oh no! not the pledge in other languages!

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

http://www.nbc4i.com/education/4271505/detail.html

Teen Protests After Pledge Recited In Foreign Languages

UPDATED: 10:04 am EST March 10, 2005
MILLERSVILLE, Md. -- A ninth-grader is protesting the broadcasting of the Pledge of Allegiance in foreign languages as part of National Foreign Language Week.

"This is America, and we got soldiers at war," said 15-year-old Patrick Linton. "When you're saying the Pledge in a different language which nobody understands, that's not OK."

Linton said he and other students at Old Mill High School sat down rather than stand Wednesday when the pledge was read in Russian over the school's public address system. Linton's teacher told him if he had a problem, he should leave the room, Linton told The (Baltimore) Sun. He did, and he does not plan to return this week.

Charles Linton, Patrick's father, said the use of other languages is disrespectful to the country.

"It's like wearing a cross upside down in a church," said Charles Linton of Glen Burnie.

School system officials said the activity will continue, with the English version of the Pledge being read first for the rest of the week.

"This is just a way to connect what's going on in the classroom and this daily activity where we say the Pledge of Allegiance," said Jonathan Brice, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Public Schools. The pledge was to be read in Spanish, French, Latin, Russian and German.

Brice pointed out that students must complete two years of foreign language study to attend the University of Maryland.

Linton was absent from school on Monday. At the end of his class Tuesday, the announcements came over the loudspeaker as usual, he said. But the Pledge was recited in another language - French, he later found out.

"I looked around, and I was like, 'What's going on?'" Patrick said. "We're at war right now, and our schools are supposed to be patriotic," he said.

Bret Lovejoy, executive director of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages, said, "America is about promoting democracy."

He described translating the Pledge as "an innocent and harmless way to get children interested in other languages."

Morons