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High-tech communication in the Family

Reuters - Friday, September 28 02:44 pm

LONDON (Reuters) - The family meal may be threatened with extinction but “High-Tech” parents are now communicating much better with their teenagers and giving them more freedom, says child psychologist Richard Woolfson.

Long gone are the days when parents were much more dictatorial and children were to be seen, not heard. “The consultation, negotiation and mutual respect that goes on between parents and teenagers in families today would probably shock the mums and dads of 50 years ago,” Woolfson said in a study of how family communication has evolved.

Sitting round the table together for a meal was once the bedrock of family life. It is now becoming a thing of the past but Woolfson stressed that was not the end of the world.“Now we have today’s high-tech family where family communication takes place by email, internet, webcam and mobile phone as well as face-to-face of course,” he said.That has another beneficial side-effect, Woolfson said in his survey for the T-Mobile phone company.Parents are now able to contact their kids much more easily and children have become more confident and communicative.“This means that parents are less worried about their children’s safety because they feel reassured,” Woolfson said.

And the generation gap is not suffering.“Even grandma and grandpa have entered the world of cyber space to keep close contact with their children and grandchildren, all of which can only be good news for everyone,” Woolfson concluded. 

Prime Minister dialogues with youngsters from all the EU Member States. European Treaty is “the priority of the priorities”

 

The Treaty will be a sign of confidence in

Europe. A sign that it is stronger and growing “, told on Sunday morning the Prime Minister, José Sócrates, to 27 youngsters from each one of the Member States of the European Union.In this opening and symbolical act of the Portuguese Presidency. José Sócrates, addressing to the youngsters who he called “Europe generation”, considered the negotiation and the closing of the Treaty as “the priority of the priorities” of the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union (EU), which will be held by Lisbon’s Government until the end of this year.Informally dressed, with no tie and jeans, the Prime Minister, said at the joint dialogue that with the reformist Treaty, “less federalist”, that overcomes the unratified European Constitution, Europe “will be a bit better” and “will provide the European Union with better functioning tools”. He added “I’m not saying all the problems will be solved, but it will be certainly better”.The Prime Minister, from now on the President of the European Council, stressed that amongst the innovation of the Treaty, based on the mandate received at the Brussels Summit by the end of the German Presidency, there is the reference to the fundamental rights. “For the first time, there is a reference to the European citizenship, an issue that all the youngsters are sensitive to, which allows any person to reivindicate his/her rights at the European courts”, said.Another topic discussed were the climate change, a “struggle that Europe has to lead”. The future and the important contribution of the youngsters for education, knowledge and innovation, as well as the accession of Turkey to the EU, were not forgotten.

The youngsters at the meeting are mostly granters of scholarships within the Erasmus programme, allowing, from many years before, the exchange of students from Universities of several countries of the EU.

Imams to give citizenship lessons

Mosques are being urged to provide citizenship lessons for the thousands of youngsters they see daily. About 100,000 UK youngsters attend Islamic religious schools attached to mosques - madrasas - every day. A new curriculum aims to tackle extremism and counter messages about perceived clashes between Islam and British culture. It was drawn up by a group of mosques in Bradford and is being backed by the Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly. It comes after an independent study into radicalism in local communities by academics at Durham University suggested a “step change” in traditional religious leadership was needed to tackle radicalism.  Ms Kelly said: “We cannot afford to allow our young people to be intimidated and influenced by extremist messages.  

“Madrasas have a pivotal role to play in winning hearts and minds and supporting young people to reject the messages of extremist groups.  “This project ensures that young Muslim students learn the true teachings of Islam and encourages them to play an active role in their local communities and as citizens.  

“I would like to see citizenship on the curriculum of madrasas up and down the country, as this kind of grassroots action is key to facing down extremist messages.”  Ms Kelly’s department is working with Department for Education and Skills officials and representatives of supplementary schools to try to ensure good practice across the sector.

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Citizenship educationcitizenship education: to become a democratic thinking, feeling and acting person.

A human being is not born as a citizen. He / She achieves citizenship through education. Formal, non-formal or in-formal education are different and supplementary ways to reach the minimum level of citizenship and to achieve higher levels during the possible / preferable lifelong education process. Due to the disappearance of more or less recognisable patrons, the daily life becomes more complex for a lot of people. These people are forced to make choices all of the time.

For that reason, citizenship education has to help to make these necessary choices, by training youngsters to become critical citizens, who are prepared and capable to think and act constructively in the democratic system, as it functions in the international community.

Citizenship education is to bring together facts and insights in relation to:

- the economical, social and cultural reality

- mechanisms who dictate that reality or lead towards that reality

- political consensus decision making that can be used to interfere in this reality on all levels of the community

- to make people sensitive of values of the democratic system

- to practice the capability to implement these knowledge, insights and value sensitivity in the own life.

citizenship, what does it mean to you?

Citizenship is one of these words often used, with a different meaning for different people. There must be a common ground: can we agree some basic content?

Give your comments and let us know what citizenship means to you.