The Pledge of Allegiance should be required in schools of the U.S.A

Thank you, Con. I enjoyed reading the well-entertained and detailed arguments you brought forth! This round is rebuttals only, but this rule is not strict so I do not mind new contentions if you have any more to bring on spotlight. Refutations: Con states, "America is a nation founded, as the rhetoric loves to remind us, on liberty and democracy." This is where the semantics and technicality gets confusing. First, we must understand how we can't talk about America from a structurally constitutional and patriotic perspective unless we are allegiant to the nation's foundation and leaders. If you aren't willing to speak the Pledge of Allegiance, you are not loyal to the nation's foundation and leaders, so you can't jump up and blurt the laws of Americans' freedom and use that as a defense for not saying the Pledge. "...by mandating people to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, we are not instilling loyalty and patriotism." Reciting the Pledge will make the citizens of America think about the substructure and contents of the U.S.A. Con states, "If anything, we are sowing the seeds of confusion, as people are being forced to sweet-talk liberty, and we may even be fostering resentment." These people under the rule of reciting the Pledge are students, and rules are common among the education environment. A rule does not violate America's fundamentals, and definitely not the Constitution. Reciting the Pledge means you are on the side of America. When you are pro-America, you are also pro-Constitution. Thus, saying the Pledge of Allegiance--which demonstrates being pro-America--is not hard to ask of citizens of the great nation on subject. Especially because rules for minors do not change the value of the Constitutional laws, making the Pledge mandatory in schools does not violate America's foundational concepts. "Indoctrinating people into a belief system is far inferior to having them choose it." Are you saying that you either choose to be pro-America, con, or undecided? Because I am saying that all people But there are many instances in schools across America when an opinion is taught as fact or information is brought to a one-sided conclusion and taught as truth to the kids. When kids state their allegiance to the country they live in, they choose to be pro-America. Under what circumstance would we want the students to be disloyal to their nation? The fact that some students don't understand the principles of patriotism is another reason the Pledge should be enforced. It's a learning system. If they don't like America, why do they go to American-government funded schools? http://www.pewresearch.org... "This means that constitutional rights, such as the freedom of speech, do, in fact, apply to students and are relevant to this discussion." Then why does the 2nd Amendment say we have the right to bear arms yet in most places minors are not allowed to own guns? The "under God" part implies the beliefs of our Founding Fathers, the ones who structured this country in the first place, and it presumes that the nation was under God when it was created. Debates have concluded that when students say the Pledge, "under God" may or may not be quoted, whether the recitation is required or not. "...a compulsory Pledge will, in fact, discourage critical thought...I believe...We know that the more times one does something, the less they have to think about it." Con states this as an opinion, because it obviously isn't fact. Both mine and Con's arguments about the thought process are opinions that can't be fully backed up with facts. I believe that the more times one says something the more they will remember it through out their life and the more they will consider the words/meaning. Again, this is opinion but now that we have both stated our positions, we can drop this particular subject. My opponent says that it is respectful enough, if not more respectful, to sit in silence instead of joining in the recitation. Yet he grants that saying the Pledge is professional (and respectful). His stance in his final paragraph does not prove anything according to the resolution. My case here, if nothing else, is that it should not be a problem for students to recite the Pledge even if they don't fully recognize the contents, because memorization is good for the brain and it expresses professionalism and respectfulness even if they don't realize it. If saying the Pledge was mandatory it wouldn't do any harm and might even cause things for the better. Thank you, Con! I look forward to the next round. http://homeschoolpool.info... http://www.huffingtonpost.com... https://www.lib.rochester.edu... http://www.huffingtonpost.com...