I Pledge Allegiance To The PA System Guest Blogger: T-Square

The little boy, second from the left, needs to work on it:
it is not left-hand, throat.

We know that there has been a controversy over the Pledge of Allegiance since the added changes back in 1954. The words "under God" were included to distance ourselves from the Communist nations at that time, in particular, Russia. We also know that those two words have since become a dividing point in the Nation regarding separation of Church and State, but now I have something new to add to the mix.

First, some background: I work in a Washington, D.C. public elementary school, and it has a wonderful racial and cultural blend in the student population and the faculty. Every school morning after all of the students have settled down in their homerooms, the daily announcements are read over the Public Address (PA) system. The procedure is to recite the Pledge of Allegiance with all of the students in the class standing up, facing the flag, with their right hand over their heart. The announcer leads the school in the recitation of the Pledge, and when they come to the end "...with liberty and justice for all," the announcer then says "Please sit down." At that point, my first grade class invariably follows along in unison, and without fail they say "Please sit down," too.

As these students go through life, will they forever believe that "Please sit down" is part of the Pledge of Allegiance?