Back in June, I wrote about a school in Massachusetts that had banned the pledge of allegiance in its classrooms. As a means of follow up, I was contacted on an unofficial basis by a member of the faculty and have verified its accuracy through other sources. The letter was written to me by Paul McKnight, a teacher at Arlington High School. He has given me permission to share his letter, but understand that he does not speak on behalf of the school in any official capacity.

Let me say that I can understand your outrage. Given your service to our country, I can imagine how shocked you must have been to see so little respect given to our flag and our nation. Unfortunately–for all of us–the news reports were quite inaccurate, and as a result, this school, its staff, and the community of Arlington has been grossly misrepresented in the press. A few fundamental errors in the news coverage has had the unfortunate effect of stirring up passions unnecessarily, with colleagues of mine receiving a great deal of hate mail, and the students confronting an ugly representation of the school they take pride in.

For one, the news report (as echoed in your blog) suggested that there were no flags in classrooms when the student came to the school. I’ve been a teacher at Arlington for many years, and there have always been flags in classrooms. To the student’s credit, he did urge the administration to make sure that EVERY classroom have a flag, and the administration made sure that was the case. No one in the school or community has ever “frowned upon” the flag or its presence.

As far as the Pledge of Allegiance is concerned, I’ve taught in many schools, and each has a different protocol. In some it is recited daily, in others weekly, and in others rarely. It is true that the Pledge had not been recited in Arlington High School for some years. In fact, such was the case when Principal Charlie Skidmore took the helm several years ago. I must take issue with assertion that he is “responsible for this travesty.” In fact, when the student approached Mr. Skidmore with his request to have the Pledge recited, the principal saw a chance to give this student a valuable lesson in civics: he encouraged him to get support in the form of those petitions, letters, etc. that were alluded to in the article. (Mr. Skidmore knows most of our students well, and saw Sean’s potential as an active citizen). Mr. Skidmore was in favor of introducing the Pledge to the school, but he wanted to do it right: begin a voluntary recitation with the students who wanted it most, and then discuss the meaning of the Pledge and its recitation with the school community. What he wanted to avoid was the Pledge becoming an “empty recitation”, as I’ve noticed it can often be for students.

I cannot explain or defend the comment by a school committee member who implied that it “might be hard to find teachers willing to recite it”–honestly, that’s a surprising comment, and doesn’t reflect our faculty at all. The news article did, however, misrepresent the action the school committee took: the split vote was not about “banning” the pledge of allegiance, as the news report suggested. The 3 “no” votes were to maintain the status quo (that each school in the district would set its own policy concerning the Pledge); the 3 “yes” votes were to override the individual schools and mandate the Pledge across the district. (A federal court ruling that it was unconstitutional to mandate recitation of the Pledge was partially influential in some committee members’ reluctance to adopt the student’s proposal).

This incident has certainly taught me how easily a story can become distorted by slovenly reporting. The faculty of Arlington High School has been variously characterized, as one of your respondents so colorfully put it, as “uneducated, uninformed, unprepared, unconcerned and unpatriotic.” That’s hard to read, not only for its inaccuracy, but also because I too feel as though I and my colleagues serve our country day in and day out. We are a hard-working, well-prepared, and innovative team of teachers. Arlington’s test scores are among the highest in the state, and the state’s test scores are among the highest in the country. Furthermore, many of us feel a kinship with our military personnel: some of us have served in the forces, some have sons and daughters in the forces, and monthly we pull together to ship care packages for former students currently serving abroad.

We are proud of our school, and proud of our community–Arlington, Massachusetts–which is, after all, the birthplace of “Uncle Sam.” (Go figure.) I felt it important to reassure you that our young people are in more-than-capable hands, and that as public educators we are incredibly committed to the core principles of our country: freedom, justice, equality, and democracy–principles I believe we can best model through civil, reasoned discussion.

Respectfully,

~Paul McKnight

As a result of the controversy surrounding the Pledge of Allegiance issue, principal Charlie Skidmore personally leads the students each morning in reciting the pledge of allegiance. One the first day of school, the senior that complained about the lack of flags in the classrooms and the absence of the pledge, Sean Harrington, led the student body in reciting the pledge.

It’s sad that any American school would have to wait until a nationwide controversy erupted before making it right, but I’m glad they did. I hope that other schools throughout the nation will realize that it’s okay to pledge allegiance to this great country of ours and to the flag that represents it. We are a great nation full of patriotic Americans and the pledge is part of that important heritage. Teachers should foster a LOVE of this country and the patriotism and civic duty that is inherent in that pledge. Without a sense of pride of ownership of this land, our country is doomed to failure.

I encourage other students to recognize when the flag or pledge is absent in their schools and make an issue of it privately with school officials. I don’t believe there is need for every such occurrence to become a national headline, but when the schools ignore the honor that people feel when thy see our glorious star-spangled banner, the community as a whole (and the nation, if need be) should get involved.

As a Soldier, I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America. I pledge to defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic because it stands for goodness, mercy, strength, and compassion. I pledge allegiance to this great republic and the founding documents that established it. I will support and defend the Constitution just as vigorously for when I joined the Army, I swore an oath to it!

9/11 brought that back into the minds of Americans and prior to politicians turning it into a political football, we were one! On the 9th anniversary of that horrific day, I salute every American who is willing to make this pledge, swear this oath, and defend the honor and respect of this great nation. The United States of America is not what is wrong with the world. It’s everything that is right about it!!