Let me start this story by explaining the reason I am writing it. For those who may have missed it, on Nov. 11, the national anthem played on the morning announcements.

At the time, I was in health class. When the song began playing, I looked around to see what others thought, and saw that most of my classmates were doing the same. Eventually, people stood up and put their hands over their hearts—the traditional response to hearing the national anthem.

Now, most people could speculate as to why the national anthem was played on Veterans Day. But what few people questioned was “Why don’t we listen to the national anthem every morning?” or “What ever happened to reciting the Pledge of Allegiance?” I traveled to the main office to find out.

“I requested that the national anthem be played on Veterans Day because I think that they deserve special recognition,” counselor Sheila Oliver said. “Mr. Guiney approved the request, and so the song was played.”

But unfortunately, this only answered one of my three questions—why the song was played—but of the three, that question was the least important. The other two questions boil down to “Why don’t we recognize our country and our nationalism every day?”

Despite the fact that the administration is unaware of any policies or regulations prohibiting the national anthem or the Pledge of Allegiance, neither are ever played or recited. When we heard the national anthem this Veterans Day, it was the very first time in my four years at Grady.

I know that most Inman students recite the Pledge, and most elementary school students do too. I even recited the Pledge at my elementary school in northern Virginia.

So what is it about high school that stops the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance?

“I almost never recite the Pledge of Allegiance anymore,” senior Shaina Cordas said. ”I would be fine to say the Pledge, but they [the administration] never prompts it on the announcements.” Cordas attends Greenbrier High School in Augusta.

I remember from elementary school that if any student did not wish to recite the Pledge, he or she didn’t have to. So the reason certainly can’t be that the administration doesn’t want to force people into reciting the pledge. The only other possible reason I can think of is that the administration feels that reciting the Pledge takes too long during instructional time. Somehow, they’ve gotten it in their heads that taking two minutes out of the day to recite the Pledge significantly detracts from the learning that could take place during a 90-minute class period.

If this is the case, I think that the administration needs to reconsider the benefits of reciting the Pledge or playing the national anthem. In the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, students were taught that the United States was the best country in the world. Why shouldn’t we instill a little nationalism into our lives? Look what the students from those decades went on to accomplish—landing on the moon, creating the computer and dreaming up the Internet. I think that Grady and America at large could use a more national spirit, and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance or playing the national anthem is a great way to build it.