News from the New Party

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Another brick in the wall

Pink Floyd may have had a point: "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom. Teacher, leave those kids alone." It's not a particularly encouraging vision of the education system as far as it goes, but nevertheless one which the current government seems to be determined to aspire.

In a letter to the Independent on 16th April, Councillor Derek Tipp of Southampton writes:

The Department of Education and Skills, in conjunction with the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs, will this week begin distributing the Al Gore film, An Inconvenient Truth, to all 3,385 secondary schools in England.

According to the DfES, "influencing the opinions of children is crucial to developing a long-term view on the environment among the public" (press release, February 2007). This is an explicit admission by the Government that its intention in circulating the film is to indoctrinate children politically.

Such deliberate political indoctrination of children is contrary to the Education Act 2002, which at section 78 says the school curriculum for maintained schools is to be "balanced and broadly based", and section 79 requires the Secretary of State, local education authorities, governing bodies and headteachers to exercise their functions "with a view to securing that the curriculum for every maintained school satisfies the requirements of section 78".

Political spin is bad enough, but when we start brainwashing our own children we are finished.

We agree wholeheartedly with these sentiments. It is not for government to distribute political propaganda through the education system. We suspect that this is a view to which David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, would also claim to subscribe. The problem is that not only has he lost sight of the difference between propaganda and education, he is also incapable of distinguishing political ideology from scientific fact. Notoriously, Miliband has claimed:

"The debate over the science of climate change is well and truly over, as demonstrated by the publication of today's report by the IPCC," said Mr Miliband... Our energies should now be channelled into how we respond in an innovative and positive way in moving to a low carbon future."

If Miliband truly believes that the debate on climate change is over, we have to ask ourselves why he is determined to distribute Al Gore's polemic to all secondary schools. In the same DEFRA press release quoted above, Education Secretary Alan Johnson helpfully provides the answer:

Mr Johnson said that influencing the opinions of children was crucial to developing a long term view on the environment among the public.

"With rising sea temperatures, melting ice caps and frequent reminders about our own 'carbon footprints', we should all be thinking about what we can do to preserve the planet for future generations. Children are the key to changing society's long term attitudes to the environment. Not only are they passionate about saving the planet but children also have a big influence over their own families lifestyles and behaviour."

The object is not to teach facts but to influence opinions, but also to influence parents' behaviour by getting to the children first. Perhaps because it is 2007, nobody seems to read 1984 any more. This is the practice of a totalitarian state, not a liberal democracy. Regardless of the rights or wrongs of the science, or the politics of climate change, this is an educational scandal of monumental significance. It deserves to be challenged in the courts.

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Another brick in the wall