The Pledge of Allegiance in Schools

I can't remember the last time I said the Pledge. I'm not terribly happy with the fact that we have a pledge of allegiance in the first place. I'm offended by the flag worship that's so popular in our country and the nationalistic bullshit enshrined in it. I find the practice of plastering decals of the flag everywhere distasteful at best. Mindlessly swearing unconditional allegiance every day at school and before every public assembly is the kind of totalitarian thing that we allegedly fought against, except it's OK when we do it. Leave the oaths to the armed forces and people who hold office.

While we're at it, I'm not a huge fan of our national anthem, either. It's a relic of the time when its militaristic and nationalistic sentiment were relevant. I'd rather we leave it to Independence Day celebrations and replace it with something less focused on how awesome it is that war was raging so hard that we could see the flag all night long. Oh, and by the way there are a couple of nice things about the country at the end as an afterthought.

 

I am also not a huge fan of the pledge, or of pledging allegiance to governments in general. If they got rid of "under God" again, that might make it a little better, but even then.... I never said it once I was past middle school. I definitely think schoolkids having to say it every day is ridiculous, especially considering how much of every day's valuable teaching time is already wasted by administrivia and other bullshit.

And yes, like MSD, I am also not a huge fan of "The Star-Spangled Banner." I don't necessarily mind a national anthem with a militaristic theme, but from the War of 1812?! So not only is it hard to sing, and nobody knows any of the other verses after the first, but it's describing one of the least relevant and most obscure battles in American history? Useless bullshit.

I've always favored switching the national anthem to "America The Beautiful." But I'd take "This Land Is Your Land," too, especially if they left in Woody's last couple of verses.

 

If we are to pledge allegiance to anything, it should be our constitution and the people of our country, not a piece of cloth that's just a symbol. I won't bend the knee or pledge fealty either, to gods or kings.

 

Hmmmm...I can't remember if we said the Pledge in middle school or not...in high school, they played the Star-Spangled Banner before the morning announcements. Assuming we did say it in middle school, it's been almost twenty years since I've said the Pledge.

 

The use of flags is rooted in militarism. They are the symbol of conquest and territorial possession in war. What's the first thing any military does when they capture territory? Raise the flag. Icons of such events include the photograph of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima during WWII, which was actually restaged for the photograph.
The orignal pledge was not even written for the US flag. The original was an organic pledge for use by any nation:
"I pledge alligiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
In 1923, the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution changed the words to "the flag of the United States of America."
Flag waving has been a part of the history of all nations - the many years of the visual media has shown us this - military parades in China, North Korea, Nazi Germany. We saw scenes of streets in towns all across the US displaying the flag after 9/11.
Yes, the flag is merely a symbol. A symbol in war, but also a symbol in peace that shows the unity of a nation. One nation, indivisible. When disaster hits a nation, it isn't long before you look up to see the flag as the people rally around it. There are plusses and minuses on both sides of the argement, but essentially, the flag represents the spirit of a nation. Rally 'round the flag, boys.

 

Not only do we have the daily pledge of allegiance but we also include a pledge to the Texas flag.
Just another thing that becomes meaningless through mindless redundancy and is to be endured.
It's important to learn that lesson early if you are to survive school with your sanity.

 

I lived in Sulfur Springs, TX my first year in high school. In my history class, the teacher told us that the access roads next to the expressways were built for local traffic so the southern military could use the expressways when the South rises again.

 

Isnt it great that all but a few states require the pledge of allegiance in schools but one in three Americans fail the civics portion of the test for immigrants to become naturalized citizens?

So memorize the pledge, kids.....that will make you a better citizen!

 

These days the flag has fallen by the wayside, it's all about those stupid fucking magnetic ribbons.

 

In order to separate church and state, change "under God" with "50 states" and it works.

 

It was before your time Baraka_Guru but little Canadian kids, including this one, used to sing God Save The Queen every morning at school. It was really confusing.
I'm Canadian so I'm not supposed to pledge to the States but for a period of time after we moved here, I mouthed the words. I never put my hand over my heart. By high school, out of respect for this country, I simply stood for the pledge cos sitting would be rude.

I think the pledge is so very non-inclusive to many Americans that is has no meaning for them.
The National Anthem is just a crap song about war.

 

when I was in school we said the pledge every morning. as i got older it turned into a moment of silence, wich i thought was bullshit. i think our kids need to say the pledge in school. think of all the veterans that gave their life and risked their life for our freedom. both of my granddaddys were veterans. i feel it would be a shame not to say it atleast in their honor. as many of you know i am a mason and we recite the pledge at every meeting

 

What they're pledging to is complete and total acceptance to the state, and since most of our public schools have such a warped way of teaching, most children probably wont have a true understanding of our wars, or for that matter, what a war really is, until they reach their early twenties.

 

The founding fathers never said the pledge, and the country did just fine without one for the first hundred or so years it existed. The whole pledge/school mess only exists because a socialist magazine editor invented the pledge as a marketing jingle to help sell flags to schools, and in the 50's we stuck "under god" in there to protect us from "godless commies".

And just for the sheer lulz factor of pointing out how little people remember history, the original salute that went with this pledge:

 

Oh my God.

That is absolutely hilarious!