Schooling for troubled times: PHSRSE
Pat McFadden, Orla Guerin and PSHRSE
When Orla Guerin, the distinguished BBC foreign correspondent, broadcasts from a distant land, and Pat McFadden MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, is interviewed here in Britain, you know things are bad. But at least you can begin to understand them. And Pat McFadden has that gift for making you think everything is all right: you should go to bed and it will be better in the morning. Everything is under control. But it isn’t.
“Fragile”, “volatile”, “threatening”: three increasingly common words to describe the new world disorder. Floods, fires and heat waves from climate change. MAGA mania, persistent violent religious extremism, the decline globally in democracy and the rise in authoritarian states, all add to the anxiety. The Financial Times (26 June) reports that the Oslo Peace Research Institute counts 61 “state-based conflicts” around the world: the greatest number since 1946. In the words of a former CIA Director, Leon Panetta, we should take heed of “how dangerous a world we live in now”. According to our own current National Security Strategy we must “actively prepare for the possibility of the UK coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario”. Add preparation for the consequences, nationally and globally, of climate warming.
Responding to these threats has resulted in removing funding for poverty alleviation in the “developing” world, as well as cutting budgets needed for acute domestic social needs. Intensive care for an economy debilitated by the 2008 financial crisis, Brexit and Covid at the expense of the poor. What now needs asking is how to live in the UK’s starkly unequal, morally and materially diminished society, which is deeply mistrustful of government. The wider question of how to live in this fragile, volatile and threatening world is – ethically – no less important. And what of justice for future generations? How should parents prepare their children and grandchildren for further troubled times? What kind of upbringing and education fits today’s deteriorating circumstances?
Responding to this question, and not accepting narrow schooling for the jobs market as an adequate answer, should be the strategic priority for our education system — whilst not excluding the development of jobs-related skills. Personal, Social, Health, Relationships and Sex Education, or PSHRSE, is a beginning. But it is fragmented within the curriculum, not sufficiently developed and sometimes treated as an add-on, although since 2020 the teaching of Relationships and Health along with Sex has been a statutory obligation. And the Government’s own presentation of PSHRSE sends mixed messages. Parts are non-statutory, not required by law, yet the curriculum is said to be “important”, “necessary” and “should be taught” even if only for one hour a week.
PSHRSE is vital but rarely in the news except when there’s controversy about sex education. The PSHE Association, the provider of advice on teaching the curriculum, is a membership charity “supporting children’s physical and mental health, relationships, careers and economic wellbeing”. It is funded by the Government and, as the Association’s own mission statement indicates, retains the emphasis on entering the economy and on jobs. But it is not enough for troubled times.
Parts of PSHRSE do touch on hotly contested areas in the world outside school, hence guidance and regulation by the Department of Education. Statutory teaching standards “prohibit the promotion of partisan political views”. Schools – like the BBC – “should take steps to ensure the balanced presentation of opposing views on political issues when they are brought to the attention of pupils”. Students may get to look at contemporary politics in these sessions, how systems of governance work are put together and the different political parties. Whilst different cultures and religions are sometimes introduced by visits to places of worship, many of the urgent contemporary problems we and they face have to be discussed elsewhere. Up to the age of 16, debating societies alone provide an outlet for argument and opposing views.
In some traditional subjects opportunities do arise for exploration of contemporary issues. GCSE Geography should provide a scientific account of the causes of global warming. Given the role of disinformation in contemporary society, critical analysis of evidence and documents in History lessons offers training potentially protecting children from social media influence. In discussion of novels, poetry and drama, English Literature provides scope for understanding different social and personal values. At A level there is a gear change when ethics and philosophy, now also examination subjects, positively require and encourage debate.
This is all well and good. But missing from the curriculum is a sharp focus capable of countering the dominant, driving narrative of might is right, creating a mindscape redolent of divided societies, conflict and the need for militarisation. Conformity to norms based on humane and compassionate values and virtues, whether in national life or international relationships, are fast waning. They are in danger of being lost to future generations unless taught in our classroom. This is not a plea for compulsory religious education in a secular society, though the Abrahamic faiths, and of course others, still make a substantial contribution to retention of norms.
The default position – which religious faiths can also fall into – is understanding the world as a binary opposition between “them” and “us”, laying the foundations for conflict and violence. An attractive mindset, because so simple, replaces an isolating individualism with an emotionally satisfying sense of belonging and empowerment. The pithy proposition which opened the 1945 Constitution of UNESCO argues “that since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed”.
Putting together a meaningful account of the world, about life, that recognizes the complexity of relationships within society and internationally, both within politics and geo-politics, is demanding. Children and young people need help to develop the necessary insights and to begin to think about such matters. Just consider how difficult democratic governments find integrating the conflicting demands of different human rights within law and acceptable shared national policy.
In my own experience of working to prevent violent religious extremism, what’s needed is prolonged cultivation of both emotional and cognitive empathy, the ability to put yourself in someone’s shoes, understand their feelings and perspective on the world. This is not only a diplomat’s and negotiator’s skill: it is perhaps the most important attribute for future generations. And the one we must directly address.
What does this mean for teaching in our classrooms? Firstly, the need for a more holistic approach, bringing some coherence to PSHRSE and the contribution of History, Geography, and English Literature, painting a big, normative picture, emancipating PSHRSE teaching from the demands of the job market. The Finnish Government’s approach to education is an attractive attempt to do so. Secondly, whenever feasible, increase creative multi-media approaches to presenting the topic. What better way to broach the nature of disinformation than The Wizard of Oz? Thirdly, raising the status of this more holistic PSHRSE by making it a compulsory GCSE subject.
Our education system should be pre-occupied with results, but if the primary one is not a compassionate society that can, with the support of parents, move beyond spurious and dangerous binaries, it will fail our children and grandchildren.
Ian Linden CMG is a Visiting Professor at St Mary’s University, London.
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