This School Teaches Kids About Patriotism Every Single Day in 10 Easy Steps
It has become frighteningly obvious to conservatives that many public schools have increasingly become nothing short of indoctrination centers that teach young students anti-Americanism.
But according to American Thinker, at least one public charter school in Phoenix, Arizona has gone a different route and made patriotism and a love of America a focal point in their lesson plans.
Founded by two teachers who grew up in third-world countries as the daughters of an Air Force veteran and oil industry executive, Carole Challoner and Barbara Darroch created Benchmark school to instill a sense of gratitude and patriotism in their students.
Here’s how they do it:
1) At the beginning of each school year, students are taught “The Star Spangled Banner” and the pledge of allegiance, as well as the meaning behind each stanza and specific words, not to mention the history of the American flag. Throughout the year, students from various grades take turns leading the rest of the school in reciting the pledge each morning to begin the day.
2) The school holds an outdoor assembly on Sept. 11 each year in honor of the victims of the attack. Each class also sings a grade-appropriate patriotic song as two new flags are raised in remembrance. At the end of the year, those flags are then given to the two students who best exemplified “good citizenship” throughout the year.
3) In October, the students help collect thousands of jars of peanut butter and jelly which are then donated to Packages From Home, an organization that ships care packages to military members deployed overseas.
4) At some point in the year, the school holds a naturalization ceremony for new citizens, some of whom visit classrooms and explain to the students why they left their home countries, why they wanted to become citizens and what American citizenship means to them.
5) On Veterans Day, military veterans are invited to speak in each classroom and share with the students why they served and why service to the nation is so important. Students write notes of appreciation to the veterans for their sacrifice, and then the vets are honored in an assembly. The school also keeps a bulletin board in the office so staff and students can honor other staff and family members who have served as well.
6) For two weeks around Thanksgiving, students are taught lessons about the pilgrims, their journey to America and the challenges they faced in the early years prior to the formation of this nation.
7) In December the students and their families are encouraged to participate in Wreaths Across America, placing special Christmas wreaths on the graves of fallen service members at the National Memorial Cemetery, particularly those with no family to honor them. The school’s choir also performs.
8) Also in December, classrooms pair up and adopt a military family through the chaplain at Luke Air Force Base in order to purchase Christmas presents and food for children of military families.
9) Throughout the year, but particularly on Veterans Day and Memorial Day, students write essays about the holidays and patriotism, and the ten best are chosen to read their essays aloud in an assembly. Essays are also submitted into contests held by various patriotic groups — such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, Constituting America, the VFW and the Elks Club.
10) Finally, a retired Benchmark teacher named Nancy Arnold — who has written a children’s book about the American Revolution — dresses as first lady Martha Washington in honor of President George Washington’s birthday, and teaches the students what she knows about the nation’s first president.
On top of all that, each classroom features a picture of Uncle Sam asking “What Are You Doing to Protect the Constitution?” and the students are taught that it is their duty and responsibility to protect and defend the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Classrooms also feature a picture of the president, the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence and Preamble to the Constitution.
Incredible.
It would be wonderful if other schools adopted some, if not all, of these practices in order to help foster a patriotism and love of country through understanding sacrifice and service.
American children deserve to know what makes this country special, and Benchmark students are blessed to have that knowledge imparted to them in school.
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