In recent days, there has been much talk about the possibility of building a less corrupt and more democratic Malta at a number of levels including that of education.
In such circumstances where societies face a crisis it is routine, and routinely lazy, to focus on what young people need to be taught. What students are taught in school is of the utmost importance to any community and should (but so very often doesn’t) command serious resourcing and creativity.
That said, lazy societies frequently sub-contract responsibility for current crises to their children, their schools and the future. It is obvious to anyone analysing the last few decades in Malta’s history that the problem is not its children or adolescents but most assuredly its adults.
It is obvious to anyone analysing the last few decades in Malta’s history that the problem is not its children or adolescents but most assuredly its adults.
Significant numbers of Maltese adults in all walks of life have become role models for sleaze, corruption, lying, abuse and anti-democratic behaviour. Not exactly the role model one might want while attempting to reconstruct Malta’s image and its future.
While no-one could argue that changes to Malta’s curriculum and school culture would be a positive move, the pressing curriculum change must be for its adults. The failure to build an ethical and sustained civic culture in Malta is the result, not of failures in the education system but rather in its various professional, representative and civic structures.
A deep and radical overhaul of the values and principles that guide such structures and associations is long, long overdue for they have failed Malta spectacularly.
Such an overhaul should involve the business sector at all levels, the professions, trade unions, the churches, sporting and cultural associations and above all Malta’s political parties.
Recognising that the human heart rather than a set of ‘official’ controls and regulations is the first home of democracy, our priority should be to build a set of ‘habits of the heart” (the phrase coined by political scientist and historian Alexis de Tocqueville) to guide civic culture and practice.
Such habits are deeply ingrained ways of seeing, being and responding to life around us. They involve our minds, our emotions, our self-image, and our concepts of meaning, value and purpose. They seek to promote a fundamental disposition amongst citizens to ‘do the right thing’ in our daily lives, regardless of officialdom. A general public conversation on building such a general disposition in its specific dimensions is overdue.
Such an agenda of civic education might include the following:
• Respecting the individual worth and human dignity of all which includes listening and actually hearing diverse opinions; considering the rights and interests of others and not just of self and adhering to the principle of majority rule while recognising the right of the minority to dissent.
• Becoming critically aware, thoughtful and independent members of society. This implies adhering voluntarily to self-generated standards of behaviour rather than waiting for them to be imposed externally or seeking to ‘get away with as much as possible’. It implies accepting responsibility for one's actions and not simply fulfilling the bare minimum legal obligations of citizenship but also its moral implications.
• Adhering to a set of appropriate responsibilities as a citizen (personal, political, environmental and economic). Again, not simply taking care of one's self and those immediately close but also those in the broader society (especially those who might be vulnerable for whatever reason). It must now also include the planet. Tellingly it also includes paying one’s fair share of taxes and placing one’s skills and experiences at the service of society and not just the self.
• Participating in public affairs in a considered manner avoiding the hostility and hate that animates much of Maltese social media and ‘political’ conversation. It would imply being appropriately informed when participating in public debate and not simply being an echo chamber for others ideas and agendas. Crucially, it would also entails evaluating whether and when one's obligations as a citizen require that personal interests be sometimes subordinated to the public good.
• Promoting the healthy functioning of constitutional democracy. This disposition encompasses being informed about public affairs, constitutional values and principles, monitoring political, economic and cultural leaders and agencies to promote and protect such values and taking appropriate action if necessary.
The importance of civic dispositions or the ‘habits of the heart’ cannot be overemphasised.
Such components and traits of private and public character underpin democracy are of more importance than constitutional or legal strictures. They are what should define Maltese identity, culture and democracy in the years ahead. In recent years we have witnessed many of the very worst consequences of ignoring or deriding such ‘idealistic’ thinking and behaviour.