New School Year, New Pledge of Allegiance?

When Port Washington and Saukville students had back to the classroom in just a few weeks, they'll start each day with the Pledge of Allegiance — a tradition that goes back generations.

In Wisconsin, as is the case with most states, classrooms in public schools are required to offer the pledge or the National Anthem daily, but students are not required to actually stand up and recite it. Most do, of course, but some students object to the phrase "Under God" and refuse to take part in the daily routine.

Students are required to say the pledge, but should they be? Patch posed the question to users over the last few days and received a flurry of feedback.

"No. It's okay to teach the Pledge but not make it a daily activity," Matthew Drollinger wrote on the Port Washington-Saukville Patch Facebook page. "Many kids probably don't even know what it means. Forcing it makes it nothing more than a meaningless daily chant. Patriotism and pride are not things that are taught or imposed with repetition - They are developed over time by seeing what the country actually does. Let the country be worthy in their eyes, and let the kids decide when they're ready to pledge their allegiance at their own free will."

But Matthew Doers writes that saying the Pledge can be very important. 

"There are so many mindless things kids do these days any ways. I think a small thing like saying that pledge means a lot," Doers wrote. "Teaching our children to be patriots is never a bad thing. It's a sign of respect for the flag and for what that flag represents. In my mind only people that want to not have the pledge every day are unpatriotic and don't really love the United States of America."

The issue has surfaced nationally. Earlier this year, a state lawmaker in Arizona introduced a bill to require students to recite the pledge. Other states, including Oregon and Nebraska, have had discussions on whether to require the pledge to be recited in schools.

For three decades, the pledge read as it does today, without the controversial phrase, “Under God.” But in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower pushed for Congress to add the phrase to combat communist threats, leaving Americans with the 31-words we have today:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

So, should students be required to recite it?

"No. I can understand why people feel strongly about this but forcing people to pledge or pray to anything goes against the principles our country was founded on," Josh Green wrote on Facebook.

But Jennifer Moore says, "Yes, and if the student's faith does not include god then s/he can omit those two words...the rest of the pledge is valid. And others also feel a strong sense of patriotism, but question if blindly citing words without proper understanding is doing any good."

"No, we should not teach our kids to be mindless sheep," Randy Young wrote. 

"Yes because it's their country, will teach them patriotism, and teach them to be loyal and proud of their country," Maverick Kempfer wrote.

Shorewood blogger Lyle Ruble opened up this heated discussion of saying the pledge in a blog post that garnered more than 250 comments back in December.

“Only the discussion of abortion gets more emotive attention; but the role of religion in our schools and classrooms has been a sure fire prescription for heated conflict,” Ruble wrote.