Resolved: Patriotism should be taught to children in school.

Perhaps this is true . . . but as you can see my fair judges, my opponent has decided not to. Rather, his recent round is abusive in that he dismissed all of what he previously argued and changed his entire argument in the process. This would be the "moving the goal post" fallacy at work if we are to look PRO's stance in it's entirety. I would advise that you take this well into consideration when judging. RE: "However, let us analyze the word "taught. " "Taught," as primarily defined by Merriam-Webster, is "caused to know something. " I'm more than willing to take this definition into consideration, but while we're at it, lets use more of the listed definition as a reference point: DEFINITION OF TEACH: 4 a: to instruct by precept, example, or experience b: to make known and accepted Notice the term "accepted. " In other words, students are being made to accept certain ideas when they are taught. Keep this in mind whenever PRO attempts to suggest that students do not have to like or abide by what is taught to them. RE: "Determined, explained, or answered: The love of one's country or nation should be "taught" to young people in a building where young people receive education. " Basically, the definitions placed together would bring us to the conclusion that we are referring to the act of teaching students to love a (their) country or (their) nation. This simply leads back to the problems which I pointed out in the first round, thus I insist that you take those problems into consideration as well as consider my alternative. RE: "However, let us analyze the word "taught. " "Taught," as primarily defined by Merriam-Webster, is "caused to know something. " So let us be clear. Causing someone to know something (past tense) does not mean they should abide by it, or even like it. " On the contrary, it means just that as "to know" something is in fact to abide by it. Essentially, it is abiding by what we understand to be the truth and living a life with this being part of one's paradigm. Nowhere in PRO's definition do we see anything to indicate that teaching is the process of having students merely take ideas into consideration. Rather, it is the process of having students KNOW certain information. In other words, students are being coerced into arriving at a conclusion. In this case, they are being coerced into arriving at the conclusion that they are to love their country or nation. RE: "And thus, I fail to see any harm done with this. Causing children to know patriotism is giving them a valuable life lesson: that patriotism is not necessarily a good thing. " This is incorrect. Causing students to "know" patriotism is against the practices of free thought and could very well lead to scenarios such at the Nazi example which I pointed out in R1. Rather than cause students to "know" patriotism, it would be far better for students to be encouraged to merely take patriotism into consideration and make their conclusions regarding whether or not to be patriotic from there or what to think of patriotism. RE: " Being caused to "know" "the love of one's country or nation" is, if I may reiterate, not persuading them to think patriotism is good or bad. It is just causing them to know what it is, on an informative basis. Shaping the viewpoints and opinions of children, therefore, has little to do with the resolution in which we were dealt. Even ignoring the fact that PRO has simply cherry picked one of the several definitions provided for "know" (not to mention that the very reason he is centered on using "know" is because of his decision to cherry pick a definition of taught), his interpretation is utterly erroneous. The resolution refers to whether or not patriotism should be taught in schools . . . not whether or not students should learn OF or ABOUT patriotism in schools. In schools, we aren't taught George Washington. Rather, we're taught OF or ABOUT George Washington. For most words, the use the terms of or about makes a crucial difference in terms of what idea is being presented. There is ABSOLUTELY nothing to suggest that the resolution is referring to practice of INFORMING students. And with that said, I'm out of time. Later.