Posted on 06/06/2006 10:23:22 AM PDT by Tank-FL
TOKYO -- If the Japanese government gets its way, educators will soon add a course to the standard curriculum: teaching students to show love for their country.
The proposal to make education more patriotic in Japan signals the determination of conservatives here to combat what they see as a self-obsessed youth culture, characterized by rampant school bullying and juvenile crime, which they say is eroding the nation's vaunted social order.
Under proposed revisions to the Basic Education Law, which are being debated in parliament, teachers would be required to instill in students "an attitude that respects tradition and culture, and loves the nation and the homeland that have fostered them."
The changes alarm liberal critics who worry that a legal duty to teach a love for Japan would override the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of thought and conscience. They argue that mandating educators to teach patriotism echoes the ultranationalism of imperial Japan, which led to the catastrophic error of military aggression and, ultimately, ruin.
Polls show support for move
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
While there at it they should add a class on the Joys of Sex and big familes lol. That population is aging so fast its frightning. One day 20 or 30 years from now N Korea or China could just walk in there and take the place with the their version of the boy scouts.
And when China becomes the big dawg on the planet, they'll deserve it. There's too many in America who are out to destroy us from the inside out.
Blah.
China = Japan.
I like this.
But then I think that, by the end of high school, students should have completed the equivalent of Basic Training...
Will they teach to glories of "The rape of Nanking"...or the honor of "Pearl Harbor, sneak attack"
Nationalism of any sort is generally not a good idea; people should be grateful to live under fairly free and tolerant governments that enforce basic personal and economic liberties—but love for one’s country and government should always be *conditional.* That is, if the government were ever to *stop* enforcing these inalienable liberties, opposition to this move is not only proper but imperative. I fear that a people indoctrinated in unconditional love for and adherence to their government would be unable to resist such usurpations of power.
It is enough for the Japanese students to learn the history of Japan without taking special courses on how to worship it.
I am
G. Stolyarov II
http://www.panasianbiz.com
http://www.zhonghuarising.com
http://www.risingsunofnihon.com
No.
'30s redux?
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