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Call to halt Pledge of Allegiance in Brookline schools goes to Town Meeting
Boston Globe ^ | 9/7/11 | Brock Parker

Posted on 09/07/2011 2:04:51 PM PDT by raccoonradio

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance has no educational value, a progressive activist group is pushing for Brookline to stop recitations of the pledge in public schools.

Members of Brookline PAX are asking Town Meeting this fall to vote in favor of a resolution calling for the School Committee to rescind its pledge policy and stop it from being recited in schools.

Martin Rosenthal, co-chair of Brookline Pax, said that though the recitation of the pledge is voluntary, there is subtle and sometimes overt pressure on students, especially younger children, to participate, which he said makes his “skin crawl.”

“It just puts kids in an uncomfortable situation,” Rosenthal said. “How do you say that to a 6-year-old. …We just don’t think it belongs in the schools.”

The article Brookline Pax submitted for Brookline’s Town Meeting comes just months after the town’s School Committee approved a revised policy requiring principals to allow a weekly recitation of the pledge during morning announcements. Participation in the recitations is left up to the individuals at the schools.

School Committee Chairwoman Rebecca Stone said the new policy was approved in the spring after discussion began over saying the pledge at the Devotion School, where recitations were not a regular occurrence. While weekly recitations of the pledge had been held at most Brookline Kindergarten through 8th grade schools, the pledge also wasn’t said regularly at the Lincoln School.

While opponents to the School Committee’s new policy, such as Rosenthal, have said the recitations have no educational value, Stone said it has been a historical practice to say the pledge.

(snip)

Rosenthal, who has a daughter at Brookline High School, called the pledge a loyalty oath loaded with complex issues such as justice, liberty and religion, in the phrase “under God.”

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: brookline; flagpledge; moonbats
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To: raccoonradio

Just one more (among many) reason why elections no longer offer us any way out of this acclerating descent into a centuries-long era of tyranny.


21 posted on 09/07/2011 8:00:08 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is another agitator for republicanism like Sam Adams when we need him?)
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To: raccoonradio
Martin Rosenthal, co-chair of Brookline Pax, said that though the recitation of the pledge is voluntary, there is subtle and sometimes overt pressure on students, especially younger children, to participate, which he said makes his “skin crawl.”

“It just puts kids in an uncomfortable situation,” Rosenthal said. “How do you say that to a 6-year-old. …We just don’t think it belongs in the schools.”

Martin, ol' buddy, ol' pal, if saying the Pledge of Allegiance makes your "skin crawl" then, maybe, just maybe, you don't belong in the United States".

And, if you believe that reciting the Pledge puts your children in "an uncomfortable situation", I strongly suggest you leave the country. As soon as possible!

I hear Cuba is nice this time of year. And I understand the health care is "best in the world" and that your children will receive the best education available.

All you'll have to do is pledge allegiance to Fidel Castro and Karl Marx.

22 posted on 09/07/2011 8:10:33 PM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance On Parade)
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To: raccoonradio

Bet Rosenthal supports homosexual education for 6.


23 posted on 09/07/2011 8:10:54 PM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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To: raccoonradio

Bet Rosenthal supports homosexual education for 6 year olds.


24 posted on 09/07/2011 8:14:16 PM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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To: raccoonradio

There is only one thing that will end these constant battles. Do away with government schools at all levels.


25 posted on 09/07/2011 10:42:55 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX ( The state is the great fiction by which everybody seeks to live at the expense of everybody else. ~)
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To: raccoonradio

Brookline, not surprising


mASSachusetts! Not surprising!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/592708/posts

...Mary Clossey’s children see no American flags at school to remind them that it is their safety that young men are risking their lives to defend. Rather, her daughter and other pupils are filed into an auditorium to hear a speaker liken the U.S. military to terrorists.

For years the Newton, Mass., public schools have blithely violated a Massachusetts law that the flag be on display in every classroom. On the other hand, there are many flags on display if you count rainbow flags that symbolize a gay-friendly environment......


26 posted on 09/08/2011 5:31:38 AM PDT by massmike (Massachusetts:Stopped hanging witches;started electing Kennedys.Coincidence?)
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