http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6669061.stm

This article talks about how Japan's lower house of parliament has approved a new law requiring schools to teach children to be patriotic.

Reading this, alarm bells started ringing in my head. Why is it that so many more developed countries are now deciding to teach National Education? Although reworded in many forms, the essence of National Education would be to make citizens feel proud of their countries and thus love and feel a part of the country. In other words, National Education encourages patriotism.

This brings about a serious concern. Are youths today unable to love their countries without external forces like National Education?

To answer this, we must first consider what factors affect patriotism.

Firstly, there could be the factor of war. If the country is righteous in its dealings in the wars or is able to win laws, it will definitely gain the support of its people. Although this might be more towards nationalism, it is still patriotism to a certain degree.

Also, could be the factor of politicians. If politicians are able to make the citizens happy through policies such as the USA’s freedom of speech etc, citizens will be willing to feel proud of their country due to the many rewards and incentives they have by staying in the country.

Japan’s reasons are simple however. They merely want their children to develop "the attitude of loving our country and hometown" and "the attitude of participating in society based on social norms and public spirit".

In other news however, these National Education lessons in Japan has faced much stiff opposition by the many students in the various schools.

I feel that this could be attributed to the rapid westernization of Asian societies. It is not cool to love your country, to embrace cultural values. It is much cooler to live life like the westerners, care-free, liberal, with no restrictions. This brings about rapid cultural degradation, which leads to a degradation in the society as students want more freedom and less rules. A world without rules will definitely descend into anarchy.

How do we solve this? Perhaps the only way to beat this is to join them. Governments could compete with western cultures on why the country’s own culture is cooler and more appealing. This would do much to increase nationalism amongst students. A proposed solution would be organizing joint- schools cultural fairs, so that these fairs will be a nation or at least regional-wide event, and would therefore attract students to learn about their country and culture in a relaxing and laid-back environment.

By understanding their countries’ culture, it would lead to interest, and then to respect and love. To increase nationalism in our youths today, it is important to appeal to our attention to start the first step.

Of course, we have to empathize with the government officials; it is hard to legislate such measures. However, all these could be done by student leaders all over not only in Singapore, but in the Asia-Pacific.