Since kindergarten, students have echoed the Pledge of Allegiance, daily, throughout classrooms. But what do these words really mean to students? Why do students have to do this at all? Last month in Brownsville, PA, an eighth-grade girl politely refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. After being repeatedly punished with detentions and then filing a lawsuit, the district decided to drop all previous disciplinary action that had been established. This situation raises the question of how such circumstances would be handled at Freedom. Here, teachers seem to enforce the pledge, but in a discrete, less dramatic manner. However, no student has ever disagreed with the process enough to escalate it into such extreme measures. If it were to become an issue, we would hope that at Freedom, students would be given the same option: to sit quietly if desired, because the whole process has become noticeably outdated. What was at first a national tradition developed to display patriotism has, over time, turned into a repetitive, significantly less meaningful pledge to a piece of cloth. Students are not striving to show their patriotism each day as U.S. citizens. Rather, they are just mumbling off a phrase that has been cemented into their brains. Standing and saying the pledge should not be enforced, because it takes on a different meaning to different people. If a student wants to stand and proudly state the pledge, he or she should be allowed to do so. If a student wants to simply stand out of respect but not murmur the words, let him or her. If a student wants to sit quietly and respectfully without disrupting the motives of the other students, then that should be okay, too. Just because a student does not want to recite the Pledge of Allegiance doesn’t mean that the individual hates America; patriotism can be shown in many other ways. America was founded by free-thinkers who expressed their opinions, so loving America means accepting that. Enforcing such a policy, when you really think about it, doesn’t make sense. Are those in cyber-school required to say the pledge? In the work environment, adults do not stand and praise the flag on a daily basis. So, if we’re raised to be well-rounded adults, who are able to make our own, opinionated decisions, shouldn’t we have the choice?