Pledge of Allegiance

So over the last month or so, as school has been the buzz on my Facebook feed, I have noticed many people "reposting" or "sharing" these little pictures about how sad it is that we are no longer say the Pledge of Allegiance in schools anymore.

All of my opinions aside, people who feel so strongly about these topics should really do some more research....

On several different websites, you can see where they talk about the "under God" being added into the Pledge during the cold war, and many states, especially Massachusetts have challenged it. There is a current challenge against the use of "under God" because of the first amendment and how it pertains to religion.

I teach in Missouri, and I know for sure the Missouri state law is that schools/teachers most provide a time to say the pledge at least once a week, but students are not required to say it. We asks all students to stand out of respect, but they do not have to participate in the pledge. We also teach them not to be disrespectful while others are saying it. We teach students the same if a student practices a belief/religion that is different than their own. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate holidays or birthdays, and we must teach the students who do not believe the same way as them to respect their believes (or disagree respectfully).

I came across this website that further maps out the laws in other states. I do not know exactly how accurate it is, but from the individual states that I have researched, it seems aligned to their state laws.

http://undergod.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000074#1
7 states have no law about pledge
6 states allow schools to choose whether they allow a time for students to say the pledge
37 states are required to allow a time for students to say the pledge

16 states have no law about whether students have to (or not) say the pledge
28 states allow students to choose whether they have to say it or not
6 states require their students to say the pledge

http://undergod.procon.org/view.background-resource.php?resourceID=811
Here is a website for more specific "laws" about each state

Therefore, most schools are required to allow a time, but give students the option to participate.

I did this only because I'm tired of seeing stupid little pictures on Facebook and other social media websites that say things like...

"My generation grew up reciting this every morning in school with my hand on my heart. They no longer dot hat for fear of offending someone! Let's see how many Americans will re-post and not care about offending someone!"

THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LAW FROM THEN AND NOW IS THAT STUDENTS HAVE CHOICE
(THEN, being defined as when the people on my social media websites were in elementary school, so about 20 years ago or more)