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Press Release

PAT COMMENTS ON IPPR’S YOUTH REPORT

02 November 2006

The Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) has welcomed research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) into youth behaviour. PAT General Secretary Philip Parkin spoke about the pressures on young people at the Association’s Annual Conference and has continued to voice his concerns.

Philip Parkin said: “Many children today have enormous advantages in terms of their physical health and material well-being. However, I believe that this country values young people less than some of our European neighbours.

“We put pressure on children to meet our targets and expectations while wanting them to conform in silence, often treating them with suspicion. They suffer the consequences.

“Many young people are becoming detached from a society that increasingly regards them as a nuisance rather than as individuals to be valued and encouraged. Children need space to be children, with fewer tests, less formality in the early years and fewer commercial pressures.

“My impression is that in Scandinavia, for example, children are generally held to be of greater value than they are in the UK. In other European countries too, it seems that young people are valued and encouraged to be ‘their own person’ and not ‘follow the crowd’.

“Something is wrong. The BMA has said that 10% of children have psychiatric disorders and are experiencing symptoms of severe depression. Nearly 400,000 children are on drugs such as Ritalin and Prozac. Twenty-five years ago the average age that people fell ill with depression was 30. Now the average age at which mental health problems appear is 14.

“A study in the Journal of Children’s Services claimed Britain was 21st among 25 members of the European Union for child well-being.

“My own childhood in the 1950s and 1960s wasn’t idyllic, but it was certainly less complicated with fewer pressures than the lives children lead now.

“The values we pass on to children are the ones that will shape this country. We need a debate about how we treat our children – for their sake and because it’s a debate about the future. The Children’s Society’s Good Childhood Inquiry [http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what+we+do/The+good+childhood+inquiry] is therefore welcome. Crucially, it will listen to the views of children. Its recommendations can’t come soon enough.”



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Voice: the union for education professionals

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