Citizenship Essay Prize Winner Announced

Citizenship Essay Prize Winner Announced

Sam Troy wins the inaugural Citizenship Essay Prize

As part of their curriculum, all Carthusians study Citizenship, either in timetabled lessons or as a major plank of their co-curricular programme. This year, all Removes (Year 10) entered the first ever Citizenship Essay Prize, responding to one of the seven set titles:

  1. “Decisions are made by those who show up.” (attrib. Harry Truman) How can those under the age of eighteen play any meaningful part in society, if their views are not valued at the ballot box?
  2.  “Human rights only work if everyone, everywhere, subscribes to them; otherwise, they are doomed to fail.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?
  3. “One of the key features that appeared to distinguish terrorists from mass murderers was the fact that they were motivated more clearly by an ideology than by personal motivations.” (Rafaello Pantucci) Can terrorism ever be the wrong means to an admirable end?
  4. Does diversity mean that equality is impossible?
  5. “That a baby can today be assigned the gender ‘U’ at birth proves beyond doubt that the facts of biology have now been granted inferior status to the vagaries of equality.” To what extent do you agree with this claim?
  6. There have been no openly gay footballers in the top four divisions since Justin Fashanu killed himself in 1998. Why might this be?
  7. To what extent do you feel that the ability to form meaningful relationships with other human beings has been aided or hindered by the development of social media?

Many exceptional essays were submitted, with a prize being awarded to the best in each of the seven Remove divisions, and a number of other pupils being awarded Send Ups (academic commendations) for their mature and considered responses. Sam’s essay on the Human Rights Act was, however, the standout winner. As well as a book token, Sam receives a copy of Shami Chakrabarti’s powerful book On Liberty.

You can read Sam’s essay here.

The other divisional winners were Oscar, Alex, Aidan, Nyasha, Christopher and Dylan.

For more information about Charterhouse’s Citizenship Education programme, please see https://www.charterhouse.org.uk/academic/curriculum/citizenship-and-pshe.