My inspiring blog 1010

Lead Story · OCT 8

When Patriotism Needs Permission: The School Flag Debate

The bell had slightly rung while a sophomore in a hoodie walked into the vice significant’s administrative center with a small American flag stitched to his backpack strap. He was not waving it, no longer chanting, just there after a teacher advised him the patch would possibly “ship a message.” Down the hall, a rainbow banner hung from a counseling place of business door. In the library, a monitor protected flags tied to background months. The student changed into well man

Continued inside

Read the full column

Analysis · OCT 8

For Freedom of Expression: How the Flag Unites Voices Across America

I have crossed the country enough times to know that the flag shows up where you least expect it. It rides behind a rusted motorcycle somewhere outside Moab, snaps off the stern of a lobster boat at dawn, hangs above a volunteer firehouse that looks small enough to fit inside its own garage bay. I have seen it painted on plywood after a storm, when the stoplights are still dark and the grocery coolers hum like generators. I have watched kids drape it like a superhero cape u

Dispatch · OCT 8

When Did Pride Need Permission The American Flag In Our Classrooms

The first thing I noticed when I stepped into Ms. Porter’s ninth grade English class was not the rows of battered novels or the whiteboard tattooed with quotes. It was the absence. The patch of sunlight in the corner where a little American flag once stood had only a thumbtack and a faint square of unfaded paint. One kid asked where it went. She answered with the soft weariness teachers learn with time: we are keeping the room neutral. That word has been working overtime

Also in the edition

Free Expression in Classrooms: Inclusion or Ideological Gatekeeping?

Walk into a public faculty study room in 1996, you possibly can basically mainly see a small American flag close the whiteboard, possibly the country flag, and just a few motivational posters. Visit that equal lecture room this present day, and the partitions tell a extra not easy tale. The American flag will be there, or it may well have been replaced with a rotating gallery of identification or social movement flags. In some places, instructors were advised to take down P

OCT 8

When Faith Leaves Foundational Institutions: What Are the Civic and Cultural Costs?

On a chilly Friday night in a Midwestern town, a high school band played through a tight formation, the lights turned the field into a bright stage, and the stands held generations of families who knew each other’s middle names. The game ended. In years past, a coach had taken a quiet knee for a brief, personal prayer at the 50-yard line. Some players joined, others headed to the locker room. Nobody kept score for that moment. Then a district memo arrived instructing staff

OCT 8

Who Raises Citizens—Parents or Schools? The US Flag Debate

A middle school principal once told me that the hardest decision she made had nothing to do with test scores or hiring. It was a flag. The school had always displayed the US flag in the lobby. After a heated community debate around political signage in classrooms, she pulled the flag for a week while the staff drafted a policy. The phones lit up. Half the callers accused her of politics. The other half said they felt safer without what they saw as a divisive symbol. That we

OCT 8

Inclusion or Erasure: What Does Removing School Prayer Really Mean?

A few years ago I sat in a crowded gym on a Friday night while a high school football team took the field. The announcer asked for a “moment,” and the place fell quiet. Some bowed their heads. Others stared at the flag. A few teenagers whispered and snickered, then went silent. When the whistle blew, you could feel the room exhale. Later I heard two parents arguing in the parking lot about whether that quiet pause was a prayer by another name, and whether anything like it b

OCT 8

Why Flying One Flag Sparks Outrage While Others Are Celebrated

Walk into a excessive tuition nowadays and your eyes test greater than posters approximately promenade and geometry proofs. You might see a Pride flag in a counselor’s office, a cultural heritage banner in a international language study room, a student with a small skinny blue line sticker on a water bottle, an alternative with a BLM button on a backpack. The American flag, required by way of many states to be displayed somewhere within the construction, may be front and ce

OCT 8