Recently, it has come to agreement that students do not have to say the pledge because of the phrase, “under God”. This phrase can be considered praying and praying was made illegal in all public schools. Public schools got rid of starting the day with prayer because it offended some people and their religions. The praying aspect of publics schools was removed because it went against people’s religions or just made people uncomfortable. As more ethnic groups and religions started to come to America and go to school, the more people were becoming offended by the pledge. This is seen when FindLaw states, “As immigration multiplied the ethnic and religious identities of Americans, modernization efforts led by education reformer like Horace Mann gradually minimize religions influences in schools.” (FindLaw 2013) This shows that people did not like being told what to believe and say especially when it came to religion. They exchanged it with the moment of silence instead. So when prayer was removed, people starting to think about more things that could offend others and the Pledge of Allegiance was the next on the list. Many students refused to say the Pledge or their parents were placing lawsuits against the schools for forcing their children to say the Pledge. Since we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion, we do not have to be forced into …show more content…
A speech act is an utterance that has a performative function in language and communication. We use speech acts when we apologize, greet someone, request something, complain, refuse and want something. (CARLA 2015) The Pledge would be viewed as a speech because it uses verbal and nonverbal cues to enhance the act of saluting to the flag. The actual action of saluting to the flag enhances how the students and citizens are pledging, actually saying the Pledge of Allegiance, to the flag. Saluting the flag compliments the action of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. By doing this we enhance the Pledge and make seem more important and powerful. This is seen when Austin talks about performative uses of words. The words used in the speech are performative because they talk about doing an action and the action is saluting our flag. (Austin 1962) If we did not salute the flag while speaking the Pledge people might not take it as seriously and do it with as much respect as they do now. Speech acts make the message more powerful and the transmission view is how the message spreads. The transmission view is the most common and widely used form of communication in our culture and the main transportation of communication. It was created by James Carey and it is related to imparting, sending and giving information to