Posted on 10/09/2001 7:02:25 AM PDT by Jean S
Can't use Pledge of Allegiance to comply with law, schools told
The Madison School Board barred schools on Monday from using the Pledge of Allegiance as a way to comply with a new state law that requires a daily patriotism dose.
Instead, schools can use only the national anthem - and then only instrumental versions of it. No words.
The 3-2 board vote came after several parents and teachers complained that the pledge, which contains the line "one nation, under God," is a religious oath that doesn't belong in public schools. Others criticized the pledge for promoting nationalism and militarism.
Board President Calvin Williams, who voted with the majority, said the board's action is the "least intrusive and least offensive" way to comply with the law.
"We've chosen a reasonable compromise that preserves freedom of expression on both ends of the spectrum and doesn't trample on anyone's rights," he said.
The law, which took effect Sept. 1, requires schools to offer the pledge or anthem daily in grades 1 to 12. Madison implemented the law last week, with Superintendent Art Rainwater leaving it up to each school to decide whether the pledge or anthem would be offered and in what format.
The heaviest criticism has been aimed at those elementary schools where the pledge is being read over the public address system. Although the law says students cannot be forced to participate, critics said children have little choice but to listen to it when it's broadcast throughout the school.
"What we're doing here is opening up a very slippery slope," said Sally Franz, an educational assistant at Cherokee Middle School and one of six people who criticized the law Monday. "Indoctrination leads to totalitarianism, and we're approaching that moment."
Board member Bill Keys' motion instructs schools to broadcast an instrumental version of the anthem at a time deemed appropriate by administrators. This option will allow dissenting students to opt out less conspicuously, reducing the chances for harassment, he said.
Williams and Carol Carstensen agreed with Keys. Carstensen said the motion in no way prohibits the teaching of the pledge for educational reasons or the singing of the anthem in music class. And students can say the pledge on their own during the school day, she said.
Ruth Robarts and Shwaw Vang opposed the motion, with both saying it doesn't go far enough to protect the rights of dissenters. "It's a step in the right direction, but it doesn't remove the coerciveness of the classroom situation," Robarts said. She wanted the anthem to be offered before or after classes.
Ray Allen and Juan Jose Lopez were absent. Reached later, Lopez said he opposes the motion.
"I would not have voted to ban the Pledge of Allegiance," he said. "We live in the United States of America, and people should be given the choice."
I also know how hard it is to put away an thing you have come to hold dear, even when it obscures a greater thing that you need to know and act on.
My school has the pledge, and I'm proud to lead it every day (and say it loudly so that the kids feel compelled to stop muttering). I've also had a Red Skelton-style quiz over every single word and phrase, despite the fact that I'm a math teacher. I felt it was worth two days of class time to discuss.
I'm amazed that I'm writing this note so politely, because the words that I was hissing at your implication through my gritted teeth have been running rather strong. I've backed you and other homeschoolers up on many threads, and am a ferocious Patriot in the face of the Socialists in the school systems, and have been for years, not just since 9-11-01.
Your swipe at me was unfounded, impolite, rude, uncalled for, and highly unappreciated.
One does not give rise to the other. When I recieved federal money from the VA to go to college you had no place to tell me how to spend it. Whether we like it or not, those tax dollars don't equate into you getting to tell them how to act. Obviously any citizen can write to anyone, public or private, to express an opinion, but they are under no obligation to do anything about it.
I don't like what they've done. I don't like what San Fransico does. But that's why I don't live there. If you wrote to my community to tell us what to do or not to do, I'd have no problem telling you where to stick it.
Would you have a problem telling me where to get off if I tried to tell you and your community how to run things? I doubt it.
Nothing. But I'm not sure that reciting the Pledge teaches love for the country or if it teaches mindless conformity. Compulsory recitation. Yep, that's the way to teach love for freedom.
Sometimes I think we have forgotten how importatn it is to think, not just go along to get along.
Don't worry, I've served my country so you cannot ty to nail me for being unpatriotic. In fact, I've flown a flag regularly since about 1987, long before all the Johnny-come-latelies. When did you start flying the flag?
Taking a pledge every day is no substitute for understanding and deciding on one's own to uphold the principles of the founding documents. I've had to listen to the dimwits around me, who will cheer for some morally retarded poltitician as he wipes his butt on the Constitution, and every one of those dimwits can recite the pledge in their sleep.
Patriotism has more to do with taking the time and making the effort to educate oneself on the Constitution and the history of the United States. Patriotism also involves exercising the required vigilance against politicians who subvert the Constitution. I'll bet that WJ Clinton has recited the pledge a few thousand times. That doesn't make him a patriot, does it?
Why do these idiots who complain about these things just teach their children the common courtesy to respectfully stand quietly while the children who WANT to pledge allegiance to their flag or pray do so?
I was attending MU at the time this happened and there were quite a few Native Americans in my dorm. Funny that none of them had a problem with a logo; Actually, one of them joked that if you're going be stereotyped, it's better than being pigeonholed as bingo-hall running drunks.
P.S. To this day, I still don't understand why they didn't just change the logo; they irritated a lot of alums (read potential DONORS) by changing the name....but hey, they had to be PC
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