Did saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school mean anything to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Waste of time for the most part. But I do see the value in teaching patience.

This. I actually never had it in school. I went to a Friends school K-8 and my public HS never did it.

I had a short public school teaching career and there was one year an admin said it over the PA. I wanted my students to at least stand, not because I cared about the dumb pledge, but because I wanted to set the tone in the classroom that rituals and doing things as a group were important.

I hope you didn’t require your students to stand. Legally, you cannot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. It meant that I was being encouraged to lie -- or that the government was telling me to lie, possibly so that I would believe the lies that we were collectively reciting.

I attended a racially segregated elementary school where "Brown vs Bd of Ed" hadn't changed much. I remember saying to a teacher, "it says: 'and Justice for All' and that's not true". The teacher did not respond directly to my comment, but, instead, spoke with me about the importance of showing respectful behavior.

I don't remember saying the pledge in school after I left elementary school. I later worked in schools, and was struck by the images of young children, dressed in uniforms, parroting this "pledge" -- often in communities that still hadn't received "Justice for All". For me, rather than feeling some communal sense of patriotism or loyalty or identity, saying the Pledge of Allegiance is one of the things that made me question the supposed ideals of America vs my own reality and experiences from a very early age.

Which is kind of a good part of having said it right? It's where you learned how things were meant to be, so you could stand up and say "they aren't!" Repeating "liberty and justice for all" every day of school throughout childhood is probably a good reminder that we need to keep fighting for that in our imperfect union. We could change some of the words though, "pledging" is weird and not everyone believes in God, so those are passe.

I genuinely don’t know. I agree that it’s good to remember what the ideals of this country supposedly are. I’m genuinely not sure if it’s an overall positive that I became an outspoken advocate because I spent my entire childhood thinking: “But we don’t get that.” — particularly since at that point, talking about what my textbooks — deliberately— got wrong and the factors behind WHY “we don’t get that” weren’t openly welcomed in most of my classes. As a child, knowing that some kids down the street got — deserved? — more Liberty and Justice than I did provided “reminders” too.

I’m used to making lemonade out of lemons though, so I would say that it’s probably good that I had the experience of a collective ritual acknowledging ideals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope. I went to a Catholic school and we added "the born and unborn" after "liberty and justice for all." Pretty clear, even to kid me, that it was intended as indoctrination, and even then I thought it was kind of weird.

I feel this as an adult-and it meant nothing to me as a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, very meaningful.

It belongs in every school, without exception.

Why?

And why?

Because it expresses the crucial, foundational ideals on which our proud nation rests, and of which we need to remind Americans daily ( given how many soon forget), and

Because this is the United States.

We are not a nation. And it expresses little. It’s a bunch of BS words.

Under God? What?

Justice and liberty....
Indivisible? Yeah, sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, very meaningful.

It belongs in every school, without exception.

Why?

And why?

Because it expresses the crucial, foundational ideals on which our proud nation rests, and of which we need to remind Americans daily ( given how many soon forget), and

Because this is the United States.

We are not a nation. And it expresses little. It’s a bunch of BS words.

Under God? What?
Indivisible? Yeah, sure.

Blah bi-di-blah blah blah

Whatever, kid

Wow. Strong post. Well done!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Waste of time for the most part. But I do see the value in teaching patience.

This. I actually never had it in school. I went to a Friends school K-8 and my public HS never did it.

I had a short public school teaching career and there was one year an admin said it over the PA. I wanted my students to at least stand, not because I cared about the dumb pledge, but because I wanted to set the tone in the classroom that rituals and doing things as a group were important.

I hope you didn’t require your students to stand. Legally, you cannot.

You clearly have never been in a public school. You cannot require students to do anything.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t care strongly either way about it as a kid. We also said prayers (in Catholic school) which I liked and sang Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing (in public school) which I loved. The pledge was the first thing we did and mostly it was rushed through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. It meant that I was being encouraged to lie -- or that the government was telling me to lie, possibly so that I would believe the lies that we were collectively reciting.

I attended a racially segregated elementary school where "Brown vs Bd of Ed" hadn't changed much. I remember saying to a teacher, "it says: 'and Justice for All' and that's not true". The teacher did not respond directly to my comment, but, instead, spoke with me about the importance of showing respectful behavior.

I don't remember saying the pledge in school after I left elementary school. I later worked in schools, and was struck by the images of young children, dressed in uniforms, parroting this "pledge" -- often in communities that still hadn't received "Justice for All". For me, rather than feeling some communal sense of patriotism or loyalty or identity, saying the Pledge of Allegiance is one of the things that made me question the supposed ideals of America vs my own reality and experiences from a very early age.

It's something to strive for. It never meant we had it. No nation has ever been perfect. And no nation ever will be. But that doesn't mean we should stop working toward it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. It meant that I was being encouraged to lie -- or that the government was telling me to lie, possibly so that I would believe the lies that we were collectively reciting.

I attended a racially segregated elementary school where "Brown vs Bd of Ed" hadn't changed much. I remember saying to a teacher, "it says: 'and Justice for All' and that's not true". The teacher did not respond directly to my comment, but, instead, spoke with me about the importance of showing respectful behavior.

I don't remember saying the pledge in school after I left elementary school. I later worked in schools, and was struck by the images of young children, dressed in uniforms, parroting this "pledge" -- often in communities that still hadn't received "Justice for All". For me, rather than feeling some communal sense of patriotism or loyalty or identity, saying the Pledge of Allegiance is one of the things that made me question the supposed ideals of America vs my own reality and experiences from a very early age.

It's something to strive for. It never meant we had it. No nation has ever been perfect. And no nation ever will be. But that doesn't mean we should stop working toward it.

I'd be more excited to see more kindness and humanity shown to each other-respecting others-this would be great to work towards/strive for.

[Anonymous]

It meant nothing. I think for the longest time it was a bunch of memorized sounds, like I plejuvaleejants....

When I became a teacher I realized how weird it is to say a pledge at all, and just couldn't do it. It seemed very Big Brother-ish. I'd just stand there while the kids did it, feeling kind of bad about the whole thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t care strongly either way about it as a kid. We also said prayers (in Catholic school) which I liked and sang Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing (in public school) which I loved. The pledge was the first thing we did and mostly it was rushed through.

Same here, but the prayers were the same as the pledge. It used to come over the loud speaker - first the pledge, then the Hail Mary, then a prayer to our school's patron saint. The principal, a priest, would do the whole thing every morning and he would do it all so fast he sounded like an auctioneer. We couldn't have spoken it along with him if we'd wanted to.

[Anonymous]

As a kid, no it didn't mean anything because frankly nothing meant anything. I did what I was supposed to because I was told to. It's not until I matured that I thought about what it was supposed to mean and the purpose of it. I guess it's supposed to instill patriotic pride and for many many years it did. My dad's generation is very patriotic. But then as a country we stopped instilling any sort of loyalty or allegiance to anything but ourselves and made everything "optional." Now we have no enduring loyalty to basically anything in life. Whatev. We did this to ourselves so we will muddle through because we apparently know what's best.

[Anonymous]

It was rote memorization, I didn't really understand what I was saying when I was a little kid. Honestly, I think little kids should not say it until they meaningfully understand the meaning, history, and gravity of the words.

I stopped reciting it sometime in middle school once I more fully understood what it meant. It felt like manipulative indoctrination and I was pretty anti-authoritarian/traditionalist.

I now recite it because I have much more appreciation for what the words mean and the history behind the concepts in the pledge. The ideas of maintaining a "republic" and "liberty and justice for all" are so powerful yet elusive. The pledge - to me - represents an unfulfilled aspiration for the country. I omit the "under God" part because I think religion only serves to corrupt a government of men.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It had and has no meaning to me. Same with the national anthem.

I feel no allegiance to this country or the flag. I only feel an allegiance to myself and family.

You suck as a human then to be that selfish.

[Anonymous]

No. Said the pledge for 12 years in private school. Eventually it just became a hoop to jump through and I could say it while thinking about other things.

I am patriotic and care about my country, but worshipping a flag is not part of it.