From a reader:

Jonah,
I respectfully disagree that it is wrong to force children to recite the Pledge. I recognize this is not what is at stake in this case, but even if I was I would not have a problem with it. The public has an interest in promoting love of country and patriotism. As Walter Berns so eloquently wrote a few years back, patriots are made, not born. Do we think that people will naturally have the kind of devotion to country that will require sacrifice necessary for any regime to survive? Devoid of any public support, do we expect that a decent patriotism can survive? Do we now say that pride in country, what one might call a public pride, must be a purely private matter? This is a silly argument. This is taking individualism and the public/private distinction to the point where the public is no longer able the defend itself.

I should clarify that I would want my kids to be forced to say the Pledge at whatever school they go to. But I can’t deny that making it obligatory strengthen’s the atheit’s case. Moreover, I do think parents should be the final authority on such things.