It's 8 a.m. in homeroom.

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

Cell phones 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.

Music Hello, everyone. Don Wildman here for American History Hit. Glad to have you.

Old Glory, the grand old flag, the 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? Who stitched

up the original one? And where did it fly? For most of us, there are many persistent questions about

the past history of our national emblem. And given current political climates in our nation,

the deep divide, the polarization we hear so much about,

we figured it would be a refreshingly unifying notion to find some answers on the one thing that's common to us all, the American flag.

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