im 20 for reference. ever since i was a kid, up until hs, we were forced every morning to stand, look at the flag and hold our hearts and say:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”
i didnt stand a single time because i disagreed with being forced, and i was berated by the teacher in front of everyone, and he threatened to kick me out of class if i ever did it again. i was about 11-12 then, it was 2015.
I thought everyone did. I did for sure. I know in Texas they say the Texas pledge to the Texas flag as well (or at least they did 20 years ago).
Good for you OP! I stopped standing to pledge around when I was maybe 10 or 11, when I learned it was illegal to make standing for it mandatory & about how the words ‘under God’ were added later and the pledge violated separation of church and state. I come from a very liberal area and all my teachers were quite proud of me I think, especially my 6th-grade teacher. But a lot of my classmates didn’t understand and I got bullied a lot for it. But I refused to do it. My mom was teaching public policy so…that probably influenced it a lot haha
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it’s weird as fuck, and especially the “under god” part like the rest isn’t all that terrible ig but why must u shove god into everything
It was tacked on in the 50s (note how it kinda messes with the cadence) because of godless commies. There have been other little tweaks as well, some making it worse (e.g. “under god”) and some better (abandoning the, herrrm, “Roman” salute). While always a bit weirdly nationalistic, the core of the modern pledge was written by a Christian Socialist and replaced one that was worse and more explicitly religious.
I guess it’s not so weird that it exists and I assume many countries have some sort of boilerplate loyalty oath they can bust out as needed, but it’s pretty messed up that it’s mandatory for kids on a daily basis and fetishizes the flag as an object. I am quite fond of my country, and I think there are a lot of worse places to live, but our history is pretty messed up and our views on what exactly constitutes freedom and democracy are not unquestionable just because some clever provincial elites came up with a halfway workable system in the late 1700s. I suppose it’s marginally better to build a national cult out of institutions and symbols than individuals, but it’s still a terrible idea to treat patriotism like religious dogma.
As a millennial that grew up in the early-to-mid 2000s, it was absolutely expected pre-middle school that we do this. Pretty gross.
It happened every morning in my school, but we weren’t forced. I would routinely just stay seated and not say the pledge, personally.
We said the pledge in the mornings in elementary school in the 80s. I don’t believe it was held in middle or high school. I never thought twice about it and I don’t think any of the other kids did either. Can’t remember any issues arising over it then. I couldn’t really care less about whether or not schools continued to hold it now.
From early on I remember skipping “god”. Guess I was atheist before I knew what that was.
You’d get screamed at by the teacher and more than likely end up getting a stupid long lecture about the importance of patriotism if you refused
Like damn bro sorry y’all haven’t done shit to make me proud except scream at me that I should be proud
that’s essentially what happened. i was so scared and embarrassed at this grown man going off on me for doing nothing except exercising my right to sit.
I grew up in Florida and Tennessee in the 80s and 90s. It was definitely a daily thing, but very lax enforcement and I don’t know that anybody would have made a huge stink about it even then. The duck and cover “tornado” drills were very real and very serious though.
At least through elementary school, yes. I can’t recall for middle school if we did it every day or not.
Looking at it now in my 40s, I always think it feels like some sort of weird brainwash-y, cult-like behavior.
Christ, I’m almost 40 and they’re still doing that?!
I attended a school board meeting recently and they asked everyone stand and recite before the meeting would begin. I got so many dirty looks for refusing.
To watch a room full of adults look and pledge to a flag was comical and disturbing
Yes, I did. I didn’t think anything about it at the time, but as an adult is seems weird, and like someone else said cultish. Yet, I am conflicted, because one of my concerns about the USA is increasing partisanship driven diverging cultures. Having kids say the pledge of allegiance is generally unoffensive, especially when compared to our ongoing culture wars.
Not only that, I was in a private, church-school for a couple years and we also had a pledge for the christian flag as well.
Also, why is there a christian flag?
