It's 8 a.m. in homero.

It's 8 a.m. in homeroom.

Last minute school work hurriedly scribbled upon before the teacher walks in is nudged into textbooks.

Cellphones are stashed, hair straightened, past notes are crumpled.

Another school day in America is about to commence.

Without question, you stand collectively with your classmates. Place your right hand onto your heart and face the American flag in the corner of the room, reciting words you've spoken

every morning in school since kindergarten.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one

nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

It's automatic, its reflex, these patriotic words.

They begin the day as they always have.

But for several newly arrived exchange students who remain politely seated, it's anything

but.

Elsewhere in the world, such utter reverence for a nation's flag is unusual.

The Daily Pledge is a purely American ritual, one that literally speaks to our uncommon bond with our flag and all that

it represents, while at the same time calling into fair question how and why that attachment has been formed. Hello everyone. Don Wildman here for American History Hit. Glad to have you.

Old Glory, a grand old flag, a Star Spangled Banner.

The Stars and Stripes, well, some version of it anyway, has been the United States standard

since the early days of the Revolution back in 1777.

It was one of the first steps of national sovereignty we took as a nation,

creating our own flag. But who conceived of the first one and how? What were the influences

on the design?

...