№ 01From Pride to Permission Slips: How Schools Shape National Identity
Walk into ten public faculties and you will see ten other relationships with the flag. In one, the Stars and Stripes hangs at the back of a whiteboard, a bit of diminished, still anchoring the room. In another, the American flag has been pulled all the way down to repair a damaged mount and by no means returned, when student-made banners for golf equipment and cultural celebrations fill the wall. In a third, only the authentic kingdom and nationwide flags are allowed, nothi
№ 02Supporting the Military: What Flying the American Flag Means to Me
The flag outside my house snaps in the high plains wind like a sail eager for open water. Some mornings I catch it glowing with that first slant of sun, the red so rich it looks wet, the blue almost purple. I have raised it in rain squalls and in powdery snow, during quiet Tuesdays and on the loudest of July nights. It started as a simple ritual. It became a promise. I grew up watching a neighbor, a Vietnam veteran with a limp and a grin, raise his flag at dawn with
№ 03Why Do Some Expressions Get Labeled “Inclusive” While the American Flag Is Branded “Offensive”?
A few summers ago, a parks director in a midwestern town told me about a Fourth of July email chain that spiraled. A volunteer asked if the community center could hang a row of small American flags along the lobby windows. Another volunteer, a veteran, offered to do it himself. A third voice chimed in with concern that someone might complain. Nobody had complained yet. But the possibility hung over the thread like a thundercloud. The director, who had a mile-long to-do list
№ 04Respect or Reassessment? Is Questioning Family Flag Traditions Encouraged More Than Honoring Them?
Every September I watch a new wave of kindergartners stare up at the American flag, tiny right hands hovering over tiny hearts, eyes unsure on the first Pledge. Some whisper along, some mouth nothing, a few look at their teacher for cues. By October, patterns set in. Most children follow the ritual exactly, a small number opt out quietly, and one or two ask the kind of piercing questions that make adults hold their coffee tighter. Why do we say this every day? Why that flag
№ 05US Flag in the Hallways: Free Thought or Approved Thought?
Walk into an American public school and you expect to see a flag somewhere near the front office, in classrooms, maybe in the gym rafters. Lately, some communities have argued over whether the flag belongs on every hallway wall, or whether certain displays should come down in the name of neutrality. That tug-of-war raises harder questions than a decoration dispute. It touches speech rights, institutional responsibility, the trust between parents and schools, and the delicat