I’m not debating anything. I was relating my personal experince, which I thought relevent to the poll…that we did have the pledge. That it was not required (although we were hardly made to understand that). That supposedly standing was required. I thought the reasons I did what I did were, tangential (hence the parenthasis), related. For clarification not for argument.
We recited it every day in elementary school, 1985-1990-ish, in Texas. We would follow it with a moment of silent reflection. I want to say that we also had patriotic songs played over the intercom, but I think I might be wrong about that. In junior high and high school, we didn’t say it as a matter of course.
I “did” in elementary (K-5). Houston, TX.
I can’t remember ever doing it in Middle or High School; they may have held a pledge on special occasions but I wouldn’t have participated.
I put “did” in quotes because I rarely actually did it, or deliberately omitted the words “under God”. And I say that as a little kid who was sometimes dragged to church, but have never been a believer despite my mother’s half-assed efforts. Most of the time I remained seated, or if the teacher forced me to stand, would just stand there possibly with my hand on my chest but not actually saying anything. I can’t remember ever being hassled about it and I certainly never caused a disruption; it was personal. Even as a kid it felt creepy saying oaths to a flag. Not trying to start a debate, just relating my experience.
We sang those too, but only in music class. We never sang in the regular class.
We said it every single morning in public elementary school, back in the '50s. I remember when “under God” was added; nobody bothered to tell us why. I also remember when the flag changed to 49 stars, then to 50 the following year.
I said the pledge every day K-6 in a small town in Michigan in the mid 1970’s. I still get grief from my family about the fact that I’d been in school several months before I realized we weren’t pledging allegiance to *The Republic for Widget Stands. * :rolleyes:
I went to public elementary school in Florida from 1991–1997, then middle and high school in South Carolina from 1997–2004. The pledge was recited daily in all three schools. I was leaving out “under god” by middle school and mostly stopped reciting it altogether in high school. Supposedly, South Carolina law requires that students stand for the pledge; I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but I liked my teachers enough not to make an issue of it.
Every day.
Catholic school for a few years in the mid-1970s, and public school from then until the late 80s, both in New York State.
In high school, the school adminstration stated up front that no one had to say the pledge, or stand. The only requirement was that if you weren’t saying the pledge, you should be silent while others were doing the pledge, which seemed reasonable. There was also occasional singing of patriotic songs, like My Country Tis Of Thee (and I was shocked, shocked when I learned that we had ripped that one off from the Brits) or America the Beautiful.
Of course not! The very idea!
As far as I recall, it was every day in my elementary school years in Ohio (early 90s), led by one of the students in the classroom.
Junior high I really forget.
High school (Ohio still), I think, was just on Monday morning. It was read by the principal or whoever was making announcements over the PA system while most of the students just stood silently.
I definitely remember doing it in elementary school (K-5) and definitely not doing it in high school (9-12), so I assume sometime in middle school the habit was phased out…
Yes. I went to high school in the 1960s, and it was said in both the public and private schools I went to.
However, from about 8th grade onward, I would not say “Under God”. I would simply pause while everyone else mooed it out, then continue.
Yep - every day, grades 1-12, 1957-1969. In high school (grades 8-12) a trumpeter from the school band would play “To the Colors” over the intercom every morning as the flag was raised out in front of the school. Then we would pledge.
Yes, but not regularly, K-12, public schools in and around Sacramento, 1990-2003.
When we did it, it was either at the start of class (K-6), start of homeroom (7-8), or at the start of 2nd Period (9-12).
Did the school have it as part of the routine?
Yes, in the morning routine of pledge, prayer, announcements:
Catholic school K-7, Catholic high school 9-12
Did I say it? Not after 7th grade. The weird part was they stood for the pledge and sat down for prayer?? So I just stayed in my seat for all of it, not speaking at the pledge.
Yep, learned and memorized and said every class day grades 1 thru 8.
Did they bother to explain to us what we were saying exactly? No, but I guess some adults thought it was important to have us saying it.
After all, when I was in third grade I had no clue what a Pledge was, or an Allegiance. Didn’t really know what a Republic was. Indivisible? Is that something like invisible? Oh well, just recite it because they want you to. Hard to question authority when you’re 8 years old.
I was born in 1949, and the “under God” was added in 1956, so I suppose I recited the Godless pledge for a year or two.
I still have my dad’s matching widget stands.