Did you grow up reciting the pledge of allegiance every morning in school?

[Bertha Venation]

I did. Up until high school. I was in elementary school 1968 - 1977 (I think).

If you said the pledge, do you remember it before the phrase "under god" were added?

Please post whatever thoughts you have on the subject.

15 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	said the pledge every day
	14 (93%)
	did not say the pledge every day (why not?)
	1 (7%)
	other
	0 (0%)
	Robb is a dingbat
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

1. The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892...

...by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850–1898).

"Under God" was added in 1954.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance

[Locut0s]

2. I'm Canadian :P

Didn't have anything to recite. Though we did have sing alongs almost semi religiously in elementary school which I learned to hate.

[pipi_k]

8. Oh yeah...

We had the sing-alongs too.

The teacher would drag out her pitchpipe and give a toot.

Then 30 kids would start to sing, each in a different key.

We managed to make "God Bless America" sound like a raging catfight

[ConcernedCanuk]

31. We used to sing Oh Canada in some grades every morning.

.
.
.

Now that I'm older and more aware, I never sing it - NEVER!

"Our home and native land"??

I don't think so . . . . . .

Ask the First Nations about that.

CC

[femmocrat]

3. Yes, I remember when "under God" was added.

It was awkward saying it that way for a while.

Of course, the teachers read the Bible to us and we also said the Lord's Prayer in public school in those days. Things have changed!

[Lionel Mandrake]

10. So do I.

I hated the "under god" part. I thought it spoiled the rhythm of the pledge. Besides, I didn't believe there was any god. I would never say that part of the pledge. Instead, sometimes I would shout, "under NOBODY".

In Junior high, we were required to cover "our" books (which really weren't ours; they belonged to the school). The official book covers had the pledge on the back. I always crossed out the offending phrase, sometimes so violently that there was a hole where the stupid phrase "under god" had been.

I detested Ike for adding that phrase, among other reasons. Ike's speeches were sometimes unintentionally funny, as he would get his words mixed up. I thought he was stupid, but I have changed my mind. I now believe Ike was quite intelligent, just not very good at public speaking. Other than that, my political views haven't changed much since the 1950s.

[trof]

25. Me too. During the Great Commie Scare of the 50s.

They were godless heathens and we were all god fearin'.

[SteveG]

28. so do I

I had to relearn it in first grade.

[pipi_k]

4. Not only that, but...

We also had the Lord's Prayer in school each morning...up till about the 5th or 6th grade, as I recall.

[csziggy]

9. Same here - it was a big deal when the Supreme Court banned prayer

One of the teachers still insisted starting every class every day with a prayer. It took the school months to force her to stop. I was in seventh grade that year, so was her daughter who was terminally embarrassed by her mother.

[surrealAmerican]

5. the pledge ...

... the creed, and the national anthem ...

I'm about your age, but I lived in a very conservative district - this was intended to keep any of us from becoming draft dodgers or something.

[frogmarch]

6. I was in grade school

when "under God" was added. I didn't like it, and I didn't say that part. I still don't like it, and I still don't say it.

[Betsy Ross]

7. I quit in 1964 at age 14.

I had long before refused to drop for nuclear attack practice. But since it is valid for earthquakes, it is a justified activity.

[petronius]

11. I know I did in elementary school, along with a song of some sort

Probably did in junior high - we had a home room, so we must have done something.

No recollection at all about whether we did or didn't in high school.

It was always "under god" at my age...

[olddots]

12. we did the Lords Prayer first then the pledge

Walpole Mass. grade school in 50s-early 60s ..I never learned the words for either and just mumbled to fit in .

looking back I think it was a good thing for the teachers because it calmed us down so they could try to teach us something .
I think we could have recited the phone book and it would have had the same effect .

[LadyHawkAZ]

13. The US pledge *and* the bonus Christian Flag Pledge!

Private school.

[No Vested Interest]

14. I think we said the pledge in grade school, and likely prayed as well-

parochial grade school.
High school - smallish Catholic girls private school- all school gathering. Likely pledge, prayer(s), and the part I liked best was patriotic songs, including "You're a grand old flag", "God bless America" or another lively song.

I was beyond school age when "under God" was included. That was during Eisenhower's presidency, when Sen. Joseph McCarthy was in his ascendancy, and uber-patriotism was deemed necessary to combat the "Red Menace- Communism.

My school memories are positive, in general.

[fizzgig]

15. we did in elementary school

but that was long after the 'under god' was added, but it always bothered me. i used to occasionally cover school board and city council meetings when i was a reporter and i'd stand for the pledge to be proper, but never recited it.

[tjwmason]

16. English here so no pledge

I've always found it a somewhat odd tradition, but as we have plenty of bizarre traditions I wouldn't criticise it...but we're far more restrained in our expressions of patriotism (and even then its usually done semi-ironically).

[Myrina]

17. We said it every Monday morning, that's it.

We had important things to do like coloring and recess.

[JitterbugPerfume]

18. I remember

when Miss Shivley told us we now have to say "under God", and just like a bunch of well programmed little sheep, we did!

Thank goodness I got over THAT!

[Xyzse]

19. In school, I did that for a different country

When I went to America, it just wasn't done.

Please note, that when I was in middle school and high school in the 90s, that was before Block scheduling took place, and we had a 7 subject school day. Home room is not a given, so there was no place to do such a thing for 1st period.

We all moved around from class to class, hurrying around to go to a class. The only time I could think they would do such a thing would be home room, but we don't have that every single day.

[Chan790]

20. No. When I was in second grade...

they told us we couldn't be forced to say it after one kid refused on religious grounds but they made us stand up and have a moment of silence when the other kids said it. She refused to do that too. She was pretty so I refused too.

No required praying in class either...not until I got to HS and my parents sent me to a religious prep school because we moved into the city and my parents didn't want me in an inner-city HS.

[bigwillq]

21. Yes

And I couldn't stand it. Day after day after day. Once a week would've been fine.

[hunter]

22. My mom was a Jehovah's Witness until they kicked her out.

Then we were Quakers.

Neither religion accepts the Pledge.

I was a weird kid in school. Being a kid who wouldn't say the Pledge made me even weirder. But that didn't bother me much except when I had teachers who singled me out and "explained" my situation, sometimes in a way that exposed me to further ridicule.

When I was teaching in a big city public school many teachers were not bothering with the pledge, mostly because they thought it was a waste of time. But then some busy-body parents complained and our principal started doing it over the PA system.

Pledge cheerleaders (some of them literally school cheerleaders...) in my classes sometimes got almost half the kids to stand for the Pledge, but usually the percentage was much smaller. I'd usually write a little extra credit quiz on the board each morning before school started and many kids would be doing that.

[Demoiselle]

23. Not just the pledge...The Lord's Prayer, too.

AND a Bible reading.
Pennsylvania public school...ELHI.
Of course, I am very old.

[alarimer]

24. I only pretended to say it.

Actually, most of the time it was recited over the loudspeaker, while everybody just stood.

I don't believe in pledging allegiance to anything.

[trof]

26. I will not say it and I quit an organization because of it.

I used to enjoy our monthly meeting of the Ancient Aviators of South Alabama.
Just a bunch of old fart pilots who gathered to swap tales and enjoy our common bond.
We had quite a few WWII vets, more Korean vets, and, of course many Viet Nam guys.
I knew they were mostly right wing, but we stayed away from politics.

At some point this asshole, uber patriotic, Marine brought a flag to the meeting and insisted that we all recite the pledge before the meeting.
And began every recitation with "AND SAY IT LIKE YA' MEAN IT!"
At the end he'd shout GOD BLESS AMERICA!

And that's when I said 'fuck this'.
We had just invaded Iraq and most of the guys were reliving their glory days of war.

[ConcernedCanuk]

30. +1

.
.
.

good post



CC

[LiberalElite]

27. I used to wonder

who Richard Stands was. (...and to the Republic for Richard Stands (sic)...)

[Gidney N Cloyd]

29. At least thru Jr Hi.

And at some point some teacher made us listen to the Red Skelton 45:

[Brigid]

32. We said it in grade school.

That was in the '60's. I forget what year we stopped.

[Rowdyboy]

33. 5 days a week from 1960 to about 1966....

Maybe a little longer. A student led prayer over the intercom continued through about 1972....

[solara]

34. I think "under God" was added just when I started being aware of the words I was reciting.

I remember that we learned the ABCs with bible verses.. 'A' was " A soft answer turneth away anger' . I remember learning and reciting the 23rd Psalm.. and reciting the Lord's Prayer... I grew up in Oklahoma and prayer in schools was just par for the course. Needless to say I left home as soon as I could and have never really gone back.


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[love_katz]

35. Had to say the pledge throughout grade school and middle school.

I entered high school in 1968.

Yay! No more pledge, especially when I entered the alternative high school in 1969.

Freedom, freedom at last.