I pledge a what?

For the past month, I've been enjoying my time off from school by doing things around our house like organizing the basement and garage and putting in a backyard and fence. It felt great to get everything done that has been bothering me. I was living in my own little world enjoying my life. Then, the kids went back to school and I was brought back to reality with a bang!

My kids are in kindergarten and first grade, so last year we had our first experience with our local public schools. All in all it wasn't too bad. This year, however, has started out with an influx of issues. First, my son came home the first week of school and told us that he had to say the pledge of allegiance in school everyday. I try not to push my own feelings on my children, so I simply asked him how he felt about it.

The first thing he said was that he thought it was weird that it talked about god . He told me that he didn't understand all the words and wanted me to tell him what they all meant. I gave him a basic rundown...I promise to be loyal to my flag and country. We are one nation that cannot be divided and we think everyone should be free and be treated fairly. I didn't mention the "under god" part in my explanation because I went on to explain to him that the original pledge did not have those words. It was added when grandma & grandpa were little.

After my explanation, I asked him what he thought. He thought it was OK, but was concerned because our country is not the only good country. He also wanted to know if he could say it without the god part since that was the way it used to be. So, I told him that he could leave that part out if he wanted. In fact, he isn't required to say the pledge at all. But, if he chose not to say it, he needed to be aware that some people might not like that and he would need to be quiet and respectful of the other people who were saying it.

He seemed satisfied with our discussion. The next day, I asked him how it went at school. I guess he decided to stand and look at the flag, but he didn't say the words. A little girl saw that he wasn't talking and decided to talk to him about it. She told him that he HAD to say it. Since he needed some reassurance that I knew what I was talking about, we decided to look up the court decision on this topic. I also explained that there are many people who don't know the history of the pledge of allegiance and they might think that you do have to say it. So, if this little girl tells you this again, you don't need to be rude to her, nicely explain that you've talked to your mommy about it and don't argue with her. This seems to have solved this problem. But then...

He came home from school with a little sticker from the Boy Scouts of America. A representative came during the school day dressed up in a fun costume telling the kids how much fun scouting is. Of course, he was really excited and wanted to go to the informational meeting. I explained to him that the group that is in charge of scouting is not nice to all people. They only let certain people join. If someone doesn't believe in god or if a boy loves another boy, they won't those people join their group. That is not a nice thing to do so mommy doesn't want our family to be a part of that group.

The problem is that they came back again and gave him a flyer...the information meeting is tonight. He is SOO excited about this and wants to go to the meeting. We just aren't sure what to do. I do not want to support this organization...I was sort of hoping that he might forget about it :) I know...wishful thinking.

So, now I am faced with two dilemmas. Should we or should we not go the information meeting? and Should I or should I not contact the principal about my concerns that he allowed a discriminatory group to try to coerce my child into joining its group? In an extreme analogy...would they allow the KKK to try to recruit kids and then when the minority children showed up turn them away? No, it's not OK for a public school to support a discriminatory organization.

Wow, this is all in the first 2 weeks of school. I wonder what the rest of the year will be like...let alone the rest of their school years!