It’s conditioning. The children are a captive audience. They do not have the option to stay seated and not participate. They are compelled to take part in this, by the government.
Article 1, section 7 of Iowa’s constitution states:
Liberty of speech and press. Every person may speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right. No law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech, or of the press. In all prosecutions or indictments for libel, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it appears* to the jury that the matter charged as libellous was true, and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted.
*In the original text, the word is “appear”, see original Constitution, Art. I, §7
I had a teacher in high school who had in his classroom a sign that compelled standing for the pledge. our school also played the anthem too and I'll bet that mandate carried over too. I didn't have him 1st period so I never had to endure any of that.
he was also quite literally the worst teacher I ever had. he didn't teach anything. it was basically a class where you sat, listened to him lecture about bullshit, call him sir every time, and sit and write on a topic to a specific word count. also a self described white married with children christian who (I didn't find out until well after I graduated) hit on the black girls in class, but you probably knew that already.