AudioLinks101: I Pledge Allegiance

This is how NPR introduced a two-part report (2-6-2003) on teaching patriotism in American schools:

Last September -- on Constitution Day -- President Bush spoke at a Rose Garden ceremony about education and patriotism. He said American children need to know "the great cause of America" and why this country is worth fighting for. "The principles we hold are the hope of all mankind," Mr. Bush said. "When children are given the real history of America, they will also learn to love America."

Yet just what does it mean “to love” America? How important is it to instill patriotism in students, and how does such teaching fit in with the mandate to help students become independent critical thinkers?

Listen Up

Here is Part 1 of the NPR report, Teaching Patriotism in Time of War (8:04); here, Part 2 (8:26)
Here is the full debate (53:12) between Peter Gibbon and Howard Zinn, part of NPR’s Justice Talking series.
This topic is especially rich. Here is a full-length documentary from WNYC, What Can I Say? Culture of Patriotism and Dissent (54:06): "You want to send a message [as an artist]?” quipped notoriously difficult, popular film-maker Sam Goldwyn: “Call Western Union!" This WNYC documentary looks at the tension between "loyalty" and "treason": “From ‘message’ pictures in the old Hollywood, to morale-building songs, to satirists' comic visions, politics and mass culture have been inexorably linked.”

Write Now

Describe the nature and the value of the civics lessons you were taught in school?
Where else has your attitude about patriotism been shaped?
What groups, political or otherwise, do you feel especially loyal to, and how can you explainthe source of that loyalty?

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