It seems that the teaching of religion in school is back in the news (under God, of course) this week. Since I have touched on this issue in the past, I'll weigh in again here.
This issue has two facets: The role of religion in education, and the teaching of beliefs in our public schools. The Pledge of Allegiance is not—in and of itself—religious, except perhaps for those two controversial words over which everyone is fighting. But then again, as a whole, making children recite the pledge is arguably indoctrination rather than education. It is always a good idea to avoid indoctrination in the schools, but I'm not so sure that teaching our students that they should defend our liberty and justice in the USA is a bad kind of indoctrination.
I think that the rule should be that indoctrination is okay only if it is considered illegal to do the opposite of what you are teaching. While it would be wrong to try to teach students that they should believe in one particular religion, teaching the students that they should stay away from recreational drugs is fine. This indoctrination is okay because preaching the opposite doctrine (i.e. encouraging drug use) would be illegal. Likewise, you wouldn't want to encourage your students to become terrorists or teach them to believe that the United States government is the work of the devil. Of course, it is not illegal to believe that the devil runs the United States Government, but such a belief is certainly motivation for illegal activity of the worst sort. We should thus encourage our public school teachers to teach the students respect for the individual freedoms we have in the USA.
The real question is whether the Pledge of Allegiance accomplishes this. An empty recitation of the pledge is not education (or indoctrination). A child could recite any string of syllables without having any idea what it means or whether the child believes in that meaning. I've actually heard school children mispronouncing many of the words in the pledge, simply because they don't understand them. I think it would be a far better use of the first few minutes of the school day to have the students do an activity that teaches them about our country and the values promoted in the U.S. Constitution. At least give them something to recite that they can easily grasp. A simple statement such as "We live in a country that lets us do what makes us happy. We should make sure that this country stays that way." is simple enough for six-year-old to actually understand. Maybe by the third or fourth grade students can begin reciting the actual pledge.
A person doesn't have to believe in God to be a good American. Nevertheless, the existence of a situation where an American is saying words and phrases that he or she doesn't believe in doesn't make it unconstitutional to ask Americans to say them. The last time I checked, we weren't forcing anyone. (It should be illegal to force people to recite the pledge.) We're also not forcing anyone to express beliefs and values that they don't subscribe to when we teach about religion in school. It is important for students to know about religious beliefs other than their own. With knowledge one can overcome the discomfort in being around people who hold different beliefs. No one should feel uncomfortable being in the presence of those who believe in God. And no one should be uncomfortable being in a room where the words "under God" are being spoken.
