Reflection 5

I do believe reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is a controversial and important topic. I have discussed this in classes in the past, and it seems to me like most people have the same opinion in that it doesn't seem to be a big issue. The reason I think it is is that from the time children are 4 or 5 years old, they are taught the words of the pledge of allegiance and are told that they have to say it every day. The idea that children have to pledge their allegiance to a country is frankly, in my opinion frightening. It is almost as if by not pledging allegiance to the country, they might grow up to not be proud of the country, or believe that a different form of government is suitable. When I started elementary school in New York in 3rd grade after just moving there from England, what the pledge of allegiance actually meant never occurred to me. it wasn't until 9th grade that I realized what I was actually saying when I recited the pledge of allegiance, and also that I was pledging allegiance to a country that wasn't my country. So I stopped saying the pledge. Every day, for a year and a half, I was bullied because I didn't say the pledge of allegiance. Two guys who were in my homeroom would shout at me to say the pledge every day and call attention to it. People would stop me in the hallway to ask me why I didn't say the pledge every morning. In the end, I was forced to say the pledge every day because it became a huge problem. I was being bullied for not participating in something which was not relevant to me. I do not have a problem with the action of reciting the pledge; I have a problem with being forced to recite it like I was.

I also was very surprised by the "This is Alabama, we speak English" ad. To a certain extent, I did believe there were still people in this country who were anti-immigration and to some extent, prejudiced against foreigners, but I didn't realize that an ad like this could represent a significant amount of people.