students coming from secular families, their first introduction to religion comes from an unexpected venue: in the midst of the otherwise innocuous school requirement, the pledge of allegiance. Though by no means a prayer in the typical sense of the word, the pledge (which includes the lines "I pledge allegiance to the flag/of the United States of America/and to the republic for which it stands/one nation, under God" [emphasis mine]) toes the line between acknowledging America's Judeo-Christian history and, in a society that has growing numbers of atheists, agnostics, and polytheists, raising a subject matter that is irrelevant (or possibly even counterproductive) to having a welcoming educational environment.

The chief objection to the presence of theism in schools is not purely an ideological one. Rather, it is the consequential lack of open debate or discussion of the topic that results in theism's strange, duplicitous nature as both a constitutionally unmentionable...
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