The Children's Story.

A story that covers what "re-education" would look like on the first day. Written in the 60's. TV version in the 80's.

Scary thing is, this is what is happening today.

You'd think there would be comments on this... It covers brainwashing of children in schools after a Communist take over.

Here's the link to the book. You can read it quite easily, it's not long.

The Children's Story

That's Clavell's daughter in the movie. I tried to get a message to her and see if it would be cool to post the story on ATS, figuring it would go down well here but I got no response. I never thought about putting up the movie so kudos, TFHM.

Great story(I even have it linked in my sig). I read this back in the day and it scared me. Probably my first lesson in propaganda even though I didn't know that word at the time I'd bet.

EDIT: Thought I would throw in this bit from Wiki about the book.

While a very short and simple story, it touches on many important concepts, such as freedom, religion, patriotism, etc. It is similar in nature to George Orwell's 1984 in its treatment of propaganda, control, and inter-generational warfare.

Clavell was inspired to write this story after a talk with his six-year-old daughter just home from school. His daughter Michaela was explaining how she had learned the Pledge of Allegiance, and he was struck by the thought that, though she had memorized the pledge, she had no idea what many of the words meant. The power to use language as a weapon, as it is done — all too effectively — in the classroom of Clavell's story admonishes us to always make sure young minds truly understand what a word really means.

In the concluding comment from The Children's Story Afterword, Clavell states the following: "During that day I asked all kinds of people of every age, “You know the 'I pledge allegiance...', but before I could finish, at once they would all parrot it, the words almost always equally blurred. In every case, discovered that not one teacher, ever — or anyone — had ever explained the words to any one of them. Everyone just had to learn it to say it. The Children's Story came into being that day. It was then that I realized how completely vulnerable my child's mind was — any mind for that matter — under controlled circumstances. Normally I write and rewrite and re-rewrite, but this story came quickly — almost by itself. Barely three words were changed. It pleases me greatly because it keeps asking me questions... Questions like what’s the use of 'I pledge allegiance' without understanding? Like why is it so easy to divert thoughts and implant others? Like what is freedom and why is it so hard to explain? The Children’s Story keeps asking me all sorts of questions I cannot answer. Perhaps you can — then your children will..."

[edit on 1/11/2010 by TheLoony]