Holden, wife help students recite Pledge of Allegiance

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Six-year-old Eileen Vinton was ready when the governor came calling at her elementary school Friday as part of a national effort to get students to simultaneously recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

As the clock struck 1 p.m., Eileen proudly put her right hand across her heart and began saying the words she had said every morning since beginning the first grade this fall at Rountree Elementary School in Springfield.

Holden led her and the some 250 other students in saying the words. He and first lady Lori Hauser Holden visited separate schools Friday at the behest of Education Secretary Rod Paige to get all 107,000 public and private elementary and secondary schools across the country to participate in a campaign organized by the nonprofit Celebration U.S.A. in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"I can say it pretty good," she declared later, before launching into a repeat performance. "I only have trouble with one word."

Eileen admitted that she has been chided for inserting "invisible" for "indivisible."

But she had an alibi: "This tooth wiggles, and some words are hard to say."

Eileen was indeed missing one front tooth, and the one next to it was barely hanging on.

'Think about those words'

Holden wasn't worried about mispronunciations by the kindergarten through fifth-graders. He had a bigger agenda.

"Let's think about those words, and what they truly mean," Holden told the students. 'I pledge' -- that means to make a commitment. 'I pledge allegiance to the flag' -- that means we make a commitment to the flag and to the values that it represents."

Holden also urged students to send him a note, explaining what the Pledge of Allegiance means to them.

"It can be a few sentences, or it can be a book," Holden said, causing some to giggle.

Holden made the stop after a visit to Southwest Missouri State University to formally announce a tuition reimbursement program for college students called to military service. It was a coincidence that he happened to visit Rountree Elementary -- near the university -- where his 8-year-old niece Calie Holden and 7-year-old nephew Alex Holden attend class.

Holden invited them to stand up front with him. As the clock approached 1 p.m. -- the official start time -- the students rose to their feet in the gym and faced the United States and Missouri flags.

'Doing all that we can'

Afterward, the governor praised their effort and offered words of reassurance.

"I want to tell you that we in the state of Missouri are doing all that we can -- all that we can -- to make sure that you are safe," Holden told them before departing.

Lucas Stufflebean, 10, said he thought the nationwide effort was a good idea. The fifth-grader said he was too busy with after-school projects to send Holden a note. But he was certain of the pledge's significance.

"It's a pledge saying that you're going to do everything to help the USA," Lucas explained.

Springfield Public Schools let the principals at the district's 54 schools decide whether to participate in Friday's program, spokesman Marc Maness said. He was uncertain how many abstained.

Meanwhile, at Jefferson City's Thomas Jefferson Middle School -- where a red, white and blue banner over the entrance proclaims "Home of the Patriots" -- some 300 sixth-graders took a break from their lunch to stand and recite the pledge with Mrs. Holden.

Others recited it from their classrooms, following along with President Bush via televisions. It was the second time Friday that students recited the pledge, which starts off every school day.

"When you say it in the morning, you just kind of say it because you have to," student Amber Marion said. "But today, it meant a lot, because we were saying it in honor of the people who died."