My daughter started attending kindergarten this year, and her teacher is requesting all the students to learn and recite the pledge of allegiance.
I have no problem with the pledge itself, the thing is that we are foreign citizens living in the U.S. with a Non-Immigrant visa which expires in a co...
Are they asking her to really pledge allegiance? Or only to know and be able to repeat the words of the pledge of allegiance? That's an important distinction. And it is important for a child to know that distinction, so did they teach kids about that, too?
I think you may be overestimating the importance of the Pledge. It's not an oath of citizenship; it's something that schoolchildren recite by rote every day and then get on with their lives, and the vast majority already say it without feeling it.
It is likely that legally and formally the teacher is requesting (not requiring) your daughter to pledge. However, in practice how can we expect a kindergartner to seriously consider such a request? (1) There is a clear general expectation that kindergartners do what their teachers (and other responsible adults) ask them to do (2) Does your daughter understand the concepts of "pledge", "allegiance", "United States of America", "republic", "indivisible", "liberty", and "justice"? If not, how can she make an informed decision about whether to pledge or not.
You should really ask this at law.stackexchange.com instead because the legal nuance is very important here. As far as I know, a school forcing a child to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance has been illegal for many decades. However, asking a child to memorize and recite it as an exercise is probably allowed, but in such case she should not be forced to face the flag or put her hand over her heart. But the details are important, so I'd strongly suggest asking over there.
@MarkRogers When I was in school, we were also made to do this daily, though people were allowed to sit it out citing religious objections. There was one person in my class whose family was Jehovah's Witness, and she was exempt from the pledge. I suppose anyone who believes in any more or fewer than one God could also claim exemption based on that addition in the 50's. I remember being annoyed by it at the time so I just skipped that line and nobody ever noticed.
Is the problem being forced to learn the pledge, or forced to recite the pledge? This is an important distinction; it's fine to require kids to learn for example the Lord's Prayer as part of a history class. It wouldn't be fine to require kids profess the Lord's Prayer.
@DarrelHoffman I probably should have mentioned this on the question but all of this is happening via Zoom. The teacher is asking every student to memorize and say the pledge. If they don't know it she ask them again next day. I haven't asked my daughter to refuse but to be honest I haven't helped her to learn it.
Ah, yes, if they're forced to do it individually via video, I can see where it'd be harder to get away with skipping stuff. Honestly, that just seems like a huge waste of time to me. It's one thing when the whole class is all doing it at the same time, but if she's insisting on putting every student through this one at a time, that's just absurd.
Jehovah's witnesses have been exempted because their religion says the Pledge is an idolatrous prayer to a graven image. I think a federal court required schools to exempt them and other conscientious objectors.
For natural born citizens, the "under God" line has caused similar consternations. Some of the arguments made regarding that line may be useful in approaching your concern.
On the flip side, since they're doing it individually via Zoom, it could actually make it easier for the teacher to grant an informal exemption, as this could occur without any of the other students being aware of one child's non-participation.
Just to clarify, are all the people saying stuff like 'there's a difference between pledging allegiance and reciting the pledge of allegiance' really suggesting the student say '"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America ...' but not mean '"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America ...'? Coz this is essentially the definition of lying.
@mcalex There's a distinction that the teacher can make. If the teacher asks "What are the words to the US Pledge of Allegiance?" vs if the teacher says "Please pledge allegiance." The first version is clear to an adult that it's being done as a memorization/social studies exercise, without the student ever necessarily pledging allegiance. (If someone really wanted to be sure, they could respond "The words to the pledge are, quote, ...") For a small child, this distinction may be difficult.
Discussion on question by ForeignPare…
Discussion on question by ForeignPare…