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Which seems like a few lifetimes ago, but in reality, was roughly 20 years ago, we had to say the Pledge. Maybe my perspective is a bit different, though, because I went to a Catholic school. Anyway, we had to say the Pledge (and our morning prayer) fom 1st grade through 8th. In 8th grade, as part of our required study of the Constitution and U.S. History for our graduation, our history teacher went through the Pledge, line by line, and dicussed exactly what each line meant, what we were pledging, and how this tied into the concept of freedom, and the concept of a republic (Neal, you are correct in your assertion that private schools DO teach such concepts!). As a kid, I remember not really paying attention to what we were saying, not really caring about it, not being offended or bothered by it. Why do I get the seaking suspicon that kids today, unless influenced by their parents to be bothered, feel much the same way I did? I guess I can see a kid raised in an atheist household not wanting to say the "Under God" part (which obviously was not an issue in a Catholic school), but beyond that, I just can't imagine kids care much either way. I bet a lot of the kids that leave do so to drag out having to start the school day, rather than being passionate about saying the Pledge. I personally favor making it optional in the classroom. At the end of the day, this is a drop of water in the sea of issues with which we should be concerned. No one is damaged by saying the Pledge, or not saying it. As long as parents are more concerned with the Pledge of Allegiance, the focus is taken off real problems, like the lack of respect that children show adults, the low reading, math and science scores, the myriad of anti-American indoctrination and the like will go unaddressed, which actually hurts the children. By Michelle
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