Lessons about ‘fake news’ are indoctrination masquerading as education

One of the most shocking things about the outbreak of violence and disorder that has recently hit Britain is that some of those involved were just children. As miscreants have been hurriedly hauled up before judges, we now know that far from being ruthlessly organised fascists, many of the rioters seem to have been bored, mindless teenagers. In some cases, they were barely out of primary school.

On Monday this week, a 12-year-old boy who had attended two different riots appeared in court where he pleaded guilty to violent disorder. The judge announced that he was ‘more involved in the violence and disorder than any other defendant I’ve seen coming through these courts, adult or child’. On the same day, another 12-year-old boy was similarly charged. A 13-year-old girl is due to appear in court today. If their mums are to be believed, some of these adolescents simply got carried away in the moment. Others, like the 15-year-old from Hull who stole a tray of food from Greggs, or the 16-year-old who made off with £19,000 worth of vapes, clearly saw an opportunity they couldn’t resist. It’s hard not to conclude that some of these kids would be better served by a clip round the ear than a criminal record.

Of course, the overwhelming majority of teenagers have not spent the school summer holidays rioting. Those currently being made an example of in courts of law represent only a handful of the UK’s children. But it is still important to ask questions about the phenomenon of the teen rioter. It is ridiculous to think these kids represent a burgeoning fascist threat. Clearly, they do not. Likewise, it is hard to imagine they were compelled to nick sausage rolls by news about the tragic events in Southport. Instead, the looting and stone throwing speak to a nihilistic sense of alienation from their communities. Many of these teenagers were not engaging in hard-right protests, they were having a collective tantrum.

Unfortunately, it seems that many adults are determined to draw precisely the wrong lessons about teen rioters. Take Labour’s education secretary, Bridget Phillipson. In response to the recent disorder, she wants schools to teach children how to spot extremist content and fake news online. She wants lessons in regular subjects like English and maths to ‘arm’ pupils against ‘putrid conspiracy theories’. She wants children as young as five to be taught how to identify ‘misinformation’. Yet the idea that a few lessons in spotting fake news will transform rogue teens into upstanding citizens is laughable.

Worse, Phillipson seems to assume that the distinction between ‘fake news’ and ‘truth’ is so obvious it can be taught to five-year-olds. But the school curriculum itself is hardly immune to quackery. In recent years, plenty of children have been taught that sex is randomly assigned at birth rather than being a biological fact determined by a person’s chromosomes. Would Labour teach pupils to spot this ‘misinformation’? All the signs suggest no. The Tories’ ban on teaching gender ideology has been placed under review. This means that if Phillipson gets her way, teachers could spend the morning warning children of the dangers of fake news and the afternoon telling them that men can become women. We can all decry the lies and rumours that were spread in the wake of the Southport atrocity, but it’s hard not to escape the suspicion that the distinction Phillipson wants to draw between ‘misinformation’ and ‘truth’ is simply whether ideas conform to her and her pals’ worldview more broadly. Lessons in fake news will hasten the blurring between education and indoctrination.

This is not to say schools have no role to play in preventing future public disorder. Good schools give pupils a knowledge-rich curriculum to provide the foundation for critical thinking and some sense of a national story that all can unite behind. Young people need teachers, as subject experts, to be authoritative and set high standards for both learning and behaviour. Perhaps more than anything, they need politics to be left at the school gate. Phillipson promises none of this.

The politicisation of education has already done a lot of damage. Just a couple of years ago, during lockdown, today’s teenagers were shut out of schools, sports clubs and community centres. Social bonds and obligations were discarded. Then came the Black Lives Matter protests. Their message was that All Cops Are Bastards. Instead of challenging this, schools reopened with BLM-inspired curricula. They gave lessons in white privilege – including to children who saw little prospect of ever landing a decent job or house. None of this has been exactly conducive to social cohesion.

Rather than changing course, the new government wants to double down on political indoctrination, with a deranged plan to instruct all five-year-olds in the perils of misinformation. None of this is in the best interests of children. And it will certainly do nothing to prevent another round of riots.

Joanna Williams is a spiked columnist and author of How Woke Won. She is a visiting fellow at MCC Budapest. Read her new report, Sexualising Children? The Rise of Comprehensive Sexuality Education, here.