Also, making kids stand and recite a loyalty oath every morning is like, Hello Red China!

This, pretty much. I know most teachers don't have a problem with kids who abstain, but the idea that kids should have to prove their patriotism before they can start learning is...creepy. Moreso now that I live in a neighborhood where most of the kids are immigrants or children of immigrants.

Dylan was riding his tricycle on the sidewalk outside our building the other day and a 10 year-old kid on his scooter came up to play with him. The first thing he asked me is "So, where is he from?" I said, "Oh, we live here" and pointed to my building. "No, but like, where are you from" this kid kept asking. And it dawned on me that this kid really couldn't process the idea of a family having been in America more than two generations - it wasn't part of his experience. He turned out to be from Yemen.

I do sing the national anthem though.

I love the national anthem because it's so bloodthirsty. I don't sing it, though, because I am a crap singer with a vocal range of less than an octave and I am not even kidding.

Steph, me too! But even with crap singers, get 3000 of them together and it's still beautiful!

Well, I can't say much of the contents of the Pledge itself because I don't know it very well (or almost at all). But if, to my understanding, it states the ideals and the guidelines of a state, then it should be taught thoroughly - not recited daily without giving it a second thought. I agree that it's a bit of scary, due to the same reasons mentioned above, too. Ideals shouldn't be blank words.

the idea that kids should have to prove their patriotism before they can start learning is...creepy.

Em's class does it during their big "group time" in the morning. It's also when they do their calendar and ... weather and story and also money.

And here I thought that in order work, generally speaking, you need to be healthy. So that work can be done. Strange.

I have seen suggestions that the current administration should have pushed this more strongly, i.e. the economic benefits of ensuring a healthy workforce (which are not inconsiderable), during the recent fights over health care legislation.

I prefer "This Land Is Your Land," but that's the hippie commie in me.

I prefer "This Land Is Your Land," but that's the hippie commie in me.

Yes! Especially this verse:

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

I love the national anthem because it's so bloodthirsty.

You should move to France! Bloody flags, cutting throats, tigers ripping mothers' breasts, impure blood, coffins--it has it all!

I know most teachers don't have a problem with kids who abstain, but the idea that kids should have to prove their patriotism before they can start learning is...creepy.

When I was in high school, there was one time that there was some law passed or Supreme Court decision or something that I really didn't like (something to do with free speech on the internet? Maybe? This would have been the 1996-1997 school year), and for the next few days, I didn't stand for the pledge. (I'm kind of embarrassed that I can't even remember what was so important to me at 16.) Anyway, it was first period English, and a bunch of the other kids started shouting stuff at me like, "What are you, some kind of Muslim?" (Not entirely sure where that came from.) The teacher made a half-hearted effort to stop them, then told me that I should just stand up so that they wouldn't bother me.

The pledge in my high school was recited over the loudspeaker by a student, and everyone in class was supposed to stand up and say it along with that person. Sometimes it was a student who'd just won some award or something, but other times it was just whoever was out in the hallway when the principal went looking for someone to say it. There were at least a few people who left out the "Under G-d" part -- if they paused to let other people say it, nobody minded (or even really noticed), but if they just went right through it, people would get all out of rhythm and confused.