If y’all were around last year you might remember me writing about the rigamarole I went through with the state of Indiana requiring the Pledge of Alliegance and it’s trickle downward into Ethan’s classroom:
This afternoon when I picked Ethan up from school, his teacher turned from a conversation she was having with another mother, pulled me aside and asked a question. “Did you tell Ethan not to say the pledge?”
“I told him it was his choice,” I said. “Why?”
“Well, it doesn’t matter to me if he says the pledge or not, but he has to be respectful when the other kids do.”
“I spoke to him about that. How was he disrespectful?”
“He had his arms crossed.”
“Did he do anything else?” I asked. The other mom looked at me warily.
“No.”
I hesitated for a moment. “Clearly our versions of ‘respect’ are different, but I’ll speak to Ethan about that.”
Last week when Ethan started kindergarten, I was concerned about a great number of things, one of which was him knowing that no matter what any authority or law says, his rights do not stop at the school doors. When a friend reminded me that all Indiana children in public schools have to stand and recite the pledge every day at school to an American flag whose presence is mandated in every classroom, I made a point of discussing this with Ethan, simply to let him know that he had a choice of whether or not to stand with his classmates and make a pledge he certainly doesn’t understand.
Also see the comments in Part Deux.
Ethan eventually caved to the peer pressure after awhile (only after learning this at the suggestion of a kindly commenter), but I don’t mind too much. Now, if he still believes in the “under God” crap in fifteen years I’ll disown’im.
Incidentally, one of my friends has a fantastic idea to do a short documentary with clips of kids trying to explain what exactly this pledge thingie is. Any film producers in the audience drop a line.
But lo! As it turns out, another blogger had a similar experience this week with his teenage son.
On Monday, after I picked him up, he was really distressed. He chose not to say the Pledge. He told the teacher that he is an atheist and does not believe in that stuff and does not wish to say a pledge that includes “under God” in it.
She threatened to made him call his parents if he does not shape up and he immediately went to the classroom phone and started dialing, but she stopped him. At the time, I was still at home and she would have gotten an earful from me, as you can imagine.
Then he told her that his Dad told him that he has the right to remain silent. In the end, after much questioning and threatening, both in front of his friends and out in the hall, she FORCED him to say the Pledge, every word of it. She was giving him mean looks for the rest of the first two periods.
Indiana state senator Mike Young, a Republican of course, was a sponsor of the Indiana bill. Young feels students should “start their day thinking about the United States and victims of terrorism, as well as family, friends and people serving the country.”
America, land of free education and forced patriotism.
Never let it be said that this patriotic, jingoist shit doesn’t have an effect on your children. This is state level politicians tinkering with our daily routine just so’s we can get the warm war fuzzies by braying a jingle in unison. For the troops or votes, I’d wager the latter, but I’ll be goddamned if anyone thinks you can pull this off in a public school system without first informing kids of their rights.
Thanks, Amanda, for the link.
NC has added the pledge requirement. Before I was indifferent, but this is really starting to get on my last nerve.
At one of our local schools they started using a recorded voice saying the Pledge. Now, they have the students say it when they give the morning announcements. At this particular school, they have students from many different countries. We can imagine the uncomfortableness. What a way to start the morning!
This whole thing is bullshit.
If our representatives REALLY want students to learn about the US and “victims of terrorism”, they should look into revamping the social studies curriculum and perhaps start including Zinn’s _A People’s History of the United States_. He’s even come out with an educator’s edition to help make it easier!
Of course, teaching Zinn might prove to bring in too much critical thinking for those in power to handle.
What’s the role of public education again?
The pledge is one of the things I don’t get about the USA. Or maybe I do understand; It’s only that in order to make sense you have to go very far from the official view about “the land of the free” etc.
Is there actually people in the USA who feel pride about schoolchildren standing straight, hand on heart, while reciting the pledge? When I hear of it my thought fill with a different country of another time; small boys in khaki shirts in front of a flag in red, white and black.
About the “under God” part: James Randi has written that when he was to become citizen he objected to have to pledge under God, and the official told him he could just drop that line.
Hi there,
Just in case you don’t know - all this was already decided in 1943! At the time, West Virginia passed a law requiring teachers and students to say the pledge (this was actually before the “under God” section was added in 1954), and suit was brought by teachers, parents, the Red Cross, Boy and Girl Scouts, a Jehovah’s Witnesses, and various others on First Amendment grounds. The US Supreme court held that the law was unconstitutional with the memorable phrase: “To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds…”
Interestingly, some of the objection to a mandatory recitation of the pledge was that it bore an eerie resemblance to when was going on over in Germany at the time.
Check out West Virginia Board of Education vs. Barnette:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=319&invol=624#Scene_1
There have been more recent cases that have upheld the constitutionality of voluntarily saying the pledge, but no matter what no one in a public school can MAKE a child say the pledge.
Good luck!
Ah, that is so good to know. This week my daughter’s class is learning about citizenship, so I wrote a little note to the teacher asking if that included civil disobedience and the history of the Pledge.
Just so I know what I have to work on at home.
The talk like a pirate plugin does this post well.