Basic knowledge
National flag, emblem, and anthem are some basic knowledge for students. What is the meaning between the lines? Are there any historical affairs behind the song? Teachers need to guide students to respect their flag and other patriotic symbols. Protocols in these occasions are also one of the main tasks in patriotism education.
Festivals and memorable days
Apart from the concrete symbols of motherland, festivals are an important part to show the uniqueness of one country. Children may know the festivals including their dates, names, etc., but many of them haven’t been clear about the real meaning to celebrate the days. They have never heard or learned the story behind the symbols. It is teachers’ duty to make the students know the festivals are not just some names, but the lessons we draw from hardness, the glory we get from bravery, the memorial we keep for improvement.
History and international situation
Professor Johnston often said that if you didn’t know history, you didn’t know anything; you were a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree. One of the critical parts in Patriotism Education is to make students absorb nutrition from what happened in the past – history. Touch them from the forefather’s struggle, bravery, wisdom, and decree. Let them realize the hardened journey to the happiness they are enjoying now. Also as George Santayana said, a man’s feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world. It is necessary to know one’s own country, while in the new century it is never too much to get familiar with the world. Students can only know the country completely after they have an overall view of the international situation.
There are a lot for students or pupils to learn in educational education, then how to guide them to accept and digest what they learn easily and effectively? Teachers and schools need to come up with some creative ways of this education.
Students will learn more when they participate in a program than when it was just done in the classroom. Organize some visits or programs to take students to the live site, which must be able to arouse their interests of learning. It is also a good idea to have some service men or the professional hands to come for the speeches. Interactive meetings will offer children good chances to communicate with the heroes or the professors. Besides these vivid teaching, schools can also show some videos or DVD movies to students for the education. It is necessary that schools offer students good sources and learning materials. The combinations of traditional and modern teaching as well as in-classroom and out-classroom teaching are efficient for patriotism education with high quality.
After teaching and learning, time to check or evaluate the result comes. Some discussions can be held, which plays as the platform for students to share their feelings and what they have learned. Quiz competition about national knowledge is also an inspiring method to encourage students. Nowadays technology develops so quickly, and the new advanced tactic will help us to share the knowledge with more people. Teachers create a PowerPoint presentation, and then share them on the Web. Schools can also make patriotism quizzes with quiz maker for students to take, and the quizzes could be shared on Web, so more people will learn the precious knowledge. It is also the valuable harvest of students themselves.
The importance of patriotism education is self-evident, and it is the duty and also the glory of teachers and schools to guide the young generation to the love of motherland. The goal is to make the student a thoughtful mind, “when it sees a Nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth.”