Making Stalin Proud

Children as young as eight are being taught that the controversial European Constitution is up and running - even though it has been rejected by voters...

Last night the Tories denounced the new teaching material. Liam Fox, the shadow foreign secretary, said: "It is quite clear that the commission are determined to ram through the constitution, despite any democratic objections. And to do so they are using propaganda that would have been more at home in the brainwashing era of the Soviet-dominated Eastern Bloc."...

The teaching material, entitled Europe, My Home, features two children, Lea and Thomas, who are guided through the complexities of the EU by a character called Good Father Houpette.

"You will be astonished by what I will tell you," Father Houpette tells them. "You will see that the EU is a necessity."...

"Some people might argue that the constitution is dead," said Willy Helin, head of the commission's embassy to Belgium. "But it is still on the table. The only thing that has been decided is that there will be a period of reflection."

"A period of reflection," unfortunately, means only that even though the EU Constitution has been democratically defeated, it will live on as a done deal in public school books until a sufficient number of children are propagandized into voting for the very thing they've been taught existed as a necessity for years. The only question is whether the nations that make up the EU will survive individually long enough for children who know "the truth" to grow into voting citizens.

Of course, such propagandizing is not unique to Europe. Looking at some of America's battles over public school curriculum, it becomes obvious that much of the purpose of public education is not, in fact, to educate, but to "create citizens;" the kind of citizens, coincidentally, that believe those things and act in ways that the government finds convenient. It doesn't matter, specifically, if that government is made up of right-wing creationists or left-wing materialists. What matters is that those who have power are perfectly willing, even eager, to use the public schools as mouthpieces to speak "truth" into the ears of children that is true only in the sense that it is approved by those in power.

Education reformer John Dewey, in his Pedagogic Creed (1897), laid out the "true" purpose of public education:

I believe, finally, that the teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of the proper social life.

I believe that every teacher should realize the dignity of his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of proper social order and the securing of the right social growth.

I believe that in this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God.

"The proper social order," is of course defined by the state, which always seems to have a kingdom of God of its own. Any resemblance to any other kingdom of God, real or imagined, is purely coincidental and will be eliminated as soon as the ACLU hears about it.

Copyright 2005 El Borak, inc. Makers of Clint Squint brand ponchos and cigarillos. Mangy redbone hound sold separately.