Michael Gove. Flickr/Policy Exchange.
Week after week, we are confronted with yet more stories of young people choosing to abandon their families, communities and country to join the evil that is ISIS. The news that a seventeen year old from Dewsbury had blown himself up in Iraq was just one story among an ever increasing multitude. Teachers, especially those with experience of working in economically deprived Muslim communities, are particularly concerned. We take the propaganda threat from ISIS every bit as seriously as David Cameron and Theresa May, and hope dearly that the hateful filth ISIS continues to spread does not influence the bright young minds we have had the privilege to teach.
Rightly, the government and Ofsted Chief have acknowledged the crucial role schools have to play in dealing with this important issue of our time. All children, not just Muslim children, need to have a better understanding of the society in which they live. They need to understand their rights and responsibilities every bit as much as they need to know how to write and read, for children cannot be expected to play an active role in our democratic system unless they have been explicitly taught how.
