On bias *

Many councillors, officials and parents would believe in principle that politics should be ‘taught in schools’ because it is ‘so important to us all’, but in practice oppose or obstruct because they also believe that it cannot be taught without bias. This poses an important and interesting problem that is both practical and philosophical. The answer is not easy. For to reply that it can be taught factually and objectively is then to denature the subject into the kind of irrelevant dullness against which I complained in the first essay, and even then is to give no lasting guarantee that a teacher will not pronounce the facts with a sneer or with ecstatic benevolence. And scepticism about whether total objectivity is possible in politics might spread into what should be (but oddly seldom is) equally suspect history. Were I a parent living in Ireland (North or South) I might well be, for instance, in favour of disallowing any history teaching in schools; and if I were living in Hungary, Poland or Czechoslovakia, for instance, I might not, as a matter of personal pride and principle, believe a word that I was taught – though I could do well in the examination, giving ‘em back what they want, as may Mrs. Jones’ Willie even.