The Gods Must Be Crazy

I recall my eleventh grade art teacher, Mr. Ross, provoking us to think critically about advertising and its relationship to persuasive designing. "Why do you like Coke so much?", he would ask. Some of us responded , "It tastes great!", "It's fizzy!". Then Mr. Ross passed out a Coca-Cola advertisement from a magazine that had a magnified image of the beverage, bubbles and all, and asked us to examine it. After careful examination, I found that within the bubbles there were silhouettes of women. Also, some of the bubbles formed letters in their shape (S.E.X.). As a student it was as if Pandora's Box had been opened. It was a launching pad for most of my conspiracy theories. Seeing a world beyond the world that is safe to us. Coca-Cola as a vile exploitation of women was a game changer for me. Just as the children in Dave's classroom were shocked about Nike, I wanted to free the silhouettes of caged faces and body parts in the Coca-Cola bubbles. Maybe I was in the bubble looking outward and it finally popped.
The children in Dave's classroom are in the position where their outlook on life is shaped by the perceptions of the educator. A moral values intervention with "hidden messages" is a part of the discussion. Just as an educator leads a child to an answer of how to solve a mathematical equation, one must be careful to lead children to the "one" right answer for a critical discussion. Those children that have the same perspectives as the educator should be protected just as those that oppose it. We may become as tainted as the Nike executives when we push propoganda rather than inspire. How is critical thinking going to grow from its developing stage into a critique of our society?
If the opportunity for critcal thinking is going to be authentic in the classroom, the educator should allow the children to select their own books, as our professor has, then express their reasons for their selection.