Pledging Allegiance

Facebook Post
September 14, 2016

My post:  In my old age I now see that demanding that students say the pledge was more about authority and less about allegiance to our country.

SOME RESPONSES:

HC:  "I haven't had a homeroom for several years, but when I did, I found that I could not, in good conscience, demand that my kids recite the Pledge. I find it disconcerting to pledge my allegiance to a flag. To the Constitution? Absolutely. To the ideals our country was founded on? Mmmm... most of them. But a piece of cloth? Nope. That smacks of idolatry, and I'm not Catholic. Or Christian, for that matter. And as for the republic (for which it stands), I do not find us to be one nation under one specific and exclusionary god, we are certainly not indivisible, and I am excruciatingly aware, as an educator of at-risk students, of the lack of liberty and justice for all.

I told my students I would not require them to recite the Pledge. But I did ask them to explain why they chose not to. I told them I would respect a philosophical objection, but not a stereotypical rebellious teenage knee-jerk reaction. I also asked them to stand out of respect for those who had formed the ideals that drive this Great Experiment, for those who had defended it under that banner, and for those who continue to work to make our country live up to the promise of the Pledge. We got some really great discussions out of their various decisions and reasoning.

I think that demanding reverence for symbols, whether they are religious, civil, or military, is requiring blind obedience. And that's not honorable


RR: "A flag means nothing. A national anthem even less. Show me how people are treated and we'll talk. Look right now at the Native tribes fighting to protect their own lands in North Dakota --- who could be 'proud' of how they've been treated for more than 500 years. It's all jingo this bullshit about flags and anthems and standing and hands on heart. Bullshit. Let's talk, rather, about how people are treated and about how we can speak our thoughts about that freely. A flag doesn't protect that, nor does a song which , by the way, glorifies war. It IS INDEED about social justice and humanity. It is indeed."

ES: "Kids need proper "authoritarians". Without them they would be Lord of the Fly. I'm not about mindlessly doing things. I knew why I was doing the pledge and there were mornings that I wanted to just sit. There are things in life we HAVE to do to assimilate with the norms of our society. If not to pledge your allegiance to the place that you call home, then it is a way to get on the same page".

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