You can't hurry love ... or pride in country and people

Pink Floyd were wrong when they sang 'We don't need no education', and not just because of their poor grammar. We should all be educated in the history of our own countries. But they were right when they added, 'We don't need no thought control.'

Last week was the 11th anniversary of my naturalisation as a Chinese national. For over five decades in the last century, I was a proud British citizen. And for more than a decade in this century, I have been a proud Chinese citizen.

I therefore feel as well qualified as anyone else, and perhaps better qualified than many, to comment on the proposal to introduce national education. It simply isn't necessary.

What makes a person proud to be from their own country? Surely, it starts with the fact that it is their own country. They are (usually) born there, they grow up there, they soak up the language and culture, it is their home.

As time goes by, young people learn about the history of their country - the highs and the lows. Whether through their family, or civic education in school, or from their church, or perhaps a combination of all three, they learn how to rub along with others in their own community and in the wider world. In similar circles and via the media, they debate the issues of the day, and gradually acquire a sense of right and wrong.

What usually emerges from this gradual process - and note that it is a process, and it is gradual - is a well-rounded citizen with a moral compass. He doesn't need to be taught to be proud of his people and his country, it is natural for him to be so. He will cheer for his country at sporting events, he will hum or sing the national anthem, he will recognise and respect his country's flag. But the process does not make him blind.

British people grow up learning that their forefathers played a part in the slave trade; that, in the 'Jewel of the Empire', there was a notorious jail called the 'Black Hole of Calcutta'; that, in the 19th century, they fought two opium wars with China.