On a completely different topic, but still in the political vein, today I gave students in my four study skills classes a very simple reading comprehension exercise.
They are 7th and 8th graders. They have all either recited or heard recited to them the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in the first period of school for more than 1,300 times since they started school. The exercise was to explain what the Pledge means.
Not one came close, and that was with all of them allowed to work together and to use dictionaries.
Not one.
I pretty much expected as much, and it is one of the reasons why when I hear people complaining that "kids don't learn the Pledge anymore," I think those complaining are wildly misguided. The kids generally have no understanding at all as to what it means. Having them mindlessly recite something they do not understand is pointless. The other reason most of those complaining are misguided is because I believe most schools still do have the kids recite the pledge.... even if they have no idea what a "pledge" is, let alone understanding the rest of it.