I'm German and learned about this via a friend from the US. When they mentioned it, I thought their teacher was a lunatic. Then they told me that this is normal course of action. Just what in the absolute fuck.

In high school like 15 years ago we not only had the regular pledge, we had to pledge to the Texas state flag. Which you hold out your hand like you are holding something?

"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible."

It's all hot garbage and unquestioning nationalism. The good bit was, only one teacher ever gave me flack for sitting out the pledge with my little emo ass. And that was my ultra conservative AP US Government teacher. And he was just a nut ball. But when I framed it as my freedom he chilled.

He was still wrong about flat taxes not being regressive!

A little weird?

I'm from the UK, my wife is from Singapore, and our son was born in the US. I really don't think it's appropriate to force him to pledge allegiance to the US, because he has strong ties to other countries. It feels like brainwashing.

Such a creepy thing, getting children to chant in devotion to a state flag in schools.

Apparently, schools will have to display the ten commandments in classrooms, which means all the kiddies with functional brains get to wonder why chanting to a piece of colored fabric isn't considered worshipping a false idol.

Also, all the military recruiters will get to awkwardly explain the whole "thou shallt not kill" thing...

In French schools that kind of indoctrination would be immediately likened to the Nazi-empowered Vichy government in the 40s.

But you know, the grandchildren of those have brainwashed enough people that they're already seeing themselves in power right now, so maybe we'll get that again soon, and a lot worse?

French people, vote today. Please.

If you take a look at pre 1943 US, you might see some inspirations for Hitler there.

https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/09/11/160936717/politics-the-pledge-and-a-peculiar-history

I said it once, I say it again. Why the Flag? I don't get it. Why not the Constitution? The Flag changed so many Times in US history.

Is there an actual reason or just because the flag is a more visual Token for loyalty?

Christian NationalistsReligious fundamentalists are what is destroying america everything

FDFY

I was made to sing the national anthem in front of my whole class

This whole thing is such a mind fuck and crazy process for people outside merica. I really thought it was a joke on movies, but realising that they are really all brainwashed since children like this makes a lot more sense when you consider everything.

I grew up in America and have lived in Canada for seven years now. I've come to recognize that Canadians (except for the staunch conservatives who aren't pleased with anything) are proud and loyal to Canada because it's a beautiful country that has (for the most part) taken pretty good care of its people. Americans are proud and loyal mostly because they were brainwashed throughout their lives by pledges, patriotic songs, and tall tales about the founding fathers. I personally found little to be proud of in my thirty years as an American.

Also, one time a pair of planes took down some skyscrapers. Alan Jackson wrote a song about it, and America invaded an unrelated country. That made people really proud too.

The First Ammendemnt protects your right to not participate in reciting the pledge of allegiance:

In 2006, in the Florida case Frazier v. Alexandre, a federal district court in Florida ruled that a 1942 state law requiring students to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. As a result of that decision, a Florida school district was ordered to pay $32,500 to a student who chose not to say the pledge and was ridiculed and called "unpatriotic" by a teacher.

In 2009, a Montgomery County, Maryland, teacher berated and had school police remove a 13-year-old girl who refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance in the classroom. The student's mother, assisted by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, sought and received an apology from the teacher, as state law and the school's student handbook both prohibit students from being forced to recite the Pledge. reference

You might suffer some immediate consequences from ignorant people, but courts have repeatedly upheld that this is protected by the First Amendment. Even the current Supreme Court would have a hard time justifying overturning this precedent.

You could even argue that choosing not to participate is a highly patriotic act, as an exercise of your Constitutional rights as a citizen.

Someone tell that to my third grade teacher.