Core Values for politics

Having spent a lot of time this week in conversations with teachers about core values it seems timely to consider the political process.  If the house of commons had a praise pod, (and why not) what would both sides of the house agree as keywords?

"I've been sent to the praise pod for listening carefully and keeping my ballot papers still until the speaker had finished."

So as schools work hard to encourage teamwork, sharing, co-operation and thinking about others through tons of labelled praise, what do we see in the house of commons. . . belittling of others' ideas, put-downs, insults, fault finding, and an endless and senseless focus on criticising opponents for no other reason than they are 'the opposition'

So here's a thought:  let's give a school council the chair in a parliamentary debate, and set up some positive behaviour rules for both sides.  Then let's see how much more creativity and problem-solving results.

Seems the principle of modeling needs revisiting.  Anyone who works with children knows that without leading by example our words are meaningless.