The announcements every day during the the last block of the school day have always arose challenges for Parkway South. Getting people to listen and pay attention have always been among the largest difficulties but this year a new challenge has arisen, in that we now must say the pledge at least once every day school day because of the new law that went into effective this school year. While in principle this is a good idea that would promote patriotism and a sense of comradery, the reverse has happened. Because of this either the announcements or the law should be changed to better reflect the law’s intention. An alternative would be to force schools to say the pledge at every assembly and sporting event, instead of everyday.

Before we get into the law, the first problem is the immediate problem, the announcements at South. They occur right at the beginning of seventh or eighth block when most classes are still loud and settling down. It is very difficult to hear the specifics of the announcements, and sometimes hearing them at all is difficult. While the responsibility could be put on teachers to quiet down their students that is difficult to enforce and many teachers would simply find it more useful to start teaching then to focus on announcements unrelated to their subject material. So the other alternative is to move the announcements away from the end of day to a different place during the day but you run into similar problems there as well.

Some say to move the announcements to during lunchtime, which also in principle is a good idea except that it fails greatly. During lunch the student body is even louder than they are during the start of a class, and even less likely to pay attention. People are walking around, getting food, eating outside, visiting the bookstore, using the restroom, or any other number of activities that cannot be done during the normal class schedule. So that leaves move the announcements to the morning. People are usually tired in the morning and less talkative, at least in all of the classes that I have been a part of. I do recognize that many of the same problems would still persist. People would still be settling down, and people who come in late would never hear the announcements but those seem like minor consequences for overall a positive change. Some of you might be asking at this point, why is this minor change necessary? Mainly to show more respect to the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Pledge is meant to be a sign of unity and patriotism toward our country, which can be achieved if it is recited out of respect. However it is currently not said out of respect. It is said out of necessity in a rush toward the end of the announcements, for example I was sitting in my eighth block class trying to listen to whether or not I would have my cross country practice canceled because of the weather. Then, when I finally caught the voice of the speaker over the announcements they were half way through the Pledge and no one in our class had even heard the voice. That is not very respectful when all of sudden half of the students in the class stand up to finish the Pledge while the other half doesn’t even bother standing. That is not the purpose of the Pledge, to see who can listen to the announcements the best. The purpose is to show respect for our nation out of sincere appreciation for our country. The sincerity in our Pledge is severely lacking. The sincerity is lacking from obvious evidence of Colin Kaepernick.

I hate to give him any more attention, but his symbolic protest is misguided. There is no problem with having an active citizenry except that if you want to gain respect you should show that same respect towards your country. That is the sort of respect that the law is trying to build and when people sit down during the pledge and disrespect the flag a law becomes even more necessary; the problem is that the law is not being implemented by schools the way it was designed.

Finally if Parkway South is not willing to change its policy for whatever reason the state should change their law. The law, while good in principle is not good in practice. It does not enforce the level of patriotism and unity that it has intended to employ. While the state will be very hesitant to change this, the most important changes still occur at the state level which is why local and state elections are so important.

Many may use the law as a standpoint as to why we need more stricter laws like this, because students are not currently respecting the pledge and the announcements but that is a severely limited view. Students are not loud during the announcements as a form of disrespect they are loud because of the opportunity. They see an outlet in which the teacher cannot start class but passing period has already ended so they start conversations in their own classes. These are not meant out of disrespect but out of opportunity to be sociable. Changing the law or the South policy would help a lot to accomplish what the law had originally intended. To show respect for our country.