O(dd) Canada

Now this is a story I have never seen in the U.S.

A precis: An elementary school principal in a small New Brunswick school has decided to drop the singing of "O Canada," the country's national anthem, as part of its daily routine. The reason? Some of the parents don't want their children to participate.

I'm not sure why--though possibly the line "God keep our land glorious and free" has something to do with it.

I don't get it. I can see objecting to singing the national anthem every day because that's time that could be spent reading or learning multiplication tables, or, God help us, for anti-bullying workshops. But dropping the national anthem because the principal wants "every student to feel welcome" at school? Hmm.

Of course, I'm from a different time (1960s) and place (the southern U.S.). In third grade, we memorized the 100th Psalm as a class. We also sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee," known in Canada as "the song that they sing that's really 'God Save the Queen.'" I think that was daily, too.

Furthermore, we bowed our heads as a class for the third verse, "Our Father's God, to Thee, author of liberty, to Thee we sing." And you'll notice that I remember these words some 40 years later. (I also know the words to the theme song of Gilligan's Island and most of the lyrics to songs from The Music Man, so don't consider this a patriotic feat.)

I don't think it was just that the lovely and adorable Mrs. Boothe, my teacher for third grade, was particularly patriotic. It was what one did at school. I think we also said the Pledge of Allegiance every day. I know in high school, at our weekly pep assemblies, we always sang the national anthem AND the state song of Oklahoma. But I think that was partly because our state song was actually a good song.

These experiences didn't brainwash me. Surely you don't imagine by now that I'm blindly loyal to the U.S. I certainly carp and criticize everyone and everything, including church teachings. I even grouse about things in my adopted country.

But these experiences did give me a sense of the "rules" that I had to play by to learn, live, and work in that community--in other words, they taught me about the dominant culture. I don't know what would have happened if my parents hadn't been okay with my participation in that part of the culture, but I imagine they'd have made sure I knew it. They certainly didn't allow me to participate in everything the neighbo(u)r kids did.

For example, when the local skating rink gave free tickets for report cards with As, my parents didn't let me go cash in. They thought I should get good grades for no reason and not expect rewards or bribes. Yes, my friends thought I was weird and that my parents were "mean." And I still can't skate. But I'm over it. Really.

The other thing is, I cannot imagine this conversation happening in the U.S. Have I just not been paying attention to U.S. news? Is it just that I don't have kids in school?

Stay tuned--I bet this will generate discussion among Canadians. It will be interesting to see how that goes.