Citizenship

I never thought I'd hear myself utter the words I am about to! The American's have got it right! there's been some fuss on the BBC website about a suggestion that's correct a suggestion not a law) saying

Pupils should be encouraged to swear allegiance to the Queen, a review of British citizenship suggests. Thanks to http://news.bbc.co.uk

As usual there is a have your say article and as usual I was stupid enough to read it!

Whatever you views on America I have seen first hand just how strong there allegiance to there country is. Okay so they don't have a monarch but isn't the monarch simply a symbol of the country they represent? In effect aren't they simply like the American flag?

Some of the arguments centered around America's attitude that they are more important and there supposed arrogance towards other cultures. One post even went so far as to say that we should not do anything like them as they don't even known the other country's in the world! i.e. there knowledge of Geography leaves a lot to be desired.

However, that is a simplistic view of the problem. In the UK we have a country of approx. 50,346 sq mi which makes studying it quite straight forwards and can leave allot of time for other country's as we are, as country's go, in the middle of the road size wise. However, the USA is approx. 3,794,066 sq mi the USA is 75 times larger than the UK!

If you were to test a school leave in America and one in UK my bet would be that there knowledge (measured according to land mass) would be better in America than the UK.

I've drifted off topic I know but it something that always annoys me, I hear people talking about Americans like there somehow inferior to the British and how "there all the same" to those of you who do that think of it this way, would you say a Scot and an Englishman were the same? Thought not! In only 50,000 sq miles we have massive differences in our population so imagine what a land with over 3,000,000 sq miles is like!

Going back to my original point, the America I have seen truly are proud of there country and there pledge of allegiance helps them to stay together even with the massive distances of there country! If it works for them, why on earth can't it work for us, oh yeah I forgot the Middle Classes want everyone to think Americas bad .....


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