I noticed this proposed legislation from early 2014 in Arizona (it failed) to require students to swear allegiance to the US and uphold and defend the US against enemies.
Have there been any other times in American history where loyalty oaths were required to graduate high school or is this a new concept?
They’re swearing them all in as President? (Or Congress. Or the armed forces)
Has there ever been a time when all persons who earned and received a high school diploma were citizens of the USA? If a child (and his parents) were citizens of another country, and living in the USA, could that child lose his citizenship by swearing loyalty and allegiance to a foreign country (the USA)?
When I was in college (1956), I was required to take a Loyalty Oath in order to quality for an on-campus part time job.
I doubt it, but I suppose it’s possible, perhaps in some private or military school. I don’t think it would stand up in court if someone tried to enforce this and one of the students refused to do it.
I don’t think this would happen. Kids don’t have to say the Pledge of Allegiance if they have an objection. Some stand in silence, others just sit and look around.
That’s a standard oath for Federal employees. I had to take one just like it when I worked for the Census.
As pointed out, not everyone earning a US high school diploma is an American citizen, and most of those that aren’t are still probably here legally. My own high school had a couple dozen Canadians, a half dozen Japanese, and a Vietnamese that I knew about and probably more I wasn’t aware of.
Anyone - I’m guessing the same sorts who want high school students to swear a loyalty oath to the Feds are the same sort who want less of the Feds in their lives… if so, the irony is the only amusing thing about the story.
The Immigration Act of 1924 cut immigration to almost nothing, 150,000 a year. Italians had arrived at 200,000 a year and were cut to 4,000. So while this wasn’t zero, the result was very close to it. By the 1940s, virtually no high school graduates wouldn’t have been native-born citizens, and this held true until the 1960s, when the refugees finally allowed in after WWII had kids old enough to graduate.
If there were ever a time, therefore, for loyalty oaths to high school graduates, the McCarthy era 50s would be ripest. There definitely were loyalty oaths proposed for teachers and public employees, some of which were shot down by the courts, but not all of them.
I also found this, from the Columbia University Spectator, April 8, 1960. Antioch College is in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Bayside High School is in New York.
So it looks like New York had one. I didn’t find any others in a quick search.
My wife, who is Canadian, had an amusing experience shortly after we moved to the USA. She was invited to a social group, in which the Pledge was recited at the beginning of the meeting. She just stood silently, and she was asked why she didn’t recite it. “Because I’m Canadian”. One astonished member said “You mean, you don’t learn the Pledge of Allegiance in Canada?”
Actually, there were, and always have been, refugees of high school age in the US. My maternal grandfather came to the US at 14, and an old family friend landed as a refugee during the early 1940’s at that same age as well. Not all refugrees are adults.
And that’s why I said “close to zero” and not zero, and “virtually no” instead of no. I should have remembered that many people have their browsers set up with ModifierBlock so they never see anything but absolutes.
I question that the numbers were “virtually zero” rather than “low”. WWII generated a LOT of refugees. Do you have numbers for your statement or is it a gut-level guess? Either one is fine by me, I’d just like to know if there are numbers for that or not.
Has anyone, in the history of mankind, ever admitted something like “I was all set to sell secrets to the enemy, but then I remembered by loyalty oath and told them to get lost”?
What is it like in other countries? I know that American-style four year high schools are not common in some countries, so feel free to substitute other educational qualifications. Do you have to take an oath to the Queen in order to receive A-level results in the UK? Do you have to take an oath to the Republique in order to earn a Baccalaureat in France? Are there any universities (other than military service academies) where an oath is required for enrollment and/or graduation?
For the armed forces of the U.S. :“I, XXXXXXXXXX, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
The “So help me God” is optional. I think they’re being sworn in as President.
Age and Sex of the Foreign Born Population.
Those in the 15-19 range were over 500,000 from 1890 to 1920. By 1950 that had dropped to under 100,000. It did not break 500,000 again until 1980.
The US population was 150,000,000 million in 1950. That meant that 0.1% of the population was foreign-born aged 15-19, and the number of them graduating high school - this at a time when about 50% of all students graduated - would have been far less that that. I’d call that “virtually no.” By 1970 the number had grown to 0.15%. Today it’s over 0.3%. By comparison, in 1890 the number was nearly 1%. Those are huge differences. 1950 was a historic low and an historic anomaly.
During the 70’s application forms for state jobs in Texas had a question that went something like, “Do you swear to abide by and support all laws whether local, state or federal.” Well, I might follow these laws (mostly), but support them? Nobody supports every law on the books, so I said “no”. I was told to just please answer “yes”, so I did.
I had to sign a loyalty oath when I started my current job in the state of Georgia. I started this job in 2010. Here it is (that’s not my workplace, but the form is the same across the USG institutions).
Am I the only one who finds it pretty funny that they proposed an oath, required to get something, with the phrase “…take this obligation freely?”
Second only to “sovereign citizens” who point to the US judicial code to bolster their arguments.
An oath under duress or coercion has no standing. It may be implied or stated, but swearing an oath has to be done of free will - meaning you value the “reward” more than you value any rights or “freedom” you give up to get it.