My son has to make a 'heritage flag' for school

[Ellen Forradalom]

NO, not a Confederate flag ('heritage flag' sorta sounds like it though.) We've been asked to draw the flags of nations which form his ancestry for a classroom display. I'm thinking of coloring a sheet of paper black, writing 'Anarchist-American' on the back and sending it back. Whaddya think?

[ugarte]

1. Doesn't really bother me

We all came from somewhere. Genealogy is kind of fascinating.

[La_Serpiente]

2. It would be easy

if he was japanese. big white flag with a red circle in the middle.

[JohnKleeb]

3. My desktop background is what mine would look like

[rustydog]

4. Gadsden flag

It would represent true patriots who stood up for the country.

"Don't tread on me"

[Southpaw Bookworm]

5. Interesting

Though depending on how old your son is, could cause quite the discussion at school.

Perhaps you can be a bit creative with it without your son's losing points for not following directions. For instance, I might draw an animal trap for my French-Canadian heritage, a pint for the Irish, a 12-year-old coal miner for the Italian immigrants in the fam, and a head on a pike for the Eastern European.

[scarlet_owl]

13. Welcome Southpaw Bookworm!

Glad you're here!

[banana republican]

6. I would use

1) the Christian flag (depending on one's faith)
2) the UN flag - (citizen of the world)
3) German; Scott; Irish; and Norwegan flags since my ancestory is from all of them.

I don't know of any one who would use the US flag unless they didn't know their ancestory...

[Ellen Forradalom]

7. He's only four

so he wouldn't get in trouble if I tweaked the teachers like that.

The WASP half (mine) is easy enough to represent, but I'm baffled about the Jewish half. The Israeli flag isn't accurate, as Israeli and Jew are not synonymous; and his ancestors came here at a time when Jews had no state. To use the flags of Austria and Belorus might obscure the Jewish aspect. Suggestions?

[DuctapeFatwa]

8. Do a big star of David and a bottle of SunBlock

That will take care of both Jewish and WASP!

[Ellen Forradalom]

9. HAHAHAHA!

So true for my mother who is 100% WASP and burns at the mere thought of going outside! And my carrottop brother, too! But I've got a secret ingredient: an Argentine grandmother! I tan!

[DuctapeFatwa]

12. Cool! just add a horse!

if he has a silver crayon he can decorate the horse and do double homage to Argentina :D

[SadEagle]

10. The menorah?

It's a long-lasting symbol of Judaism. (While the association of the Star of David with Judaism/Jewishness is relatively new). See
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0cph0 it seems to have a lot of info on various symbols, if you scroll down a bit.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Perhaps just go with the American flag

Your post made me think about this, and although my ancestry is German, when my great grandparents came to the US, they severed their ties with the homeland and taught their children that "we are American, we are not German". As many Germans (and other immigrants) did in the late 1800s, they all but eliminated their culture (except, of course, the food they liked and their music), including their language, and they became a brand new people in America.

So if I were to do this exercise you are doing, I can say that my only heritage is American - depending on how one looks at it, my national heritage ancestry stops at about 1880, in America, and doesn't go back any farther, because my great grandparents here in America were, as far as they were concerned, not the same people they were in Germany.

A lot of people did that when they came to America. Heck, even some Americans did it - look at the number of people who remade themselves by moving west from the east coast, or to Alaska, etc.