Hey there, side dorables. It's that time again. Bag lunches, fresh notebooks, tearful goodbyes,

the smell of fresh eraser. That's right, back to school. But while the kids and teens,

and maybe even you college students, are heading back to class, we're still a few weeks away from

the start of our new season. I'm actually at the beach

right now. Just kidding, I'm not. But you can pretend I am. Let's just imagine I'm at the beach.

Until our new season kicks off, we've curated a playlist of our favorite episodes from other shows

and our own back catalog. And since it's back to school time, we wanted to bring you an episode

on the Pledge of Allegiance.

Where did it come from and how did it become a staple in the American classroom?

Turns out, it's had quite the evolution over the years.

So we hope you enjoy our episode about the pledge.

The new season starts soon.

Oh, and don't forget to bring an apple for your teacher.

This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.

I'm Lizzie Peabody.

There are a couple of sounds that immediately take me right back to school.

And the school bell is one of them.

This is one of many school bells that we have that has an eagle on the top.

This is Debbie Schaefer Jacobs.

She's curator for the History of Education Collection at the Smithsonian's National

Museum of American History. So we have them with eagles, we have them with Liberty Bells, we have,

you know, a lot of patriotic school bells. Debbie's showing me some of the things you might find

...