That Pledge Of Allegiance Thing Again
Sep. 15th, 2005 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badstarOne nation (not always), under God (since 1954)
I've read somewhere that Jon Stewart said the other night somethign about there being no better way to trivialize somethign than to make 5th graders repeat it every morning?
I've said many times, I really wonder how many 5th graders know what they're saying when they recite the pledge? Hell, how many high school seniors?
I know I was in 7th or 8th grade before I really understood it and I sure as hell didn't learn it from school. I learned it from Girl Scouts. Every time I tried to ask a teacher what it meant, from kindergarten on, I was dismissed with something along the lines of "If you say it it means you love your country. If you don't say it it means you don't."
No kidding folks.
Why do we insist on making little kids mindlessly recite the same thing over and over and over. How many know that they have the right not to? People used to get in trouble in the various elementary schools that I went to for not saying it. As I was going into high school, people whispered about how you didn't actually have to say it in high school, though you still had to stand. Though in the few instances that I saw anyone try to not say it, they were generally either scolded or on one case sent to the principal's office. I don't know what came of that exactly, but I never saw that student not try to say it again.
Without knowing and being able to compreend what they're saying, I really don't think that students should be made to recite the pledge. Really, I don't think it's something they should have to do at all. If you don't agree, okay. Please tell me intelligently how it benefits them.
I've read somewhere that Jon Stewart said the other night somethign about there being no better way to trivialize somethign than to make 5th graders repeat it every morning?
I've said many times, I really wonder how many 5th graders know what they're saying when they recite the pledge? Hell, how many high school seniors?
I know I was in 7th or 8th grade before I really understood it and I sure as hell didn't learn it from school. I learned it from Girl Scouts. Every time I tried to ask a teacher what it meant, from kindergarten on, I was dismissed with something along the lines of "If you say it it means you love your country. If you don't say it it means you don't."
No kidding folks.
Why do we insist on making little kids mindlessly recite the same thing over and over and over. How many know that they have the right not to? People used to get in trouble in the various elementary schools that I went to for not saying it. As I was going into high school, people whispered about how you didn't actually have to say it in high school, though you still had to stand. Though in the few instances that I saw anyone try to not say it, they were generally either scolded or on one case sent to the principal's office. I don't know what came of that exactly, but I never saw that student not try to say it again.
Without knowing and being able to compreend what they're saying, I really don't think that students should be made to recite the pledge. Really, I don't think it's something they should have to do at all. If you don't agree, okay. Please tell me intelligently how it benefits them.
