Re: Pledge of Allegiance

["Heather Swann" <swannh@psi.com>]

Poster: "Heather Swann" <swannh@psi.com>

 Alys of Foxdale wrote:
> Miriam Rachel bat Mordecai said: 
>  
> [Alfredo and Alys wrote about the way the Pledge of Allegiance is 
> pretty meaningless to children when the words are first taught to them.] 
>  
> > Sorry to hear it was meaningless to y'all.....it always held 
> > deep meaning for me as a child, but then I grew up in Texas, so 
> > maybe things were different in the way we were taught about it. 
> > Miri (the REAL Miriam this month) 
>  
> Miri, I have always highly respected your intelligence -- if you were 
> able fully to comprehend the Pledge of Allegiance at age 6, I must add 
> to that respect! 

Because Texas started as a Republic, I was taught at a very early age what 
those words meant.  I wasn't taught to merely memorize them, but to think 
about them when I said them.
>  
> When the words are taught in first grade or so, they hold less than 
> no meaning to the children who learn them.  Most children simply do 
> not have the capacity to understand abstracts like that until much 
> later. 
> In fact, most children do not even have many of those words in 
> their vocabularies yet! 

I'm not surprised considering what a friend recently told me about the 
educational system and what I learned about it through my aunt who was an 
English teacher.  Apparently, I received an exceptional education.
>  
> But once they have matured enough to understand what the words mean, 
> the Pledge is well and truly memorized and can be contemplated in depth. 
>  
> And someone also wrote to me privately: 
>  
> > If this pledge holds no meaning for you, why are you still in the 
> > United States? 
>  
> You have completely missed the point!  Just because someone avers 
> he didn't understand something as a child does not mean he 
> doesn't understand as an adult. 
>  
> For that matter, why on earth would anyone leave the country just 
> because he didn't understand the Pledge of Allegiance?  That would only 
> be an obvious thing to do if one both understood and *disagreed* with 
> the Pledge! 

Well put as usual, Alys!
>  
>    Alys of Foxdale   

Miri

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