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My first ever college writing assignment for my WRIT 150 course prompted me to examine a normative practice in education and to analyze its implications of the underlying values that shape education. Based on my personal experiences, I was immediately compelled to center my paper around the expectation for students in America to recite and adopt the pledge of allegiance. Although this longstanding tradition in education is typically overlooked, my paper argues that the expectation for students to adopt the Pledge reveals the educational system’s underlying value of adherence to authority. By calling upon my own personal elementary school experiences and observations, I claim that this educational norm jeopardizes a student’s freedom and impedes their ability to question the authority of their educators, of educational standards, and of the American state itself.plain2020-11-30T11:35:24-08:0037.09024, -95.712891
Alice Hernandez
Abstract
My first ever college writing assignment for my WRIT 150 course prompted me to examine a normative practice in education and to analyze its implications of the underlying values that shape education. Based on my personal experiences, I was immediately compelled to center my paper around the expectation for students in America to recite and adopt the pledge of allegiance. Although this longstanding tradition in education is typically overlooked, my paper argues that the expectation for students to adopt the Pledge reveals the educational system’s underlying value of adherence to authority. By calling upon my own personal elementary school experiences and observations, I claim that this educational norm jeopardizes a student’s freedom and impedes their ability to question the authority of their educators, of educational standards, and of the American state itself.