Pupils Given 'Patriotism' Tests in Washington State Schools

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Paul Joseph Watson | December 30 2005

Children in 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 us to highlight a questionnaire paper handed out to her daughter and the rest of her 10th grade class.

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 in her English class, and has nothing to do with the materials they were studying. We thought you might be able to use this. They are grooming our kids. Keep up the great work. Christine."

The paper is shown below. Click for an enlargement.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2005/301205patriotismtests.htm

Considering the fact that this paper is a complete one off in that it is not part of any standard curriculum, we must question the motivations behind it.

Is the paper a means of gauging the level of obedience to the state 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 too far. For example, in the 90'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 by no means against patriotism when it means 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 an isolated case but if we receive anything similar then watch this space for any updates.

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Few things are more, personally, annoying in the A2K forum than when people drop these "link bombs" into a thread without personal commentary.

A2K is not a news service.

A2K is a forum for discussion. If you want to provide a link, or cut and paste and entire article, by all means do so but please provide your opinion on the topic in question --- even if it is idiotic.

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Finn, I posted an interesting article. If not posting my opinion on the article first offends you I'm sorry. That wasn't my intention. My opinion is this is another piece of fascism being thrown at us and I find it insulting and dangerous.

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Living In Washington with kids in the public schools we don't know a thing avout this. And the Mrs works in a school.

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blueflame1 wrote:

Finn, I posted an interesting article. If not posting my opinion on the article first offends you I'm sorry. That wasn't my intention. My opinion is this is another piece of fascism being thrown at us and I find it insulting and dangerous.

It doesn't offend me, it annoys me.

Thank you for expressing an opinion on the article, for that's what A2K is about.

Now for my opinion:

You, and the author of the article, have made a huge leap in your conclusion. Do either of you know how this "survey" was used within the context of the teacher's class?

For all you know, the teacher may have been right up your alley and castigated the children who answered the questions in "patriotic" fashion.

But no, you look at questions that even suggest "patriotism" and conclude
fascism.

Telling, thanks to the fact that you offered your opinion.

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"For all you know, the teacher may have been right up your alley and castigated the children who answered the questions in "patriotic" fashion.

But no, you look at questions that even suggest "patriotism" and conclude
fascism. "

OWNED. end of discussion.

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Finn, that is my opinion and not surprising since I see Bushie World as being nothing more than a Corporate Fascist State. Thank goodness for what dissent there is against the Bushie/Cheney power grab.

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"Finn, that is my opinion and not surprising since I see Bushie World as being nothing more than a Corporate Fascist State. Thank goodness for what dissent there is against the Bushie/Cheney power grab. "

yes you're a true warrior. if it were not for your continuous whining and partisan blather over non-issues, this country would have turned into a police state with el dictador Bush goose-stepping through the streets.

just think of all those innocent lives you've saved by creating a thread on an internet message board complaining about a survey some students had to fill out in Washington. the country could use more American heros like yourself.

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husker, as the article points out, "This may be an isolated case but if we receive anything similar then watch this space for any updates." I'll be watching and with all that's going on, wiretaps, pre-emptive wars built on lies, a Patriot Act that threatens liberties beyond what is required for national security, and a large block of Americans who buy the argument that you're either with Bushie or with the terrorists, I think there's reason to watch. If it was an isolated incident the teacher should maybe explain what the thinking is behind this.

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BuubaGumbo, right. Exactly. Bushie is under intense scrutiny and fighting for more than just his political life. His crimes are as huge as crimes get. Lying the world into war for instance. Very much the sustained pressure from people like myself had a big impact. Blogs have a big impact. The WWW has a big impact. It's a whole new world Bushie has to contend with.

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"BuubaGumbo, right. Exactly. Bushie is under intense scrutiny and fighting for more than just his political life. His crimes are as huge as crimes get. Lying the world into war for instance. Very much the sustained pressure from people like myself had a big impact. Blogs have a big impact. The WWW has a big impact. It's a whole new world Bushie has to contend with. "

yes I'm sure its the scrutiny of internet warriors like yourself and not the actual media that is "keeping Bush inline".

Care to elaborate on your statement that Bush "lied the world into war". As in deliberately new WMDs didn't exist but promoted the war on that pretense anyway? Don't you think he would have then been able to contrive a very good explanation/excuse for the lack of WMDs? Logic 101, try it.

Bush's push for war was flawed in that he used intelligence that wasn't accurate, which is inexcusable. BUT it was not flawed from deliberate lying, as evidenced by the basic logic above.

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It doesn't appear that the kids were required to identify themsleves on the "quiz" and, if that is the case, I think such surveys are fine.

I've seen such surveys given regarding sexual behavior, drug and alchohol use, and so on.

As long as the respondants remain anonymous I think such surveys provide a good insight into the minds of our future leaders.

I am very curious as to what the "A"s and "D"s stand for.....

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boomerang, I'm not sure a grading of such a survey is fair or necessary.

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I agree!

It doesn't appear that the "A"s and "D"s have anything to do with grading though.

Besides, there doesn't appear to be any way to assign the grade to any particular person. The letters seem very arbitrary.

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A's and D's were Agree or Disagree, nothing more.
Bubba I try to pay attention and catch the nuanced (and sometimes not so nuanced) meanings of what people say in their posts. Could you please use the Quote appliance , rather than cutting and pasting into Quick reply. I need a visual demarcation from your post and the one that you are presently ridiculing.

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Looking at it again, the "A" seems to indicate something about "agree" and the "D", disagree but there doesn't appear to be much rhyme or reason to the letters assigned to each question.

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I just checked the link and looked at the "test". That story is more fake than Pam Anderson's chest.

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Maybe the student didn't use a number 2 pencil. Wink

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Farmerman, if our posts weren't both timed at 10:33 I'd feel like an absolute idiot.

Thank goodness for that damn time stamp.

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too bad we cant edit anymore or Ida gone back an said something snotty.

Somethin like "I may not be quicker than Boomer but Im in front of her"

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Pupils Given 'Patriotism' Tests in Washington State Schools

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