bags and selling them to friends and neighbours. She raised over £60 no mean feat for a little girl all those years ago. She also played, enjoyed her music, dancing, gym ballet swimming and her friends and did well at school.

Glorianny How would you judge it if after going into it thoroughly a 9 year old decided that Hamas were evil terrorists who raped women and killed babies and all the right was on Israel's side?

Got called away, but wanted to say I was so very proud of her, as I still am.

Should any 9 year old be told about women being raped and babies being killed? I sincerely hope not.

I think the Biafra famine was late 60s to 1970, silverlining - I might be wrong..