My uncle recently posted an article on Facebook critical of American public schools for not requiring students to recite the pledge. After some light research, I found out this was --not surprisingly, considering my uncle’s reputation – not strictly true; the majority of students grow up in districts that require a pledge of allegiance every morning.
I talked to my mother, who grew up in Colombia, and she said she never had to pledge allegiance to the national flag everyday when she was a student. Is Colombia or the US typical? Google has not been helpful.
(For what it’s worth, I have been uncomfortable with saying the pledge since an early age and typically stand respectfully when occasions call for it, but do not say it or place my hand over my heart.)
If you extend “pledging allegiance” to include singing the national anthem, I found examples of it being done in Canada, the UK, India, Vietnam, Japan (where it’s been the subject of court battles), Australia, China, Thailand, and some other countries.
It may not be universal, but it seems common enough.
It is not required anywhere in the United States.
ETA rather the students are not required to recite it. The district may require that it be recited by someone.
Well, yes, if you widen your parameters far enough…
Firstly, I don’t think you can really include singing the national anthem, which seems to me be very different to a formal, explicit pledge of allegiance.
Secondly, what exactly are you counting as “examples of it being done”? Every student in the country being required to sing the anthem every day? Some students in all schools? All students in some schools? Every day, or at some other regular intervals – or just on some odd special occasions? Now, or at some point in the past?
For reference, I don’t remember ever singing the national anthem during my own time at school in the UK, though it’s possible we did, once or twice, for some event or other, and I’ve simply forgotten. We certainly never pledged allegiance to anything: I don’t even know whether any of the schools I went to had a flag on the premises – they didn’t have it on display, if so.
Very few nations have the flag culture that the US has, but that’s largely because they mostly have something else in its place. Royalty, in those places that still have it, seems to serve much the same purpose, as a symbol of the nation. So an “equivalent of the Pledge” in another country might well take the form of pledging allegiance to the Crown, or the Throne, or the monarch directly without metonymy, rather than to the flag.
Certainly, but – in the UK at least – something like that would be very much a one-off event: when joining the armed forces, for instance, or on becoming a naturalised citizen. It’s not generally seen as something that needs reinforcement by frequent repetition, I think.
I really get annoyed with all of my Facebook friends who post this false conservative meme that schools don’t do the pledge any more because it “offends people”. I have asked, and researched, and posted, multiple times, to these people, that this meme is not true, but they don’t even respond, let alone take down their posts.
I plead alignment to the flakes of the untitled snakes of a merry cow. And to the Republicans for which they scam, one nacho, underpants, divisible, with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.
My daughter’s school sings the national anthem and the school song on a daily basis.
They also say the National Pledge on a daily basis (I think)
When I was managing the Facebook page for a preschool I also posted a video of the kids saying the pledge in English and Malay - something that they do on a daily basis.
My second daughter’s preschool also says the pledge daily
This is a school initiative (I believe) not a statutory requirement
It looks like Singapore has a near exact equivalent (minus any religious reference).
India has a Pledge
Unlike the US, its not recited everyday and people are much less fanatic about it.
We the citizens of Singapore pledge…
I was referring to Singapore in my post 
As an aside - Singapore has very strict laws regarding use of “National Emblems” (flags) and as an “expat” I am not allowed to display my national flag on Anzac day, paint it on my car or anything else, and I am also not allowed to sell underwear with the Singapore national flag printed on it.
I never once saw or heard singing of the National Anthem ( God Save The Queen ), or the individual national songs of each country ( eg: Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau etc. ) nor any pledge to anyone or anything at school in Britain.
It would have been unthinkable.
Morning assembly was devoted to singing a coupla hymns and any school announcements. It was just a way of inducting the children into the start of the school day.
I didn’t mind, except for He Who Would A Pilgrim Be, which was dirgy.
Same in Denmark - and my school was a bit eccentric in having even that much ceremony. Sometimes a song with patriotic content - some of them are quite good - but that might have been one in ten, if that.
National anthem or a quick mention of the Queen? - perfectly unthinkable.
Pakistan, national anthem at assembly. Last thing at assembly too, leading to the idiomatic phrase “national anthem has played” meaning something has finished.
I wonder if the little boys and girls in North Korean schools ritually and regularly pledge allegiance to their Dear Leader.
Some states used to have a state-wide law requiring “Patriotic Exercises” in the schools every day. I have no idea how many states, if any, still have such laws. When I was a child in California, there was such a law. AFAIK, the law required some kind of “Patriotic Exercise” but didn’t specify what that might be. It seemed to be universally understood that this meant the Pledge of Allegiance. Somewhere over the years, I think that law was eliminated.
Still, the “flag culture” is entrenched. Public government meetings (like City Council meetings) always begin with a Pledge of Allegiance; even the minutes of the meetings always mention it. I assume that state Legislatures and Congress begin all their meetings with the Pledge. Everyone gotta prove their loyalty afresh every day! It’s obligatory Patriotic Theater.
It has become traditional (and de rigeur) for politicians to wear an American flag lapel pin. When Obama was running for Prez (the first time), he wasn’t in the habit of it. Conservative opponents, especially in all the right-wing media, made a massive fuss over that. What more proof could one need, that he was a treasonous Muslim Marxist Kenyan commie? He began wearing a flag pin, and has done so ever since.
Absolutely agree about the UK; while I’ve no knowledge of Danish schooling, I know the Danes are mad about their flag, often with flagpoles in their gardens, and whipping them out for birthdays, Christmas, homecomings, etc.
Kids sing our national anthem quite frequently, and our flag is ubiquitous, but say a pledge of allegiance to the damn thing? Hells no.
I made some sort of pledge exactly once - after the basic training ended in the Finnish Defence Forces. Even that was to the nation, not the flag. We like our flag just fine, but pledging allegiance to it would feel like something that used to be done back in Russian oppression times 100 years ago.
Québec, Canada. I don’t remember reciting any pledge in school. No flags in the classroom, either.
I seem to recall our teacher had us reciting the Notre Père (Lord’s prayer) every morning at one point, except for that one lucky kid who was exempt. (Public, French-language Catholic elementary school, in the 1970s.)
ETA: We did learn the national anthem (Ô Canada), the French version, but never got past the first stanza, and certainly didn’t sing it regularly.