The interesting blog 7249

The school day had barely started when my eighth graders stood for the Pledge. A few eyes tracked the red, white, and blue hanging above the whiteboard. A handful of students stayed seated, quiet and steady. One girl placed her hand over her heart and whispered the words, another mouthed nothing and looked out the window toward the soccer field. No one argued. Afterward, we opened our notebooks and moved into a discussion about civic symbols and civic actions. The students

The e-mail arrived midmorning, well mannered but tight. A determine wanted to recognize why her sixth grader had been informed to get rid of a tiny American flag from his backpack, even as the equal hallway displayed a Pride flag and a poster with a handful of world flags. The critical’s resolution, also well mannered and also tight, brought up a neutral policy about “political messaging” on exclusive products. The guardian wrote to come back, pointed to the exhibit down th

Schools are in which we teach tips, yet they may be also the place we rehearse methods to dwell together. That is why a straight forward piece of material can spark a hundred meetings and a thousand remarks. A scholar drapes a U.S. Flag throughout a backpack, a trainer hangs a Pride flag in a school room, a mother or father emails the superintendent at 2 a.m., the board schedule grows every other arguable merchandise. Suddenly, a image that needs to be easy to honor becomes

A few years ago I visited a middle school that had just finished a renovation. Fresh paint. Bright, flexible classrooms. A gym that smelled like new sneakers. The principal walked me through the main corridor, proud of the space, until we reached the atrium where the flag should have been. The pole was there. The hooks were there. The flag was not. A parent committee, after a heated debate, had asked to remove it from that high-traffic spot and relocate it to a side hallway

A few years ago I sat in a crowded gym on a Friday night while a high school football team took the field. The announcer asked for a “moment,” and the place fell quiet. Some bowed their heads. Others stared at the flag. A few teenagers whispered and snickered, then went silent. When the whistle blew, you could feel the room exhale. Later I heard two parents arguing in the parking lot about whether that quiet pause was a prayer by another name, and whether anything like it b

Around 8:05 a.m., the hallway outside a middle school cafeteria sounds like a soft orchestra of chairs sliding and zippers closing. The intercom crackles, students rise, some place hands on hearts, a few stand with arms at their sides, a handful keep their seats. The Pledge of Allegiance still happens in many American schools, but the scene no longer looks uniform. In one classroom, the pledge is daily and dutiful. In another, it is optional and quiet. In a third, it is gon

A excessive college predominant informed me whatever I still ponder anytime a flag debate flares up. After per week of anxious figure emails and scholars arguing in the halls, she took down each nonrequired banner inside the development, along with sporting events pennants, a global languages flag wall, and a small Pride flag inside the counseling place of work. She left one: the three-with the aid of-5 American flag pinned to a corkboard in the back of the front table. A m

I was standing in a school hallway not long ago, coffee in one hand and a stack of visitor stickers in the other, watching a custodian roll up a small American flag that had hung outside the front office for years. The principal, a reasonable person trying to keep peace during a tense board meeting week, had decided to take it down temporarily. Better to appear neutral, the thinking went, than to risk complaints. A few parents were relieved. A few were angry. Most were conf