My daughter just posted the following on Facebook:
"So my proud mommy moment of the day, kids went off to their first day of kindergarten. I sent them on the bus and then met them at school. We got to their classroom, they got all settled drawing at their tables. The bell rang for announcements. They started with the Pledge of Allegiance. Both of my kids jumped up and placed their hands over their hearts and recited the Pledge. They were the only ones in their class that did. The rest all stayed seated and colored. I was really, really proud."
I don't know if I'm prouder of the grandtwins or of my daughter and son-in-law for how they're raising them....
The country (and the world) would be much better if there were more like your daughter - and her children.
Congratulations on such a fine rearing job!
Dave
Have you picked them up from school in a Model T yet? You have to do that.
Note: Check local laws about child seats and all that other baloney.
So what was the teacher doing if the rest of the kids were not learning to say the Pledge of Allegiance???? It seems to me (based on 17 years of teaching and administration in the public schools, a couple MB's in Education and Administration 30+ years ago) that she or he needs to remind her or himself that every moment is a teaching moment. If that were my classroom they would have all stood and said the pledge and if I were the Principal the teachers would have known what I expected and that I expected it would be a teaching moment and a lesson in America. That may be part of the reason I quit teaching in 1982. Yup, could be.
On the other hand, maybe expectations are different in other places. Here, it is 98% white, it is the state capital, about 60% work either directly or indirectly for state or federal government and some 75% of the people here have at least some college. Who am I to tell teachers how to teach and schools how to run? I'm edging toward geezerdom a little each day.
Dick & Stan - A few years ago, we sold the place we inherited from Kathy's folks in Tucson. But we used to spend a couple months after the holidays down there and I got into the habit of spending Saturday evening at a local 1/4 mile track where they had some pretty good stock car racing.
They always started out officially with the Pledge of Allegiance which I certainly thought was good, however, the announcer would say,...."please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, and guys, don't forget the hat thing".
It never failed to really "get my goat" that it was even necessary to tell some of those young punks to take their hat off! I did feel like meeting the announcer after the races and at least tell him thanks for telling those that needed to hear it to be respectful and that it's a shame us old geezers have to think that way. Nothing wrong with "geeserdom" Stan.
Actually, now that you guys have got me on my "soapbox", this discussion reminds me Stan, of my very early days in grade school in suburban Chicago, where we (the boys) were taught to take our hats off when entering the school, due to the fact that the school was a public building, and because that's the proper thing to do when entering a public building. Yeah, a lot has changed since those days, and a lot of it is what I call,..."total lack of respect", and I think it's just a reflection of this country's "downward spiral". Gosh,...I used to think my Dad became quite cynical in his later years, and I'm starting to sound just like him!
When I was a kid there were still a lot of people around who were born in the nineteenth century. Remembering what I heard from them and since, and what I've witnessed then and since, I've come to this conclusion: Old people have always thought the world was going to Hell, and they've always been right.
Stan and Harold,
According to Stan's definition, I was a geezer when I was in High School. Even then I was telling people that I was born cynical.
Steve J,
One of my many interests, has always been classic literature and mythology. A book I read last year (I enjoyed it so much that I read it four times!) in its introduction told that the ancient Greeks, even before writing had been developed, had it as part of their culture and belief that each succeeding generation was less great and less heroic than the preceding generation.
It seems to have been part of the human condition for a long time.
I have many interests. Only two passions. Antique automobiles, and that which has made me a cynical old geezer since I was five.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2