The scoop on the Stars and Stripes

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- Children sat wide-eyed and wary, listening intently to

what they were told was their flag speaking to them.

It was an old, booming voice that gave a bit of history about Old

Glory, including how it came by that nickname.

Each morning before classes begin, children all over the country place

their right hand over their hearts and pledge their allegiance to their

flag and country.

It becomes second nature to children, to recite that pledge.

In their third year of this somber tradition, second-grade students at

Kaiser Primary Center learned a bit about the flag they salute each day.

Speakers from the Costa Mesa Orange Coast Lions Club tried to give

students a better understanding of the importance of the Stars and

Stripes and the reasoning behind the reverence.

There is meaning behind the flag’s three colors, the children were

told: red for courage, white for liberty and blue for loyalty. Students

also learned that the seven red stripes and the six white ones stood for

the 13 original colonies of the United States.

Students watched and listened intently as Lions Club members explained

how the appearance of the flag that was flown in 1775, with its British

flag in the corner to show ties to the mother country, was altered over

the years to become the flag flown today.

In a show of proper respect for the flag, the Costa Mesa Fire

Department Color Guard presented the flag.

When the men marched in, children stood. Some covered their hearts.

One student, Spencer Lindsay, 7, cupped his right hand over his eye in an

attempt at a salute.

As the color guard’s trumpet player performed the “The Star-Spangled

Banner,” children began to sing softly.

It seemed an amazingly patriotic reaction, until the next segment of

the assembly.

It seems it was one of several songs children had learned for the

occasion. One after another, children sang patriotic songs accompanied by

their music teacher on the piano.

As children filed out, each was given his or her own small flag and an

information sheet to reinforce some of the information they had learned.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a campus within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District and writes about her experience.