[Sidenote: Honoring the Flag]
Miss Beardsley, of the Lincoln School in Newport, taught her class, by
many little talks and allusions to venerate the ideals of the national
flag rather than the flag itself. “Only noble-hearted persons have a
right to stand under that flag,” she often said. Then, when some
especially praiseworthy act had been performed by any child during the
day, she would call that one forward to stand under the flag that was
gracefully draped in the corner of her school-room, while the others
gave the salute just before going home at the close of the day’s
session. The children soon began to vie with each other, in helping a
younger child, in being polite, keeping desks tidy—anything that would
especially entitle them to stand under the flag—the greatest honor the
teacher could confer. Thus the pupils learned to associate true
patriotism, so far as a young child could understand it, with the symbol
of state control.