Sunday, September 1, 2013

Republic or Democracy?

Carson and I have spent hours discussing our government and its history -- explaining some of the motivations leading to the structure of our government.  His teacher has made a concerted effort to convince his class that we are a democracy.

This evening, Carson and I spend quite a bit of time discussing details and the history of our nation's Pledge of Allegiance (for his Cub Scouts badge).  During it, he noticed that it calls our nation a Republic, not a Democracy (which he and I had previously discussed).  So we spent more time discussing the foundation of our country and its roots, the motivations and concerns of our Founding Fathers, and of course, the Republic from the Star Wars movies.

So school starts each day by citing The Pledge stating that we are a Republic, which is then followed up by a teacher saying that we are a Democracy.

Ultimately, it lead him to believe that the Pledge of Allegiance is communicating a different message than his teacher.  So we had to discuss telling your teacher what they want to hear, while believing what you believe.  Really strange having to discuss that with a third-grader.  It seems like I didn't think much about that distinction until I was much older.

What a sharp young man.

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