Each Day Already is a Challenge

Pondering Flags, Patriotism, Classroom Disclipline...

I read the work of a newbie tonight who spoke about pride in our flag. "The American Flag" 

I get goose bumps when I see the flag waving too. I have that same pride, even when I know that our country's leaders aren't always doing things exactly the way I would have wanted. Our country is still the "land of the free and the home of the brave." But are we teaching our kids that?

When I was in second grade, Mrs. Clauser spent weeks teaching us all the verses to our National Anthem, America and America the Beautiful. We memorized them all. We also learned how to raise and lower the flag outside on the flagpole and how to be respectful of the flag in the classroom. I doubt that those are lessons that today's kis are taught.

Earlier today, I heard a teacher on some news show lamenting that today's classrooms have more kids than ever. That's just not true.

I really don't remember how many kids were in my class in kindergarten through fifth grade. I know there were always more than 25. I kind of remember that in fourth grade and fifth grade, the classes seemed to get a bit bigger.

Then came sixth grade. Wow.

Back then, parents didn't have to enroll kids until the day school started. I lived in what had been a farm community, but was turning into a huge suburb of Pittsburgh. What had been a farm across the street from our house became a subdivision with over 300 homes.

Add to that, the local Catholic school only went through fifth grade.

So, on the first day of school in the sixth grade, the administrators were quite surprised. Caught off guard, actually. There were two teachers ready to teach us. I think we started out thinking there would be about 32 kids per classroom. But the kids just kept coming and coming and coming that first morning.

The school district had to hire a third teacher for sixth graders that year, and we still ended up with 50 in each classroom.

We learned what we were supposed to learn that year, and things we never should have. (That was the year that JFK was killed.)

No, the classes are not bigger today than they have ever been. Not when you think about the baby boomer generation - my generation.

Today's classrooms are certainly noisier than ours ever were. Less discliplined. There probably is not as much learning going on.

We respected teachers. We were afraid of being sent to the principle's office. We were afraid we might be paddled - in school and at home. Our parents and teachers stood together, worked together, to see that we respected both. They teamed up against us, if necessary.

Today, parents will fight against teachers. A few years back a teacher was fired for failing a bunch of kids who cheated. The parents and kids "won", but not really. They learned how to cheat. They learned that might wins over right. Just the opposite of what our forefathers taught. The teacher made the rounds of talk shows and I think the teacher's union fought to get her job back. But she didn't want it, and I cannot blame her for that. How could she continue teaching a bunch of kids who could just band together again with their parents any time they wanted her fired? For being the teacher she was meant to be.

Things surely have changed.

Think your kids or grandkids or neighbor kids know the words to all the verses to The Star Spangled Banner. Hey...do you?

Star Spangled Banner
by Francis Scott Key

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

You know what? I was at a game a few years ago then the National Anthem was played. I stood and place my hand over my heart, as did only about 20% of the people in attendance. I was surprised at that. And it wasn't only kids that didn't stand. There were people my parents age in the crowd who didn't stand. That made me a bit sad.

Heck, I've been known to stand in my own living room when the Star Spangled Banner comes on.