why Spanish and sign language? What about Cherokee, Italian, and Chinese? This just sounds like a waste of time to me.

Since we don't have an official language, and the pledge is not required to be spoken in english, AND it's not required to say the pledge, what's the big deal?

I mean, seriously, it's not like they're being told that MExico is better than the U.S.

Americans can be idiots when it comes to anything involving Mexico. The Southwestern Desert Museum near my house quit flying the Mexican flag because of protests from idiots like these.

My question is why the teacher uses the Pledge of Allegiance as a teaching tool [for language]? Reciting the Pledge should be optional in the first place. So if you want your students to learn two extra languages by repetition, you should use something which doesn't amount to signing a contract with a political system.

Do you really think that would solve the problem? If she was having them recite 'Ring around the Posies' then

The flower-lovers would protest that posies were being picked ending their lifespans.

The parents would complain that we were teaching kids to make light of a plague.

The lawyers would get involved and a debate would ensue about whether we were allowed to teach 'Morbid death poetry' in schools.

The German-American community would demand to know why it wasn't in German as well as English and Spanish and ASL.

The AAoRRP (Association for the Abolition of Ring 'Round Posies) would get involved....

It's a good learning tool...the words to pledge are commonly known, it's long enough to pose a challenge but not so long that it's impossible to memorize. At my high school, we used to say blessings in French and Spanish before going to lunch and we'd do the Lord's Prayer in Latin during Latin class. Of course, we were a Catholic school so we could get away with prayer.

I don't think anything that enriches a kid's lingual skills is a waste of time. And Spanish and ASL are much more common and useful in our country than, say, Chinese or Italian.