With your kids returning to their indoctrination centers - government schools - I have been noticing reports from around the country concerning the Pledge of Allegiance. Now I will tell you up front that I am not a big fan on the forced recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance. These children are in these schools by government mandate .. and I don't the government leading them on a pledge of allegiance to anything but themselves. At any rate; it seems that every year we get the stories about students being harassed for not standing up to say the Pledge, and now the debate is being taken to a new level.

We've settled the fact that no one, not even government school students, has to stand to pledge allegiance. But the new advocacy issue is about a "Miranda warning" for the Pledge. This would be an administrative notice that students have the right to remain silent. First Amendment advocates argue that the law "compels educators to inform kids at the beginning of school that the decision is entirely up to them."

Does this all strike you as a bit absurd? Let's just see if these schools can get rid of ceremonies and warnings and get on the with task of teaching. Look ... they have about 12 years to teach these kids how to make change, learn how to read People Magazine and cook French fries.

If you have been listening to me for a while, or have been a regular reader of Nealz Nuze, you know how I feel about the Pledge of Allegiance. Particularly the idea of anyone expecting government school children to pledge allegiance to their country.

So apparently there is a little brouhaha in Vermont over how and where children should say the Pledge of Allegiance. This departs from the typical - whether or not they would be allowed to say it or forced to say it. Here's the brief scenario: A parent by the name of Ted Tedesco wanted his child's school to return to the daily practice of saying the pledge. So school officials say OK, but they decide not to have the children say the pledge in the classroom. Instead, they assign a student to go around the school and gather anyone who wants to say the pledge ... then they all walk to the gym and a student leads the pledge. Apparently about half of the students participate. This wasn't good enough for Ted Tedesco. He says that this solution is "disruptive to routine and inappropriate." He says, "Saying the Pledge in the classroom is legal, convenient and traditional ... Asking kindergarten through sixth graders who want to say the Pledge to leave their classrooms to do so is neither convenient nor traditional."

So the school changed its routine, again. This time all of the students came out into the hallway at 8am and said the pledge. Then the filed back into their classrooms. People aren't happy with this solution either. They want to know why the children can't just say it in the classrooms.

Look, folks. If we put this much passion and interest into what students were actually learning in the classroom, maybe our education system wouldn't be producing a nation of burger flippers.