Does your school still say the Pledge of Allegiance? I've seen posts around facebook lately along the lines of "bring the pledge back into school" or "Do you remember when?" with pictures of kids facing the flag. And it got me to wondering how many schools still did this, if it was a regional thing, private/public thing, ect.
We are a public school and still have the pledge broadcast every morning at the start of the day. Every kid (and staff) stand, face the flag and recite together. Obviously from my name, you can gather I'm in the midwest.
I have a great appreciation for what the military has done, particularly in WWII; people of my faith overseas were sent to concentration camps because they refused to sign an oath of allegiance to Hitler and renounce their faith. We (my family) went to the Holocaust museum in Washington DC.
Even though we'd known about what happened in the camps, it was a sobering experience to be there. We were fortunate to have a guide who was of the same faith as us, and he'd been in one of the camps. It meant a lot to hear about it from someone who actually lived through it.
My point was that it's possible to have respect without reciting the Pledge.
I visited the Holocaust Museum with my daughter a few years ago, I still get chills when I think back to being there. When I was very young, like 3 or 4 years old, we lived next door to a couple that survivored the Holocaust. I wish I had know them when I was old enough to really understand. They babysat me while my parents worked, and treated me like their own. After we moved to another town they visited often. They had no children and kind of adopted my family as their own. I remember the numbers on their arms but it wasn't until after they passed away that I understood what these wonderful people had lived through. I still have a picture of them, a special treasure.
Specializes in Pediatrics/Developmental Pediatrics/Research/psych.
When I was a camp nurse, I worked with a drama therapist (she ran the performing arts program) who works for project witness during the year. She creates drama based on stories that Holocaust survivors tell. They are performed by high school students to allow the survivors to heal as well as allow their stories to live on.
OldDude
1 Article; 4,787 Posts
I'll go with this!!