On Education
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On Education
Teaching patriotism in school is wrong. There is one topic that is used to support this claim and it is subterfuge. The topic of subterfuge is split into two facets that work in tandem to expose the ugly truth of luring our children into worshiping America. Children are expected to carry an altruistic burden when it comes to their country. The truth is hidden from the children by limited valid and expert sources because they only have the state provided and teacher sanctified materials. It is a sad realization that our future is crippled from knowing the acts our country has taken to secure its position in the world. And, the tactics used to hide the knowledge. The falsehood in patriotism comes in two fold. The first is the principle of legitimacy. The second is educational distortion. Both are tools used by the American government to give a twisted and false sense of pride in our country. The tools give no choice of knowledge to the children. They are raised believing there is only one view of America, and it is just. The values are ingrained and programmed into the children.
The first facet of falsehood is the principle of legitimacy. We should believe that the knowledge imparted to the children is legitimate and the patriotism is retained by consent. But, it is not. The feeling of national pride is manufactured and not won by the populace of school goers. From early childhood in primary schools children are coerced into pledging their allegiance to America without knowing what it means. They ape the movements and parrot the words, but have no true understanding of what they are accomplishing. This is setting a program in the children that they have no freedom to question. Even when given the false choice, because it is the constitutional right of all American citizens, to bow out of pledging the voice of authority continues with the ritual. An announcement is broadcasted in a school that the pledge will occur and those that wish not to partake do not have to do so. Yet, the pledge continues without explanation of what the pledge truly means. Children follow suit with the pledge because their teacher, an authority figure they are trained to obey, pledges. Also, children are pressured by their peers simply by not wanting to be left out of this daily ritual. This is not exactly a lie, but it is subterfuge. The truth and understanding is left out for children to never learn or to question. The subterfuge of the matter is in fact worse than what is defined in a lie. The reason for this is because a lie can be ferreted out, but this cannot because there is no other alternative. It is an ill-begotten gain that the government can capitalize on quite easily. The government can have generations of blind followers that are never given the opportunity to understand another view point.
The second facet of falsehood is the distortion problem. This facet expands on the principle of legitimacy. The prior facets deals with ignorance and this one deals with gross abuse of knowledge. Instead of children not given the chance to learn a different, and perhaps non-patriotic, view of America they are taught misinformation. They are taught lies, improper causality and unevenly distributed parochial history. Children are taught the bias of America-the reason why the actions taken by the government and its sponsored institutions are taught falsely. Take three different views of why the US Civil War as an example-this is taken from Brighouses, “On Education” chapter 6, page 112. The first view is of a white southerner. He believes the reason for the war is to impede the ever encroaching federal government from taking over the liberties of southern states. The second view of this is a black male from a northern state. He believes the reason why the war was fought was to free slaves. The third is a foreign perspective. The foreigner was taught the war occurred was over creating a flexible labor market and liberalizing trade.