You also don't realize that swearing allegiance to a country is a very, very bizarre and backwards thing to be doing. The rest of the developed world is shocked by this practice, but you were taught so young you don't even know it's strange and wrong.
My country has a "swearing the flag" routine, and it used to ask for a certificate of allegiance for bureaucratic procedures... it's a remnant from the dictatorship in the 70s.
In Canada when someone takes an the oath of citizenship they still swear an allegiance to the monarchy. I think there is a similar component for elected officials and people in the military. That has always struck me as bizarre.
That's a strange interpretation of my statement. Let me be slightly clearer: I don't think children in my community were/are taught that. To be fair, I grew up in hippieville, but nonetheless.
Edited to add: don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming you're lying, just that your experience doesn't necessarily generalize.