Does Pledging Allegiance to the Flag Have Educational Value?

Despite extensive commentary on the Pledge of Allegiance in schools, little is known about how students think of its daily recitation. This study asked 88 Native American high school students about their experiences with classroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Aware that they had the right to refrain from participating, most students (84%) indicated that they did not recite the Pledge of Allegiance. A considerable portion (43%) said that the recitation made little impression on them; others were split between those who had patriotic thoughts toward the United States and those for whom the Pledge of Allegiance evoked their conflicted identities and relationships, as Native Americans, to the United States. This study concludes that recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance possesses educational value. Its enactment, perhaps particularly with some students reciting and others not reciting, prompts students’ thinking about self-identity, national identity, and civic values.