Earlier this week, Jennifer Lawrence announced she was considering taking a year off from acting as she’ll be “trying to get people engaged politically”.

So, as J-Law joins the list of the rich and famous planning to swap acting for activism, the question we must ask is do young people need Hollywood’s elite to make being politically active an attractive prospect?

Here in the UK, it could be argued that celebrity involvement in politics is viewed negatively – just look at the cynicism in the press that met Jeremy Corbyn when he joined forces with Stormzy or the ridicule that Russell Brand faced when he deigned to voice political opinions.

In the USA, it’s a different story. From rumours of Oprah and The Rock considering running for President in 2020, to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s current run as Governor of California, America has a well-documented history of famous faces dabbling in politics. However, it’s time to give young people more credit when it comes to their own futures.

At Shout Out UK, we recognise the value young people bring to political conversations, and the importance of getting them involved in these conversations as early as possible. To make that happen, all routes can and should be explored, but the reliance on using celebrities to make politics more ‘attractive’ to young people is a tired trope that perpetuates the myth that young people are simply not interested enough in their own futures to get involved unless someone wraps it up in a shiny bow. Surely our young people deserve more credit than that?

This week, in the wake of yet another mass school shooting, America’s youth has thrown down the gauntlet. Their chant of ‘Enough Is Enough’ is echoing across Washington as I type because they are sick of the adults in their lives failing to protect them. They have co-ordinated a response to the attack with more grace, defiance and strength than we typically see from politicians on both sides of the pond. As the next generation, why should they wait until they are of voting age before they start working to affect change?

While I applaud Jennifer Lawrence and celebrities like her using their considerable platform to focus on real issues, they need to tread carefully. They can be powerful role models for young people around the world. There’s a reason why the famous Spider-Man quote ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’ resonates. Harnessed in the right way, Jennifer and her peers can be a powerful force for change, but young people need to know the tools for them to be politically engaged have always been there for them. Young people themselves have power to change society for the better, they just need to understand how the system works. I celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and others want to use their influence to improve engagement then pushing for more Political Literacy in schools is the best avenue to ensure long last change, without making young people feel like they need to piggy back on the support and voice of celebrities to be heard.

Knowledge is empowerment, which is why we at Shout Out UK, are pushing for political education in schools. Political literacy would give us, the next generation, a clear understanding of what politics is, how our society works and why voting is relevant and important. Yet, screaming at us to vote without telling us why or how society and politics works seems a little premature. Like asking someone to run a marathon before being able to walk. You can’t get an entire generation mobilized in the long term without giving them the tools to understand the system they are supposed to be influencing at the same time.

We, Shout Out UK, run a Political Literacy course, which aims to get more young people interested and engaged in Politics, by teaching them about the processes in Politics, public speaking and debating. The young people we teach are more engaged and passionate about politics because they not only see why they need to be involved in the conversation, but now also understand how they can influence it for there generation.

There was a violent protest at Kings College London recently because controversial YouTube star, Carl Benjamin, was speaking. This violent protest has now brought into question the effectiveness of the university’s initiatives, such as the safe space marshals who were on duty that night.

The masked protestors did not agree with Carl Benjamin’s views and so, decided that violence was necessary to enforce the groups point. This should show that universities should instead be promoting safe debating spaces where every opinion is able to be expressed without fear of reprisal, not safe spaces that promote nothing but intolerance of other people’s opinions.

Regardless of what your opinion is, you should be able to express them without fear of these sort of protests happening; guards were attacked, smoke bombs were let off and windows were smashed, and this is not acceptable just because someone has a different opinion to you.

Unfortunately, it seems as though Kings College London has been concentrating on safe space initiatives, which has created the wrong sentiment – that if you disagree with someone, you have to shut them down, no platform them, to ensure that you only have an echo chamber for your own views.

These ‘safe spaces’ are now breeding intolerance because people aren’t talking to each other anymore, just echoing views and anyone that saying something remotely different to the norm gets vilified and ‘no platformed’, rather than debated against. It seems that if they are unable to debate and discuss an issue properly, then out of frustration they will resort to protests similar to this.

To demonstrate how stifling these safe spaces are, there were safe space marshals employed by the students’ union to patrol speaker events on campus where there is a potential for audience members to be offended…

The officials hand out leaflets detailing the union’s safe space policy and are ready to take immediate action if anyone expresses opinions that breach the policy. This could include derogatory comments about age, disability, race, religious faith, sexual orientation, gender identity or socio-economic status.

I’m not supporting people being offensive to each other, but to have people literally guarding what others say is absolutely ludicrous – this is suppressing free speech, not enabling it, and it’s unbelievable that the university allows this to happen. Universities should be a place that challenges views, if you disagree with someone debate with them…

I run Shout Out UK, a youth political news site for people aged 15-25 to freely express what they think of issues in the world. Obviously, we monitor every post that goes up on our site to ensure it’s factual and not defamatory, but other than that, we allow young people to write about any issue they feel strongly about because it’s important we encourage young people to be passionate and share their views in a coherent way.

This is what the university should be doing; allowing young people to talk and debate without worry that someone will shut them down – having a ‘protected’ debate will only foster these violent protests more.

Despite the clear need, it is incredible that the government still stops short of tackling the core problem when looking at how we build strong integrated communities linked together by their engagement as citizens through political discourse and engagement. In the recent Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper just released by the government, the teaching of Citizenship or Political Literacy is almost non-existent.

A depressing notion when you consider the growing extreme and populist movements gripping people in the UK. The move by extreme sides of the political spectrum to pray on a populace void of political education, inflamed by the likes of certain newspapers, that for years have blamed everything (except the snow) on migrants or Muslims surely should have shown our government that the only way to truly integrate our fracturing society is by giving everyone a clear understanding of our democracy, by bringing practical political Literacy into the curriculum.

This can’t carry on if we wish to have and continue to hold on to a healthy democracy. The real issue here is a lack of political education in all but the top end schools. Something the green paper truly lacks. From my experience, people, especially young people, are interested in politics, but lack an understanding due to this state-induced failure to teach us how the system works.

Currently, we assume that once we hit 18 years of age we suddenly become enlightened with all the political knowledge one needs to vote and engage. Of course, this is not the case, it needs to be taught and understood in school as a compulsory subject. We treat English and Maths in very high regard, as two of the most important subjects. However, the one subject that allows us to be who we want to be, gives us a voice and creates a society we wish to live in, we give no time to in schools.

We, Shout Out UK, last year launched our Political Literacy course, which aims to get more young people interested and engaged in Politics, by teaching them about the processes in Politics, public speaking and debating. The young people we engaged with where already interested in politics, but frustrated by the lack of education they where getting on the subject.

Roisin Murray, a teacher at Bentley Wood High School, Harrow, said, “Understanding Politics is key to understanding how society works. Shout Out UK’s Political Literacy Course supports students in developing their political awareness so they can take a more active role in society. After sitting in on several lessons with Shout Out UK and our students, I can honestly say it has been a fantastic opportunity for our students to develop their knowledge and awareness of current affairs as well as their ability to speak in public, debate and present a discussion coherently. This has also helped students to develop their self-esteem and confidence.”

Fatima Manji from Channel 4 News, said “Young people have important, inspiring contributions to make to politics and yet their voices are too often ignored. This course can help equip them with the tools to challenge decision makers better.”

Division within our society is occurring due to a clear lack of understanding between communities and a clear frustration with a political system that is becoming ever more alien and incomprehensible to most of us. Rather than fixating on ‘British Values’, a vague terminology, with hints of colonial reminiscence, why not give all communities an equal footing within our society by introducing actual Political Literacy in schools as a clear and distinct part of the curriculum.

Snowflake, avocado eating youngsters. We millennials get a bad rap in the press. Often described as the snowflake generation, we are characterised as being weak minded, easy to offend and lazy. Seen as voiceless, we tend to not have many places offline to debate, discuss and challenge these ludicrous stereotypes.

With Millennifest, that all changed. Organised by CoVi, a millenial think-tank, Millennifest brought together young millennials in a series of events up and down the country. We discussed politics, ran workshops and took part in The Policy Factor, a political X Factor. I was lucky enough to attend most of the event series to host a workshop on ‘Human Rights and Brexit’ and apart from the incredible calibre of speakers CoVi managed to secure, the sell-out crowd at each event were a powerful testament to the fact that millennials are anything but snowflakes.

During the workshops I ran, people were debating, inquisitive and engaged. Other workshops included how to get funding, campaigning tools, local politics and what is Britishness? The topics, level of discussion and vibe was incredible at every single event. It is often said of our generation that we can’t take a joke… reality is we can, this is the generation that laughs at memes all day after all, we just don’t like racist and sexist jokes pertinent of the previous generation. True to form, Millennifest discussions where full of jokes as well as serious debate at every opportunity. During the final event in London, CoVi decided to host the finale at a farm… yes a farm. Apart from the slight smell on one side of the venue, it was incredible to see millennials debating and discussing politics while surrounded by animals.

Brightly coloured tape and signs littered each event with speaker bios, suggestions from future speakers and CoVi’s Brexibition! A mural of organisations and information about Brexit. Everything was interactive, from speaker suggestions to quotes you could put up. You felt a part of the festival, rather than just a guest.

Naturally, the Brexit issue was heavily covered as one of the biggest challenges of our generation. We will be the ones forced to live the entirety of our lives with the decisions made by the government and any implications that may accompany this. The Policy Factor speeches focused on Brexit and a post-Brexit Britain, with speeches varying from leave to remain and from a variety of speakers including MPs like Vince Cable.

During each speech and Q&A, those same snowflakes where challenging the speakers unapologetically. The next generation had something to say and we said it. Rejecting sweet talk from politicians saying ‘we are the future…’ we know this! Stop giving us platitudes and say what you will do to help us change society for the better.

It is clear we are facing a huge inter-generational divide, with an ever more frustrated and angry millennial generation who feel ignored, pushed aside and discounted despite they being the ones who will inherit Britain. Millennifest, with its array of youth-led organisations, young speakers and crowd, was a clear statement from us as a generation. We are done being pushed aside.

It has been an incredible year for politics. Pre-2016 we had the first coalition government to grace No.10 since the Second World War; we have witnessed the utter obliteration of the third largest party in the UK, the Liberal Democrats who, in 2015 shrank into irrelevance. We also witnessed the resurgence of the great left and right debate with the growth or right wing movements like UKIP and the rise of Jeremy Corbyn. This year alone, we saw two incredible anti-establishment votes, with Britain deciding to leave the European Union and Donald Trump being elected as the next US president, both occurring after two tumultuous campaigns. The referendum had a profound effect on the country and us, the British People. Yet were we qualified to make such a decision?
We live in a society where the majority of people gain their political information from their parents, whom vote Labour or Conservative because of their out of date belief in what the parties stood for years ago, the media, and vote due to vague social customs. Politics unfortunately has remained the playground of the financially better off and while the sons and daughters of the higher echelons of society are educated in politics, the rest of us are not, creating a division, which can be seen when looking at the background of MPs and the ever expanding Oxbridge bubble in Parliament.

Yet, the issue becomes bigger because everyone in our democracy is entitled to a vote, hence, the divide not only secures the political industry for the elite, but it also lets loose a very politically illiterate populace during elections and referendums, leaving us vulnerable to decisions fuelled by misinformation, media spins, and ignorance. It is clear that this can’t carry on if we wish to have and continue to hold on to a healthy democracy. The real issue here is a lack of political education in all but the top end schools.

From my experience, people, especially young people, are interested in politics, but lack an understanding due to this society-induced ignorance. Currently, we assume that once we hit 18 years of age we suddenly become enlightened with all the political knowledge one needs to vote and engage. Of course, this not the case, it needs to be taught and understood in school as a compulsory subject. We treat English and Maths in very high regard, as two of the most important subjects. However, the one subject that allows us to be who we want to be, gives us a voice and creates a society we wish to live in, we give no time to in schools.

The issue is that political literacy would give us, the next generation, a clear understanding of what politics is, how our society works and why voting is relevant and important. There have been some incredible initiatives recently by the UK government around voter registration and getting young people to vote. Yet, screaming at us to vote without telling us why or how society and politics works seems a little premature. Like asking someone to run a marathon before being able to walk. You can’t get an entire generation mobilized without first giving them the instruments to understand the system they are supposed to be influencing.

We, Shout Out UK, aim to combat this, and this year we launched our course entitled Political Literacy. The course aims to get more young people interested and engaged in Politics, by teaching them about the processes in Politics, public speaking and debating. The young people we taught were more engaged and passionate about politics because they were taught it, they understand it now and even more important than that was longevity, they stuck with it rather than being involved sporadically over the course of one election or referendum. Politics takes times and only when you are taught this, will you have the patience to stomach it.

Roisin Murray a Teacher at Bentley Wood High School, Harrow, said, “Understanding Politics is key to understanding how society works. Shout Out UK’s Political Literacy Course supports students in developing their political awareness so they can take a more active role in society. After sitting in on several lessons with Shout Out UK and our students, I can honestly say it has been a fantastic opportunity for our students to develop their knowledge and awareness of current affairs as well as their ability to speak in public, debate and present a discussion coherently. This has also helped students to develop their self-esteem and confidence.”

Maybe it’s time we look at the issue seriously, rather than just around elections and referendums. The issue is not apathy itself, it’s why apathy happens. Apathy amongst young people happens because the system has become so complex, that people no longer understand it and so get frustrated by it. We must give schools the tools necessary to deal with this issue because no matter how many times you scream at someone to vote, if that person does not understand the system or why you should vote, he or she will never be engaged in the long run, even though they may vote the one time you asked them to.

It’s the modern equivalent to the old proverb, ‘give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you feed him for a life time’. In a similar fashion, if we ask them to vote, they will do it once before getting bored or disillusioned, but if we give them the tools to understand the system they will remain engaged for a life time.

With teachers leaving the profession and with the number of vacancies rising quicker than staff are trained to fill them, are we heading towards a crisis? This was the issue facing one of the pannel debates at this years Conservative Party Conference. It is clear that the current state of British education is dire and the governments fixation on Grammar schools seems to suggest they are looking in the past, lacking fresh ideas and perspectives.

Yesterday we attended the NUT and ATLs forum on the current state of education and it sounds a tad desperate. Quoting a recent statistic from a survey done on school governors, only 12% were happy with the way government is handling school funding and structuring, with their primary worry being money…

This is no surprise for a sector which is receiving 8-12% in cuts and is one of the most confusing in existence… to quote Dr. Mary Bousted, the ATL Union general-secretary, who said while on the panel ‘local authorities are in charge of providing education to the community, but can’t build schools’… it is a catch 22 scenario. With councils being unable to build, schools being over subscribed due to the lack of being unable to be built by local authority.

On top of this, 11% of teaching staff take retirement early due to stress as teaching is one of the professions that relies on stuff doing unpaid overtime. The amount of paperwork often required by management meant that teachers would need to work overtime to cover work load, but can’t be paid for this overtime due to funding shortages. This leads to teachers at times doing as much as 70-80 hour weeks!

The debate did then taken an absurd twist as an audience member asked, since now we spend roughly 5 times more on education than in the 1950s, why hasn’t education gotten 5 times better. Disregarding the fact that the pound (like most currencies) has depreciated over time, one can see other issues with such a statement… another panellist did mention that in the 50s most of the money only went to teaching staff and the infrastructure, with little checks and balances taking place. In today’s world Ofsted provides checks and balances to ensure teaching is kept at a high standard, one of the many new duties taken up by the Department of Education in recent times. This has meant that naturally the department would spend more.

The issue of Grammar schools was also raised. As mentioned often Grammer schools seem to be the tory answer to the growing issue of talented kids being left behind or unchallenged. Dr. Bousted mentions that the primary issue with Grammar schools and selection in general is that often it is a test of a parents commitment and wealth, not a child’s brilliance and intellect.

She justifies this by stating that often before sitting the 11+ exams which judge if a child is fit to go to a Grammar school, parents that can will often employee a tutor to help them succeed. Indeed it is statistically proven that children that pass highly at their 11+ are mostly due to them having a tutor as opposed to unique brilliance and skill. Naturally, poorer children will be unable to afford help and therefore will be in a handicap when applying to the schools, increasing the ever-widening gap between rich and poor. This seemed a sentiment that most in the room agreed with as Ed Dorrell, chair of the debate and Deputy Editor of the Times Educational supplement, did a flash poll of the room showing that most disagreed with selective education and hence, Grammar schools.

The debate ended up on an oddly positive note with the chair asking all on the panel, what they would like the department of education to cut, which showed that all the panel agree that the department of education needs to finally streamline what they are doing and begin focusing on what is important, ensuring that we don’t hit a crises where by we can no longer provide quality education to the next generation because we have forced all the best teachers out of the profession due to a lack in funds or stress. We have given more money for security, renewed trident… surely we can spare a little more teaching the very people we insist we are trying to protect.