Civic Responsibility

One of the things that has always struck me as both unusual and unhelpful about the British state educational system (which provided my own education up to the age of 18) is that there is not enough emphasis on learning about the culture into which we are born.?

When I went to school in the late 1990s it was assumed that learning to read and write was the act of ‘learning English’. Later on, when I was in my early twenties, and studying and working in France, I was genuinely horrified to realise how difficult the English language was and embarrassed at my poor understanding of its technical complexity and idiomatic richness compared to non-native speakers.

The same can be said of our culture and history. This was brought into stark clarity recently during one of Norwich Theatre’s Theatre of Sanctuary workshops. Part of our Theatre Makers programme, this project is an opportunity for migrants and refugees to share and celebrate global traditions and cultures.

I was in conversation with a participant, which started by our realising that we were almost – save for about two weeks – exactly the same age. This made me then quite uncomfortably compare my privilege with theirs.

I was hearing about their incredible journey towards making Norfolk their permanent home, having fled their own country to come to the UK as a refugee, when the ‘Life in the UK’ citizenship test came up in our conversation. The list of things they were teaching themselves to pass this test was extraordinary, and so later that day I found a website to try it out myself.?

At this point I will share my embarrassment at only getting 19 correct out of a possible 24. And share my Welsh outrage that roast beef is deemed by those setting these tests to be a favourite dish only in England! I also confess that I mis-dated the UK’s geological separation from Pangea but, to quote Six the Musical, ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ about that one.

In my view, some of the content of this test was completely arbitrary, and way too focussed on looking back (often by hundreds of millions of years!) rather than looking forward. And arguably, a test of facts and history rather than a fair representation of culture today. But if we require those wishing to make the UK their home to learn these things and take this test, then why don’t we consider the actual citizenship knowledge and understanding of those of us lucky enough to call the UK our home by virtue of birth?

It’s fantastic to see how citizenship has become much more a part of our National Curriculum over the past 20 years. There is, however, a whole generation of people (like me) who were at school in a darker age of cultural awareness. This generation is now assuming positions of influence and authority. Is the citizenship knowledge there to fully understand civic responsibilities?

In this past week I’ve had two further causes to reflect on the notion of civic responsibility: attending the UEA’s launch of its ambitious and wide-reaching new Civic Charter in its 60th Anniversary year, which Norwich Theatre will sign;

as well as hosting Norwich Theatre’s annual ‘Centre Stage’ celebration event, which this year specifically showcased our work to be at the centre of civic life in our city and county and launched our Creative Conversation enquiry.

Both Norwich Theatre and our partners UEA have made civic pledges based on a huge amount of understanding, knowledge, and dialogue. Committing to this kind of civic responsibility - whether advocating for causes or serving the community - isn’t easy, but it also isn’t hard at a corporate level, and it has become expected of big institutions.

However, we need more of this awareness in our lives as individual citizens because, as one of the great architects of global civilisation Aristotle famously said: ‘knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.’