won't say the pledge

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Home : 2002 : August : 11

won't say the pledge
By Carolyn

My only experience with this was when I did my student teaching years ago. My cooperating teacher told me that we had two children in the class who were Jehovah's witnesses. They were not allowed to say the pledge, as part
of their religious beliefs. However, even these children DID stand with the rest of the children. They just didn't say the pledge. These children were also not allowed to celebrate their birthday or any national holiday. It seemed like a strange religion to me at the time; however, I decided to recognize that here was an example of a difference that, as citizens, we would need to

learn to tolerate and appreciate, just as we do the same for cultural and racial differences.

Related to this: I had asked the parents if it was okay for their kids to learn about Thanksgiving in social studies class. Their response was "yes," it was fine for their children to learn about it, because it was history and it was taught within the context of history class. They just didn't celebrate it, in accordance with their religion.

I really don't think that Jehovah's witnesses mean to be disrespectful or belligerent about following traditional customs.