[Student Reporters] Lack of Star-Spangled Banners on Campuses Sparks Discussion about Youth Patriotism

Da Ae Lee / <12th, Sunny Hills HS>

Seven high school students raised an issue last month about the absence of American flags in some classrooms and the seemingly little patriotism shown on several Fullerton Joint Union High School District [FJUHSD] campuses. In response to their requests to increase patriotic exercises, Fullerton district officials are expected to develop a new regulation this fall that will require all schools to participate in some form of daily patriotic activity.

While a meeting between the district officials and the Student Advisory Council has yet to take place until the fall, the district board took a step in addressing the concerns as early as this summer when it required all students attending summer school to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day.

Many students from Sunny Hills High School said they were a bit confused the first time they were asked to stand up and recite the pledge at the beginning of class in summer school. “It was really surprising because [reciting the pledge] was never a routine during the past three years. It was something new this year,” senior Esther Chong said.

Then upon further being notified that a new district policy may soon require students to do a daily patriotic activity during the school year, some students, like senior Grace Lee, reacted by acknowledging the lack-of-patriotism issue but showing reluctance about a daily patriotic exercise.

“I think students do lack patriotism, considering that some seem to passively say the Pledge of Allegiance,” Lee said. “But although patriotism is important, I don‘t think a patriotic activity should be implemented daily because not only is it time-consuming during school hours, it will eventually become a trite routine to students.”

However, in relation to the problem with some classrooms missing national flags, she stressed the importance of having one in every room. “The presence of national flags can have an impact on students’ minds by reminding us of huge factors, like important values, morals, and ideas that are part of our American culture,” Lee said.

Still others hold a different opinion. Senior Brian Park believes that flag or no flag, a person’s sense of patriotism depends not as much on the physical representation of the country as on the country itself. “I don‘t think [the flag] will make anyone more or less patriotic,” said Park, pointing out that the seeming lack of patriotism may not be the matter of students not showing enough patriotism but students not having enough to begin with.

“I think people will become more patriotic in response to how respectable this nation is,” he said. “Now Obama is generally a popular figure among the youth, and I think that because people like Obama, they will begin to like America. [Patriotism] will just continue to rise and fall with the public’s perspective with the American government.”

So it all began with some students‘ observations. But now, maybe it could go more. Maybe this event will be the next spark to a change even greater and more far-reaching, one that finds its strength from people’s unified endeavor to ameliorate the nation as a whole. After all, what potentially lies at the center of the issue is the magnitude of love, loyalty, and patriotism of America‘s future generation to what they must call home-“one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”