Politicising our children.

I have a book called The Bible as History which I confess I've never read all the way through.
Perhaps I should look for it.

My DS & DDiL turn the news off when my Grandchildren (8 & 12 yrs) are likely to be in the room. I do agree with them. There are more ways than enough for children to find out how wicked our world is! When we had a discussion at school in the 60’s we were told to go home & read the Bible as a History Book then we would realise the Israelites had been fighting since before Jesus to try to keep their land & the fight still goes on today! Maybe our children & their children could try this & then decide who is right?

News literacy should be age appropriate. Neither I nor anyone here can have any effect on what is happening in Gaza or anywhere else outside our direct control.

Nine year olds in Gaza are deliberately being exposed to the realities of war every day and our government is doing nothing. If you care about children being allowed to enjoy their innocence for as long as possible, channel your outrage into somewhere it will actually do good rather than being appalled that young people are growing up with news literacy.

That any adult would knowingly expose a nine year old to the graphic details of war is beyond belief. Simple age-appropriate facts if they are asked for expressed without bias are quite sufficient. I hate to see children dragged along on marches. How much have they been told which they can never forget? ‘What does ‘from the river to the sea mean, Mummy?’.

Germanshepherdsmum

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

I could not agree more GSM! Well said.

There’s a massive difference between explaining, in a very age appropriate way, about war and famine and that other children aren’t always as fortunate as our own children and GC, and going into graphic details or expecting them, at primary school, to take sides!

Honestly, I really do despair sometimes, I haven’t seen anyone on here advocating keeping their child away from facts etc but explanations should be factual, two sided and age appropriate!

Perhaps people have forgot to what happened to three impressionable teenage girls? Let alone a primary school child!

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.

Firstly, nothing wrong with how Taylor Swift looks, she’s relatively natural, no plastic surgery, no eating disorders, I took both my daughters to see her when they were mid teens.

Secondly, open minded honest parents bring their children up to be open minded and honest, my parents were very right wing, & a bit racist, however the biggest gift they gave me was to be a free, independent thinker, I changed my political views radically in my early twenties, and have never been discriminatory towards anyone else for any reason.

Sadly, children can be very shaped by their parents views and beliefs and we need to be very careful about enforcing our own moral compass on impressionable little humans.

There seems to be a lot of concern about indoctrination on here. All parents 'indoctrinate' their children in some ways, be it gender biased activities/clothing, ways to eat or, Goddess forbid haha, religion! One could argue that school should enable children to discuss other views, in an age appropriate manner. Teachers are after all trained in such things, parents (and grandparents!) are not.

Mollygo

So do you agree that children being told to keep things secret from their parents is unacceptable?

Absolutely not, ever! This is how both grooming and radicalising start and is dangerous and unacceptable.

The only “secrets” my children were ever told to keep us when a surprise event or gift was being planned for another family member or close friend.

IMO these parents are being highly irresponsible and at 9 their child should be more concerned about her friends, her hobbies and being a child!

Far from children growing up “uncaring” introducing children to “real life” and the awful world around too soon and too bluntly can lead to desensitised children therefore lacking in empathy.

Secondary school is fine for introducing politics and real world events, children can very naturally become empathetic and caring via a nurturing upbringing.

let's not forget how the Nazi Party deliberately and officially targeted children of 10 for indoctrination and belief in anti-semitism
A bit off piste, but loosely related to this thread, I watched Jo Jo Rabbit this week. Yes, Junior aged children are often impressionable and vulnerable because they aren't mature enough to understand the complexities and the historical background.

It was in the 80s so probably Ethiopia

NotSpaghetti

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

You're right! I remember talking about it in my early teens, so late 60's.

The Palestinians are indeed suffering the consequences. Collective punishment is illegal, which is one reason why Israel faces charges of genocide. Nobody in their right minds supports the Hamas attack but the same applies to the mass slaughter happening in Gaza. There can be no justification for the terrible death toll of innocent Palestinian civilians, including thousands of children. It seems that we're witnessing the complete obliteration of Gaza.

I don't believe in either the religious or political indoctrination of children but it's inevitable that they will pick up on things that happen in the world. You can't raise them in a vacuum, particularly in an age of mass media. I would like my grandkids to be shielded from every distressing fact, growing up in a world where everything and everyone is kind and good, but it's not realistic. You also have to remember that it's possible that kids who are agitated about the war in the Middle East might have family living there, and might even have lost relatives.

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’.

I see no problem with children learning about climate change if it comes along with information about what we can do to reduce it such as recycling, saving electricity and water and generally sustainable living. War is something they will probably hear about but we should try to avoid them taking sides where there is no direct involvement of them or their families. My childhood was pretty free of knowledge about 'The News' probably because we didn't have a TV until I was a bit older. I remember the first time I was confronted by any sort of disaster in the news was Aberfan. I guess that was when I started to grow up. I was 12 at the time. These days few households are without a TV and children may hear about things that are difficult to comprehend but many will take little notice and political views should not be forced on them too soon.

let's not forget how the Nazi Party deliberately and officially targeted children of 10 for indoctrination and belief in anti-semitism. Hamas started this war. The Palestinians have and are suffering the consequences of that. The Jews are reacting in horror to their unprovoked vicious attacks based wholly on the fact they were Jews.
This was not an attack on the Israeli Government but part of Hamas' declared mission to destroy all Jews.
This is not for one-sided indoctrination of children by teachers who wholly and unequivocally support Palestine...as most do.
This is not a time for Jewish children in the UK to be persecuted as they are currently daily being.
There are ten times more Muslims than Jews in this country do you really want the simmering pot of anti-semitism to be stirred by children?

When my daughter was 5 in the 1990sshe saw a poster in the Oxfam shop saying how much money would buy a cow/50 meals/seeds etc and decided to have a sale of her old toys to raise money. She wanted to buy a cow but I prepared her for the fact that she might not raise enough money but could still do a lot of good. People gave her things to sell and were very generous in how much they paid for things at her stall outside the house, her brother helped too. She raised enough for a cow, 100 meals and a lot more besides. My kids always had a social conscience and got involved with various things. At 14 she wanted demonstrate in the Town she went to school in and told the head as it was a school day though she was going at lunchtime, the head said she needed a note from home saying it was OK which we duly wrote, just as well she did as she was on the front page of the local paper ( which was put up on the school information board by staff), she did a degree in Alzheimer's and dementia studies and in lockdown started a business taking online talks and workshops into care homes, this continues but she now works half the week with Alzheimer's Scotland. Yes you need to make sure children are not frightened or overwhelmed but they are aware of what is going on in the world so help them feel they can help the situation. BTW my son is a 3d animator and does a lot of work for the Worry Wizard which helps children with their mental health.

I can't even believe that we have to even consider burdening young minds with Politics and the woes of the World. There used to be a law against schools imposing political beliefs on pupils I'm sure. How far this country has come in a bad way.....What a dangerous road to travel on too

As a retired teacher what else have we to teach. That topic will be discussed at secondary level in either Humanities or Social subjects. Defo should not be part of PS curriculum. Let them be children... If parent thinks this, let them discuss it with their child if they feel that strongly about it! I hate seeing children on protest marches,strikes etc too. To me that's the parent's politics, and kids just go because they're told to.

I think children of any age should have the opportunity to learn about and speak about politics, as long as they are told about other points of view and I didn't go into details about rape & murder until I judged they were old enough and then only sparse details till they were older. I remember when I asked about politics being told I was 'just a kid' and too young, but the point of childhood is to learn about adult life so its right to allow children to ask/learn. I also used to say to mine that Tories would like everyone to have private health insurance cos the NHS pushes taxes up and rich people don't want to pay more & Labour want a health service which is free and only based on need then I let them decide, at a later date, what party was right for them. I gave them enough of a foundation so they knew a little but they could build on that if they wanted

Schools should discuss current affairs in a neutral way.

Yes, of course, but when? At what age is it appropriate to discuss the war in Israel or the war in Ukraine? What if the children bring it up? What if a child brings a Palestinian flag to school? What about the many Ukrainian refugee children who are already attending our schools?

Lots of questions and many different views.
I tend to agree with Joseann’s posts. Maybe because we’re both teachers, or were in my case.

It may be these days, that schools need to formulate, or look again at, their policies re these particular current events. They need to decide whether to discuss, how to discuss, what to say, bearing in mind the age of their children and their particular catchment area.

Children are most influenced by their parents lifestyle, if the parents have religious or political activity the child will be influenced, sometimes even negatively.

Schools should discuss current affairs in a neutral way or not at all. The old mantra that sex, politics and religion are personal is a good rule to follow.

But Gloriangry I’m not trying to change the focus. You on the other hand have suddenly introduced words that definitely change the focus.
You said it was sad that some children are unable to talk to their family about things that disturb them.
Here’s the quote.
I think one of the saddest things is when a child sees something they know they really shouldn't have been looking at, it disturbs them, but they are unable to talk to their family because they are not supposed to know anything.
I agree, but I don’t think people should make one rule for a circumstance because it suits their point of view but change the rule when they have a different point of view.

Mollygo

So do you agree that children being told to keep things secret from their parents is unacceptable?

I agree with Gillick competency Mollygo. Stop trying to change the focus of the thread

Joseann

Interesting post, icanhandthemback, and a tricky one for you to observe.
I think it works both ways. Without using too strong words, I believe there would be an element of emotional abuse in not giving a child the opportunity to experiment and to express their views. Nobody is suggesting we should ignore or silence them.
But young children also need protecting, and I can equally see emotional abuse occurring when children are subjected to participating in something beyond their developmental capabilities.

Of course, in schools we are fortunate to have age appropriate spiritual and moral development policies as to what is deemed acceptable. Teachers adhere to the rules set down, and shouldn't start inventing their own agenda within the curriculum.
Obviously, in the home environment parents can make their own judgment.

I am all for children expressing their views but I am against indoctrination. My son and I used to discuss items we saw on the news and I would give him the argument on both sides of the political spectrum as a starting point. It would have been completely wrong of me only to give my viewpoint without giving him an alternative to think about.