If children cannot understand the pledge, then they are too young for their loyalty to a free society to be important. Seriously, when could that issue come up

If children cannot understand the pledge, then they are too young for their loyalty to a free society to be important. Seriously, when could that issue come up for someone who is incapable of understanding it? Furthermore, the pledge is not some sort of "teaching through rote repetition". If it were, then why is it not done in social studies or american government classes (you know, like rote memorization of arithmetic tables is done in mathematics classes), why the emphasis on ritual (you don't stand up, face the front of the room, and salute a multiplication table...), and why does it continue past school grades for toddlers? What place does "rote memorization of why freedom is rad" have any place in, say, high schools? Those children are surely capable of receiving a proper lesson. And they get those proper lessons... but for some reason the pledge continues. I don't think your interpretation of what the pledge it is holds water in the slightest. You are trying to treat it as something that it simply is not. > "Do you think my 5 & 6 yr olds will understand my explanation of what Snowden did, and why?" I am suggesting nothing of the sort. Not sure why you would think I am suggesting that. > "I'd slap you in the nuts to get your attention. Maybe midwestern Americans take that differently." Yeah, on the coasts we don't take kindly to physical assault in retaliation for minor perceived slights. What the hell... I hope you are exaggerating.