>In certain Asian cultures, children stand up when the teacher or sensei enters the classroom, and his authority is not questionable by a child. Which is a rat

>In certain Asian cultures, children stand up when the teacher or sensei enters the classroom, and his authority is not questionable by a child. Which is a rather dangerous attitude, I think, to entrench in a child. It is a cultural difference (obviously, as I'm an American) but an important one that I value: free-spirited individuality does not do well when one unquestionably bends. One of the most admirable traits of the American education system is, in my mind, that it teaches disrespect of authority and the system, even if half the time it is by the accident of incompetence. I'm imagining someone rebutting with talk of the Pledge of Allegiance in the schools. In my mind that is a perfect example: I don't know about you, but enough talk was given to that _you did not have to say it if you didn't want to_ that it was in fact an abject lesson in _choosing to conform._ Those who pointedly did not faced some amount of ridicule learned how to earn their independence, that it was not free and would not make them popular. In the end the message I received from the topic of the Pledge was 1) you are free to choose to acknowledge the authority of the flag, and 2) the cost of exercising that freedom is high. These two unrelenting and possibly harsh truths have served me well. We teach our intellectuals and outsiders how to take the strength of nonconformity for themselves.