Ms. Williams, Silver Creek’s faculty member who is about to retire this year.
“I’m gonna leave behind this and so will my seniors. We will leave our names on Silver Creek in this way...literally our names” - Ms.Williams, Silver Creek’s faculty.
We are used to kicking off our days with a customary morning routine: stand up, hand over the heart, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the US flag. Saying the pledge is supposed to be a way to increase our national pride and instill in our heart the sense of patriotism. Recently, the Pledge of Allegiance has been replaced with other speeches. Despite the positive messages of these speeches, the sudden missing of the pledge left a cloud of confusion among the students and faculties.
It has been three years since the decision was made to say the Pledge of Allegiance every day because according to the ED code, we must do something patriotic everyday and the pledge satisfies that requirement. While students are not required to participate the pledge itself satisfies the patriotic representation.
However, realizing the repetition of something that is important will soon result in an unavoidable consequence - its normalization, Margaret Williams wanted to do something different.
“I don’t want to do the pledge everyday. I truly do not. I want my kids to appreciate it once a week” said Williams. As a history teacher, she appreciates every little things about today’s society and America’s history, but to her, it is not patriotic and sufficient to do the pledge on a daily basis.
She noticed that there are some days that we don’t hear anything on the morning announcement because of AP test or testing in general. For years, she had been playing around the idea of doing something about it, but she didn’t have a chance to do so until this year.
“This is it, this is the year. I’m gone next year, I’m retiring. This is going to be my legacy,” said Williams. Thus, she and her government-econ students rolled up their sleeves, spending the entire second grading period working on the speeches. Together, they worked really hard on the timing, on the wording, Williams said, “They’re precious to everybody. There are blood, sweat and tears in every single piece of writing.” The speeches covered a wide range of topics including military heroes, capitalism, Asian American history and Black history. As Williams believes there are plenty of things to be proud of America, she and her students are working on new topics this semester so that they will have more speeches for the next fall. At that point, they then have a full year worth of speeches.
Williams said, “My hope is a teacher will take it up next year and they will create more. Then ultimately they will have two years of speeches. After that, they can roll off the old pieces and start adding the new ones.”
Not only does Ms.Williams want to raise the awareness about the pledge, but she also wants her students to express their own opinions. And by doing the speeches, the students have a platform to share how they feel about America. Williams said, “It [the speech] isn’t just from the teacher. It isn’t just from the government. It’s actually something that people can say... this is why I love America, this is why it’s important to be here.”