I read that the Republican Party of Texas called for a ban on teaching critical thinking skills in the state's schools because of its "focus on behaviour modification" that has "the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority".
As a proud product of the Texas public school system, my first reaction was, ''there's critical thinking in Texas schools?'' But then again that was in the 1990s, and 20 years on, things might have changed. After all, we managed to put into office a two-term president, conqueror and defender of the faith, so there is something definitely great about Texas.
My second reaction was, ''Sure it was about Texas, not Thailand?''
Then I read a special NBC news series on ''What the World Thinks of the US''. In an article on what Thailand thinks, the report stated ''the conservative Thai establishment has grown increasingly hostile to the 'Western' values symbolised by America, partly in response to growing pressure from ordinary people for greater democracy and freedom of speech.''
The article pointed to the importance of face in Thai society and the recent alleged loss of face over Lady Gaga's comment about buying a fake Rolex in Thailand and her using a Thai flag during her concert _ prompting the Culture Ministry to make an official complaint that it was ''inappropriate and hurt Thai people's sentiments''.
The report also quoted Tul Sitthisomwong, a leader of the royalist United Siam group, as saying there might be a hidden agenda in the US space agency Nasa's request to use U-tapao airport. As well, there's the squabble over what conservative Thais believe is US meddling in Thailand's lese majeste law.
However, the article added that younger Southeast Asians do not fear modernity and believe tolerance is a virtue. So as you can see, there's a gap between new thinking and old tradition.
The conservative establishment in both Texas and Thailand face the same challenge in this 21st century, and in fact it's one that every society at any point in history has faced: the young rebelling against the fixed value system, undermining parental or traditional authority.
It is definitely true that many young Thais are lost and wayward. But aren't the young of every generation and in every society deemed lost and wayward? School kids caught by CCTV having sex in a movie house, police raiding teenage sex orgies in motel rooms and vocational school students shooting up a bus _ these are recent news stories that should cause concern.
But let's consider the realities of life. Am I wrong in saying that teenagers have been having sex, in orgies or otherwise, since the dawn of man and that they will continue to do so in every society until the end of man, and that they ''fall in love in hopeless places'' (a little Rihanna for you) because doing it at their parents' homes could be dangerous?
Of course, being teenagers they are too dense to understand that sex in a movie house could lead to something more embarrassing _in a Youtube-esque way _ than their parents walking in on them.
Am I wrong in saying it's a biological, chemical, metaphysical and existential impossibility to suppress the libido of teenagers? That teenage sex is not an issue of good versus evil, but rather one of maturity and responsibility?
Am I wrong in asking who among my readers did not have sex as a teenager? Likewise, am I wrong in saying that teen violence and hooliganism is also simply a part of life that will never go away?
But certainly, just because vices, violence and degradation are all part of life, it doesn't mean we should just sit back and condone them. The conservative establishment has a point; they just go about things in the wrong way.
The young will surely be corrupted absolutely if we do not care and do not try. But the tradition that we so adhere to, the demands that we throw at them, the obedience that we force on them, are the exact things that help to encourage the deterioration of youth culture.
Teenagers rebel, that's what they do. They rebel because they feel suppressed and marginalised by traditional values and the demands of authority figures. The young, if we squeeze them hard enough, become dumb and docile, or they will pop, or they will learn to do the same to others, including their own children. None of these are good things.
To minimise sexual escapades in weird places and curb school violence, we must teach them to think critically and challenge fixed beliefs. Not to undermine parental authority, but to allow them to discover, to learn and to forge their own characters and stand on their own two feet. It is the demand for obedience, the control of thoughts and deeds and the expectation of conformity that the young rebel against _ and they rebel so foolishly, so stupidly because we have never taught them, and still continue to deny them, the ability to think critically.
We should teach critical thinking skills because it is the best way to save the young from themselves. Sure, it will modify their behaviours, but that is a modification of reason and rationality, responsibility and accountability, to question fixed beliefs and encourage independent thought.
If we taught the young critical thinking, they would have a chance to develop the reason and rationality that go hand-in-hand with maturity and which nurture responsibility and accountability. This wouldn't stop them from having sex, but should prompt them to understand the importance of safe sex and that actions have consequences. It would equip them with the ability to make the right decisions and take responsibility for what they do.
Similarly, teaching the young critical thinking may have them question the fixed beliefs of the gang mentality and challenge the stupid cycle of violence and vengeance.
The state can't control what the young do, no more than it can control what anyone does, unless it is a fascist, authoritative state, and even then teenagers will still have sex. Like all cultures, Thai culture has virtues and failings. One virtue that I champion is described in the slogan rak-loog-hai-thoog-tang, meaning ''love your child the right way''.
Love should be intelligent and nurturing. Love your child enough to equip him or her with the critical faculties to differentiate right from wrong, rather than make them obey just because ''mama said so''.
Critical thinking is the foundation of character-building, producing the sound mind and strong character needed to understand responsibility and accountability. We do this because we love our children, not blindly, but with intelligence, responsibility and accountability.
When faced with decisions in life, we have nothing to rely on but our intelligence and integrity. If these are not instilled in our children, when they become adults any calamity in life will have them running to fortune tellers or screaming ''Do you know who my father is?''
If we don't teach them critical thinking, then we are raising them to become a bunch of hapless, incompetent, egotistical spoiled brats. Then society will become corrupt absolutely.
Now tell me this: Am I describing a future possibility, or am I pointing out an all too apparent present reality? The only reason to suppress critical thinking is the fear of being questioned, of having our banality and mediocrity exposed.
Thomas Edison said, ''the most necessary task of civilisation is to teach people how to think. It should be the primary purpose of our public schools. The mind of a child is naturally active, it develops through exercise ... The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give elasticity to the mind. It casts the brain into a mould. It insists that the child must accept. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning and it lays more stress on memory than observation.''
He's been dead for almost a century.
In 2012, we still have the Republican Party of Texas and the traditional Thai establishment resisting that most basic right and privilege that humans are blessed with _ the ability to think.
Listen to Thomas Edison. He invented the phonograph and the moving camera. What have the Thai education and cultural ministries ever done of note?
Oh yeah, tablet computers and bitter letters to the United States embassy.
Contact Voranai Vanijaka via email at