First Amendment and Symbolic Speech:
Does Having Freedom of Speech Mean We Can Burn Our Flag?
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This material is part of a lesson on the First Amendment and Symbolic Speech: Does Having Freedom of Speech Mean We Can Burn Our Flag? This and other lessons based upon the Education For Freedom lessons on the First Amendment curriculum, will appear in January 2000 on Free!, the Freedom Forum Web site. Look on vajta.org and on Free! in 2001 for lessons you can use in your classroom.

Media Moment

Read the latest report on the proposed flag amendment to the United States Constitution. Write a one- to three-paragraph reaction to the latest action.

Procedure

Step one: Thinking about the flag

Whether your school recites the Pledge of Allegiance daily, begins every pep rally with the national anthem or has a flagpole in front of the building, most students regularly see the American flag and have it present in their lives.

In introducing this lesson and its series of activities, you may want to include a discussion about the flag's colors, design, history in American society and proper display.

You might ask if any Boy Scouts in the room can tell the class the protocol for disposal of the flag when it is tattered or worn. For citizens the procedure is codified in 36 USCA Sec. 176 Respect for flag; it states that "[t]he flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning." For Boy Scouts, the procedure begins by cutting the field of blue from the flag. Now it no longer is considered "Old Glory." Most procedures allow burning the two pieces separately; Boy Scouts cut away the stripes from each other and burn them separately.

Step two: Symbolic speech

A continuing First Amendment issue involves burning the American flag. Ask students to speculate about why burning the flag would be a First Amendment issue. Remind students of the guarantee of freedom of speech found in the First Amendment. Write the words symbolic speech on the board. Having discussed the symbolism of the red, white and blue of the flag, you are ready to extend their understanding of symbolic imagery to actions that are known as symbolic speech. Of what is the flag a symbol? What actions, events and concepts does it represent? Symbolic speech is an action that represents someone's thoughts or ideas.