# Do non-U.S countries have a "pledge of allegience"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 8, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-u-s-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegience/584695 "2011-06-08T01:48:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-u-s-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegience/584695/61 "2011-06-09T06:26:08Z")
[More flag silliness.](http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/06/117_88574.html) Former prosecutor blamed for others’ acts while honoring a former president. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-u-s-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegience/584695/62 "2011-06-09T07:25:05Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Please be fair. I never said any of this, and I resent being accused of it. I haven’t “given you shit,” either. You are free to criticize America and the Pledge all you like, and as I’ve said repeatedly I agree with your basic point. I’m just posting as someone who studies human cultural behaviour. The fact that I was raised in America gives me some added personal experience, but I’m not claiming any rhetorical authority. I didn’t say you, individually, said this. I just have been piled on often enough on this board for daring to criticse the US that I’m fed up with it. That is not a statement against a specific poster, but a general trend. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-u-s-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegience/584695/63 "2011-06-09T07:38:17Z")
> [@FeAudrey](#): > > As a special treat for Constanze, who seems to get horror-movie-type thrills from accounts of American popular culture – the Morning Exercises!!! Yeah. It’s not like there’s anything wrong with the pledge, it’s any criticism that’s weird. QED. > [@](#): > > This was what we pre-school-prayer-ban baby-boomers started the day with (New York City and New Jersey university town): > > formal classroom roll call > recitation of the Lord’s prayer > scripture reading by a student (student’s choice, but usually a Psalm) > Pledge of Allegiance > patriotic song > classroom and school-wide announcements > > (I may have the exact order wrong, or missed an item or two. It’s been a while. Like half a century.) > > Several of the above items tied in to educational objectives, such as having us read aloud or sing. > > I had a teacher around fifth grade or so who additionally read us a chapter of a story book each day, to help us get settled down and attentive. > > For a brief time in New York, when school prayer was first becoming an issue, we recited something called the Regents’ Prayer, composed on behalf of the state board of education and presumably intended to be non-denominational. > > The sub-text of all this was that we were in school for some purpose worthy of official rites. At the end of the day, we were formally dismissed. If you don’t see that educational objectives like singing or reading aloud, and settling down, can be achieved without overt patriotism, then I can’t help you, but you rather prove how deep this brainwashing goes. As for “purpose worthy of official rites” - your schools obviously have very different objectives than ours, whose purpose is education and not rites. We don’t have official announcements, pledges, patriotic songs. We used to have christian prayers in primary school in the 70s, but as far as I (no children of my own) have seen from the outside, most teachers stopped doing this, partly because more non-christian kids are in schools and people are getting more sensitive about them. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-u-s-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegience/584695/64 "2011-06-09T07:53:30Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > I’m a US Citizen, and I’m not really certain if the Pledge of Allegiance (as recited by schoolchildren) has any specific legal meaning - does it? A pledge usually means something more than some words droned on, otherwise, why bother taking a pledge in the first place? It’s similar to a promise in that regard; although an oath is more binding legally (and morally), a promise is stronger than just a word given casually. So either the pledge means something - then children should know what they are saying and why and be old enough to given meaningful consent; or it doesn’t mean anything (which goes against common understanding of the word pledge) - then why bother? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-non-u-s-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegience/584695.md?page=3)