CITIZENSHIP AND C.D.
By STEPHEN SPENDER
THE Army Bureau of Current Affairs announces that in future every soldier is to receive, as part of his training, three hours general education in citizenship a week for a period of four months. In addition to this, many branches of the Army, not to mention the Navy and R.A.F., are getting a good deal of technical education. Moreover, military correspondents point out that the old idea of the infantry as foot-sloggers is being replaced by a realisation that tech- nical knowledge and mental alertness are required film every soldier, wherever he is placed, in modern warfare.
It can hardly be an exaggeration to say that when the Forces are demobilised at the end of the war, we shall have several hundred thousand citizens who are better educated technically and politically than they were when they joined up. This is extremely important ; indeed, the essential preliminary to any reconstruction in a democracy is that the people themselves should be capable of using opportunities, appreciating changes and letting a new conception of democracy be realised in their lives, their thoughts and their actions. No amount of planning and reconstruction could have done much good to the sluggish pre-war mentality which only roused itself to cheer at Munich and then went to sleep again until September, 1939.
One very important principle is to be deduced from Army educa- tion. Not only democracy after the war, but the democratic army now, requires intelligent and technically educated citizens who have a general picture of society in their minds which they can relate to a dose knowledge of their particular jobs. The Army, with all the claims of its training, has found that general education is necessary to the modern soldier. And it is no secret that the Russian, and the German, armies have found the same thing.
If the Army can make room in its training for general education, it is remarkable that no co-ordinated, properly organised and financed scheme for general education, corresponding to A B.C.A., exists in civil life. There should certainly be a Civilian Bureau of Current Affairs corresponding to the Army one. The key to the problem lies with the Civilian Defence organisations—A.R.P. and N.FcS. Although there are brave beginnings of education, started either amongst Civil Defence workers themselves or sponsored by education authorities from outside, nothing like an education scheme exists, and, in contrast to the thousands of pounds spent on A.B.C.A., only very small sums, provided from special funds and charity, have been spent on Civil Defence units.
It seems a curious failure to equip some of the citizens (i.e., those now in the Forces) of post-war democracy to live in a planned and highly technological society and to neglect all others. Perhaps this neglect is understandable in industry, where there may be no time for education (although I believe, in fact, there are the opportunities), and where the workers are at any rate keeping in touch with new ideas of production. But in Civil Defence, without some such scheme, men and women are actually falling behind. They can scarcely keep in touch with their old jobs, and they are not preparing for new ones, nor for a new society. There is some danger of Civil Defence, during the long "lull" periods, becoming a breeding-ground for the discontented, out-of-touch, apathetic and largely unemploy- able members of society in the next ten years.
Of course, excuses can be offered for the neglect of education in Civilian Defence. In the Fire Service it is often said that firemen have no time for it. Yet this objection is already met by the Army, for if the Army, with its extremely complicated training, can find time so can the Fire Service. The reason behind the "no time" excuse is that it is not felt to be necessary for firemen to have any general education for carrying out their fire-fighting duties. Actually this is the exact opposite of the "no time" argument, and it amounts to saying that intelligence and alertness are not necessary for fire- fighting, though they may be in the Army. However, it may be answered that the quality really essential to A.R.P. workers, who are subject to sudden, unexpected and wearisome demands on them after months of waiting, is morale ; and this is exactly what training in citizenship provides. Also, it should not be forgotten that A.R.P. workers live in towns, and go home for their leave every forty-eight or twenty-four hours. If they were the keenest, most interested, most responsible citizens in every town, instead of merely waiting for air-raids, they might have an excellent influence on civilian morale.
Other arguments against Civil Defence education are mainly concerned with technical difficulties—matters of red tape. These objections really amount to nothing at all ; if the Home Office and the regional authorities wished it we could have a scheme working in London within a month. Owing to the fact that Civil Defence posts are in towns, an education scheme would be easy to organise. Outside help would be required, as the services could not go very far towards providing any real education from their own personnel. But the London adult educational authorities are keen to help, and outside London the Workers' Educational Association could provide many facilities. Essential preliminaries are that maps Lnd informa- tive literature, such as those produced by A.B.C.A., should be introduced into stations. This could easily be done, and it. is astonishing that one of the first essentials of every Civil Defence post in England is not a map of the world.
The most dangerous argument that can be brought against a scheme of this kind is that it is not wanted ; in places it has been tried, and the men have shown no desire for education ; they already have opportunities to go to evening classes on their leave days, &c. The people who do not want the public instructed can always prove quite easily that the public do not want to be instructed. It is true that isolated efforts have been made and failed, partly because of the lack of co-operation of the authorities, partly because it is difficult to make any scheme succeed in an apathetic atmosphere. The essential of education is that people should feel it is going to be of use to them, that it will give them a means of expressing themselves and provide them with oppor- tunities. What is required is an educational movement affecting the whole of the Civil Defence services, so that they become conscious of themselves as a body of citizens. The success of the discussion groups in the Fire Service shows that a demand for such a move- ment does really exist. The discussion meetings, which are held voluntarily in the evenings, are a great success wherever the leader is able to show the men that an understanding of world affairs is not just theoretical knowledge but of real benefit to themselves. However, occasional discussions defeat their own ends in the long run, because unless a further step is taken towards real education they themselves become an example of ineffectiveness and of talk in the air. They should be combined with an education scheme, which should include both practical, technical work and also training in citizenship. Out of such a movement demands for vocational train- ing would arise, and these could also be met.
Civil Defence offers an enormous opportunity to democracy, if only we can visualise it as a movement which has a task larger than, though including, dealing with air-raids. Civil Defence workers should be the leaders of morale in the towns, both in times of stress and during periods of lull. They :hould exemplify the increasing public consciousness of the duties, responsibilities and benefits of democracy. The fire-stations and A.R.P. posts of today might well be the cells which are the origin of people's social clubs in the more communal life of the towns of tomorrow. The Civil Defence worker is a citizen as well as a function which comes into action during a blitz. It is not too late to realise this.
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