Teaching my child about politics

[Charlotteamanda1]

I find it worrying that politics is not taught in schools. I feel it should be given the same importance / teaching time as religious studies at senior age.
I have found some good information on a Channel 4 teaching web site. I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas where I can get some simple information from.
I am worried that my child will soon be able to vote and has no political knowledge or understanding of the importance of it.

A level politics?

In Scotland politics is offered as a higher (equivalent of AS). I'd think there will be past papers, SQA (Scottish exam board) revision guides. BBC bitesize revision.

Depends on age.

Who's In Charge

The Politics Book

30 Second Politics

are all good.

Andrew Marr's series Making of Modern Britain was handy too.

We watch a lot of news and current affairs programmes on TV. We like a bit of lively discussion about them too. Politics is just generally discussed In the house. It was the same in my parents house when I was growing up too.
I don't think schools can, or should teach everything.

How old? The PArliament website www.parliament.UK has loads of education resources, including lots of games for different age groups. There is quite a lot on the main site fir adults too, which your DC might like if they are an older teen. How near London are you? A tour of the Houses of Parliament and a trip up Big Ben might help spark their interest (Big Ben tours are free but there is a 6 month waiting lust).

On the Parliament site, click on the ' education' link in the top right of the homepage, and you get a whole education microsite.

They do seem to know very little. I'm a just old enough to remember the three day week. The radio was always on and my DM always chattered to us about what was in the news.

I just check the BBC web site now and then, we never have the TV news on and they too have computers and iPods to amuse them, whereas I often listened to radio 4 in my room in an evening.

I'm not sure there's a lot you can do about it. DD1 I'm sure will research stuff for herself when the time comes and DD2 will probably vote for the personalities that appeal to her. She does people not ideas.

Oh and neither will vote for UKIP as both believe in gay marriage and they put UKIP leaflets straight in the bin

You are lucky. Our teenager teaches us about politics - they are long lectures and no-one escapes

I think that family discussion is a good way to go. We recently had an excellent discussion with DD(14) about nationalism and forced repatriation in the context of the upheaval happening in Ukraine.

Making the big issues relevant to them helps.

Being generally well informed is a good idea plus when a view is expressed which you find offensive then discuss it dont dismiss it.

I wouldnt want politics to be taught in school. As with religion it is hard to keep ones own views out of it plus would you want the syllabus being set by the government of the day?

We cover democracy at my school. It is a painful three hours!! The ignorance is shocking and I can't believe they retain the information.

Picking a political story and having a discussion about it once a week would be a good starting point. I always begin with left wing/right wing to try and give the subject a bit of context.

A list of the last ten PMs would be a good thing to know- who they were and significant things they did.

I agree that I wouldn't want political dogma taught in school but there is certainly a place for learning about the structure of our political system.

We have always done the family discussion thing from them being very young and both DC have expressed surprise at the ignorance of their friends on politics and current affairs in general.
Sometimes a topic will crop up on tv and I will use it to explain some background and encourage discussion.

My problem has always been that DH only gives one side. I find myself constantly playing devils advocate or leaning the opposite way to give them the wider picture.

So hard to not show your own political bias when explaining politics! I find religion easier to explain pragmatically!