Before you get angry, U.S.A. hatred isn’t the inspiration for this article. It’s the irrelevance and political nature that comes with the Pledge of Allegiance that has brought it to question.
Patriotism isn’t necessarily a good virtue. A brief glance at our history and current foreign policy could arguably show that anyone who isn’t a fan of this nation is not only well within their rights but cannot have anything held against them if they choose not to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance. Most students in the U.S. don’t have the choice to leave the nation, so if they don’t appreciate the United States, they can’t exactly act on it.
I find the Pledge of Allegiance has been offensive ever since the 1950’s, when Congress defiled Francis Bellamy’s original pledge (“I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”) by implying that no one can be a true American, unless they agree with that Congress’s irrelevant creationist beliefs. They added “the United States of America” because they found some foreigners were pledging allegiance to their birth nation.
My problem with the present pledge isn’t why I think it shouldn’t be a part of the school day. It’s the fact that it can lead to high tensions among the less mature students if they witness someone refusing to do the pledge, putting those who refuse in danger. The “under God” bit also makes the pledge a faith-based problem, leading to more potential fervor.
Yes, we are in the U.S., making the nation relevant. Yes, the First Amendment gives us the right to say the Pledge but the political nature of the pledge and how young and malleable our students are make it an exercise of assimilation rather than education.
I find it also takes the eventfulness out of our pledge, however broken it may be. The Pledge of Allegiance is meant to be done once and to be a nearly celebratory event. Doing it every school day is like celebrating the Fourth of July every work/school day. Now no student has a particularly proud and fond memory of their Pledge of Allegiance. The repetition has dampened that aspect of patriotism.