National Education

[strategos roma]

What do your respective countries do for this? I'm asking as my city is debating over whether to introduce it and quite a lot of controversy has already been generated.

[Peasant Phill]

What do you mean by national education?

[strategos roma]

Compulsory classes about your country and how to love it. Some places call it patriotic/moral/civic education from what I know.

[Montmorency]

Isn't that already implicit in a lot of social studies/history curricula?

[Rhyfelwyr]

Hitler did that.

but srsly, its good to have classes on your own country especially if its from a historical angle, because it will help you understand the society you live in.

I'm not so sure about promoting patriotism/nationalism. It might do some good I guess since it gives kids something to believe in and makes them feel like they have something in common with their countryfolk so they don't go all nihilistic and turn to crime etc.

[Tuuvi]

In the US each state decides it's own curriculum. I'm pretty sure that every state requires you to take a US history course. In my state, Utah, we were also required to take a Utah history class in 7th grade.

EDIT: I just re-read the thread and I realized that you didn't mean plain history classes. Here in Utah we don't have those kinds of classes, although some US history teachers try to encourage patriotism in their classes.

[Peasant Phill]

Compulsory classes about your country and how to love it. Some places call it patriotic/moral/civic education from what I know.

Nope, never had those. We aren't very patriotic in Belgium (we know it's true nature :yes:). A lot of history, mostly with a broad focus and some recent Flemish history.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I think it is almost impossible for any sort of education that is public (by which I mean government regulated and funded) to present the history of the nation in an unbiased way.

Everything I learned in my AP US History class I have to cast doubts on, because I have read books now that highlights the numerous half truths and omissions from the actual textbook that I used to learn from.

A class that is based on the "good" of your country just doesn't vibe with me very well. I never understood about focusing on the "good" of a country. A country that does good for it's citizens and humanity at large is doing the proper job of government. If anything, there should be a class about the "bad" things your country has done, but with the strong message of why it was and what (if anything) has been done to make sure it won't happen again. Classes like that might instill an active sense among the population to improve the country instead of just blindly obeying it, which would pay off in the long run.

[Moros]

Compulsory classes about your country and how to love it. Some places call it patriotic/moral/civic education from what I know.
Dear god no! It will only increase bias in their minds when looking at history and towards foreigners/foreign culture,...
Schools shouldn't teach how children should think about things. They should teach them that their own opinion is what matters and how one can think for him- or herself.

[strategos roma]

It seems that Belgium is a very liberal country...
In HK the people are mostly concerned that national education will eventually turn into brainwashing courtesy of the Communist Party.

[Peasant Phill]

It seems that Belgium is a very liberal country...

Nah, we just aren't force fed the fact that our country is the best in the world. Not hard when our history is a mix of fait-divers and meddling of greater powers in the affairs of the locals. We can't complain though.

[Hax]

don't go all nihilistic and turn to crime etc.

Yes, because there's totally a causal relation between nihilism and "crime etc.".