Guest blog: Nathan Farr

Nathan (17) is a high school student. He is interested in civics education because he believes that everyone, from a young age, should have an understanding of New Zealand's political system and how the choices we make at election time can impact our lives and the future.

In this blog post, he outlines why he believes civics education should be a core part of the New Zealand curriculum and taught in schools.

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Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Education never stops even after we take our lasts steps in a school. But for some the steps are harder to take than for others. Students all have different passions, strengths and or interests. For me my passion is history and my interest is politics but for you your passion may be sports or science. Also you may enjoy school and you might also be good at school but for some they find school a challenge and they may not be very good at school, that doesn't make them ‘Dumb’ or ‘stupid’ it may simply be because they may not connect with the topics or they may have a learning difficulty which makes school even harder. I used to find school hard because of my learning difficulty but I was lucky enough to have support and help and also my teachers would be willing to help me and make sure I understood everything.

But thing I and many others never learnt at school is about politics like what political system we have is New Zealand, How different systems affects people, different political ideas or even how parliament works and how people are elected.

I had to look this stuff up by myself but if you are someone who isn't interested in that kinda thing you won’t go and look it up by yourself. Also it’s only if we educated on these kinda things will be able to hold our government to account and have constructive conversations about politics and issues around it. Also we would be able to build an opinion on different issues and then if we are informed the government won't be able to treat us like we know nothing and that they know best. Also they would have to listen to us because we would be the ones who decide if they are in government or not.

But what is Civic Education? Civic Education in a democracy is education in self government. Democratic self government means that citizens are actively involved in their own governance; they do not just passively accept the dictums of others or acquiesce to the demands of others.

In the past decade we have witnessed dramatic demands for freedom on the part of peoples from Asia to Africa and from Central and Eastern Europe to Latin America. And as we have seen one totalitarian or authoritarian regime after another toppled and fledgling democratic governments replace them, we may have become too optimistic about the future of democracy. We also may have become too complacent, too sure of democracy's robustness or of its long term viability. History, however, teaches us that few countries have sustained democratic governments for prolonged periods, a lesson which we as Kiwis are sometimes inclined to forget. New Zealanders, of course, should take pride and confidence from the fact that we live in the world's oldest and most equal democracy.

It is because of Civic Education that one totalitarian or authoritarian regime after another toppled, because the people those countries start to take an interest in what is really going on or what other countries political systems look like. If students are thought civic education it would be harder for there to be an totalitarian or authoritarian regime in any country because people would be aware of the effects.on the people. It is people of people taking an interest in how different countries govern and taking a stand for the type of leadership they want that dictatorships are becoming a increasingly rare item.

This is why I think Civic Education should be taught in schools and be part of the curriculum.