International Women's Day 2014 - is it necessary?

Today is International Women's Day. Established in 1911, it is nevertheless only something I heard about a few short years ago. The day is meant to recognise the achievements of our sisters in their fight for equality over the last hundred years or so, and also to raise awareness for the changes that still need to be made to ensure true gender equality worldwide. Two things struck me about the day:

 

Firstly, the number of women who still suffer as a result of their gender, both in developing countries, and, if the figures on UK domestic violence are correct, right here in Britain, presumably among ordinary women that we know. As someone who has never been discriminated against on the grounds of gender, I've never really related to feminists. To my mind, they either belong with the Birkenstock-clad bra-burners of the 60's or the militant throngs of the early 1900's, attacking Winston Churchill and policemen, but then giving it all up to terrorise Germans instead in 1914. I admired Mrs Pankhurst, but only because she was a fellow Salfordian, kicking ass, and even when we're all grown up, we still have that irrepressible desire from the playground to shout 'Fight, fight!' when it all kicks off. Perhaps that view of mine needs to change, and feminism is not done. Now how to inspire teenage girls to take on the mantle?

 

Secondly, Women's Day is a major thing in...Russia? So they do respect Human Rights, not of homosexuals of course, or of people in old satellite states who disagree with the Russian Government, but of women yes. Or do they? From what I can see, much like the Communist Russia of old, the day is a smokescreen, a nod of the head, a PR stunt, designed to make women feel a little bit special on the 8th March. Are the past achievements of women celebrated, and the current inequalities tackled side by side with male compatriots. Er, no. Women are bought flowers and chocolates for being women. It almost brings to mind the Red Army being paid in mind numbing vodka. Well done Putin.

We Day UK (Wembley 2014)

Friday saw the first We Day UK event at Wembley Arena in London. 12,000 students were awarded tickets after they made their pledges for local and global action this academic year. Among those were 14 students from my own school, who have pledged to fundraise for a global charity this year as well as bank volunteering hours for the most vulnerable in our local community. Like all the other students at Wembley on Friday, they will have benefitted greatly from the inspirational people, acts and other activists they saw.

All the speakers, singers, actors, sportspeople, etc. were brilliant for this one day event. Malala Yousafzai, Martine Wright, Spencer West et al. all had amazing stories to tell, and there is no substitute for hearing the words straight from the horses mouth. It is so easy today to be apathetic about terrible events like 7/7 for instance, going on in the news. Joaquin Phoenix' character in Hotel Rwanda summed it up well when he said that people watch terrible things happening throughout the world, vaguely think about them for a moment, and then carry on eating their cereal.

 

There was no chance of apathy from anyone in the energy inspired by We Day. Students heard from people who had overcome incredible odds to achieve great things; they heard about positive social change happening throughout the world right now, and they were shown students, just like themselves, who had already embarked on the path of social activism with successful results.

 

Emphasis was placed throughout on the fact that people don't have to be special to make a change. Prince Harry was right when he said that it just takes one act from each person to make the world a better place. This struck a chord with my students, who rightly feel empowered to take on the challenge of a local and global project from now until July.

 

I hope their energy and enthusiasm carries them through the challenge ahead. Good luck to all my students on their two projects!

http://www.weday.com/we-day-events/we-day-cities/we-day-uk/ 

Planning for external exams this summer?

A useful link for Examinations -

this site at the Dept of Education gives the date, reference number, time of any examination in any subject of any board.

 

The New Citizenship Curriculum - What's Out and In

National Curriculum Changes for Citizenship from September 2014:

What's In	Same	What's Out
Precious liberties enjoyed by citizens of the UK   Nature of rules   Tribunals   Functions of money – personal budgeting, money management and a range of financial products and services   Taxes, Debt, financial risk   Community Volunteering	Economic Decisions   Parliamentary Democracy   Elections and Voting   Local Community (sort of)   Law and the Justice System	Human Rights   Rights and Responsibilities   The Environment   The role of the Media   Handling Conflicts

 

 

 

 

The Trinity of Citizenship Education and the aim of the new 'improved' Citizenship curriculum

As decreed by the Advisory Group on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools:

1. Social and moral responsibility
2. Community involvement
3. Political Literacy

 

At Key Stage 3, Citizenship should equip pupils with the knowledge and skills needed for effective and democratic participation. It should help pupils to become informed, critical, active citizens who have the confidence and conviction to work collaboratively, take action and try to make a difference in their communities and the wider world.

 

At Key Stage 4, Citizenship should equip students with the knowledge and skills needed for effective and democratic participation. It should help students to become informed, critical, active citizens who have the confidence and conviction to work collaboratively, take action and try to make a difference.

Using blogs in Citizenship lessons and to support CVs.

For some time now, my Key Stage 4 students have been taught to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as old fashioned letters and phone calls to their local press and MP, to raise awareness for their campaigns. However, with news this week that Facebook is some Black Death-style phenomenon that will inevitably go into decline and oblivion by 2017, I feel - like a plague-carrying rat - that the time has come to jump ship.

 

So, the Schemes of Work have come out again, this time to incorporate the growing popularity of 'the blog'. A Facebook page is all very well, but let's face it, a blog is a much  more professional approach to tackling issues and setting up Citizenship projects, plus a blog can always be used in a link on a CV to explain much more about what students get up to in their own time than a tiny little paragraph ever could.

 

The benefits seem obvious to me. Students can learn how to produce blogs on just about anything, and can learn the value of occupying their own little space on the internet. Of course, a blog alone is not really active citizenship, but if it used as a tool to organise something in the real world, then it has the potential to be a very powerful medium.

I'll be teaching them to create blogs on local or global issues, but they can take the skills they have learnt to create blogs on anything else they may be interested in - journalism, fashion, sport, photography etc - and pool all those ideas together too. If further convincing is needed, the following clip from the BBC shows the case studies of two very successful teenagers, whose blogs would be absolutely invaluable on their CVs. Good luck to them.

PS. Any lesson on using social media to voice an opinion should be handled responsibly - so here is the legal bit on the dangers of libel and defamation.

National Voter Registration Day - 5th February 2014

 

 

The Hansard Society, which was so instrumental in advocating the provision of citizenship and political literacy within schools, as recently become a founding member of the Democratic Life coalition. Democratic Life actively 'promotes high quality citizenship education for all young people' and like many Citizenship based organisations is currently behind the drive to raise awareness of the National Voter Registration Day on 5th February.

 

Recent changes in the law mean that for the first time, new voters will not be registered by the head of their household but will have to register themselves - something which can of course still be done from the age of 16.

 

For Year 11 lessons, Bite the Ballot have helpfully put together two games designed to demystify the voting process. Both games fit neatly into 45 minutes, and finish with a link to register for the vote at the end if the student so wishes. Of course, if the student wishes to follow the example of Russell Brand and exercise their democratic right not to vote, then all power to them. This is the UK, not Australia.

 

All together, this would fit nicely into a 60 minute lesson, with a choice of plenary, either to set up as a fully fledged registered future voter, or to write a short piece on why voting is not something that a student wishes to engage in. I personally don't have a problem with people not voting (can I say that?), but I do think people should actively consider why they don't want to exercise this privilege. If the bulk of the voting population can't be bothered to vote, then that is society's problem to deal with (MP's take note), not an individual slur on anyone.

 

More information can be found in the coming weeks via Twitter @BitetheBallot #NVRD.