Civic Education in the United Kingdom

I find it interesting how the idea of creating a statement of values is being received in Britain. When I think about the possibility of something similar here in America, had we been a nation with an evolution similar to Britain, my reaction would be very much like that of those in the article. But instead, our American sense of values and what it means to be a ‘citizen’ have already been instilled in a written bill of rights and constitution. These sentiments are implicitly, rather than explicitly, understood in the UK. Hahn mentions that it is perhaps for this reason, and the fact that the nation was not created out of a revolution, that the concepts of ‘citizen’ or ‘civic education’ are not as important in the UK as they are in the United States or other western democracies.

I think Gutek also makes an interesting point when he says British policy, society, and education has transformed as a result of evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, change. The idea of ‘Britishness’ is an idea that has simply evolved over time, as values and social standards passed down through the generations. But in an era when immigrant populations are on the rise, bringing in waves of people who have yet to be introduced to such standards and values, the reliance upon unwritten rules becomes less effective. So I can understand the necessity of creating such a “statement of values,” but I question its validity in a growing society where people find it easier to define themselves by differences than by similarities.