"Students in a Texas public high school were made to stand up and recite the Mexican national anthem and Mexican pledge of allegiance as part of a Spanish class assignment, but the school district maintains there was nothing wrong with the lesson.It happened last month in an intermediate Spanish class at Achieve Early College High School in McAllen, Texas — a city located about 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
Wearing red, white and green, students had to memorize the Mexican anthem and pledge and stand up and recite them in individually in front of the class."
When one American girl decided that she shouldn't have to pledge allegiance to another country just because her teacher of Mexican descent said she should, she and her father went to the Hispanic Principal who insisted she write a paper on the Mexican Revolution if she was going to refuse the original assignment.... The teacher went on with this exercise for the rest of the kids.
HERE is the whole article about the situation if you want more details.
I have sung in clubs in Germany and France, in those languages, and I know firsthand that learning lyrics in another language helps immeasurably with grammar, and in helping get the 'music' of the language into one's ears .....but to teach American kids another country's pledge and national anthem? Teach them "La Paloma" or "Besame Mucho"...They both have Spanish lyrics, too. Why not teach them poetry in Spanish instead of the Pledge?
What do you think? Was it necessary to make kids memorize another country's pledge? Wouldn't a poem in that language work? Or are we far too sensitive and nothing was meant by this?
(thanks for the tip, Elbro)
z
31 comments:
I guess it really depends on what the agenda of the teacher was.
Sounds suspicious, doesn't it?
Why the pledge, and not some poetry or other songs?
Should have assigned something relevant like a narco corrido.
When I lived in France, we learned the French National Anthem as a part of our learning the language.
But we saw no French learning the American National Anthem or the American Pledge.
This was backward, at best, and insidious at worse.
I will not pledge my allegience to any other country...and surely not to Mexico.
There is nothing wrong with knowing the Mexican pledge, but forcing a student to recite it?
Aren't these the same leftists who get their shorts in a bunch if God is mentioned in our pledge?
when we hear them singing our national anthem in spanish then we know it's already too late for us.
They were probably a bit too young for a "Comparative Government" class.... but then one man's "government" is another man's "religion."
I wonder if they were prompted to offer the "Ballamy Salute" whilst pledging?
¡Bandera de México!
Legado de nuestros héroes,
símbolo de la unidad
de nuestros padres y nuestros hermanos.
Te prometemos ser siempre fieles
a los principios de libertad y de justicia
que hacen de nuestra patria
la nación independiente, humana y generosa
a la que entregamos nuestra existencia.
Flag of Mexico!
Legacy of our heroes,
symbol of the unity
of our parents and our brothers.
We promise to always be loyal
to the principles of liberty and justice
that make our fatherland
the independent, human and generous nation
to which we give our existence.
I think it's the Bellamy Salute and I HOPE NOT :-)
CaliforniaGirl...scary, isn't it.
AB...sounds like they fell just short of that..and MX's government would have had to have been scored THE BEST
Z - 'students shouldn't have to recite the pledge of allegiance of
another country'
or even learn it.
That is getting in to a weird area.
o/t - I'll bet you had no idea how much better and more noble the Flea Bagger Movement is over those scuzzy anti-American Tea party racists... ;)
Joe - Your comment reminded my that in my h.s. French class we learned the French National Anthem - and I probably could still sing it today.
But that was strictly for fun - and I think a pledge of allegiance is very different.
I don't see the need to learn some other country's pledge of allegiance - except maybe if one was into pledge of allegiances and studying that subject on their own.
Well at least they taught you the right tune... the words could come "later". ;)
Anybody know the words to Die Wachr am Rhein? ;)
I didn't think so.
o/t - Uh-Oh! The country is in REAL trouble now. Kidnappers have abducted ToTUS...
...what will we do w/o our President?
When you are in McAllen, you do as the Mexicans do. However, reciting the Mexican pledge of allegiance sounds like a pay-back scheme of the Hispanics who control things down there. They don't like gringos, even though they enjoy the fruits of our country on this side of the border.
Talking about fruits, they grow the most delicious grapefruits in the Rio Grande Valley around McAllen. The Mexicans have always been the ones to pick the fruit, and I am sure they resent that, too.
I remember having to learn and memorize La Marseillaise in French class.
One of the best ways to understand a people is to learn the creeds and hymns that are important and central to their culture.
Speedy, I thought the same thing when I heard O's bus was stolen...the TELEPROMPTERS TOO? :-)
Dave, I think if you read the post again you'll see that we're in agreement about learning songs in different languages. TALK about the words in another nation's language, nobody has to memorize it. I'm pretty sure nobody felt the French were gaining on us.
I think this was about something else. And, I think if you were totally honest and read the link, you should have to agree.
Just a reminder. They can't make our American children say the Pledge of Allegiance to America, but they can to another country?
Dave, I think it would be more important if our own children were taught American history, beginning with our founders and the Constitution.
Somehow, that seems to be lost in the shuffle. Educators don't seem to have a problem with that. How about you?
I would prefer American children recite the pledge and anthem of our own country. There are many other poems or songs to use as part of a spanish curriculum.
Sue: Me too...
"Allons enfants de la patrie,
le jour de gloire est arrivé!"
McAllen, Texas is famous for this sort of thing. The local Chrysler dealer flies the holiday sized Mexican flag on Cinco de Mayo, I assume to attract Mexicans whose vibrant drug business allows them to purchase his cars. Students routinely run around the high school football stadium displaying the Mexican flag. Naturally, should anyone do a similar thing with the American flag in Mexico, outraged Mexicans would hang ’em from the highest tree (which, admittedly, isn’t very high). What I find amazing is that Mexico even has a “pledge of allegiance”; history tends to suggest that no one living in Mexico feels any loyalty to that shit hole —even their former presidents live in another country.
Cube - My husband and I were once at some social gathering(he was in the Army at that time).
There was a young Vietnamese man there who hardly could speak English but knew French.
So I remember going through the French National Anthem with him phrase by phrase - and trying to translate it into English. That was fun.
I have a cd of national anthems and the French anthem is one of the good ones(besides ours.) Others are also very rousing - some not as much.
'Come children of the country - the day of glory has arrived.'
Literally translated by me.
In 1961, Science Hill High School, Johnson City Tn, Senora La professora Thompson had us learn, sing and recite the Mexican pledge and the National Anthem in beginning Spanish.
No big deal. It was part of learning how to speak the language more fluently . We also learned a bit of history during that time in class.
It's blown all out of proportion by one little girl who didn't appear capable of learning the language. She sure doesn't have a command of the English language IMO. But it got her a lot of attention, didn't it. Her day in the sun will soon fade and it will or should be forgotten.
And the salute, called the "flag salute" was used in this country until 1942 when it was replaced by the hand over heart. Again whoopee, no big deal when using it in a class.
If its Spanish, then why not Spain's anthem or pledge?
Pris, that's exactly the point.
Our kids are learning how to stretch condoms over bananas and the Mexican Pledge of ALlegiance...not good signs.
Cube and Sue, I LOVE Les Marseilles....last time I looked, the French weren't flying their flag here or sneaking across the border, either.
And Cube..exactly so; teach them a nice Spanish song. NO PROBLEM.
Ticker, were Americans paying for Mexicans who snuck across the border and flew their flags over the American flag then? I think not.
Things have changed; who'd have worried back then? Of course nobody'd have cared. I wouldn't care today if this weren't the last 'cheese on the taco'! :-)
ELBRO: Why not Spain's anthem and pledge? WELL SAID :-)
SO logical...so true.
What do you expect? Our public school system patterned after the 10th Plank of the Communist Manifesto.
Mustang "Students routinely run around the high school football stadium displaying the Mexican flag. Naturally, should anyone do a similar thing with the American flag in Mexico, outraged Mexicans would hang ’em from the highest tree"
Are you KIDDING ME? some Americans would be outraged if students routinely ran around the high school football stadium displaying the AMERICAN FLAG! And that's no joke :-)
"Wouldn't a poem in that language work?"
Off course, but that wouldn't satisfy the inner fascist that lurks beneath many of the types pushing this sort of crap.
I wouldn't assume that their intentions were good, far too often, intentions are not good and neither are the outcomes irrelevant of the intentions.
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