(The Lion) — Novels by a former Navy SEAL helped inspire patriotism in Mississippi high school students who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
According to Fox News, Kelly McGinnis, a substitute teacher in Flowood, Mississippi, a Jackson suburb, was dismayed when more than half of his students wouldn’t stand during the pledge.
Although many of the students had family members who had served in the military, “they didn’t agree with some of the politics and policies” in the nation, McGinnis said.
Enter Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL task unit commander and sniper who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Carr has written more than 10 books, including the James Reece military thriller series and his latest, The Fourth Option, which came out last month. The No. 1 New York Times bestselling author also co-wrote a nonfiction investigation into the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon last year.
McGinnis assigned some of Carr’s books to his students at Northwest Rankin High School, and changes began to ensue.
“Not only were a lot more of the kids standing [for the Pledge of Allegiance], they were encouraging others to stand,” he told Fox.
McGinnis got to meet Carr during a recent book tour stop in Franklin, Tennessee, where he told him the story, which Carr said stood out to him more than other reader interactions he has had.
“The books, and the students sitting down with those books and reading instead of scrolling, made an impact,” Carr said.
His takeaway?
The story “highlights just how important a teacher is.”
For McGinnis, it shows the power of works rooted in “patriotism and the sacrifices that people, not only in the military but average citizens, were making for the common good.”
Reactions on social media ranged from praising the teacher and Carr for their work to questioning how society could produce so many students unwilling to stand for the pledge.
“You are free because of the sacrifices many gave over the last 250 years,” a user named DoriGirl13 posted on X. “No, it’s not been perfect, but neither are any of us. Reach in, reach out!”
Another woman, Roxanna Adams, praised the author.
“Good job, Mr. Carr!” she wrote, adding, “It saddens me to see that you had to do what the parents and schools should have done!”
Greg Finch, a history teacher at Summit Christian Academy in Missouri and a 2022 Herzog Foundation Christian Teacher of the Year honoree, praised McGinnis “for proactively supporting the saluting of the flag.”
Finch, an Army veteran, told The Lion he noticed a decline in honoring the flag during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, which “tried to suppress patriotism and make people feel guilty.”
“They tried to make it that everything in American history was about slavery and if you salute the flag somehow you are a racist and you’re unworthy to be an American, that somehow saluting the flag was shameful,” he said.
Finch tells his classes that while he can’t force them to salute the flag, they will see him saluting it military-style during the pledge.
He also hopes teachers everywhere will boost patriotism.
“Anytime we can encourage teachers in any setting to address matters of the heart, matters of the spirit and matters of national patriotism, I’m all on board,” he said.
