Citizenship is a good case study on this. It became part of the curriculum in England in 2002. But a lack of suitably trained/enthused teachers means it is patchy at least (in that there are some teachers doing brilliant things, but not enough of them).
But also funding for the more exciting/innovative things dried up in part because it was now part of the curriculum, and therefore assumption was resources would be state funded. The plan to have a Young Citizens Passport to be issued to every school leaver was never realised (apart from in Northern Ireland).
Now we have no British Youth Council, no UK Youth Parliament etc, all the things that brought energy/excitement to the subject.
We have sheep-dipped a generation in citizenship and have we got better citizens? I'm not sure we have.
👏 Thank you for all this. Could not agree more. Schools can do a lot, but not everything, as evidenced by the fact we teach kids maths for years and still loads of people forget it by the time they need it. Just In Time learning is vital. As are public information campaigns, which seem to have died.
The left thinks state information is compromised because it’s produced by a white western patriarchal hegemony. The right thinks state information is produced by a woke university educated establishment elite. And so we have given up on building and especially propagating and kind of shared knowledge infrastructure.
I like this argument a lot. I'm not so sure about financial education at the point of a UC claim - so many people are in such crisis at this point that they are focused on survival not learning. But how about at the point of a first job? With perhaps a follow-on when people get promoted and might have the ability to start to save a little bit?
Fair point - though learning-through-doing is sometimes the most powerful. There's clearly a role for holistic benefits advice (like the kind provided by people like Income Max which will often secure you grants, social tariffs etc) - and the best provision is often in a partnering role rather than 'doing for'. Maybe calling that financial education is my mistake!
Yes. Though I also hate that we have to super-educate consumers not to be ripped off by utility companies and financial service providers - how about a duty to find the consumer the best deal, and to alert them if a new product is coming on the market that would suit them better? Phone companies are terrible at shafting their customers, and banks and building societies let interest rates wither on the vine for existing customers while tempting new ones in with good deals. Why is it good policy for less informed people to be ripped off by unscrupulous providers?
Yeah - and I think there's a strong case that this breaches the Equality Act when the people who lose out have protected characteristics. Consumer markets don't get enough political attention (I will write about that at some point too).
Very thought provoking and with sensible suggestions. I love the idea of providing tangible education at different life stages. I've been teaching for 27 years and have lost count of the number of suggestions for the NC. The biggest question from inside is always "where will the expertise come from to deliver this?" and there is never an answer!
"Should the state support people to learn that skill"
Nope. The state should not be deciding what people are taught at all. The argument that, because the mass of the people are stupid we need to intervene, is self-defeating. All it has done is make the mass of people even more stupid. Compare the schoolwork of pre-teens 100 years ago with what they're (barely) capable of now if you need evidence that your nanny statism is a disaster.
This is a terrific piece and much to agree with. The financial sector and NHS both have excellent examples the rest of us should draw on.
Part of the issue is that those other policy levers are quite difficult to pull. Gov.uk is still very much focussed (with some reason but a tad too much vigor) on functional information about services. Setting up something like the Money Advice Service or NHS Direct is a big commitment and difficult to get off the ground or maintain for smaller interventions.
Which is not to say I disagree with you: this stuff shouldn't be the responsibility of schools. But the public sector could make life easier for itself my thinking through what the best practice is and making it easier to do.
Citizenship is a good case study on this. It became part of the curriculum in England in 2002. But a lack of suitably trained/enthused teachers means it is patchy at least (in that there are some teachers doing brilliant things, but not enough of them).
But also funding for the more exciting/innovative things dried up in part because it was now part of the curriculum, and therefore assumption was resources would be state funded. The plan to have a Young Citizens Passport to be issued to every school leaver was never realised (apart from in Northern Ireland).
Now we have no British Youth Council, no UK Youth Parliament etc, all the things that brought energy/excitement to the subject.
We have sheep-dipped a generation in citizenship and have we got better citizens? I'm not sure we have.
👏 Thank you for all this. Could not agree more. Schools can do a lot, but not everything, as evidenced by the fact we teach kids maths for years and still loads of people forget it by the time they need it. Just In Time learning is vital. As are public information campaigns, which seem to have died.
The left thinks state information is compromised because it’s produced by a white western patriarchal hegemony. The right thinks state information is produced by a woke university educated establishment elite. And so we have given up on building and especially propagating and kind of shared knowledge infrastructure.
😭
I like this argument a lot. I'm not so sure about financial education at the point of a UC claim - so many people are in such crisis at this point that they are focused on survival not learning. But how about at the point of a first job? With perhaps a follow-on when people get promoted and might have the ability to start to save a little bit?
Fair point - though learning-through-doing is sometimes the most powerful. There's clearly a role for holistic benefits advice (like the kind provided by people like Income Max which will often secure you grants, social tariffs etc) - and the best provision is often in a partnering role rather than 'doing for'. Maybe calling that financial education is my mistake!
Yes. Though I also hate that we have to super-educate consumers not to be ripped off by utility companies and financial service providers - how about a duty to find the consumer the best deal, and to alert them if a new product is coming on the market that would suit them better? Phone companies are terrible at shafting their customers, and banks and building societies let interest rates wither on the vine for existing customers while tempting new ones in with good deals. Why is it good policy for less informed people to be ripped off by unscrupulous providers?
Yeah - and I think there's a strong case that this breaches the Equality Act when the people who lose out have protected characteristics. Consumer markets don't get enough political attention (I will write about that at some point too).
Very thought provoking and with sensible suggestions. I love the idea of providing tangible education at different life stages. I've been teaching for 27 years and have lost count of the number of suggestions for the NC. The biggest question from inside is always "where will the expertise come from to deliver this?" and there is never an answer!
Absolutely 100% with you. Thanks for writing this.
"Should the state support people to learn that skill"
Nope. The state should not be deciding what people are taught at all. The argument that, because the mass of the people are stupid we need to intervene, is self-defeating. All it has done is make the mass of people even more stupid. Compare the schoolwork of pre-teens 100 years ago with what they're (barely) capable of now if you need evidence that your nanny statism is a disaster.
This is a terrific piece and much to agree with. The financial sector and NHS both have excellent examples the rest of us should draw on.
Part of the issue is that those other policy levers are quite difficult to pull. Gov.uk is still very much focussed (with some reason but a tad too much vigor) on functional information about services. Setting up something like the Money Advice Service or NHS Direct is a big commitment and difficult to get off the ground or maintain for smaller interventions.
Which is not to say I disagree with you: this stuff shouldn't be the responsibility of schools. But the public sector could make life easier for itself my thinking through what the best practice is and making it easier to do.