R: Teach Patriotism in Schools

Tuesday, April 24th, 2018 at 9:00 p.m. in the Berkeley Mendenhall Room

Thomas Cole, The Return, 1837, oil on canvas, 100.3 × 161.4 cm, National Gallery of Art, District of Columbia.

Many a man has remarked that the most effective way to control the future is through the curriculum we feed to our children.  Society can be transformed through the way we educate our most impressionable.  While education certainly starts with the parents whose duty it is to instill in children a desire to seek Truth and goodness, on a societal level we must consider the effect of the people who watch our children for six hours per day.

The question of what should constitute the flavor of our curriculum is hardly a new one.  The way we describe our nation's history, both the highs and the lows, shapes the outlook of our populace on where they came from and where they desire to go.   Is there value in teaching the youth to appreciate their homeland?  Should we be intentionally objective and allow them to make their own conclusions about American history?