Every Wednesday is Flag Day at Hawthorne Elementary School in Everett. That’s when the school plays the National Anthem at 8:35 a.m. and educational assistant Gregory Green gathers three to four students to raise the flag the proper way.
The school is fortunate to have the retired Marine to take the time to teach willing students about flag etiquette and patriotism, in addition to spending each day tutoring youngsters in reading. After all, how many adults know the proper way to raise a flag?
Green, who spent more than 21 years serving this country, got the idea earlier this year when he listened to the school patriotic song of the day each morning. When the National Anthem came over the speakers on Wednesdays, he thought the flag should be going up with it. So he put out feelers to the teachers to see what kind of feedback he would get and here’s what he discovered: first-graders are big on flag-raising. And girls have responded more than boys.
"The first-graders more than anybody like to sing with the song."
Now, he has kids in almost every grade participating and many of them have participated more than once so he doesn’t have to train them each week.
Just talking about the flag gets Green excited. Have you watched the Marine Corps silent drill team from Bangor perform, he asks? Those guys are so nit-picky about the minutest detail and beat themselves up over the tiniest mistakes or missteps that the rest of us would never pick up on, he said.
Fortunately for the students, Green isn’t quite so detailed. Oh, he makes sure they perform their duties correctly. They know the flag can’t touch the ground or be raised upside down. And they can fold it in the appropriate triangle formation. But he hasn’t been able to get them to march out to the flagpole, yet.
Although most the students don’t have a firm grasp on the meaning behind the flag, they know Green takes it very seriously. And so do they, out of respect for him.
It’s all about giving "them a sense of patriotism. This is what everything is about. This is what I was in the military for — to stand behind this flag."
With people like Green working in our schools, the Greatest Generation should rest assured patriotism is alive and well.
The Annual Pause for the Pledge of Allegiance Flag Day USA is today at 4 p.m. (PDT). To learn more about the Pledge of Allegiance (such as, who wrote it and how many words have been added over the years) visit The National Flag Day Foundation, Inc. at www.flagday.org.
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