In the early days of the 2024-2025 school year, I realized my fourth grade homeroom students mumbled and stuttered their way through the Star-Spangled Banner, which was sung every morning at 8 am. Could I have just put the lyrics on the board and told them to memorize it? Sure, but that is pretty lame for a harrowing experience in our nation's early history, so I did what any nerdy history teacher would do: set the stage and put on a performance as Francis Scott Key.

Please enjoy this version of "The Defense of Fort M'Henry" lesson presented to a gaggle of ten-year olds:

I am Francis Scott Key, an American lawyer from Maryland. I was sent to negotiate the release of an American physician who was captured and sentence to death for--get this--refusing to feed British soldiers. Did the fallout from the Quartering Act mean nothing to them? Dr. Beanes, a friend of mine, enjoys his Fourth Amendment right as much as anyone!

My colleague Mr. Skinner and I boarded a British merchant ship in Baltimore Harbor. Through a series of compromises, debates, and awkward silences, we successfully secured Dr. Beanes' freedom. Unfortunately for the three of us, while we were making the deal, the British positioned themselves for a siege of Baltimore; troops closed off the roads into and out of the city and ships crept closer and closer to Fort McHenry. From our physical location, we could see and hear it all--their whole plan, supply line, strategy, and weaknesses.

"Oh, no, you three are not going anywhere!" a British officer shouted. "In fact, we are going to hold you on the deck so you can watch Baltimore burn, just like Washington, D.C. burned a couple of weeks ago!" [evil laugh]

My dear students, my horror was immense! I was hurried up the companionway, that is the stairs that connect decks in a ship, just in time to watch the first shots blast from British guns. The ramparts--heaps of earth supported by bricks and granite--gave the military fort some shelter from the cannon fire, but my fellow Americans trapped inside their homes in Baltimore had no such provisions.

As the sun set that evening amidst a haze of gun smoke, I saw our beautiful flag waving valiantly above Fort McHenry. That, my friends, was the last sight that gave me hope. In the darkness, I witness explosions so bright my vision was out of sorts for moments at a time and, even on the deck of the ship out on the water, I felt the vibrations of destruction. The cool autumn night combined with my adrenaline and fear to keep me awake--if we, the United States of America, lost Baltimore, our brand new republic, our freedoms and opportunities, would be gone, back into the folds of tyranny. I shutter even know as I think of how much was at stake.

Finally, a moment sent as a gift from Heaven: dawn! The pale indigo mist kept me from seeing anything of consequence. "You there," I shook a British soldier awake, "give me your spy glass!" I had to know if our nation still stood. I could not bear another moment thinking about the Union Jack and not the Stars and Stripes flying above our fort. Slowly, the dawn crept over the horizon. Only now, as I prayed the fog away, did I realize the bombs and bullets had stopped. 

Stillness. Ramparts. Ships on the water. Rubble. But, wait--a sheet of fabric hung limp in the early light. It was as if God Himself heard my prayer and sent a breeze to ruffle the flag. There she was! Old Glory, the most beautiful sight imaginable! I fell to my knees with relief, exhaustion, and gratitude.

After we were permitted to vacate the ship, I took the time to write of my experience. This, I suppose, was how I began to process all that I had seen, heard, and felt over the 25-hour bombardment. What do you think?

Excuse me, can you see it, the flag in the dawn's early light? When the sun went down yesterday, I saw it waving proudly, bravely, giving me hope, but is it still there? You must understand, the Stars and Stripes were there all through the bombing; the ramparts hid the damage behind their walls, but our flag was still there then. Please, tell me, are we still free? Have my brave countrymen succeeded in fending off the British? 

I agree; it doesn't really flow off the tongue, does it? Let's try this:

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

There are three other verses, but no one really talks about those. A woman added music and we had a popular song on our hands! President Woodrow Wilson unofficially made the song our National Anthem in 1916. In 1930, 87 years after my death, the United States Congress made it official. 

There you have it, my freedom-loving friends, the story of our National Anthem.