USA: "Patriotism Tests" at school

Children in e.g. Washington State are being given "patriotism tests" which are completely unrelated to their studies. The paper gauges whether or not the student shows fealty to the power of the state and whether the student believes in the right to overthrow a corrupt government.

A reader from Washington State writes to highlight a questionnaire paper handed out to her daughter and the rest of her classmates in the 10th grade classroom.

The reader comments:

"We live in Washington state. My daughter is in 10th grade and found this to be interesting. She has a GPA of 3.75 and uses her brain. This was given to her in English class, and has nothing to do with the materials they were studying. They are grooming our kids"


- - - I will type the questions as seen on the paper given to the students. They had to put whether they agreed of disagreed with the question.- - -


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1. It is never right to kill another person.

2. Political leaders usually act in the best interest of their countries.

3. If a political leader has done something wrong, it is alright to get rid of him/her by what ever means necessary.

4. "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

5. In certain situations it may be justified for a political leader to bend or break the law for the good of the country.

6. People should never compromise their ideals or beliefs.

7. "My country right or wrong" is not just a slogan; it is every citizen's patriotic duty.

8. No cause, political or otherwise, is worth dying for.

9. "cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant taste of death but once."

10. "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is (often buried) with their bodies."
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Considering the fact that this paper is not a part of the standard curriculum, we must question the motivations behind it. Is the paper a means of gauging the level of obedience to the state and empire amongst American teenagers?

We have covered several examples before where the government identifies a target group in society and canvasses their views on the nature of power and when that power goes to far. For example, in the 1990's, American marines and national guard were occasionally asked if they would be willing to fire on American citizens in a time of crisis.

We are not against patriotism when it comes to love of country. Unfortunately however, the new brand of so-called patriotism translates as worship of government, and that definition is something that the founding fathers never intended.

This may be a isolated case but if we receive anything similar we will update.

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