Is it Time to Stop Saying the Pledge of Allegiance?

Welcome to Season 3 of Transparency in Teaching. Anne, here! Thought it might be nice to start off with a little true story that spurred the topic of this episode:

Is it time to stop saying the Pledge of Allegiance? I asked myself this question after visiting a high school class I was observing. When the "Please stand for the Pledge" announcement was given over the loudspeaker, I stood up and placed my hand over my heart. To my surprise, I was the only one standing. Not one student, not even the student teacher whom I was observing, stood. Their heads remained diligently bent over their cell phones.

I said the words I had repeated every school day for 36 years, alone and out loud, to the silent class. When the Pledge finished, I sat down. The teacher approached where I was seated and whispered, " I think you just freaked everyone out."

"No one says the pledge?" I inquired incredulously.

"No, never," she replied matter-of-factly.

When did this start? In my middle school classroom, all students stood when the familiar words came over the speaker; in recent years, most students stood silently, while a few would mumble the words if I prodded. But in all my years, I had never seen a class where no one stood at all.

As we start our third year in this podcasting adventure, we decided to add in some shorter episodes. They've let me loose alone on the mic to spout off my rants and reasons for creating change in our educational system.

In this episode, I grab a solo mic and talk about the history of the flag salute and reasons why it may be time to think of a different way to show our support for our country.

Let us know if you liked what you hear. What other topics would you like to hear me discuss? Share your ideas in the comments, or leave us a voice comment. Maybe we will share them in our next episode!

For links to the resources used for this and all our episodes, check out our website TransparencyinTeaching.com. While you're there, spend a little time reading our new blog posts that discuss other educational issues that are bugging us or that need attention, (or that Anne just wants to blab about. )

As always, thank you for taking the time to listen. And if possible, we'd really appreciate it if you'd share the link to our show with other interested humans.