by Vicky Florian ’14

A class of 30 kindergarteners chants monotonously in unison as they stare at a flag in the front of the class. Not a single child knows the definitions of all the words he or she is speaking. Not a single child knows whether or not he or she agrees with the message of those words, yet all the students are forced to recite them day after day.

As a kid I never thought twice about the Pledge of Allegiance. All I knew was that each day I was required to stop my work, stand up from my desk and deliver the ten-second pledge with my hand covering my heart. I did not know what the words meant, they were too long and boring, yet I said them every day. Not once did a teacher explain them to me, but then again I never knew to ask.

Kids across the country are forced to recite this pledge without the least bit of knowledge of what it means. These elementary students are learning from a young age that it is okay to blindly follow authority without being informed on their position.

When students do learn the meaning of the pledge and possibly disagree, they are often forced to stand for its recitation anyway. This past February a sophomore at Damascus High School was sent to the principal’s office for refusing to stand and recite the pledge. Even though “compulsory unification of opinion” defies the First Amendment, some teachers—explicitly or otherwise—still insist that all students stand for the Pledge.

MCPS’s policy does not require students to stand for the Pledge, yet many teachers expect it. In 1943, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette that civil liberties protect students from being forced to salute to the American flag or to say the Pledge of Allegiance in school.

The Pledge of Allegiance was created in order to instill in American youth a love for their country and the principles on which it was founded, yet it does not carry out this function in reality. The Pledge is outdated and has no real influence on the youth of America. School systems, including MCPS, should just get rid of the daily ritual that has become, at best, a mindless activity or perhaps minor annoyance, and at worst, a violation of a student’s First Amendment rights.