Posted on 11/13/2007 7:43:05 AM PST by SmithL
Once again, San Francisco politicians are poised to thumb their nose at the U.S. military. Tonight, the school board will vote to follow-up on a 2006 measure to kill high-school Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs, if a tad more slowly than planned.
If it passes, the message to the rest of America will be clear: The Special City is too precious for the U.S. military.
Worst of all, if the board votes to end JROTC, it will have voted to deprive the very students whom schools are most likely to fail by yanking the one school program most likely to save them. Fringe politics first, at-risk students last.
Michael Bernick, a Harvard-Oxford-Berkeley educated lawyer, has become an unlikely champion of JROTC at S.F. public schools. He never served in the military. He's a Democrat who is against the Iraq war. Not only is he no fan of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy - a phony reason cited by the school board as the reason to terminate JROTC - Bernick also was the author of the 1992 BART domestic-partner ordinance.
Bernick has become a leader in the fight to save JROTC because of his experience with community job-training in San Francisco and as director of the Employment Development Department under Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. "To me, JROTC is the best job-training program, job-preparation program that is offered by the schools," he said. "It provides the skills that employers are looking for: team work, on-time performance. It even improves basic literacy and math skills. Surveys show that employers are not looking for specific skills, but employees who have the motivation, drive, self-confidence and ambition to help their company move forward. Nothing teaches that like JROTC."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The JROTC program is one of the best experiences a high school student can find, even if they never enter military service later.
Yeah, right. A bunch of metrosexuals in tutu’s marching to “Your left, your left, your left right left.”
Sure, I see the line forming to sign up right now.
At the High School I went to, 90% of the kids in ROTC where there for the PE credit.
Should SF ever be attacked or hit with a (God forbid!) natural disaster that would require military assitance to provide immediate aid, I hope they will be understanding when they are told they will have to wait for private agencies to help them . . . . . . . . at a cost!!!
Years ago he started doing little jobs around the yard for me, and over the years I have watched him go through phases of youth. For the past two years his grades were in the basement, or close to it. He had to attend summer school two summers ago, and he had started running with the “wrong kids.”
But this year there is a great change. He is more talkative, more willing to ask questions and want answers, more anxious to think about what to do next, etc. He is showing interest and motivation for the first time. Plus, once a week, he is dressed in the nice uniform, with no baggy, hanging below the hip pants. When I mentioned how handsome he looks in the nicely pressed uniform he beamed. And, his friends are now other young men who are well-spoken, polite and responsible.
I believe the JROTC has given him a sense of pride, encouragement, and most of all the self-confidence that was not being given to him at home. And, the best part is that he loves it. He showed me a composition he wrote for an assignment on what he feels the role of Veterans is in society, and he received an “A” for his work, and his grades have improved dramatically. He has even asked me to take him to a local bank so he can open a savings account! The other day he expressed a desire to join the military and asked me to take him to the local base so he could look around to see what it was like on a military base. His whole attitude about the future is changing as a result of being in the JROTC and learning there is more life can offer him than the direction he was going.
Taking away any programs, JROTC or others, that give our children positive reinforcement and direction is unthinkable. If it were not for the JROTC I think this child would have continued sliding only to become another street kid on drugs and welfare. Now he has hope and a desire to do something with himself for the future. Whoever wants to deny that for children is denying them a chance for an independent, worthwhile life.
I was a "Rotcee" and was Cadet Command Chief Petty Officer when I graduated (I loved to bellow.) I was Squad Leader in the Armed Drill Team (best in my state), and on the Rifle Team (best in my state).
More importantly, I was a kid who didn't give a damn before I joined JROTC and converted to a kid who believed in myself and developed self-discipline and a sense of honor after going through JROTC. It served me well in my Army years.
PE credits. Puh.
I wish our ROTC had people more like that. I don’t know if it was because of the type of JROTC (Naval), or if it was an issue with those involved, but I will always look back on it pretty negatively.
My older brother went through it, and although he was in the NJROTC program for his Junior and Senior years, if you were to ask him about it now he would say it was a joke.
My program was NJROTC. I think what made our program great was that our Naval Science Instructor placed a very strong emphasis on moral leadership and self-discipline. He was an excellent example, too.
I hate that “For the children” crap. What are we liberals? Can’t we use some other title. How about “Save JROTC!”. Please let’s not even lower ourselves to their level which seems to be what we are doing here.
At the High School I went to, 90% of the kids in ROTC where there for the PE credit.
Wow. Instead of throwing a ball they go through ROTC? That is pretty amazing. I am sure that some will eventually join the military. Our high school did not have any military organziations. Did not hurt me any as I joined anyway. I went to Catholic High School and I don’t believe they have ROTC programs.
Did you go to a HS in Washington? Was Scoop Jackson an Alumni?
When I was in school, that was called a marching band.
Question 1: Yes. Question 2: No.
I was going to post a comment but then remembered there are still many fine people in this disgrace of a city.
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