the pledge of allegiance

maybe this isnt the right place so feel free to move it mods.

as far as saying the pledge of allegiance in school, i dont have an issue with the words "one nation under god" as much as i do with the pledge itself. if i dont stand up and say the pledge, my teacher will yell at me, and if i dont comply will give me a detention. but why? i dont agree with what the words in that pledge mean. i dont pledge my allegiance to any flag or any country. if i dont want to pretend that i do, why do i get in trouble?

your opinions on this?

You're absolutely right. Do not stand up and pledge if you don't agree with it in the first place. Your teach just happens to be a prick. Where do you live? Is it even legal to punish a student for refusing to say the pledge? I never pledged when I was in school, and I had a couple of teachers try to give me shit about it, but they never tried to punish me in any way.

I'm gonna move this to both Politics AND religion. that way, all your bases are covered.

I agree with both of you, I just stand up and say nothing, sometimes I look away from the flag too... I think though, that legally the teacher CAN make you stand up, but they can't make you say the pledge. I don't agree with it A. because it has the religious piece and B. Because it's just something rammed into our heads (for me since pre-school) ask any kid what it means to them and it will take them a bit to come up with a decent response. It's blind conformity, though as far as I know not of the worst kind, but blind conformity non-theless and people should be made to think about why they do things. When I went into it, I decided not to say the pledge, because it's that blind conformity, and not I don't get that heart warming patriotic feeling when I say it, it's just one of those things drilled into your mind, you just say it without actually feeling any meaning in your words. I remember when I stopped saying it it took me a couple days to get rid of it, because I was so used to saying it that I started to say it, and I didn't even realize!

All the teachers I had only made us stand up not actually say it.