Children are impressionable. That is the joy and the danger of childhood.

When my family lived in San Fransisco, when I went to high school, my little brother went to elementary school. At his school this recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

My brother, a Canadian, was uncertain what to do. And why not. How could he not do what all the good Americans around him were doing? How could he ask to be excused? What harm would this compulsory activity do?

When I was young, in Toronto, we not only sang God Save the Queen, we also said The Lord's Prayer. A Jew, whose family had never much benefited from Empire, or the Orange Order, my parents were not happy with their child being indoctrinated in something they weren't.

It seems to me that most of what the state, whether American, or Canadian, should be without any regard to the particularities of any particular religion, culture, etc. This is what I have referred to as a "modest preparation for democracy" here and here. (The phrase originates with Neil Postman.)

If you want to do it at home--and maybe you should--do so!

Schools are a place for exposure, in as supportive an environment as possible. Let the children come to their own decision.