Current Events > Were you forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in school?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like if you didn't stand up, place your right hand to your heart and recite the PoA to your best knowledge, you would get in trouble?

In my experience, I wasn't. Many school mates didn't give a shit about it and the teachers and school didn't bother to enforce it.

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I wasnt forced, I wanted to

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Even back in the Reagan 80s, it wasn't actually forced.

Yes, though I never actually said it after the 5th grade. A lot of kids didn't.

To be quite honest even back then I never understood the cultish level of bs on a pledge chant every single day in school.

You can love your country, without humping a flag, chanting authoritarian like pledges every day or worshipping a song. For people who claim to "love" America, these type seem to not actually love what America is supposed to be about.

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NatsuSama posted...

Yes, though I never actually said it after the 5th grade.

So you were forced to say the PoA but you choose to stop doing it after the 5th grade with no repercussions?

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if you didn't stand up and put our hand on your chest then you could get detention, but beyond that most everyone just mumbled.

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I never did - they used to kick me out the class for that and sometimes they would call my parents lol


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monkmith posted...

if you didn't stand up and put our hand on your chest then you could get detention, but beyond that most everyone just mumbled.

This. I don't remember anyone getting detention or anything, but teachers would call out the ones who wouldn't do it and threaten to send them to the principal.

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NatsuSama posted...

Yes, though I never actually said it after the 5th grade. A lot of kids didn't.

To be quite honest even back then I never understood the cultish level of bs on a pledge chant every single day in school.

You can love your country, without humping a flag, chanting authoritarian like pledges every day or worshipping a song. For people who claim to "love" America, these type seem to not actually love what America is supposed to be about.

That's my point. I'm talking to some people that are claiming they were forcibly and oppressively made to say the PoA. In my experience, it was never as bad as some people made it out to be.

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Veggeta X posted...

So you were forced to say the PoA but you choose to stop doing it after the 5th grade with no repercussions?

I mean I still moved my mouth to act like I was saying it as I I saw the repercussions of teachers noticing you not moving your mouth. There's was enough in the room saying it that I could go unnoticed. But I definitely wasn't wasn't only one not actually saying it it. Some were bold enough to not give a damn about being kicked out of class.

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Stood up, mouthed the words never vocally saying it
sit down, continue reading mario kart 64 instruction booklet.

Good times, I miss instruction booklets that used to come with a game purchase.

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tremain07 posted...

Stood up, mouthed the words never vocally saying it

And if you didn't?

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Veggeta X posted...

That's my point. I'm talking to some people that are claiming they were forcibly and oppressively made to say the PoA. In my experience, it was never as bad as some people made it out to be.

Idk if I'd call it overly bad. Worse kids got was being kicked out of the classroom. And seeing as we only did the pledge during homeroom, being kicked out wasn't a problem, the kid could just get an early start to 1st period class.

Like I said, I wasn't bold enough to try to to get kicked out of class so I pretended to say it. But kids were definitely called out and some thrown out if they were caught in my school days.

Elementary school we had a dumb self esteem slogan the principal made up, if we didn't chant it every morning (or was caught mouthing it) we were punished with recess being taken. The dumbest shit to punish a child over. Still remember that dumb chant to this day.

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I only remember classes saying the pledge in grade school. But I don't remember anyone ever getting in trouble over it. But also, grade schoolers tend to just go with things. I think even I just said the pledge back then without giving a fuck or thinking about it.

Yes. They put a gun to my head and said, "You'll say the pledge for your country or you'll die for your country." Second grade was really awkward like that.

Not until I moved to the south

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NatsuSama posted...

The dumbest s*** to punish a child over. Still remember that dumb chant to this day.

Youre telling me - I literally had to explain to white people (sorry, I still love you guys) triple times my age youre trying to kick my family out and you want me to sing that garbage?

Unfortunately for me there were no safe islands for me to moor that mentality - no collective thought or general consensus that existed that its a load of crap to make kids pledge to something they dont believe in

This was around the time I had played MGS2 for the first time too lol I was all set with all that bullshit

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Definitely a messed up experience if it was forced on you like that. I dunno all the facts but isn't it mandatory by state only?

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Veggeta X posted...

Definitely a messed up experience if it was forced on you like that. I dunno all the facts but isn't it mandatory by state only?

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-education

Doe v. Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, 468 Mass. 64 (2014)
Discussion of the history of the pledge of allegiance (pledge) and of Federal case law concluding that recitation of the pledge is a fundamentally patriotic exercise, not a religious one. Statement that no Massachusetts school student is required by law to recite the pledge of allegiance (pledge) or to participate in the ceremony of which the pledge is a part.

Wish I had known tbh >_>

Fueling that much hate in a student does lead to future problems complete with total apprehension towards things unfamiliar to you. It's incredibly easy for students to fall into a rabbit hole of doubt and angst that prevents them from doing well in their classes by having them find refuge in things like gangs that have them relate to a central foundation such as 'I don't support singing this'

Even a couple of years ago when I was teaching a 7th grade after school music class I had a student say to me yeah but all these colleges only take white people

and a part of me just fueled with this odd feeling - it was honestly terrible

I reminded him people of all color (including white) are there to support his dreams and that he's right in the perfect time in history to have groups of people he doesn't know who do honestly want to see him try and do want to see him succeed. That there is no cap on his limit to freedom and the way he could express himself through music OR the sciences OR the medical field.

It's a damn shame because I know some of that apprehension starts at home through jaded parents afraid of getting deported, but left to it's own conventions it just like ruins a kids developing mind


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R1masher posted...

I wasnt forced, I wanted to

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In Texas, we weren't forced to actually say it but they would at least require you to stand for it up until high school.

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Zano posted...

In Texas, we weren't forced to actually say it but they would at least require you to stand for it up until high school.

And if you don't?

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It was only a thing for me in elementary school. And elementary school students didn't refuse to do it, so I don't know if we would have gotten in trouble.

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Nope. And I was in a Jehovah Witness household, so we were specifically told not to recite it. Them telling us to not put our faith in country was the one good thing I got out of it

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I wanted to, so it never felt forced.

I remember going to school with one Jehovah's Witness who never did, he just stood there.
Sure some probably just mouthed it, but if there were any that outright refused I probably could count them on one hand.

Only one teacher did, but it was within a year or two of 9/11, so patriotic tensions were still high. She'd make people who didn't want to recite it stand out in the hall, until the principal happened to walk by one morning. When he saw us standing out in the hall and for why, he made her cut that out.

In retrospect, I was being a shitty teenager. Now, I have a more favorable opinion of the pledge.

Esrac posted...

In retrospect, I was being a s***ty teenager. Now, I have a more favorable opinion of the pledge.

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