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Old 03-02-08, 18:58   #20
egb_hibs
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Re: teaching patriotism in schools

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How do you "teach" patriotism? Tell kids that their country is the best in the world? Lie about aspects of history to omit pertinent facts which paint said country in a bad light?
i think there's a sensible way to do it. cover the good and bad in the countries past, but emphasis that importance of the good bits - the liberal traditions etc, which are also the bits we may need to fight for one day, and at a minimum are what we should be seeking to preserve

Quote:
Teach them to read, teach them to write, teach them how to do sums, and then for the remaining 8 or 9 years of schooling teach them how to judge and weigh evidence. Everything else is cosmetic.
i would like to agree but it's impossible. you can't have a school with a morally neutral position, because there's no such thing for starters.

that said i think i'm less jaundiced than you even though paradoxically you rather than me would presumably argue that the state should be the provider of a single uniform education system.

i think the state system supplies just about enough empiricism for the independent minded to learn tools that will assist them. the majority will of course unthinkingly ingest the what is suffused in the system due to the left wing dominance in all tiers of education. this is evident in how many people come out of our schools and uni's with half baked and uniform world views. but then the majority of folks are always going to be like that.
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