Should reciting the Pledge of Allegiance be mandatory in public schools?

[Josie]

Some public schools (like mine) still recite the pledge as a class in the mornings. Some do not.

Should it be mandatory that all public schools recite the Pledge?

 

[bhkad]

Some public schools (like mine) still recite the pledge as a class in the mornings. Some do not.

Should it be mandatory that all public schools recite the Pledge?

Yes, it should be.

 

[Kali]

Hell No! And if they say it they need to leave the God part out of it.

 

[pragmatic]

Silly proposal by definition. Operative word is "mandatory'......




.

 

[Josie]

Hell No! And if they say it they need to leave the God part out of it.

Would you be okay with "under our Creator"?

 

[mac]

Some public schools (like mine) still recite the pledge as a class in the mornings. Some do not.

Should it be mandatory that all public schools recite the Pledge?

You can't, and shouldn't try to, force someone to pledge allegiance. The school should do it everyday, but can't force any student to actually say it.

 

[Josie]

You can't, and shouldn't try to, force someone to pledge allegiance. The school should do it everyday, but can't force any student to actually say it.

I completely agree.

 

[rivrrat]

Any country that has to force the young - well, anyone - to pledge allegiance before they can even comprehend what the words mean is not a country I want to be a part of. Pledging allegiance, to anything, should always be a voluntary act. If it's not a voluntary act, then it's a superficial, meaningless waste of breath and to me, a complete dishonor of what this country stands for and all the people who have died defending it. I can't think of a bigger slap in the face to every person who has died for this country than to allow it to become an authoritarian regime that forces its youth to recite an allegiance like drones.

 

[Josie]

I agree that children need to be taught what it actually MEANS and not just recite it with no understanding.

 

[rivrrat]

I agree that children need to be taught what it actually MEANS and not just recite it with no understanding.

Doesn't matter if they know what it means or not. The fact that they don't know what it means only adds to the disgrace of actually forcing someone to say it.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

Some public schools (like mine) still recite the pledge as a class in the mornings. Some do not.

Should it be mandatory that all public schools recite the Pledge?

No, it's social conditioning (aka brainwashing).
That is very wrong.

 

[peepnklown]

No! It’s like pledging allegiance to my gardener (an employee).
Pledges of allegiance are traits of totalitarian states and are incompatible with a free society.
The pledge of allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy, a Christian socialist.

 

[molten_dragon]

No, it's a waste of time. And in no case should it be mandatory, that's running up against serious separation of church and state issues.

 

[Kali]

Would you be okay with "under our Creator"?

Nope. Do not think so.

 

[Your Star]

No. The school I went too did, but only a few recited it. Most kids didn't care, and really its a waste of class time.

 

[mac]

No. The school I went too did, but only a few recited it. Most kids didn't care, and really its a waste of class time.

Like Obama songs?

 

[molten_dragon]

Like Obama songs?

Yep, pretty much. The only place they wouldn't be a waste of time is in music class. I still don't think they're appropriate there, but at least they wouldn't be a waste of time.

 

[Thorgasm]

Like Obama songs?

My schools didn't sing songs to Obama. I think we stopped reciting the pledge in like third or fourth grade.

 

[digsbe]

I think it should be a mandatory part of school, but that kids can opt out of saying it if they chose to. Can we force foreign exchange students to pledge allegiance to our flag? Should we force anyone to pledge allegiance?

 

[soccerboy22]

No it shouldn't be mandatory in public schools. It is a waste of time and most kids don't even say it.

 

[LiberalAvenger]

Kind of interesting that 8 people voted yes but not one comment on why.

 

[digsbe]

Kind of interesting that 8 people voted yes but not one comment on why.

I voted yes and gave my comments regarding why I voted that way.

 

[LiberalAvenger]

I voted yes and gave my comments regarding why I voted that way.

If they can opt out then it would not be mandatory.

 

[Groucho]

Any country that has to force the young - well, anyone - to pledge allegiance before they can even comprehend what the words mean is not a country I want to be a part of. Pledging allegiance, to anything, should always be a voluntary act. If it's not a voluntary act, then it's a superficial, meaningless waste of breath and to me, a complete dishonor of what this country stands for and all the people who have died defending it. I can't think of a bigger slap in the face to every person who has died for this country than to allow it to become an authoritarian regime that forces its youth to recite an allegiance like drones.

Forcing anyone to say a pledge makes it meaningless.

If you forced me to say a pledge to Russia, I might do it because you forced me to, but I certainly wouldn't mean it.

(I find it interesting that people who advocate mandatory pledging don't realize that this seems exactly opposite to everything we supposedly stand for. I also find it interesting that this view is held by a lot of tea party activists who, at the exact same time, argue that we should be saving our guns, protesting the government, and actively rebelling against it.)

 

[TacticalEvilDan]

I was going to **** all over the premise, but rivrrat handled it so nicely.

If you want to make it mandatory to be silent during the recitation of the pledge, that is acceptable. It is not acceptable to force minors to pledge anything to anyone, period.