Considering that it's already illegal to force students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or even stand for it, this is at best idiotic, and at worst, a gateway to overturning the bit about the Pledge and opening the gates to political indoctrination of children.
Right-wing performative patriotism is there to stop people from thinking that their country could be better, because of course it's already the best.
Actual patriotism is the act of improving your home to be worthy of pride.
Remember when conservatives were freaking out at Colin Kaepernick because he wasn't doing the performance right? Because he was trying to bring attention to the plight of black folks in our country? It's because they confuse nationalism with patriotism; they were pissed at Kaepernick for "hating America," when he was saying "we should be better."
The nationalists don't want to country to work for everyone though.
which would require all teachers and students at Iowa schools to sing at least one verse of the national anthem every day
That’s weirder than requiring the whole thing.
Doubtful Trump could get through a whole verse correctly even with a prompter.
"oh shay can you see..... see they're all against us, and we're going to show them. By the dawns...... I knew a woman named dawn... Great woman, gorgeous like Ivanka....... Uhh... Light. What do proudly..... We are a proud people and we won't stand for their tricks, their cheats. We hail.... you know Hitler was hailed as a great guy. Amazing person, did great things."
Trump's favorite bit is the part about colonial soldiers taking the airports
George Santos was there. He said so.
He shouldn't have turned down those cue cards.
Probably the only reason he kept coming back to the right lyrics.
One verse is all anyone actually knows.
My dad had to take the citizenship test like 40 years ago and he still remembers the most weirdly-pointless shit no one should ever care about like “Ben Franky didn’t discover electricity but he was the first postmaster general”
He didn't discover electricity, but if I recall correctly, he was the one to coin/define the positive(+)/negative(-) nomenclature, including what each of those actually means (i.e. the charge resulting from rubbing a certain type of fabric over a second material).
Looking forward to the videos of the kids singing:
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
That's from the third verse.
I'd love for someone there to explain to me what problem they think they are solving here.
Anti anti grooming
They think obedience to higher authority needs to be mandatory. And crucially, their grouping is always the higher authority (“Don’t tread on me” from democratic government, sing the anthem to Republican leadership, beat the Capitol police when they and so on you get the idea.)
woke anti america thinking. because how dare a teenager be able to think for themselves and realize that this country did and does unjustifiably shitty things and hasn't acknowledged or apologized for them.
When people asked for the USA to take a page out of Europe they didn't mean from the 1930s
you know what the quickest way is to make a kid resent their country? force meaningless ceremony on them every day.
i was forced to say the pledge of allegiance every day up until high school. it was a bit of a shock to not be forced to say it my freshman year. I can't imagine how bad it would be to be forced to say the pledge and sing the anthem every day. especially if you get some of those teachers who have a flagpole stuck up their asses that they will give some sort of administrative punishment if you sang the magical flag song wrong. I think I'd tell my parents I was just going to live in detention all year.
I was born in a country in which this happened. We didn't resent it, but it was annoying.
And no one wanted to sing it too loud because it was embarrassing.
But that's what life was. Today I think it was bullshit. But back then it was just another stupid thing to do, just like getting up early to go to fucking school.
I can think of not a lot of easier ways to make both students and teachers un-patriotic. This kind of stuff doesn't work like they think it does.
The Grooming and indoctrination of white nationalists.
If a teacher chooses not to lead the class in singing the national anthem, the school's principal would be required to find another teacher to lead the singing.
I bet all the principals in Iowa will love this, when all of the teachers refuse to do it. Or there'll be one or two compliant teachers per school who will subsequently be required to make the rounds to every classroom every day.
Don’t expect the librarians to step up, they’re already pissed about book bans.
Every day, one teacher is the designated singer. The principal will not be told who it is and must locate them. Sing slowly, try different volumes and ranges until you wreck your voice, get paid time off to recover (maybe with some extra steps involving lawyers).
Or they'll make them all stand outside ike they did when I was kid to say the pledge of allegiance.
They don't specify which national anthem.
Lift every voice and sing...
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
It’s conditioning. The children are a captive audience. They do not have the option to stay seated and not participate. They are compelled to take part in this, by the government.
Article 1, section 7 of Iowa’s constitution states:
Liberty of speech and press. Every person may speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right. No law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech, or of the press. In all prosecutions or indictments for libel, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it appears* to the jury that the matter charged as libellous was true, and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted. *In the original text, the word is “appear”, see original Constitution, Art. I, §7
Captive audience, maybe, but they absolutely have the option to stay seated. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).
Compelled speech is a hill any American patriot should be willing to die on, literally if necessary.
I had a teacher in high school who had in his classroom a sign that compelled standing for the pledge. our school also played the anthem too and I'll bet that mandate carried over too. I didn't have him 1st period so I never had to endure any of that.
he was also quite literally the worst teacher I ever had. he didn't teach anything. it was basically a class where you sat, listened to him lecture about bullshit, call him sir every time, and sit and write on a topic to a specific word count. also a self described white married with children christian who (I didn't find out until well after I graduated) hit on the black girls in class, but you probably knew that already.
SMALL GUBBERMINT
"Pledge your allegiance or SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!"
-The same people that use China as a boogeyman.
GOP: "Books in school libraries are indoctrinating out children, if those children go get those particular books"
Also GOP: "You school children, you're required to sing the national anthem every day"
Can we throw in some snazzy Hugo Boss uniforms and some of that goose stepping the kids love so much?
~~Okay, now somebody tell them it was written by a socialist and watch their brains melt.~~
Edit: Somehow I misread and thought this was about the Pledge of Allegiance. As has been pointed out below, the Star Spangled Banner was written by racist, slaver Francis Scott Key.
It was written by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist pushed out of his post as a Baptist minister for delivering pulpit‐pounding sermons on such topics as “Jesus the Socialist.” Bellamy was devoted to the ideas of his more‐famous cousin Edward Bellamy, author of the 1888 utopian novel Looking Backward. Looking Backward describes the future United States as a regimented worker’s paradise where everyone has equal incomes, and men are drafted into the country’s “industrial army” at the age of 21, serving in the jobs assigned them by the state.
It was written by Francis Scott Key, a racist and slaver. They probably love that about the author.
What the actual fuck.
Also, how many people have the vocal range to actually sing it?
Meanwhile in Michigan they're trying to make community College free...
BOOKS are Indoctrinating kids!
Does it specify which verse?
Or could the teacher choose to require their class sing the 3rd verse?
These people are psychopaths. Stop playing their game and openly call them idiots.
I hope there’s this one fabulous theater kid who belts it out in different arrangements everyday and also dances while singing it. And in other days plays an instrument.
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