Is capitalism / socialism 'taught' in schools?

Scroll to see replies

They don't relate it back to capitalism or socialism in essence. If you want an in depth analysis of capitalism/socialism it takes a LONG time a lot of background reading. There is no set module/exam for capitalism/socialism for A level, even majority universities don't cover it.

But sure if you think understanding how a marketplace works gives you a background in capitalism. Then yes :u:

I agree that deep understanding requires deep study. That is almost tautological. What I am saying is that even a shallow understanding would allow people to avoid a lot of the obvious mistakes they are making right now. I do not know what is the capital of Costa Rica but I do know that "Africa is the world's largest country" is a nonsense statement.

Reply 21

Bill_Gates

Original post by Aj12

You must of just had **** teachers then. Capitalism came up as a subject regularly from about year 9 onwards for me. Socialism did not make an appearance until A Levels but I was somewhat aware of it from my own studies. I say this as a person who also went to state schools.

I have to ask why you are expecting political teaching in a physics degree? If you can make it to university then you should have enough of intelligence to be able to pick up a book and educate yourself.

hear hear

that was well deep!

Reply 22

Bill_Gates

Original post by Observatory

You need an in-depth understanding as it's a complex issue.

Reply 23

Observatory

Original post by Bill_Gates

You need an in-depth understanding as it's a complex issue.

I think that an in-depth understanding is better than a shallow understanding which is better than no understanding which is better than a false or misleading (mis)understanding.

Do you disagree?

Reply 24

Bill_Gates

Original post by Observatory

I think that an in-depth understanding is better than a shallow understanding which is better than no understanding which is better than a false or misleading (mis)understanding.

Do you disagree?

Considering how you think knowing how a marketplace works give you an understanding of capitalism and socialism, i therefore know every subject in the world really well now.

Thanks.

Reply 25

Rakas21

Schools definitely teach students to be social democrats I think although my GSCE economics was about a month of social science lessons teaching me things which I now know were useless and not well articulated (my teacher was much more interested in telling us how her grandfather was a slave).

If you think about though they teach you to share, they avoid pushing you for an A* and are only interested in getting students to a C and nowadays they teach you that taking part is what matters and hand out participation awards instead of teaching a child to use competition as a motivator to crush his opponents. On top of this they teach you that being gay or transgender is not just acceptable, but good. They also have a penchant in the UK for wanting a focus on human development rather than academic achievement above the C. They do teach you to respect authority and not question the system though until university which probably prevents a load of revolutionary Marxists.

In summary though, schools are factories producing social democrats via the back door though political and economic education is poor or non existent.

Reply 26

The_Mighty_Bush

"Communism is a good idea" - a quote from my politics teacher at school during a lesson

Reply 27

ChaoticButterfly

Original post by The_Mighty_Bush

"Communism is a good idea" - a quote from my politics teacher at school during a lesson

"Communism is a utopian idea and destined to fail" - Me overhearing a history teacher talking to someone.

Reply 28

The_Mighty_Bush

Original post by ChaoticButterfly

"Communism is a utopian idea and destined to fail" - Me overhearing a history teacher talking to someone.

In class? For the ears of everyone present? "Overhearing a history teacher" - that doesn't even sound like it was your teacher.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 29

ChaoticButterfly

Original post by Rakas21

In summary though, schools are factories producing social democrats via the back door though political and economic education is poor or non existent.

Of the third way Tony Blair kind maybe.

I agree with a lot fo what you said but like everything it is made compatible and totally neutered from actually being able to challenge the modern economic world.

Reply 30

misscaricature

I think both are touched on at least just in my experience. eg
Business Studies BTEC GCSE - basic intro to the difference between them
Ethical debate during English Language GCSE An Inspector Calls
and a Religious Studies A Level lesson again from an ethical stand point about capitalism and the environment

So depending on what subjects you do it's more likely to come up
If you mean the values of capitalism/socialism then again depends on the subject, school and teachers (some are more likely to go on political rants than others)

Reply 31

ChaoticButterfly

Original post by The_Mighty_Bush

In class? For the ears of everyone present? "Overhearing a history teacher" - that doesn't even sound like it was your teacher.

No idea, he was never my teacher proper in anything other than the odd citizenship day type crap we had. But he definitely said that. He had a lot of Chinese history stuff on his classroom walls etc, I think he may have done a phd or something relating to china.

Conjuring up my memories I think his views were summed up as "Mao desperately tried to create communism and was sincere in his belief in the cause. Got frustrated with the Soviet esque animal farm thing going on, tried to keep the revolution going all his life as apposed to the Stalin strain of communism where it was all about just reigning in power to the pigs. But it was doomed to failure as communism is just to fundamentally Utopian and it caused a lot of blood shed in all the large scale attempts to make it and has left the world with a lot of dictatorships"

He did have a vote labour poster on his doorway in the 2010 election. As did my biology form teacher :teehee:

Just to give you some ammo for the red baiting. :rolleyes:

But back then I despised the labour party, so it didn't work in indoctrinating me to vote labour. Although I couldn't have given you any real opinion on economics other than you could have got left wing views out of me, I just didn't know what left wing meant then. School taught me very little.

So he was some kind of left wing. But not communist.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 32

The_Mighty_Bush

Original post by ChaoticButterfly

Did he say this in class then as part of the lesson? It's not the best analysis but I suppose it is high school we are talking about here.

Original post by ChaoticButterfly

He did have a vote labour poster on his doorway in the 2010 election. As did my biology form teacher :teehee:

Just to give you some ammo for the red baiting. :rolleyes:

So he was some kind of left wing. But not communist.

"Red baiting" is entirely warranted in most cases. It's strange that you think referring to Joe McCarthy and his crusade against communism is somehow meant to be offensive. He was right.

You are making my own arguments for me. The state education system is controlled and populated by left wingers who openly export their views unto children. Wonder what the reaction would have been if he had had a vote UKIP poster on his door?

Reply 33

Rakas21

Original post by ChaoticButterfly

I don't think we need to challenge the economic consensus but we do need to raise a generation of winners who thrive from competition and have the resolve to keep attempting to beat their opponent until they do.

Reply 34

nixy49

Original post by Observatory

I think that an in-depth understanding is better than a shallow understanding which is better than no understanding which is better than a false or misleading (mis)understanding.

Do you disagree?

Would it be fair to say that both capitalism (as is) and socialism are essentially the same since both founded upon coercion by the threat of violence. I was wondering how the young would react to being taught this truism..... if they thought violence was the best way for a civilised society to progress.
Perhaps the question to have asked would have been if / should they be taught philosophy..... but then does a truism really have anything to do with philosophy.

?? .

What would society be like today if coercion under threat of violence had been outlawed, say, 200 years ago?

Reply 35

Serine Soul

We were introduced to the ideas of socialism and capitalism in GCSE Lit when doing An Inspector Calls and I have to admit, I found it super interesting.

Though, my Lit teacher seemed to be right wing, and completely put me off the left when she said that one aim is to make everyone get the same wage.

I was such a capitalist then, supported the Tories and everything :erm:

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 36

German123

It is in history GCSE.

Reply 37

Olax98

Oh dear, yes. My History teacher (who also did a Sociology degree at York) is very much a Socialist... He likes to make his views known, and somehow links his ideas to everything we learn about. :musicus:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 38

nixy49

Original post by Olax98

Ask him what he thinks society be like today if coercion under threat of violence had been outlawed, say, 200 years ago?

Ask him if it is correct to suggest socialism has violence it's core to 'make' it work.

Ask him if it is moral to 'teach' children the threat of violence is required in a civilised society.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 39

nixy49

Original post by enaayrah

Posted from TSR Mobile

"I was such a capitalist then"

What is capitalism? As the name implies, is it not the free exchange of ideas, goods & services between people? A thief who take less of your property than another thief is still a thief.
If capitalism had truly existed for the past 1000 years the land 'owners' would have been given short shrift for demanding payment for a thing that did not belong to them..... y' can't demand payment to something that does not belong to you...

... mind you, in those days flat earth belief was quite popular......

.......... and it continues.