ABSTRACT
Prior to 2002 in the UK there was no systematic, nationally coordinated effort to inculcate citizenship in children through schools. Many individual schools incorporated a concern with citizenship in their mission statements, ethos, and teaching practices. For example, it has long been common to teach religious toleration in religious education classes (RE being one of the few compulsory subjects in the 1944-88 system) and to use English and, to a lesser extent, history classes to teach children how to reason about moral and political matters. There’s also an old tradition in English schools of using games (sports) as an arena for teaching the virtues of good citizenship; in particular, team work, leadership, and being good losers and magnanimous winners.
