# keeping the military out of our elementary schools



## handspun (Mar 22, 2009)

Two days ago, an ROTC group came to my 2nd grader's school and performed for the kids. Our principal insists that she accepted their offer because she thought it would be a nice musical assembly for the kids, and that she intended it as part of the school's enrichment program. The kids got renditions of the Simpsons theme song, the Sponge Bob anthem, and a song about the Air Force. Then the performers told everyone about why it's great to be in the armed services. This certainly does NOT qualify as enrichment in my book.

Armed services recruiters have a motto- "first to contact, first to contract."
It is absolutely unacceptable to me that Kindergartners are now being
"contacted." Admittedly, these were not recruiters, at least not in a technical sense, however, they were certainly reaching out to young hearts and minds in a way that I would define as pre-recruitment recruitment.

Over a quarter of our student population is ELL. We have overwhelmingly poor population as well, with a staggering 85% of our students qualifying for free or reduced lunch. In short, we have a student body that will be exceptionally vulnerable to standard military recruitment tactics once they reach high school. I'm enraged that this predation on poor kids and kids of color is starting NOW, in grade school. The ground work is being laid. But even if one were to take the issues of race and class out of the equation, this kind of military presence in any grade school feels like early indoctrination to me.

It's my hope that our district will adopt a policy that bans performances like the one my child saw this week. I am drafting a letter to our superintendent and school board asking for specific wording to be put into our district policy. (Currently, there is none, other than that which address NCLB and the access it grants recruiters to high school kids.) Does anyone have any suggestions for me as I work on that letter?
Has anyone else experienced this kind outreach with kids so young?

I cross-posted this in Learning at School. Hope that's okay.


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## philomom (Sep 12, 2004)

Sorry, I didn't realize we aren't supposed to debate here.


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## handspun (Mar 22, 2009)

*


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## waldorfknitmama (Sep 16, 2007)

Okay I agree girl!! That seems terrible!!!


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## luckybamboo (Dec 7, 2009)

Wow, I think that's definitely crossing the line. When I was teaching 4th grade, one year our school was invited to tour the local Navy Base. I was shocked when the navy soldiers showed the kids the large display of guns and weapons they had on board, and even demonstrated to the students how one of the guns worked.








Definitely not the type of "learning experience" I wanted my students to have!!


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## Turquesa (May 30, 2007)

I think you've already laid out some really good talking points in your post. Just keep in mind that there is an unfortunate stereotype out there that those of us who are critical of these practices are "anti-American" and "unpatriotic."

So I'd be sure to counter-balance your talking points with some tribute to patriotism, e.g. how there are countless ways for children to love their country (learn its history, get involved in their community, visit their members of Congress, etc.), but planting the seeds for military recruitment isn't an acceptable one.

Good luck with your letter!


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## TiredX2 (Jan 7, 2002)

I have had to remove a number of posts for being in violation of the User Agreement.

Please remember the rules for this forum, specifically:

Quote:

If you do not agree with a call to action/rally/protest, please *do not post to the thread*. Do not discuss the thread, or the original poster of the thread. If you find a counter cause of one posted here to be worthy, please start a new thread in Activism. THIS IS NOT A DEBATE BOARD. Posts that move into debate will be deleted from the thread, and alerts may be issued. In cases where the thread continually moves into debate, all posts following the OP will be removed and the OP locked and left for reference.


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## hildare (Jul 6, 2009)

while i don't have first hand experience with elementary school admin with recruitment, i have done things on a high school level to hand out info on opting out of providing information, etc.
one resource i did find was that there was a local Quaker group who were really good at this. they were actually able to make things happen, as they were experienced with non-confrontational dialogue in that context. is there a group near you whom you might contact/work with? i would bet they'd be really interested.


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