The flag earned a B—then an A
In 1958, high school student Robert G. Heft designed a flag with 50 stars for a class assignment, anticipating that Alaska and Hawaii might become states. His teacher, Stanley Pratt, initially gave the project a B−. Pratt agreed to raise the grade if Heft’s design was adopted as the national flag.
That condition turned a classroom project into a wager on a national decision. When the 50-star design was selected and took effect in 1960, Pratt changed Heft’s grade to an A.
Fitting new states into an old design
The challenge was not simply to add two stars. The flag’s 13 stripes represented the original colonies, so changing their number would have altered a central part of its symbolism. Heft kept the stripes and arranged the stars in rows, creating a pattern that could accommodate 50 without changing the flag’s basic form.
The result made room for the country’s expansion while preserving a recognizable design. Each new state could be represented by another star, while the stripes continued to refer to the nation’s beginnings. That practical balance is what let Heft’s school assignment become a flag used across the country.
