Nanny State and Education: A fairy godmother or a wicked witch?

Janet Hoek

Overview

• Challenge a soubriquet• What’s wrong with ‘nanny state’?

• Explore a paradox• Embracing a nanny state promotes individual

freedom

• Elicit your support• What does this nanny state have to do with

education?• Promoting healthy environments for young people

So, what’s wrong with nanny state?

Held out as being the antithesis of a desirable society

So, what’s wrong with nanny state?

“Labour makes all our lifestyle decisions – such as what we wear and how we cut our hair

“spectre of the food police delving into the supermarket trolleys of ordinary New Zealanders”

“this is Helen Clark getting into your pantry”

Some New Zealanders will see this as the

nanny state butting in again

So, what’s wrong with nanny state?

So, what’s wrong with nanny state?

• Name-calling just ad hominem• Avoids rational debate

The logical problem …• Giving a proposal a label ≠ a counter argument

The social problem...• Deflects attention away from serious public health

problems and how these might best be addressed

The paradox: Nanny state and freedom

The paradox: Nanny state and freedom

The paradox: Nanny state and freedom

What does all this have to do with education?

A LOT!!

• Many behaviours formed during adolescence and young adulthood

• Environment a critical factor in shaping these behaviours

“adolescents consistently overestimate the number of young people and adults who smoke. Those with the highest overestimates are more likely to become smokers than are those with more accurate perceptions.”Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General (1994)

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Less thanweekly

Weekly 2-3times/week

At least daily

Od

ds

Rat

io (a

dju

sted

)

Source: Paynter, Edwards et al. 2009

Opportunities for collaboration

• Tobacco• Retail outlets• Youth-oriented

events• Plain packaging

• Food• Availability

• Alcohol• Marketing and

Availability

Three key areas:

Opportunities for collaboration

Accessibility“It has put itself (in the

phrase of a Coca-Cola executive with a literary bent) "always within an arm's length of desire." And where there is no desire for it, Coke creates desire.”

Time Magazine

Tobacco Accessibility

When advertising is not possible, accessibility is paramount

•Restrict number and density of outlets • Reduce outlet

concentration• Limit opening hours (times

at which tobacco might be sold)

•Restrict proximity • Cannot be within a certain

distance of schools

Youth-Oriented Events

Tobacco company can no longer sponsor events so instead obtains “exclusive supply rights”

• Rhythm and Vines• NZ Fashion Week

Public outrage works• Can generate

political pressure

http://tobaccodocuments.org/pollay_ads/Marl50.16.html?ocr_position=hide_ocr

The argument for plain cigarette packaging is one of the most stark examples of how Nanny State regulations treat individuals as childish automatons”

(Institute of Public Affairs, Australia)

‘‘We would not pronounce any link between smoking and lung cancer until all smokers died of the disease and all its victims were smokers’’ (Hastings, Aitken, and Mackintosh,1994, p. 197).

Questions, comments, further discussion:

Janet Hoekjanet.hoek@otago.ac.nz

www.aspire2025.org.nz