Patriotism and Levels of Learning

As usual, you have all thought well about these issues. Something that many people forget is that public education in America was instituted in order to produce good, productive citizens. It is no surprise that there has been a patriotic tendency in many subjects and textbooks for the majority of our nation's history.

I would also agree that younger students need to have different presentation of all subject, not just history, than do students your age. As we have mentioned before, elementary teachers often tell students they cannot subtract a larger number from a smaller one. At the elementary level of cognitive processing, most students are not capable of handling this abstract concept. A similar thing is true regarding historical events. Why is this? An important part of child development is black-and-white thinking. While we reject this in many, though not all, areas of adult endeavor, this is crucial for children. They must know and rely with certainty on facts such as "the electric outlet is dangerous -- stay away," or "orange juice good, battery acid is bad."

Where should the transition take place between the simpler forms of learning and more abstract thinking? Is this in middle school or high school?