Thursday, November 04, 2010

Something to make the Right look stupid...

Mom upset over son's assignment to recite Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish.

Just heard this on Joe Pags's show.

Here's the thing.  I was all ready to piss my britches about this.  I'm the one who was disgruntled by Bobbie skipping over Constitution Day because it falls during Hispanic Heritage Month.

And then Pags started reading the story:

Melissa Taggart says she was delighted that her son was learning a foreign language in the eighth grade -- until she learned he was expected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish.

So, the kid is in Spanish class when this happened.  And yet, Mama gets her panties in a wad.

I took German in junior high and high school, and Russian in high school.  At least one year, I had German during first period, which of course was when we said the Pledge.  We did not translate it into German and say it in German.  We never translated it into Russian, either.

However, I've got to say it makes perfect sense to translate something you know by heart into a language you are learning.  It makes a lot more sense than translating something randomly, in fact.

The parents look like absolute xenophobic asshats here, to be quite frank.  Especially given the fact that they were made aware of the assignment at the beginning of the year and offered the opportunity to request a substitute assignment.

Honestly, given that they didn't complain until after Little Darling earned a big fat 0 for the assignment makes me think it's less about how "wrong" it is to learn the Pledge in Spanish and more that Little Darling didn't bother learning it, and they're making a fuss after the fact to hide that he's a lazy schlump.  As the saying goes, never assume malice where stupidity fits.

2 comments:

Charlene said...

We didn't have foreign language in grade and middle school but I took French for 2 years in high school.

I wish I'd learned something useful like Russian or Spanish. The way you define an American is generally a person who knows only one language.

the pistolero said...

I took French too. Amazingly, I have yet to meet anyone who speaks it as a primary language. I would've taken Spanish too.

WV: reherst. Why no, my answers to the interviewer's questions this morning were NOT rehearsed..