Educate, Educate, Educate…. But in What?

RightBlueView has previously criticised our education system as being too exam focused and not teaching pupils skills they so desperately need in their life.  A previous post last week expressed how positive David Cameron’s National Citizen Service would be for young people by allowing them to develop skills beyond passing exams.

This week Martin Lewis who runs the popular MoneySavingExpert website, and is regularly in the media giving advice on all money related matters, is petitioning the Government on making financial education in schools compulsory.  He rightly says:

“It’s a national disgrace that in the 20 years since introducing student loans, we’ve educated our youth into debt when they go to university, but never about debt. We’re a financially illiterate nation, with millions caught by misselling, overborrowing and being ripped off.”

Like National Citizen Service this would be incredible beneficial to the country as a whole, in some respects even more so than National Citizen Service.  Martin Lewis is correct when he says it is a ‘national disgrace’, it’s a fundamental flaw in our education system.

Unfortunately, the lack of financial education in our education system is symptomatic of the appalling incomplete curriculum currently failing pupils.  It is a shameful fact that many young people come out of school nowadays knowing how to pass an exam in the core subjects, but have little knowledge of the political and financial systems which dominate their life so much.  The education system is far too narrow and too dominated by grades, with little regard for actual teaching.

This view is not based on Party ideology, what it is based upon is the principle that giving young people a well rounded education allows them to participate fully in society, be as free as possible, and a contributor as opposed to a dependent of the state.

On top of the obvious academic subjects, schools should be preparing pupils for everyday life.  Pupils should be taught about loans, interest rates, mortgages and other financial matters which are part of everyday life but are poorly understood by many.  It is incomprehensible why a leading democratic country invites its people to take part in elections, yet fails to teach them about political institutions in schools.  Subjects such as basic First Aid would benefit society enormously, but are ignored by the current system.

At present the education system almost entirely ignores vocational skills, leaving those that do not excel in the academic arena to be deemed failures when they may have potential in this sector.  A system which actually fails some young people is totally unacceptable in 21st century Britain.  Britain is in one of the worst economic crisis in living memory, and we are creating more financial dependants of the already overstretched state, simply because the education system fails to recognise and improve some skill areas.

Although not a subject in the traditional sense, discipline needs to be upheld and ingrained in pupils from an early age.  Amongst the numerous reasons being cited for the disgusting behaviour by some in the recent riots, a lack of discipline in schools should resonates most strongly.  Education should not just involve teaching subjects to create job opportunities for Britain’s young people, it needs to cover many more aspects.  Education must shape young people into pleasant, polite and respectful adults who understand the world around them and how they make up what we call ‘Society’.  It must teach the merits of hard work and how one must take pride in the work they do, it must teach morals, the rule of law and the consequences of disobeying it.  Education is not just about passing exams, it is about nurturing young people into adults.

To the credit of the Coalition Government it has recognised schools need changing, but Free Schools, as good as they may be are slightly missing the point.  We must look at what is taught and how it is taught in schools before we focus on something which is essentially aesthetic.

Martin Lewis’ campaign to make financial education compulsory in schools is an excellent start, but it must not stop there if we are to build as David Cameron says, ‘a better Britain’.

Of course this takes money, but most of all it takes a change in the approach to education, and a reassessment of why we educate.  Investment must come in the form of money, but also mentality.

Read Martin Lewis’ arguments here on why we need financial education in our schools:  http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/latesttip/

Sign the petition here:  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/8903

RightBlueView’s post on National Citizen Service can be read here:  https://rightblueview.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/national-citizen-service-benefiting-an-entire-generation/

The Death Penalty

My last post pointed out how out of touch Members of our Parliament are by spending vast amounts over the retail price for items.  At the end of this week, in an attempt to connect with the public, the government launches it’s e-petition website, where petitions with 100,000 voters signing up will be discussed in the Commons.

Political blogger Guido Fawkes has used this opportunity to petition the Government on restoring the Death Penalty, “the Ministry of Justice should map out the necessary legislative steps which will be required to restore the death penalty for the murder of children and police officers when killed in the line of duty.”

The death penalty in the UK was abolished in 1969, with the last execution by hanging taking place a few years earlier in 1964.  However, since then polls have consistently shown that there is majority public support for reinstating it, while in Parliament the issue has always been heavily defeated when it has been voted on.  The most recent polls done in September and November 2010 by YouGov show strong that there is still strong support for its reintroduction.  The September poll found 51% supported the death penalty for murder, while the November poll found 74% supported it for murder in ‘certain circumstances’.

Since launching his campaign Guido has received widespread support amongst his readers and also from MPs.  Currently MPs Philip Davis, Priti Patel, Andrew Turner, David Nuttall, Chris Kelly, Roger Gale and Julian Brazier have all shown their support for Guido and his campaign.  David Cameron however, in a past statement in Cameron on Cameron by Dylan Jones says:

“If someone murdered one of my children then emotionally, obviously I would want to kill them. How could you not? But there have been too many cases of things going wrong, of the wrong people being executed, of evidence coming to light after the execution, and sometimes there is just too much of an element of doubt. And I just don’t honestly think that in a civilised society like ours that you can have the death penalty any more.”

One of the strongest supporters of capital punishment was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  According to Richard Vinen in his book, Thatcher’s Britain, Mrs Thatcher favoured the restoration of the death penalty and regretted corporal punishment for young offenders was no longer realistic.  Mrs Thatcher was so strong on her support for its reinstatement, he goes on to say, “her Liberal opponent in Finchley believed it was her only strong conviction.”  Most recently, David Davis in 2003, while Shadow Home Secretary said he would bring back capital punishment for serial killers, due to the premeditated nature of these crimes.  However, despite strong public support and backing from a small number of influential politicians, the death penalty remains off the statute books, the last attempt at repealing this decision was in 1994 where it was solidly defeated in Parliament.

Reintroducing the death penalty in the UK is a very serious road to take, and one which should not be taken lightly, you are after all handing the state the right to kill someone, all be it in exceptional circumstances.  But this should not put us off, we are not living in an abusive dictatorial state like those experiencing uprisings at the moment, we are as pointed out by David Cameron, a mature and civilised society.  The benefit of being such a society is that we can administer such strong policies properly, being able to handle something as potent as the death penalty shows we have moved on greatly.

David Cameron is also right when he says there have been too many cases where things have gone wrong.  Again, that maybe the case in less advanced countries, but I reiterate, the United Kingdom is an advanced country.  The science behind evidence has improved greatly due to technologies such as DNA, meaning evidence is becoming more and more reliable and unquestionable.  As the quality of evidence improves, so does the justification for the death penalty.

The idea of prison is to punish and reform.  However, crimes such as child murder and serial murder are so abhorrent, these people cannot be reformed and keeping them locked away is simply not a heavy enough punishment.  Very often in these criminals are locked away to protect them from the victims and the public, as well as the public from them, who would carry out vigilante justice because of the nature of the crimes they have committed.  No sentence for such crimes should offer any benefit to the convicted.

There is of course an emotional element in such sentencing, but there is nothing wrong with this, such punishment would at least offer some closure to victims of these crimes, these after all are extremely serious crimes and a different approach needs to be taken.  It would also send out a clear message that such crimes are not tolerated, and that the state will severely punish those who commit such atrocities.  Reintroducing the death penalty would of course need a complete overhaul of the justice system to deal with such a powerful sentence, as the current system is, as those who oppose it point out, not up to the job.

RightBlueView backs and supports Guido Fawkes’ campaign to restore the death penalty.  This does need a serious approach and there are a lot of unanswered questions and issues, and a lot would need to be changed, but this should not be used as an argument to oppose it.

You can sign the petition here:  http://order-order.com/restore-justice/