did anyone else from the USA grow up being forced to say the pledge to the flag in school?

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.

Girlparts,
Girlparts avatar

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

RheingoldRiver,

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

albinanigans,
albinanigans avatar

Christ, I'm almost 40 and they're still doing that?!

SuburbanHaikuist, (edited )
SuburbanHaikuist avatar

I went to elementary school in the late 60s and early 70s and yes, we said the pledge every day. I didn't think anything about it back then.

As a Boy Scout in the mid 70s, we said the pledge at every meeting. Again, I gave it no thought.

In the 90s, I was in a Ham Radio club and they said it before every meeting. I found it odd, but went along with them.

In the last few years, I joined the local HOG (Harley Owners Group) chapter and they said it before every meeting. Now I'm beginning to question why, as an adult in a seemingly innocuous club, am I supposed to pledge my allegiance to the flag. This isn't the military, there's no reason for it.

If you're wanting me to say the pledge to the flag, you're just wanting me to show my patriotism and that word is about as vile to me now as a racial slur.

If I ever find myself in an organization that wants me to stand and recite the pledge, I'll be walking out the door.

HRDS_654, (edited )

To make it worse, I found out not too long ago that the version they made me say wasn’t even the original. “Under God” did not exist in the original version of the pledge.

EDIT: For those that were curious, apparently it was added in 1954 under Dwight Eisenhower.

IcyCockatoo,
IcyCockatoo avatar

This is still done in public schools in Texas, and they have the kids pledge allegiance to the Texas flag too.

tiredofsametab,

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.

justlookingfordragon,
@justlookingfordragon@lemmy.world avatar

As a German, this entire things feels always so bizarre to me. If a teacher “over here” would try and make their students do something similar for the German flag, said teacher would get kicked out of the faculty pretty quickly.

The same goes for religion by the way. While we did have classes about religion for a while (Katholischer / Evangelischer Religionsunterricht), the teachers were more or less just explaining what certain passages of the Bible meant, how they had been misinterpreted in the past, what is similar or different between certain religions etc. but not even they were allowed to make their students actually pray.

PS: and those were optional classes by the way. If your parents didn’t want you to attend, you didn’t attend. No discussion.

OutrageousUmpire,

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).

BrerChicken,

I’m 44 and grew up in Miami. We had the regular southern patriotism mixed with the Cubans who were very friggin thankful to be living in the US (including my family!) So you better believe we all said it! But the way I saw it, my parents and grandparents left Cuba so that we wouldn’t have to do that kinda of things in school. I love my country, but it’s crazy to put your hands over your heart and pledge every single morning, not to mention that under God part that was added only a couple of decades before I even started to say it.

As a big fan of Groenig’s “Life in Hell” comic strip, I just started saying one of his versions:

I plead alignment to the flakes of the untitled snakes of a merry cow, and to the republicans, for which they scam: one nacho, underpants with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.

just_squanch_it,

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?

gzrrt,
gzrrt avatar

Yes. It's weird and should be stopped.

BrerChicken,

Lots of places don’t do that. I teach in New England and we don’t do that. I’m not sure we ever did!

EDIT: I teach HS, but I have a ten-year-old. I just asked him and at his school they did it every day with the new principal, but only occasionally the year before. I had no idea! We definitely don’t do it at rhe HS, but maybe some do.

Compactor9679,

U can always go to a different country :)

euphoria,
euphoria avatar

average american's reaction when someone doesnt want to be forced to worship a piece of cloth and a god they don't believe in every morning, and get berated if they dont lmfao. home of the free, right?

Compactor9679,

So, you like it being Home of the free, but you dont like the flag of the home of the free? Please explain.

Sorchist,

We did that in class, but only when I was a very little kid, like in elementary school in the 70s.

In retrospect, it's creepy, but by the time I was old enough that I might have questioned it, we weren't doing it anymore.

This Whitest Kids You Know video about it sums it up pretty well. (Although the dig at Ritalin at the end is kinda weird)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiCaqA0ngRc

andromedathecat,
andromedathecat avatar

I was never forced which is kind of notable since I’m from Alabama. I think my school was terrified of getting slapped with a lawsuit.

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