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Substitute Harasses Kid Who Won’t Say Pledge
A substitute teacher told a little boy who didn’t want to say the Pledge of Allegiance that he should stand up and do it anyway. After several days of the same scenario, Jay and Laura Philips said their kid had had enough.
He talked back to the substitute and landed in the principal’s office. They’ve reprimanded him for the backtalk, but they’re still pissed. And you can’t blame them.
They say their ten-year-old didn’t want to say the words “liberty and justice for all” because he thinks they’re a lie in light of current standards for gay rights. He’s right, although I’m always iffy on political speak out of the mouths of kids – they have the right to their own opinions, granted their parents like them form their OWN opinions.
Whether he believes the words or not is irrelevant. The rote repitition of the Pledge of Allegiance has irked me since I started to realize what I was saying in high school – I was letting out a string of words meant to proclaim patriotism . . . without an inch of passion behind them. It’s not far off my feelings about the prayers we said in church as a child – they lacked oomph when you could mumble along half asleep simply because the words were ingrained in the brain.
Want to raise kids who love this country? Let them pick apart the pledge, the Star Spangled Banner and others and decide if they resonate with them. If they don’t, let it go. That’s the free country they’re growing up in.
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[...] Will Phillips, the ten-year-old boy from West Fork, Arkansas who decided that he was not going to recite the Pledge of Allegiance until the phrase “with liberty and justice for all” was accurate — that is, until [...]
Fifth Grader Named Hero Of The Year | Strollerderby commented on Dec 29 09 at 12:34 pmMistress_Scorpio commented on Oct 14 09 at 2:38 pmI didn’t say it growing up either. It’s just meaningless words to most children. Just like the Obama song those other kids were singing. It probably didn’t even stick in their heads until random parents and outside riff-raff started making asses of themselves about it.
Marj commented on Oct 18 09 at 4:30 pmWhen I was a child there were always Jehovah’s Witness children who abstained from the Pledge on religious grounds. Nobody cared.
Eleanor_the_Great commented on Jan 04 10 at 6:27 pmWhen my mother was in high school, one of her close friends was a Jehovah’s Witness, and she and others had to stand in a circle around her during assemblies when the Pledge was recited, to keep her from being spit on. Instead, they got the spit. I think it depends on where you grow up, too.
Gaia Coleman commented on Dec 18 11 at 11:47 pmI don’t say the dumb bunny Pledge I just mouth it. Suspend me! See if I care!
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