Saw this on tv last night in a drama and, from a non-USA pov, it seemed odd. But then I recall seeing a lot of national flags outside homes so perhaps it’s just part of a wider tradition?
Also, do schoolkids still stand up and recite a national song with their hand on their heart or did that maybe stop at the end of the Cold War?
That always seemed… curious
I haven’t been in a classroom in a long time, but when I was growing up, every classroom had the national flag. No regional flags. The social studies/civics/government classroom might also have a state flag, but that’s it.
When I first started school, we would recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning (no songs), but that ended in the mid-to-late '70s, to my relief.
Since then, occasionally politicians around the country have tried to make a point by demanding daily recital of the Pledge of Allegiance.
That’s the Pledge of Allegiance, and it’s still fairly common. About five years ago there were a few court cases over whether students could be required to recite it — see the “Controversy” section in the linked article.
It’s been many, many moons since I attended class in a public school, however I work in schools frequently and the great majority of classrooms that I’ve taken notice of do have a state and national flag. I’m in Houston, Texas.
Growing up in New York, I would say most classrooms displayed the American and New York State flags in some form. Maybe just a poster on the wall (vs, an actual flag). But they were usually present. The auditorium would always have a couple large, fabric, “proper” flags. (The janitor at my high school believes the flag raised over the 9/11 World Trade Center site was swiped from his auditorium, the school is very near the site).
Sadly, I was rarely exposed to the New York City flag as a child, one of the world’s more glorious flags, with its windmills, beer barrels, Dutchman, Iroquois Indian, and beavers rampant – and inspiring latin motto “Sigillum Civitatis Novi Eboraci” “this is the symbol of the City of New York.”
I can’t remember ever being required to say the Pledge in New York. I started kindergarten in 1980. However, patriotic songs were a regular feature of musical recitals. Traditional favorites like “My Country Tis of Thee” and “American the Beautiful” and the more modern incarnation, “This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land” by Woody Guthrie.
Five or Six years ago the VFW in the part of Florida where I was living was raising money to buy flags for the local classrooms because they didn’t have any. They may now if the VFW was successful but apparently they didn’t then.
This was a tv drama set in the ‘current’ and it seemed to have national and regional flags, so I guess it was one of the few classrooms. Thanks for the replies.
My elementary school kids currently have US flags in their classrooms and say the Pledge every morning. I do not remember seeing any other flags in the classrooms, but I could be wrong.
?
Everyone who commented said that US flags and regional flags are common. The uncommon part is reciting the Pledge.
I went to a Catholic elementary school in New York City from 1966-1975, and to a Jesuit high school in New York for 4 years after that.
My elementary school always had a US flag in every classroom, and in the lower grades, we usually either said the Pledge of Alleegiance or sang a patriotic song like “America (My Country Tis of Thee)” at the start of each day. But by 5th grade (when we were 10 or 11), we’d pretty much stopped doing that.
And while there was an American flag hanging OUTSIDE my high school, and one in the auditorium, there were never any such flags in the classrooms, and we never sang patriotic songs or recited the Pledge.
I never saw any schools flying the New York State flag (I’m only vaguely aware of what the NY state flag looked like), but most schools I’ve seen in Texas fly the Lone Star state flag.
When I was in the classroom in California, I had to order a state flag from the warehouse to display. I couldn’t get a city flag from the warehouse because a school is a state entity, not a city entity and I didn’t want to spend the $150 to get a Los Angeles City flag. In the classroom in Phoenix, I had to purchase a state and city flag on my own but they were relatively cheap. Incidently, I wrote emails to the White House, Governor’s Office and Mayor’s Office asking for photos to display so my students could identify their elected officials. Governor Brewer sent one. President Obama and Mayor Gordon did not.
Besides my classroom, I have seen a state flag twice and never a city flag.
Me too, New Jersey, born in 1973. Out here in California, though, there’s much more of a state pride, it seems. Like people might wear a “Proud Black Man” t-shirt, people seem to tout CA a lot. In NJ, It never occurred to me to give a shit where I was from.
Joe
In my daughters’ schools they read the Pledge over the loudspeaker each morning. Daily recital of the Pledge & displaying a flag is state law.
Just to nitpick: I did echo the use of the term “regional,” but I don’t know of any truly regional flags in the United States. Flags are associated with legal jurisdictions – states, cities, counties, etc. – but not regions, not in any official capacity anyway.
<looks around classroom>
US flag only
National anthem played over intercom every Monday. No pledge.
Hm. if you look at a better picture of the flag (I found your image suspect because the beer barrels are missing) the beavers are at an angle. That’s why I interpreted them as rampant (that and perhaps a little wishful thinking, because “beavers rampant” is surely the greatest phrase in the English Language). Do you still call them statant? If yes, I bow before your far greater wisdom and knowledge.
I would still call them statant. Rampant would really have to be a lot more vertical.
Note that the image of the beavers rampant is the European beaver, not the North American beaver.
tsk. you poor USian folks, having to make do with a mere flag. in all the classrooms in the schools I attended, we had a picture of Her Majesty. much classier. 
