Devil's advocate, I remember being taught it was illegal to let the flag get *wet.*

[demiurgent]

A social studies teacher named Dan Holden burned two American flags in front of his seventh grade social studies class. He didn't do it out of protest, or anger. He did it raise issues in class about freedom of speech. He assigned papers to the class, who were supposed to take a stand, in favor of protecting his speech or in favor of protecting the flag from desecration.

He did this thing to make the subject immediate and poignant -- not just another drab class discussion about an issue that feels at best remote and hypothetical to twelve year old kids. Which is remarkable, when one considers Holden was a veteran teacher, going into his twenty-seventh year at that school. A lot of teachers going into their twenty-seventh school year would just do what worked last year.

He has now been suspended, pending investigations of the "incident." The school has cited 'safety concerns' about open flame, which is thinly disguised dressing over the real issue at hand: the fact that he burned a flag.

Here's what I feel on the subject: Dan Holden wanted to make several points to his class. He wanted to teach them about freedom of speech most of all.

Well, I think it's safe to say those seventh graders have had an education in freedom of speech. I think every day their substitute teacher walks through the door of the class they're reminded of what Dan Holden taught them about freedom of speech.

Comments

[ocarina.livejournal.com]

I was about to say that, about properly burning flags. That's what I was taught in girl scouts, even that you'd have to burn the flag if you let it touch the ground. The point being that disrespect was the offense and since this was for flag ceremonies you were most definitely using the flag as symbol in context. Outside of the ceremony, though, it's not in context and you can wrap it up and keep it in a closet without worrying you've put the entire republic in the closet.

[troutman.livejournal.com]

Ditto, only I was a mighty Cub Scout. I had to learn how to fold that fucker up and everything, and if you let it fall - hoo boy, shit was ON.

That said, I think these kids were too young to really grasp the point the teacher was trying to make anyway. High school, maybe, but seventh grade? Shit. The highest thing on my priority list was collecting Star Wars micro machines. I'm pretty sure a symbolic example of free speech wouldn't have really registered on my radar.

[glamazonwarrior.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I was in advanced classes starting in the sixth grade; everyone in the classes had a pretty good grasp of such things, and I'd hazard to say that most school children have a better grasp of the Bill of Rights than most adults.

Even in the "average" classes I was in, we'd cover a whole range of topics and ideas, and most of the people would "get" them. Of course, we were also dissecting and analyzing news articles in elementary school as part of the social studies component.