“Wolf Pack Chant” to Replace Pledge of Allegiance at Atlanta School

The Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School has announced that it will be ditching the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and replacing it with the Wolf Pack Chart.

Unlike the Pledge of Allegiance, the Wolf Pack Chant has yet to be written:

“Wolf Pack Chant’ will be a new pledge created by the students and teachers. [elementary campus president Lara] Zelski said the pledge, most likely named after the school’s wolf mascot, will “focus on students’ civic responsibility to their school family, community, country and our global society.”

You've got to love it: elementary students get together and write a chant to replace the Pledge of Allegiance.

You may or may not think the Pledge is eloquent.

But it is patriotic and simple and a good way to honor our country at the beginning of the school day.

Here, however, is what should really worry us:

Zelski said school officials made the decision to eliminate the morning tradition based on events in the last few years where “more and more” students and staff have chosen not to recite or stand during the pledge.

“There are many emotions around this and we want everyone in our school family to start their day in a positive manner.

"Personally, I hope every student will stand for our flag," superintendent Allen Sell told WJAC-TV in April. "But if they choose not to, that's their First Amendment rights and we, as school leaders, have the responsibility to respect that. The topic of standing, or not standing, has been getting a lot of national attention, most commonly because of protests at NFL [National Football League] games.”

So kids at a K through eighth grade school are deciding at a tender age that they don't want to stand and honor the flag, a flag that stands for the most inclusive nation on earth.

No, I don't think kids should forced to stand and recite the Pledge.

But this lack of appreciation for the US at such an early age is distressing.

Can't they at least wait until the ninth grade to diss the flag and the generations that have gone before, sacrificing to preserve freedom and opportunity?