oh, and you can get detention if you refuse to say the pledge at some schools. or at least get scolded by your teacher, get your parents called, or be socially ostracised. all because you refuse to swear fealty to a piece of fabric as a daily ritual.
How do they know if you refuse to say the pledge?
Being homeschooled, my first exposure to routine Pledging was when I tagged along at my little brother’s Cub Scout meetings. By which time I was nearly eleven, had read Guardians of Ga’Hoole, and therefore knew how to look like I was taking part in a group chant without actually doing so.
(Yes, that does mean not Taking a Stand, but I personally think one should not Take a Stand against brainwashing cults until after one has escaped them. And I was still slightly too young, by my parents’ standards, to stay home by myself on a regular basis. (Mom was helping out with them, so I couldn’t stay home with her.))
in smaller classrooms, it’s hard to get away with pretending, especially if you’re with a teacher who knows you/your voice or if you’re in the front row. at assemblies, it’s obvs easier, but we had to say it in our first period class or homeroom (depending on grade), and being a C, alphabetically, and something of a teacher’s pet, i was usually on the first row anyway. besides which, to me, standing up and mouthing along is basically the same thing as actually saying it–ymmv, of course, and if that’s not how you view it, that’s totally cool.
usually, though, in my schools at least, you get caught because you just plain don’t stand up. it’s continue-reading-your-book-for-the-duration-of-announcements-time. luckily, in high school, my first period class for all three years was choir, and i was not the only person who refused to say it, and our choir director was live-and-let-live enough that he wasn’t about to send a handful of his best students to detention over it.
(this thread was truncated; here is the first part)
Tags:
#(this is from later in October 2013) #conversational aglets #home of the brave #homeschool #cult cw
Brinens and Things 