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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think an eight year old child should know who the Prime Minister is?

154 replies

Proudnscary · 31/10/2011 07:34

My (lovely and intelligent) niece didn't know. She also didn't know who the President of Yanksville was. I think it matters even if David Cameron is a foppish twat of the highest order and Obama is all style and little substance.

I think (especially in this world of X Factor et al) dc should be be educated in the very basics of politics even if it's just identifying world rulers and broadly what they stand for.

OP posts:

Original poster

Proudnscary · 31/10/2011 14:18

Oh god me too Catgirl!

OP posts:

stepawayfromtheecclescakes · 31/10/2011 14:19

I think that children should have at least a basic understanding of how our country is governed, I think schools should educate them as to how the political system works. I hear too many people saying 'oh I don't understand politics, it doesn't interest me' etc etc, actually that's rubbish because all the things that 'politics' is concerned with are things that people are interested in and care about on a daily basis they just don't associate it with politics. demystify the word for kids and they will take more interest later in life. its important to have a voice and to vote when given the chance.

on a lighter note my folks used to be golfers and at the golf club there was a space marked for the president and my DS used to think that's where the president of USA parked! he was about 5 at the time.

BabyDubsEverywhere · 31/10/2011 14:24

'Do you know that women sacrificed their lives to give YOU the vote only a couple of generations ago?'!

This pretty much sums up my reaction to them aswell!

meglet · 31/10/2011 14:26

Yanbu-ish.

However I am slightly OTT as I took my (then 3.6yo) DS along downing street and to the houses of parliment last year. And we went to the parlimentary bookshop (not inside the actualy building) and bought a kids book about politics . He knows who the prime minister and president of the USA are.

He still knows far more about Octonauts though.

stepawayfromtheecclescakes · 31/10/2011 14:34

at meglet we too took ds1 and 2 on the Houses of parliament tour (arrange by our local MP and we were given a private tour!) and they were well impressed, we had wrongly assumed they might be bored, now at 15 DS2 says 'ah I've stood there' whenever PM is talking in the house.

meglet · 31/10/2011 14:54

Oh, we didn't get to go into the HoP. Although it's on my 'to do' list for us.

microfight · 31/10/2011 14:59

I wouldn't have known at 8 and I bet there were people moaning back then "in this day and age with the the Generation game and blankety blank kids should know these things"

WilsonFrickett · 31/10/2011 15:01

Just thinking about this, I now get 99% of my news from the web, it's very rare that we have the news on at home - mainly because I can't stand the patronising way they use slices of cake and stuff like that instead of proper graphs - so DS isn't getting anything by osmosis, if you like, at all.

BrokenRing · 31/10/2011 15:13

Kids should cover elementary politics in school, even at primary age.
We brought ours up to watch the news every day and to read the paper as soon as they felt they wanted to take an interest in that.

At four and six they were aware of the 1997 election and woke us in the morning to find out who had won. The younger one cried when hearing that John Major had lost because Major had glasses like Daddy, but they definitely knew who was primeminister.

proudfoot · 31/10/2011 15:14

YANBU. An 8 year old is not a baby and should definitely have some basic knowledge of the world around them, including knowing who the PM is.

When I was 8 I knew the PM was John Major and was very aware of it when Blair was elected. It didn't mean I was unusual or a political genius but at least I was not totally clueless! I would be shocked if an 8 year had no idea and came out with ridiculous answers such as "my teacher" or "my dad" to the question of who the PM is.

fedupwithdeployment · 31/10/2011 15:22

My DSs (4 and 7) know who the PM is and also who Barack Obama is...although bizarrely, DS2 did ask why Daddy was on the front of Obama's autobiography. DH is white anglo saxon, but does share some of Obama's features.

We are quite politically aware - I have a BIL who is an MP. DS1 when 5 or 6 went to the houses of Parliament and loved it. After the last election I was in the supermarket, looking at the pics of Cameron, Clegg and Brown, and said to boys, we don't know which will be PM. DS2 (then 3) yelled, "BUT UNCLE X Y (full name) WON THE ELECTION.

I think it is pretty important. And while there are some stories I don't want to discuss, I am quite happy for DS1 to read the newspaper as well as horrid Henry.

poppyknot · 31/10/2011 15:31

Sadly WilsonFrickett, lots of people don't 'get' graphs . What gets me most is the misreporting or misleading reporting of statistics..........50% increase is a 'big number' but if the original likliehood is very small, the new likliehood is still small..........

stepawayfromtheecclescakes · 31/10/2011 15:48

meglet I recommend it.
One of the primary schools I worked with when I was an education advisor ran a school parliament, I was met at the door by small boy who shook my hand and said 'welcome to our school, I'm the prime minister' priceless.

OriginalGhoster · 31/10/2011 15:50

Have just asked ds2 (9), he knew David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Obama. He says the news is interesting 'sometimes'. Dd2 (6) got 0/3 which did surprise me.

SpringHeeledJack · 31/10/2011 15:55

have just asked dds (8)

they knew all of them. But then we're a bit of a ranty family

yanbu, op.

exoticfruits · 31/10/2011 16:53

I think that people underestimate DCs and don't have proper discussions-an 8yr old is plenty old enough to have opinions if asked and it isn't eroding childhood.

ragged · 31/10/2011 17:01

DC11: Knew full name without hesitation
DC10: managed the surname with a frown
DC7: no idea
DC3: "Digger!"

About the same success rate with Pres of USA? Q. Radio 4 & 5 both on in this house constantly....

ragged · 31/10/2011 17:02

But by golly they'd all recognise a picture of Mark Cavendish from 15 foot away. Glad they've got their priorities right. [hwink]

ilovesooty · 31/10/2011 18:31

Yes, I'd expect an 8 year old to know who the PM is. I knew things like that before I went to school.

I don't know who my local MPs are and neither do DC

I'm utterly at that.

Andrewofgg · 31/10/2011 21:25

Yes, you can't keep them protected from bad news for ever . . . :o

zukiecat · 31/10/2011 21:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mercibucket · 31/10/2011 21:37

who cares what they're actually called? much more interesting is the family background of so many of our ruling elite. mine get a good grounding in the basics of class oppression and a thousand years of servitude but doubt they could name the current overlord and oppressor they all look much the same, no?

Andrewofgg · 31/10/2011 21:38

Oh zukiecat your tastes are so modern . . .

EmmaBemma · 31/10/2011 21:42

I'm not sure my 4 year old daughter would be able to name him now, but like others here she did know at the time at the election, mainly because my husband and I did a lot of shouting at the radio whenever he came on and we had to explain to her why.

zukiecat · 31/10/2011 21:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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