Propaganda in Children's School Book: The Power to Poison Children's Mind

Propaganda Trough the World War

Throughout the First World War, propaganda was widely used in England to promote patriotism and loyalty to the British Empire among children of all social classes. Furthermore, the war at this time dominated the stories of bravery and hardihood that were the basis for the content in children's magazines like Boy's Own [5]. The Boy's Own Paper was a large propaganda campaign at the time, aimed at encouraging readers to support the battlefront and rallying English children to support the war. Articles and stories highlighted soldiers' and young heroes' sacrifices, their powerful armies and weapons, and British military superiority, all with the intention of campaigning absolute triumph for the British and the formation of a new generation of soldiers [6]. Moreover, in the school curriculum, specifically math subjects, students were learning a new model framework about the relative numbers of British warships in different categories against the equivalent German complement, even a set of arithmetical questions on war savings, designed to intensify children's interest in the subject. 

Meanwhile in Germany during the Nazi, children's books established scientific myths that Douglas Allchin identifies in children's books that simply distort the nature of science (2003, p. 341 and p. 347). Nazi children's schoolbooks provide an illuminating historical example of a nation that revered science to the point of making biology the organizing element of its educational system while producing children's literature filled with fabrication and falsehood. Children's textbooks propagate the big Nazi idea of a racial utopia based on Aryan supremacy and the removal of ethnic distinctions, which is unfounded both historically and scientifically. There are three children's books of Nazi propaganda that are frequently mentioned in accounts of anti-Semitism: Elvira Bauer's Trau keinem Fuchs auf gruner Heid und keinem Jud auf seinem Eid (1936), Ernst Hie-mer's Der Giftpilz (1938), and Hiemers Der Pudelmopsdackelpinscher (1940). The books clearly show how racist science and ideological narrative tautologically reinforce each other in an extreme form of how "narratives play a major role in disseminating science" (Pauwels, 2019, p. 434) in children's nonfiction to promote a racist agenda [7].

China Cultural Revolution: Little Red Book 

Meanwhile, in China during the Cultural Revolution education was the centerpiece of that upheaval. The Cultural Revolution, officially known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) that was started by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his death in 1976. The Cultural Revolution was supported and conducted by a communist Chinese political elite that operated as the Chinese government's powerful and highly centralized authority. Fully understanding the power of education, that elite explicitly used China's schools as the vehicle for the turmoil it wrought. The elite wanted to replace pre-revolutionary feudal-capitalist values and norms with proletarian ones in order to abolish what it saw as pre-revolutionary feudal-capitalist systems. It did not know exactly what forms and structures Chinese society should have, but it did believe passionately that the old values, norms, structures, and processes needed to be destroyed [8].  

Because children's minds are easily shaped, they were the most common target of political propaganda. The Cultural Revolution's ideas will endure if children are taught to love Chairman Mao above all else and to want to be revolutionaries. By using propaganda, it was made clear that kids would take part in the Cultural Revolution [9]. During this time, The Little Red Book was used in propaganda as an everyday item. The little red book is a book that contains a collection of excerpts from Mao Zedong's past speeches and publications. This book is specially printed and sold pocket-sized to make it easier to carry and read. It became an unofficial requirement to read the Little Red Book at school and always carry a copy. 

Indonesia During New Order Era: The Bloody Haunting Propaganda of Anti-Communism 

During 1965-1966 there was a haunting genocide in Indonesia. A movement known as the Gerakan 30 September, in which seven high ranking army officials were abducted and assassinated, served as the catalyst for the 1965--1966 bloodshed. The Partai Komunis Indonesia or Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was charged by the Indonesian army with being the offender, despite the fact that there is still debate on the Movement itself. Following this allegations, the military launched an extermination campaign against communists and other members and sympathizers of leftist organizations, including those who were family members of those individuals. Approximately 500,000 to 1,000,000 people were killed during those years; others experienced grave human rights violations, such as mass killings, torture, sexual violence, forced labour and so on (Komisi Nasional Hak Asasi Manusia RI, 2012). Furthermore, the authoritarian New Order dictatorship under Suharto created a national memory project at this time to eradicate stories of the deadly violence against the (accused) communists and members of leftist groups  [10]. 

On top of that, during the New Order era, history education plays an important role in circulating anti-communist narrative (Hendrix 2017: 52). The new order government tightly controlled many aspects of life, including the educational system (McGregor 2007: 66). The narrative of communists as a national enemy and as rebels was deeply engrained in the minds of the schoolchildren. The military's account of Indonesian communism permeates what is currently taught in schools about the country's post-independence history.  The political screening committee conducted checks on teachers who worked for the government to make sure they weren't affiliated with any communist groups or ideologies (Thomas 1981: 385). During the New Order era, the government also exercised strict supervision over the creation of educational materials (Ahmad 2016: 68; McGregor 2007: 49-50). Since 1979, the Ministry of Education has strictly screened textbooks in order to make sure that they contain the standardized version of history (Wirasti 2002: 147-148). Of equal importance, The People's Consultative Assembly Resolution about the banning of Marxism and Indonesian communism became one of the regulating bases to evaluate school textbook content. 

Not only that, indoctrination did not only occur through a learning process in the classroom as students could also learn history by visual media outside the classroom. Students were obliged to watch the film about the cruelty of the communists (Heryanto 2015: 121). This film was screened in a movie theater, and viewers must pay the ticket fee, in order to watch (Budiawan 2004: 20). Through these remembrance initiatives and media propagandizing, the regime continuously remembered the kidnapping and murder of the army officers and the "evil" of the communists, while omitting the army-supported anti-communist executions. As a result, there is eventually a great deal of suppression and silence regarding the victims of the widespread violence, both in the public realm and among the relatives of the victims [11].

Break the Brick on The Wall