The Minister of Education and Research, Daniel David, explained his vision about the pillars to be based on the education of the students, so that after 12 classes we have “good specialists, good citizens and people balanced and satisfied with their own lives”.
The Minister of Education, Daniel David spoke about the importance of science and religion. Photo: Mediafax
“We are in a paradoxical situation. A country, the more patriots, the better they should. The more patriots we have, the worse we take it. So it is very important to see what is with patriotism and how we can make Patriotism, aftersaid the Minister of Education and Research, Daniel David, at the beginning of a debate on patriotism, which took place on the weekend, in the Aula Magna of the Babeș-Bolyai University.
“Most Romanians are people concerned about the fate of the country, their fate, their children, they are patriots, but often in different ways. A good patriot means a man who loves his country, and the love of the country is expressed in different forms, in different structures.”explained the author of the psychology of the Romanian people.
He found that Romanians are divided, polarized for years.
The message of the Minister of Education was: “There are common elements in the various forms of patriotism and we must focus on those common elements, which bind us. There are also elements that differentiate us, but that does not mean that someone is not patriot or less patriot, otherwise patriot and it is important that these differences do not break the social tissue between us and not affect, finally,”.
The robot portrait of the high school graduate in David’s vision
In the context of the discussions about the connection between education and patriotism, the Minister of Education was asked to what extent does the Romanian school make enough to avoid students in the spirit of patriotism?
“The Romanian school, in principle, does not work very well and you have heard me saying this, it is not breaking news. We have too high a school dropout, a too high rate of functional illiteracy, which is why we started to rethink the framework plans at high school, because we have too much disciplines, too many hours, not to be in the children, What we have intelligent and creative children, comparable from the perspective of intelligence and creativity with any children in the countries we relate to, as more developed, we after education we remove them with a very high dose of social -illiteracy”, The minister said.
On paper, students in Romania are exposed to topics related to patriotism.
“We have themes, we have history contents, education for democracy, education for European citizenship, civic education and I do not know how many topics like this. The problem is that they are not done well. We must rethink the curriculum in terms of disciplines, in terms of content ””explained the minister.
David presented his vision of how a high school graduate should be after 12 years of school: “There are eight key skills that we must cover in school, not only in high school. The competence related to language and communication, the part related to multilingualism, the part related to the stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), is the part of information technology, IT, components of entrepreneurial education, components related to social education, for example. I formulated them more simply: the graduates should be good specialists – of course, on the level you prepare – good citizens, people satisfied with their own lives, balanced people ”.
For the minister, a good Romanian citizen means “a protective Romanian of democracy. ”
“That’s about it had to be done“David concluded.
Science and religion, two important pillars of education
During the debates on the framework plans, the minister observed that each teacher tends to maximize his own disciplinary area, removing the others. “I have to keep a balance and it is very difficult in this context. I have to keep a balance between science, on the one hand, and religion, on the other. You saw how many criticism I received because I maintained the religion at the common trunk ”supported the minister.
He motivated the decision by appealing to history that “He tells us that the modern European society has been founded on two fundamental pillars, science and religion, so the two pillars for me are fundamental and must be strengthened. ”
David claimed that “Inevitably the Church has a role in cultivating patriotism. Certainly, religion enters a systemic area of patriotism, if not formal, certainly on the traditional side due to the influence it has, due to the percentage of people who define themselves as religious and the religion certainly matters in the component of personal patriotism.”
The minister also has expectations in terms of religion hours: “not to do only catechism. Of course, this aspect is also important because everyone talks about their own religion otherwise, in a way a teacher of orthodox theology is done and in another way, I do not know, a Protestant teacher, but in all these hours of religion we could have a component to talk about pseudo-religion, about religious extremism, because they become more credible. If I, as a scientist, come and say about certain statements in the public space that they would be nonsense, that they would be pseudo-religion, I am reproached me: “But what, are you a priest to know that it is pseudo-religion?” But if the discussion came from the Church area, the credibility will be much higher automatically, the church protecting on it and protecting us from pseudo-religion ”.
“We will bring, after 20 years, the history of Romania and the geography of Romania”
In addition to science and religion there is a pillar: the disciplines of national culture.
“You saw the discussions about history and geography, which took it in a completely bad direction, because I do not know if you were aware, but I have not had in the curriculum from 2000 and something the history of Romania. Everyone said that I want to remove the history of Romania from the curriculum, but the history Put of the history of Romania in the X, a little in the 11th, a little in the 12th.
In this context, David asked teachers: “Do you want to do national culture disciplines? Then let’s make them disciplines of national culture, not to spread them among others. First of all, we will bring back, after 20 years, the history of Romania and the geography of Romania in the curriculum. ”
The fourth pillar on which education is based are the disciplines for life. “Indeed you have to have elements of personal self-knowledge, healthy lifestyle, entrepreneurial steps, legal, financial education”, David says.
He said that the subjects in each of these four pillars are important: “MI realized that I have to keep balance, because everyone wants to maximize their part. “
The conclusion of the Minister of Education and Research is:
“I think the school is trying to do new things, but I think it fails most of the time, but through the efforts we started, and we try to bring them an education, I think we will correct this if we manage to bring out, as I said, good specialists, good citizens and balanced people.”
Patriotism in Daniel David’s vision
According to Minister Daniel David, patriotism can be analyzed on three levels, each being a different form of manifestation of love for the country.
Thus, the fundamental patriotism is based on two fundamental attributes: the protection of the territorial integrity of the country and the defense of national independence and sovereignty: “Any Romanian citizen who considers himself a patriot should agree with these two essential principles. I do not think there is anyone in the room who does not agree with these aspects. “
Systemic patriotism derives from the formal institutions of the state and from the traditions widespread in society. “Patriotism is related to the respect and promotion of national symbols (flag, coat of arms, national anthem), as well as cultural, scientific and fundamental values. In this sense, a Romanian patriot should respect and promote these values, regardless of the differences of opinion that it could have on other aspects”details the minister.
Finally, we are talking about personal patriotism, the level at which patriotism becomes much more personalized and influenced by political factors and individual life experiences. “Some patriots may consider that being a good Romanian means supporting a political regime or specific political vision, such as liberal democracy or monarchy. These differences can lead to polarization.”David said.
The Minister of Education and Research also shows that when we analyze whether or not someone is patriot we must consider three components: what he feels, what he thinks and what he does.
“Psychologically speaking, the love of the country manifests itself through three components: the subjective-emotional component, that is, what you feel at the subjective level, the cognitive component, that is, what you think and the behavioral part, that is, what you do. A genuine patriotism means a congruence between the three levels: the authentic patriotism means that you think patriotic, you feel patriotic. between them and that is no longer an authentic patriotism.he explained.
David stressed that authentic patriotism is based on a balanced and rational approach, without reaching extreme situations such as nationalism or xenophobia.
“Patriotism must be separated from xenophobia. Xenophobia means that you tend to evaluate foreigners in a negative manner and look at them with fear and hatred. Also, patriotism must be separated from chauvinism. Truvineism means that you tend to evaluate yourself as superior to others and to others. If you want to define yourself as a patriot in the sense of a man who loves his country.“He concluded.
