Education for citizenship and the teaching of democracy in schools

American citizen meant something very different. The ‘good subject’ and the
‘good citizen’ meant different things. In Britain, there was often a problem of
perception over this distinction. The very continuity of our history, powers
being handed down to Parliament by the Crown in response to gradual
pressure from below, has made the very concept of ‘British subject’ and
‘British citizen’ seem much the same to most people.
2.3 Recently the terms ‘good citizen’ and ‘active citizen’ have come back into
currency. The report of the Commission on Citizenship, appointed by the
then Speaker of the House of Commons, Encouraging Citizenship (1990),
did well to adopt as a starting point the understanding of citizenship found
in the late T.H. Marshall’s book, Citizenship (1950). He saw three elements:
the civil, the political and the social. Discussing the first element, the
commission rightly put greater stress on the reciprocity between rights and
duties; and, more than Marshall, on welfare being not just provision by the
state but also what people can do for each other in voluntary groups and
organisations, whether local or national. Both of these it saw as a duty it
called ‘active citizenship’, but it had less to say about Marshall’s second
element. Perhaps it took political citizenship for granted (which, historically,
it has never been safe to do). Civic spirit, citizens’ charters and voluntary
activity in the community are of crucial importance, but individuals must be
helped and prepared to shape the terms of such engagements by political
understanding and action.
2.4 Respect for the rule of law is a necessary condition for any kind of social
order and a necessary component of education. In a parliamentary
democracy, however, education must also help future citizens distinguish
between law and justice. Such a distinction marked the very beginning of
political thought in ancient Athens. Citizens must be equipped with the
political skills needed to change laws in a peaceful and responsible manner.
2.5 We firmly believe that volunteering and community involvement are
necessary conditions of civil society and democracy. Preparation for these, at
the very least, should be an explicit part of education. This is especially
important at a time when government is attempting a shift of emphasis
between, on the one hand, state welfare provision and responsibility and, on
the other, community and individual responsibility. We say only that while
volunteering and voluntary service are necessary conditions for full
citizenship in a democracy, they are not sufficient conditions. Local
communities are, indeed, not isolated from the state and public policy.
2.6 This has recently been well stated by Professor David Hargreaves in a
DEMOS pamphlet, The Mosaic of Learning:
‘Civic education is about the civic virtues and decent behaviour that adults wish to
see in young people. But it is also more than this. Since Aristotle it has been
accepted as an inherently political concept that raises questions about the sort of
society we live in, how it has come to take its present form, the strengths and
weaknesses of current political structures, and how improvements might be
made.... Active citizens are as political as they are moral; moral sensibility derives
in part from political understanding; political apathy spawns moral apathy.’
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