{"id":103918,"date":"2017-10-30T18:47:37","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T16:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/politics-in-schools-yes-if-we-want-children-to-be-active-citizens-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2017-10-30T18:47:37","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T16:47:37","slug":"politics-in-schools-yes-if-we-want-children-to-be-active-citizens-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/politics-in-schools-yes-if-we-want-children-to-be-active-citizens-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics in schools? Yes, if we want children to be active citizens | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politics in schools? Yes, if we want children to be active citizens<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Children have the right to express their opinions and be heard.<\/span> Joseph Sohm\/Shutterstock.com<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rights of children have come under the spotlight in South Africa recently. Corporal punishment, which has been banned in the country\u2019s schools since 1996, is now also illegal in the home. <\/p>\n

This latest ruling was justified on the basis that children, like adults, have a right to be protected from assault. While the ruling itself has provoked some controversy, the idea of children having \u201cprotection rights\u201d \u2013 the right to be protected from violent, abusive, cruel or exploitative treatment \u2013 has not.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticipation rights\u201d, by contrast, seem to be much more controversial. These, along with protection rights, are accorded to children in Article 12.1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children are assured that they not only have a right to express their views on matters affecting them, but that these views will be given \u201cdue weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recently, a photograph was posted on Twitter that showed three boys holding up school shirts featuring a South African political party\u2019s logo. The resulting outrage \u2013 fuelled by former UK cricketer Kevin Pietersen, who attended the school in question while growing up in South Africa \u2013 suggests that many are uncomfortable with allowing children their participation rights. <\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

People have often questioned whether politics \u201cshould be allowed\u201d in schools. The issue here is whether or not politics affects children. And the answer is yes. We want our children to flourish. To ensure that they do, we need to help them develop their sense of good and evil, justice and injustice. Understanding and engaging with politics is crucial to this development.<\/p>\n

Politics and power<\/h2>\n

Politics is ultimately and essentially about power. Children are arguably one of the least powerful groups in society. Political scientist Jessica Kulynych has argued that society does not see children as political actors and as such, fails to include them in the public sphere. This prevents children from enjoying participation rights: they cannot express their views on matters affecting them.<\/p>\n

Schools \u2013 the place where children spend so much of their time \u2013 have very entrenched power relations. Pupils are the least powerful and most vulnerable in these relationships. They spend much of their time listening to those who have power over them and so many decisions about students are taken without their input. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common complaint across Africa – and across the globe \u2013 that young citizens are particularly unengaged. Turnout is especially low during South African elections among young voters.<\/p>\n

But how can we expect young voters to be politically involved if we prevent them from \u201cbeing political\u201d while they are in school? Schools could be the perfect space for children to learn about and engage with politics.<\/p>\n

Talking about their book, The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education, Diana E. Hess and Paula McAvoy argue that being able to talk about politics is a skill that people need to learn. Schools seem the obvious place to learn this skill: they are not just there to teach students maths and science \u2013 they are surely meant to educate young people to become good citizens and contributors to their country. <\/p>\n

Kids are political animals, too<\/h2>\n

The Greek philosopher Aristotle famously claimed that \u201cman is a political animal\u201d. His justification for this was two-fold; he said \u201cIt is a characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, of just and unjust\u201d and also pointed out that we have the gift of speech. <\/p>\n

These two capacities allow us form relationships with each other and through association (in families, clubs, societies, and indeed the state), we are able to experience what Aristotle called eudamonia \u2013 human flourishing. <\/p>\n

There is no reason for children to be excluded from developing their abilities as \u201cpolitical animals\u201d. If we keep them out of politics, we deprive them of their right to speak \u2013 even about issues that make us uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Heidi Matisonn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
\n<\/p>\n

Read more on The Conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join the fun:<\/strong> Add Your event<\/a> | Submit a Press Release<\/a> | Add your listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Politics in schools? Yes, if we want children to be active citizens: Children have the right to express their opinions and be heard. Joseph Sohm\/Shutterstock.com The rights of children have come under the spotlight in South Africa recently. Corporal punishment, which has been banned in the country\u2019s schools since 1996, is now also illegal in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4636,8292,10116,8890,829,1022,4374],"class_list":{"0":"post-103918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-active","8":"tag-children","9":"tag-citizens","10":"tag-conversation","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-schools","13":"tag-want","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}