Here we go. Lancashire Police has made an ‘educational’ children’s DVD that features animated animals “in a bid to teach children about terrorism and fundamentalism in an accessible way.”
That's right – a perfect illustration of another Lowest Common Denominator solution, perfectly conceived to produce an endless string of false positives. Wear a rucksack? Terrorist. Say the word "bomb"? Terrorist. Mention devotion to God? Terrorist.
Dealing with these false positives will undoubtedly require additional resources from the public purse, probably for the creation of yet more social-inclusion-community-development-equality-and-diversity type jobs. Of course, it will never be enough. And insufficient resources will undoubtedly be the excuse for when things go spectacularly wrong and several hundred of us get blown up because of actual professional incompetence.
“The video features a talking lion, who explains that a terrorist can look like anyone, and urges children to tell the police, their parents or a teacher if they hear anyone talking about terror related activity. “
For goodness’ sake. I can think of a thousand better ways to explain terror tactics and fundamentalism. None of them include actually exposing children to such behaviours first hand - even through the medium of a talking lion. A talking lion?
This kind of ignorant interference is precisely the reason for my deep suspicion of a national state education system. Four possible lessons for you:
Lesson 1 – Terrorism is nasty and scary, so it doesn’t exist.
Lesson 2 – Terrorism exists everywhere. Trust no-one (unless they are a police officer or a teacher).
Lesson 3 – Terrorism is freedom fighting. It is justifiable and glorious.
Lesson 4 – Terrorism exists. It is incredibly complex, often destructive and fortunately rare.
Bring on an education voucher scheme. Bring on freedom to home educate. Bring on parental choice without state judgement of the “right” things to be learning. One thing is for sure, I think that what Lancashire Police (amongst others) is teaching is wrong, and it is not what I would choose for my child.
H/T Martin (Their Contempt For You Is Total)
