Copyright expressandstar
The Government has announced a review of the national curriculum, with compulsory lessons in something called 'citizenship', with compulsory lessons in subjects including politics, environmentalism, media misinformation and personal finance. How did we all manage without it? The problem is, of course, without either removing other important things from the curriculum, or extending the school day, which I think is probably unlikely to happen, how will the teachers find time to fit it in? Well I think I've got the answer. I reckon I could teach them all they need to know in seven easy bullet points. So give them all a leaflet, and insist they read it every morning during registration. This is what I would tell them: 1. Apart from a modest mortgage of no more than three times your income, borrowing money for consumer spending is a mug's game. If you need to borrow money for it, you can't afford it. If you can afford it, there's no need to borrow. The only people who do well out of borrowing are the lenders. 2. The politician who promises the least will break the fewest promises. 3., When people talk about 'change', it is usually a bad thing. 4. Recycling is generally good, wasting gas or electricity is expensive and may be bad for the planet. But going on demonstrations is not very grown up. 5. Andrew Tate is a very silly man. Assume everything on social media is untrue until proven otherwise. 6. A mobile phone is just another machine. It's sometimes useful to have, but don't let it rule your life. 7. At 16 you are too young to vote, so if I were you, I wouldn't waste your time worrying about it. Find something fun to do instead. Of course, the Government's 200-page document is somewhat different, with liberal references to 'stakeholders' and 'diversity'. When was the last time you heard anybody talk about 'stakeholders' with something sensible to say? More disturbing was the reference to 'climate justice'. Not just the mildly tiresome 'environmentalism', which kids have been indoctrinated about for decades, but the full-throated language of Extinction Rebellion. Scary. Talking of environmentalism, it's tempting to feel some schadenfreude that all the self-satisfied folk who keep banging on about their non-polluting electric cars could soon be stung with a drive-per-mile tax. Truth is, I seriously considered having one myself a few years ago, but the sums didn't add up. And they certainly wouldn't now. So I suppose I could be a bit smug myself, and tell these know-alls they might as well have bought a V8 Bentley instead. The trouble is, once the line has been crossed, you can bet it won't be too long before the politicians come back for the rest of us. And once they start tracking our mileages, how long before they start tracking our movements, the speed we drive at? And then there's the compulsory ID cards.l
