I didn't make it up, I swear

[deird1]

Been reading lots of conversations about the American Pledge of Allegiance - and was struck, once again, by the fact that I have vivid memories of being in primary school and having to recite the Australian version - and yet, I have never met another Australian who remembers doing this.

It goes like this:

I love God and my country,
I will honour the flag,
Serve the queen,
And cheerfully obey my parents, teachers, and the law.

I swear I used to have to say this every Monday morning during school assembly. Even if I'm wrong about that, I've certainly said it enough times that I know the whole thing off by heart.

And yet, no-one I've talked to ever remembers doing this. So... possibly I'm delusional?

Comments

[vass]

My school never did that, but it sounds a little like the Girl Guide Pledge, I think? (I was never a Guide.)

We sang Advance Australia Fair at assembly. Just the first verse, but there was a poster up in the music room of the first two verses, so I memorised the second verse out of curiosity.

[jillofalltrades]

Yup, basically what I swore in guides - never at school, myself.

I promise to do my best,
To do my duty to God,
To serve the Queen and my country,
To help other people at all times,
And to keep the Guide law.

Mmm, rote memorisation for the win ...

[beer_good_foamy]

Heh. It's like I have vivid memories of days in first grade starting with the teacher sitting down at the pump organ and leading us all in singing a hymn - and whenever I tell someone this, they invariably tell me that that sort of stuff was gone from Swedish schools when I was, like, minus five years old. So either I had a very vivid imagination (I even remember which hymn), or my teacher was really old-school.

[klme.livejournal.com]

I did this too!! Totally remember this pledge too.

[swellen.livejournal.com]

We never did it, but apparently it's a thing:
http://www.flagsociety.org.au/australian_national_flag_salute.htm

[octavia_b]

I think the commenter above might be right - I vaguely remember something like that from when I was (very briefly) in Brownies but not from school.

[slaymesoftly]

Is it possible it was something your elementary school thought was a good idea? "obey my parents and teachers" sounds like it was written by somebody trying to control children as much as it is pledging to support their country. :)

[velvetwhip]

I used to have to recite the American version every morning.


Gabrielle

[kisekileia]

It could be that your school did it but most others didn't.

[immer_am_lesen]

Secretly, you went to school in the 1940s, and got here through a tear in spacetime...

[laazikaat]

Yes, we had to recite it every morning at my primary school, and I think even for the first few years at high school but my memories are not so clear for high school. (I watched Armstrong walk on the moon with my fellow students in the assembly hall at high school so we're going back aways here.)

[1c2k3p4p5c.livejournal.com]

We certainly recited that in the 50's

re: I didn't make it up, I swear

[(Anonymous)]

When I was in grade one or two (very early 80's) in Willow Grove, Vic we had a flag raising and oath every Friday.
It had vanished when we moved to Andamooka, SA

[shehasathree]

Ooh, me too!
(Primary school in Melbourne during the late 80s/early 90s.)

(Hi! Found you via lauredhel.)