'Tis of Thee

I did something really bad yesterday.

I was on my planning period, doing what we all do on planning periods--making massive amounts of photocopies and running around like a nut--when the daily moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance blared over the PA. When students are in the hallway during this moment or two, they are required (and this is enforced by security officers and APs who yell "STOP!" ... at one point, they had someone holding up a sign, I believe) to stop and observe the moment/pledge.

Well, I didn't stop. I kept walking and went back to my room, where I sat down to work.

Now the major reason I didn't stop is because I really wasn't paying attention. I'm sure you know what I mean; hell, I've gotten in my car some days without realizing I got up, showered, and dressed. But even though my absent-mindedness caused me to commit and act that many would call hugely disrespectful to our country, I don't think I would have stopped even if I was aware of what was going on.

I never gave the Pledge much thought when I was in school. There were a few kids that sat down when it came on, but nobody paid much attention to that and went on reciting what we'd had to memorize in our first grade classes, back when one of your jobs in the classroom was to "lead" the class in the Pledge. I'm pretty sure that back then, and even now, if you asked students to explain the meaning of the Pledge or expound on its history, you wouldn't get the same two answers. I guarantee you some students I've had would pause at "indivisible" and not know what that means, either.

Students who do not stand for the Pledge when they're in my classes are not reprimanded. I ask them to be silent during the moment of silence out of respect for the other people in the room who take such a moment seriously (in other words, you may not like it -- but be polite). But I've come to believe, during these last few years, that it's not a necessary thing to recite a statement of allegiance to your government at the beginning of the day. The moment of silence, in my opinion, is even worse. This is a statewide thing (as far as I know anyway) and basically came about as a way to placate the right-wing "prayer belongs in schools" crowd.

I've heard a number of people say that the country wouldn't be the way it is nowadays if we had prayer in schools. Personally, I think that's crap. I mean, do you really think that pausing for a led prayer to a God that not everyone in your population worships (and let's be honest, that's what supporters of school prayer want) will teach children not to beat the crap out of each other and to do their homework and to read better and to master the concepts of physics? Furthermore, do you think that forcing children to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance will have any effect on this country's future?

One argument that exists for reciting the Pledge is to "honor those that died to give us or protect our freedom." I always fail to see that point, which probably makes me a communist or something, because not one soldier "gave" me "self-evident" freedom. Protects? Well, what's protecting? The Bill of Rights protects from Congress and most soldiers are fighting in a foreign war and even if we weren't fighting it, I wouldn't feel my freedom "threatened" in any way.

It seems that you can never open a debate about this issue, either. Make a point about how mandatory recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence at the beginning of school actually contradicts the "freedom" they're honoring and you're given the "She's a witch, burn her!" treatment. But I just can't see it, or any simply blind patriotism that we're forced to endure in our society as useful. Discussion, exploration, even questioning of history, government, and our culture--that's freedom.

Alas, I know that an argument like that falls on deaf ears. So I'll keep doing what I do when I hear the moment of silence and Pledge being announced. If I have a class, I'll take roll. If I don't, I'll keep working.