TWO TOO MANY GUMBELS:

What Americans know: With his six-year-old son enrolled in Californian state school, Andrew Gumbel finds its roots in a conformist education system ill at ease with dissent or critical thought (Andrew Gumbel, 08 September 2003, The Independent)

Sooner or later, anyone who lives abroad reaches a defining moment when the desire to understand and fit into the foreign culture hits a brick wall of absolute resistance. In my case, living in California, it came a few weeks ago at my son's elementary school open house. The first-grade classroom was transformed into a showcase of art projects, spelling bees and mini-science workshops on the life cycle of insects. So far, so good. But then the children of Room 63 started to sing, and my internal refusal mechanism went haywire. In unison, they launched into "America I Love You":

It's your land, it's my land,

A great do or die land,

And that's just why I sing:

America, I love you!

From all sorts of places,

They welcomed all the races

To settle on their shore.

They didn't care which one,

The poor or the rich one,

They still had room for more.

To give them protection

By popular election,

A set of laws they chose.

They're your laws and my laws,

For your cause and my cause.

That's why this country rose.

Granted, I'm not a big fan of patriotic sentiment in any context. But this got my goat in ways I just couldn't shake. First, there was the niggly matter of historical accuracy. (What are black, Asian or Native Americans supposed to make of that line about welcoming all the races?) One also had to question the dubious taste of singing about a "do or die land" in the wake of a controversial war in Iraq that many parents in our liberal corner of Santa Monica had passionately opposed. What really riled me, though, was that the song had absolutely nothing to do with education. The words were lousy, and the music wasn't a lot better. It bore no relation to the rest of the classwork on display. So what was it doing there? I might have understood better if my son's teacher were some raving flag-waving patriot, but she isn't. She, and the other parents, beamed proudly and generally acted as if the song were a normal part of the American school experience.

Which, as I quickly discovered, it is. Patriotic songs are sung up and down classrooms at Grant Elementary, just as they are at every other school in the land. Mostly, they go without challenge or critical examination. In third grade, for example, the daughter of a friend of mine merrily sang her way through "It's a Grand Old Flag", which includes the lines: "Every heart beats true/'neath the Red, White and Blue, /Where there's never a boast or brag ..." Her father, an old Sixties radical who doesn't like to keep quiet about these things, gently asked her when they got home whether the whole song wasn't in fact a boast and a brag. His daughter went very quiet as she thought through the implications of his question. Challenging received wisdom in this way is something she never encounters in the classroom.

Even after five years in the United States, I continue to be surprised by the omnipresence of patriotic conformism. This phenomenon long predates 11 September. When my son started playing baseball this year, he and his friends were made to recite the Little League pledge which begins: "I trust in God. I love my country and respect its laws." What has that got to do with sportsmanship? When, a few weeks later, he and I went to see our first ball game at Dodger Stadium, I was flabbergasted all over again when the crowd rose to sing the national anthem. This was just a routine game, not an international fixture. So what was with all the flag-waving?

Why would it be surprising that Americans, who have more to love about their country than do other poor benighted souls in foreign lands, tend to express that love? Why would it be surprising that in a democracy, founded as a democracy and a democracy still, the people celebrate the nation, thereby essentially celebrating themselves? Mr. Gumbel gives away the game when he says: " I'm not a big fan of patriotic sentiment in any context". What is he a fan of? Transnationalism? Would he prefer to sing the Internationale before a soccer game?

MORE
Report says schools are unfair to America (AP, 9/09/03)

The nation's schools are telling an unbalanced story of their own country, offering students plenty about America's failings but not enough about its values and freedoms, says a report drawing support across the ideological spectrum.

Without a change of approach, schools will continue to turn out large numbers of students who are disengaged in society and unappreciative of democracy, the report contends.

Produced by the nonpartisan Albert Shanker Institute, "Education for Democracy" is the latest effort to try to strengthen the nation's underwhelming grasp of civics and history. Authors hope it will lead to curriculum changes and, in the short term, stir debate about today's social studies classes as people reflect on the terrorist attacks of two years ago.

Beyond its provocative findings, the report is notable for the range of people and groups supporting it, from Republicans and Democrats to labor unions and conservative think tanks.

Those who have signed on include former President Clinton; Jeane Kirkpatrick, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and U.N. ambassador during the first administration of Ronald Reagan; and David McCullough, the historian and author. Dozens of scholars, professors, labor leaders and representatives of school groups have backed it, too.

"It really shows the depth of concern across the country about the status of our civil society," said one signatory, Lee Hamilton, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "How low voter participation can you have and still have a democracy?"

Too many classroom lessons and text books contribute to a sense of historical indifference by focusing on America's darker moments, the report says.

What a sweet juxtaposition. We don't think there's enough of what Mr. Gumbel loathes.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 9, 2003 6:44 PM