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Saturday, April 05, 2008

Pledge of Allegiance Furor

By Neiman on April 5, 2008 at 08:55 am
5 Comments

Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona.

The Tucson Unified School District has found itself tangled in a web of online discontent, following outrage over the way a second-grade class recites the Pledge of Allegiance.

For years, Gale Elementary School teacher Anne Lee has had her students recite the pledge in three languages — English, Spanish and American Sign Language — as a learning exercise. The kids start with English.

When Lance Altherr learned last week that his son was reciting the pledge in Spanish, he was outraged. He spoke with Lee and then Principal Paula Godfrey, demanding they stop the practice. They wouldn’t, and Altherr moved his son to a different class.

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Tom Horn, School District Superintendent says the Pledge in English should come first.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars stepped in and while they felt the Pledge in Spanish was not disrespectful, they also felt it should be made in English.

What do you think? It seems to me that once we allow children not equipped to speak English into our schools, we do have an obligation to help them learn basic subjects, while we should also place a strong emphasis upon their learning English as rapidly as possible, so that they can fully participate in all that is American.

The big question here is this, should the Pledge only be spoken in English? If students speak it in English, Spanish and Sign language are they doing any harm to the pledge? Is it bad to have Spanish speaking students learn and appreciate the Pledge in their native language? Does it harm the English speaking students to learn two other ways to recite the pledge?

In part I am very protective of the Pledge of Allegiance, but for the life of me I cannot see the harm in what the school is doing. To me this is much ado about nothing! The Pledge is spoken and all the students learn what it means, while learning to appreciate other languages, but the main thing is - the Pledge of Allegiance is being learned and its words and meaning appreciated.

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/232859

Comments

pparets

Neiman:  Interesting post.  I go with the school on this one.

"Here lies, in honored glory, an American soldier, known but to God.”

The stakes are high. Whether the issue is the economy, or energy, or the federal courts or national security, the right answers are coming not from the Democrats, but from the Republicans. The surge of operations that began a year ago is succeeding. The only way to lose this fight is to quit. Richard M. Cheney, Vice President, 30 May, 2008

pparets on April 5, 2008 at 10:38 am
Kenny

If it was JUST spanish then I could see the outrage. But it’s not. The English recitation is first. So these parents are being retarded.

Kenny on April 5, 2008 at 01:29 pm
Chief RZ

The pledge of Allegiance and everything else in US schools should be in English.
If a student enrolls in a foreign language class, they should speak that language just like they do in Germany.  How about the pledge in:  German, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Hungarian, Korean, Flemish, Spanish, or even American Indian?—and all the different tribe’s dialects?  The purpose of school is to teach a common language and common math for communication and thinking skills.
This is an insane slippery slope that I thought we were over by now.  I have seen students come to class from another country and in one day begin speaking the native language.

Communism is evil

Chief RZ on April 5, 2008 at 02:12 pm
Avatar for watashiwa

Neiman: I agree. Although I feel that all foreigners in this country should speak English, I see no real harm here. This an exercise in education. The diversity made it fun and probably more intersting to the students.

watashiwa on April 5, 2008 at 05:28 pm
Avatar for Puzzlefeet

I agree that this is much ado about nothing.  We are in a global economy as many here like to point out.  We should make sure that our kids have access to other languages, this will make them much more marketable to global companies who do business in Mexico, and other South American and European countries.  A foreign language should be taught from the very beginning in all of our schools and all children should learn another language.

Puzzlefeet on April 5, 2008 at 06:15 pm
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