How We Can Teach Patriotism In Our Schools

How We Can Teach Patriotism In Our Schools

By Scott Swain

We need to promote more patriotic activities through patriotic symbols. Since patriotism is an
idea, it necessarily follows that physical symbols like the flag will help to galvanize those ideas
in one’s mind. Flag ceremonies have grown out of a desire to express our patriotic ideals in
concrete form. Thus, flag ceremonies, through their appeal to the emotions, stimulate the ideals
of patriotism, moral determination, and spiritual aspiration.

Bonnie Busco, a retired elementary school teacher from Provo, Utah, used to march her students
out to the flagpole every morning to put up the flag and every afternoon to take down the flag.
Rain or shine the students did their duty, and they did not waiver in their commitments. She
reported that one student from a foreign country literally dived to the ground once to catch the
flag before it dropped. On another occasion, she heard one student say with tears in his eyes,
“Now I understand the meaning of all this.” Patriotic symbols are powerful tools.

In addition to the flag and flag ceremonies, seeing patriotic paintings and documents displayed
can stir in observers a pride in their country and a desire to know more about their nation. But
that curiosity must be answered by teaching the meaning behind patriotic symbols, and lessons
on what is being depicted in our historical paintings and documents.

Today we need more patriotic fervor in our classrooms than ever before. Like the passion of our
founding fathers, the public zeal that has made America unique needs to burn in our hearts. We
need to carry on the great mission began by those noble fathers who herald to the world that “all
Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the
Governed” (Declaration of Independence, 1776).

America is unique because we have achieved what no other nation has ever achieved; we have
succeeded at the experiment began more that 200 years ago—that a nation can be founded upon
and live by principles that make all men free. Our mission is to inspire other people that they can
have this same freedom in their lands. This cannot be accomplished through multiculturism and
diversity training. Teaching patriotism in our schools can help bring about the manifest destiny
of America!

Scott Swain is the President of the Roots of Freedom Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation. Roots of Freedom and the Roots of Freedom Foundation educates and inspires youth, families, and all citizens to understand, respect, and preserve for future generations the values, freedoms, and ideals established by the Founding Fathers and fundamental documents of the United States of America.
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