Thinking Citizen Blog — The American flag as a Teaching Tool

Thinking Citizen Blog — Friday is Education and Education Policy Day

Today’s Topic — The American flag as a Teaching Tool (with an Assist from the “Orion of Rights and Duties”)

What is the first word that comes to mind when you see an American flag? Is it “freedom”? Is it something else? How about your visceral reaction? Is it one of pride or shame? or neither? or both? Does the flag raise questions for you? Like: what is worth dying for? or what is worth killing for? Has Putin’s invasion of Ukraine changed your feelings or thinking about the flag? Are you willing to die to defend the Ukraine? How about Estonia? How about Poland? Where do you draw the line?

For me, that one word is “freedom.” Then the question becomes what is “freedom”? And the answer is that, well, freedom is an umbrella term, or to use a metaphor common in law school, a “bundle of sticks.” So what to you are the three most important of those sticks. Can you rank order them? Do these rights come with duties? If so, what are they? Can you rank order them? Let’s exchange “Orions of rights and duties.” Maybe we can help each other think more clearly.

Should this exercise be a core part of K-12 civics education? I think so. What do you think? Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.

ORION’S BELT — THE TOP THREE RIGHTS

#1 The right to the fruit of your own labor.

#2 The right to contract with others for mutual benefit.

#3 The right to free speech and religion.

THE DUTIES THAT COME WITH THE RIGHT — part one

#4 The duty to make the most of your talents and not be a burden on others to the extent of your capacity.

#5 The duty to pay taxes to fund the public goods without which life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

DUTIES THAT COME WITH THE RIGHTS — part two

#6 The duty to be an informed citizen — the duty to be forever vigilant and analytical.

#7 The duty to fight for freedom when called to serve in the armed forces.

THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY ARE AVAILABLE HERE:

PDF with headlines — Google Drive

ATTACHMENTS BELOW:

#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).

#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, 11/17/20

YOUR TURN

Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to education or education policy. Or the coolest thought however half-baked you had. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to education or education policy that the rest of us may have missed. Or just some random education-related fact that blew you away.

This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something that is dear to your heart.