I must be a horrible citizen. For the last 17 years as a teacher, I've always told my students they could sit during the pledge.

I've told them they didn't have to say it they didn't want to. The only thing I did require is that they remained quiet and still.

you are a good teacher. Teaching students to resist authoritarian and/or peer pressure is good.

I caught hell from a couple of male teachers for years and years. They would call me names and telling other students I hated the US.

one guy reported me to the principal and the district all the time. Nothing ever came of it because I was a good teacher. :shrugs:

I meant to say, "and tell other students." Oops.

You don't hate the US, you just don't think children should be brainwashed.

I never put my hand on my heart during the pledge, and I usually only mouthed along to the words, because I don't think blind allegiance ...

does any good. It's better to be like the founding fathers and think rationally and critically rather than with blind fervor.

I stopped saying the pledge when I was 11. One of the kids in my class that year couldn't for religious reasons, and I suddenly realized

that the world wouldn't end if I didn't say it either.

wait! Was this around the time Ronald Reagan first got elected?

actually, yes.