I think we can really make a difference

1 October 2006

"I think we can really make a difference." Hannah, one of my sparky sixth formers, had hung behind at the end of School Council, where the idea of our becoming an Eco-school had been received with overwhelming enthusiasm. A pupil committee would begin its whole-school review, establish aims, targets, a time frame, and generally raise awareness in staff and pupils of how small gestures CAN impact on the environment - and it would be fun. 

My heart sank, therefore, to read on the same day the Ofsted proposal that Citizenship should now be assessed:  it needs to gain credibility, it seems, and to be taken  more seriously.  What is it with this government that nothing has any value in a school unless it can be attributed a percentage or a grade? Our poor beleaguered teenagers, already the most frequently assessed cohort in Europe, are threatened yet again with a further hurdle to jump.

It was a misguided concept at the start, this notion that "Citizenship" could be imparted just like other knowledge, in a neat timetabled slot, somewhere between history and games on a Wednesday afternoon, and taught by staff whose lesson allocation appeared slightly low for the year. A doomed genesis indeed, and one which, for all the many brave attempts in state schools to give it substance, often breeds resentment. This new Ofsted proposal can surely lead to nothing more than shallow, tick-box learning, and that way madness lies.

Of course our young people need to learn altruism: of course we as adults have a responsibility to challenge their misconceptions and prejudices. Ours is a war-torn world which reels from the reality of school sieges, teenage gun crime, and a "me" culture which encourages the prioritising of possessions over relationships, one where celebrity has usurped sincerity. We need a forum for serious, wide-ranging debate with the young -   but not exclusively in a 40 minute slot after lunch with an eventual GCSE to confirm a 16 year old has "done" citizenship. Besides, those sad, disaffected youngsters for whom an Asbo is a badge of honour, and who would possibly benefit most from a constructive focus on their social skills, are the very ones most likely to miss these lessons in the first place. 

Raising awareness in young people of their place in the community, and of their responsibility for others around them is a fundamental duty of all adults, not just those tasked with delivering a curriculum. We might start with the politicians themselves - all those tabloid stars, prone to self-promotion of the first order, and sporting dubious value systems. What kind of citizenship do they promote? One apparently in which public, media-hyped apologies justify bitter, private character assassinations. Role models they most certainly are not. No wonder, then, that more young people vote for the X factor contestants than at local elections.

Parents too must play their part. What does a child take away from a selfish, bitter divorce? Where is the logic in "throwing a sickie" but punishing the child for truanting?  Why be surprised when a six-year-old uses profanity when such terms are all he hears from the moment he wakes? And I still recall clearly the lad I once taught who was beaten in the morning if he failed to return from his paper round with stolen milk. Citizenship is absorbed, not taught, cultivated like a precious plant, through exposure to fairness, compassion, tolerance and love. It can only be assessed by how we lead our lives, by our humanity, and never by the criteria of a 2-hour examination.

Schools live and breathe their value system. They have no other choice if their main purpose is to nurture young minds and prepare the adults of tomorrow. The underlying values are in every action, every interaction, every day. They are present in the message in assembly, whatever the faith observed, in the celebrations of pupil success, in the daily greetings between pupils and staff, in the respect shown for each other, for property and visitors. Pupils are consulted, included, valued in their school community, even if they are ignored at home. Their voices are heard, at School Council or elsewhere, even if they are silenced at home, and they learn to listen to the views of others. They organize extraordinary fund-raising projects, elect democratically their form captains and prefects, learn, in their inter-house competitions, to be part of a team, and to win or lose with grace. They start to care, about the environment or about other cultures and creeds, not because "Citizenship" is a statutory requirement on the curriculum, but because dedicated professionals in our classrooms know how to "connect" with the young and, sometimes against all odds, lead them heroically into a wider, deeper sense of self and others than that which confines them.

Hannah was right, of course. Our Eco-school project, which she may well Chair, will make a difference, but not just to the environment. It will help develop the evolving value judgments of my pupils. Hopefully, it will make them better citizens, better human beings. Ofsted can never devise criteria to assess that, I thought, and I placed the newspaper carefully into our new recycling box.