European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

DILEMMAS AND TASK IN THE FORMATION OF EDUCATION-BASED ... 163To turn to Lasswell’s second question. When should we attempt toeducate and influence children in their social development? CiCemembers were asked at what ages they considered children begin todefine various alternative identities. There was a fairly large measure ofconsensus about this: the average ages of the responses were asfollows:Identification as a family member 2.4 yearsmale or female2.9 yearswith local area 7.0 yearsnation7.5 yearslocal region8.6 yearssocial class8.8 yearsEurope11.4 yearsThese finding are important in terms of when citizenship educationshould begin: if ideas of belonging to a nation occur when 7, and theysee themselves as European soon after the age of 11, citizenshipeducation should perhaps begin at a fairly early age (Ross, 1999). Justas important are the developments in identity in the pre-school period:this is when ideas of self and other start, and when groups becomedefined - gender groups, age-sets, family and friendship groups. Theseare essential developments: defining the individual identity means atthe same time learning to discriminate, to identify the other, and tostart categorising the people with whom they come into social contactas members and non-members of their groups. This social discrimination,an essential element of identity formation, is now very muchmore complex than it used to be in some «simpler» societies in thepast: today’s children are in contact with a far more cosmopolitan andheterogeneous society than was true for most people in the past. Thisis one of the areas of tension and dichotomy referred to earlier: theindividual and society —identifying oneself as a member of variousgroups, and identifying “other” groups, without developing prejudiceand xenophobia.It is an error to believe either that social education “just happens”,and will become evident when young people become adult and “joinsociety”, or that it is an activity that can be left until young people areabout to finish their formal education. Social education starts frombirth and continues through life. Children and young people makesense of their social world as they encounter different groups of peopleand different forms of social behaviour —at home, with friends, in