New School Year, New Pledge of Allegiance?

When students head back to the classroom in just a few weeks, they'll start each day with the Pledge of Allegiance — a tradition that goes back generations.

In Wisconsin, as is the case with most states, classrooms in public schools are required to offer the pledge or the National Anthem daily, but students are not required to actually stand up and recite it. Most do, of course, but some students object to the phrase "Under God" and refuse to take part in the daily routine.

Students are required to say the pledge, but should they be? Patch posed the question to users over the last few days and received a flurry of feedback.

"I think they should show respect for our flag by standing, but if the word 'God' is an issue, then they should still stand, but be allowed to refrain from reciting the words... or at least the word 'God,'" Lisa Strauss wrote on the Sussex Patch Facebook page. 

"Yes they should," Rachel Lalk wrote on the Menomonee Falls Patch Facebook page. "I said it when I was in school. My parents said it when they were in school. That's part of being an American and that should not be taken from us."

The issue has surfaced nationally. Earlier this year, a state lawmaker in Arizona introduced a bill to require students to recite the pledge. Other states, including Oregon and Nebraska, have had discussions on whether to require the pledge to be recited in schools.

For three decades, the pledge read as it does today, without the controversial phrase, “Under God.” But in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower pushed for Congress to add the phrase to combat communist threats, leaving Americans with the 31-words we have today:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

So, should students be required to recite it?

"Yes. There are several generations that 'had' to do it," Ricky Bernard wrote. "I never remember being forced to, I thought that even as I was a little kid I owed it to my country. If i didn't like it, so what? If we start letting the kids do so, it only breaks up the needed solidarity and patriotism that we need to continue as a strong viable country!"

And others also feel a strong sense of patriotism, but question if blindly citing words without proper understanding is doing any good. 

"In my classrooms over the past 13 years, I expect every child to stand to show respect from day 1," Dawn Ertl-Amen wrote. "Most say the pledge but I don't yell or tell them they have to. I say the pledge myself and tell them what it means to me and the many people I know that have been in the military and before long the whole class is also saying it. To tell someone to do something without them understanding the reason why usually doesn't work."

Patch blogger Lyle Ruble opened up this heated discussion of saying the pledge in a blog post that garnered more than 250 comments back in December.

“Only the discussion of abortion gets more emotive attention; but the role of religion in our schools and classrooms has been a sure fire prescription for heated conflict,” Ruble wrote.