I grew up in Florida and Tennessee in the 80s and 90s. It was definitely a daily thing, but very lax enforcement and I don't know that anybody would have made a huge stink about it even then. The duck and cover "tornado" drills were very real and very serious though.
We only had one teacher tell us we were required to (we were standing up just kinda mumbling it), the following class everyone just stayed seated and at least 3 of us had printouts in our backpacks confirming that it was a violation of the first amendment to require it.
He didn't even acknowledge it, knowing that teacher I imagine he looked it up right after and realized he was wrong.
We eventually resumed standing up but hands at our sides and silent.
Edit: if this is showing up as a reply to another comment, it was supposed to be a top level comment to the OP. Some weird stuff keeps happening with my comments but I'm not sure if it's just visual.
Yep, everyday K-12. We also had a moment of silence after the pledge, with the idea that kids would use that time to pray. Of course, nobody did because it was lame.
I would never say forced - it's just normal practice, but abstention happened. Shared experience is a powerful uniting factor. Reinforced daily, even moreso. Every student remembered the Pledge itself and remembers seeing every other student doing it - regardless of race, creed, or color. We were all Americans. I remember the first times I saw someone not taking part, the first, it was for religious reasons; his parents were part of a religious group that wouldn't let them swear oaths or something like that. The second was much later, and it was how I found out that someone in my class was a resident alien.
It's obviously a stand-in for a religious prayer; I don't think anyone past 4th grade had any misconception about that. It's also a prayer of nationalism and loyalty to the country. If we could bring people back together like that still, it would help.
I am twice your age and we did it for a while then the schools just stopped. The cult I was in didn’t like the pledge though so I would just stand and murmur certain parts (like “under god”) to avoid being punished.
I pledge my cheeses to the hag
of the untied snakes of harmonica
And to my public, the Richard Stans
One nation, under Zod, invisible
With liver, tea, and just us for all
Yes, I did. I didn't think anything about it at the time, but as an adult is seems weird, and like someone else said cultish. Yet, I am conflicted, because one of my concerns about the USA is increasing partisanship driven diverging cultures. Having kids say the pledge of allegiance is generally unoffensive, especially when compared to our ongoing culture wars.
Millennial here. I remember doing this in elementary school in the 90s. I moved in 3rd grade from a place that didn't do it, so it was super weird to me coming in as an outsider.
Yep. It was in the 90s, and after 7th grade we mostly didn't do it anymore (some court ruled it wasn't legal to force us) but we had to sit quietly during the point when we were supposed to be doing in.
EDIT: You are in your 20s, and your teacher yelled at you? He was breaking the law. I bet you remember who it was too. If you see him on social media, I suggest you send him (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)) and demand an apology.
thanks for your reply. this all happened in about 2015.
yes, i remember him clearly. he was also incredibly inappropriate with his female students. I remember an incident where i was walking out of his classroom and he was showing another female student "a joke" where he used siri or something to look up "penis" and show her the results. mine you we were all 11 and 12. everyone called him a pedo. he was coach of the girls soccer team. i wish i could go back and stand up for her and myself, but i was a scared kid.
edit: just looked him up on FB. his face made me feel such dread. he has a kid now, a young girl
Yeah, I vaguely remember it making the news in the 90s, and I stopped standing at that point. I had one teacher tell me once it was "required" that I stand. I just said "no thanks" and continued sitting, and he dropped it.
It wasn't a big protest in my case though. I normally had a CD player stuffed in my belt, and standing made it more likely to fall out and get noticed. I generally avoided standing as much as possible in those days.
Me too. Though I remember it a few years earlier than 1998, when I reached 7th grade. Of course I don't think any of my 7-12 teachers cared like the elementary school teachers would have.
I'm 50, and yes. Except in HS, I sat and dared them to do something about it. My school knew how to pick their battles, they never disciplined me for my acts of civil disobedience (I also protested the dress code when they enacted one).
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