Too young to notice? ‘misleading the public’
16-year-old Paul McAteer from Children's Express responds to the publication of a recent article by University of Ulster researchers stating that sectarian values had seeped into children's beliefs.
| How can children avoid bigotry? They live in a society where even their history books are bigoted. |
A report published recently by University of Ulster researchers - Too Young To Notice - confirmed how sectarian values seep into children's beliefs, but, according to Belfast teenagers, it failed to highlight the more positive aspects of its own findings.
Among the findings were that Catholic children are already twice as likely as Protestant children to say they don't like the police.
But Connor Scullion, 16, thinks Too Young To Notice? is misleading the public by suggesting that young children are bigoted: "Children from three to six aren't bigoted, because they don't fully understand each other's traditions," he said.
In the report, only seven per cent of five-year-olds and 15 per cent of six-year-olds expressed any sectarian sentiments.
Connor feels the worst cases in the report have been highlighted at the expense of showing the bigger picture: "'Catholics are the same as masked men, they smash windows' - most young Protestant girls wouldn't say that, maybe somebody older would.
"There is another way of looking at this story," he said.
Orlaith Graham Wood, 14, is disappointed that the report's focus in the media was around such an obvious minority: "It's all 'said a Catholic' and 'said a Protestant', but there are actually a lot of kids who have those religions, but understand sectarianism," she said.
Amy Magowan Green goes a step further: "I think it's a hot issue at the moment - really young people being sectarian. So I think they're twisting the words a little bit to get a story."
None of these particular teenagers holds a fantasy picture of how things are for young children in the Province. There is a clear understanding and anger about the influences young children face.
"How can children avoid bigotry?" asked Conor. "They live in a society where there are murals and even their history books are bigoted. How are they supposed to turn away from this and follow their own way?"
Amy agreed: "It's true, once they (children) reach about five and start seeing flags, they start asking questions. If their parents give them bigoted answers, then they'll believe them."
"I think there are lots of programmes and schools working towards integration. In the future, numbers of bigots will go down even more. They shouldn't be putting negative points across, because it is actually positive," she said.
The young people interviewed did endorse the report's recommendations calling for a more integrated approach to community relations.
But the danger, said Sarah Montague, 14, is that young people's sectarian motives are usually superficial, not deep-rooted, and therefore shouldn't be tagged in the same category as adult sectarianism:
"When the riots are on there might be a lot of young people out rioting, but they might not fully understand what they are fighting about, even though they are still being bigoted," she said.
About the team
This story was produced by Paul McAteer, and published in the News Letter in Northern Ireland.
