Posted on 07/30/2005 2:33:28 PM PDT by summer
...In the suburbs... the armed forces are welcomed for more than just visits. They're teaching ... classes.
Two high schools in Federal Way will debut Air Force courses this fall. Students as young as 14 will wear uniforms, march in drills with decommissioned guns and get schooled in military history, customs and technology.
Course materials are mostly created by the Air Force, and the classes taught by retired officers. Costs will be split between the Air Force and the school district.
Federal Way is the third King County school district to ask the military to set up shop as part of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC). Kentwood High in Covington has a program taught by the Marines; two Issaquah high schools have courses taught by the Navy.
JROTC is a fixture in schools across the South and is rapidly expanding in the North.
"We applied for them to come here..." said Debra Stenberg, spokeswoman for Federal Way schools, explaining why there's been no controversy about it.
Seattle is overly viperous toward the military. It's a vital institution, as well as a major source of jobs, and Seattle's schools ought to educate kids about both. Let the Army set up a booth at career day. It's better they buttonhole kids there, where they can be supervised.
But ensconcing the military inside school walls, and subsidizing it with school dollars, is over the line the other way.
Backers say JROTC is mostly about citizenship and discipline, with military subject matter secondary. They also insist it's not about recruiting.
Federal Way officials [the school district] were drawn to it because it features courses in aerospace technology, a subject the schools couldn't offer otherwise....
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Now, don't ask me what the implications are here for all the illegal alien students in America's public high schools, because I don't know what to say about that in light of this program. (Maybe some of those kids will join the US military!)
What, and take valuable time away from teaching the kids ebonics and the proper way to perform gay sex?
LOL...
Damn, damn and double damn--wish the military had these courses when my son was in high school.
LOL!...the inhumanity...many, of the chil'ren NOT receiving a the daily dose of the Liberalism. :D
Both of my sons went through the Army JROTC program here in Sierra Vista, AZ. They're better men for that. My oldest met his wife there, although the romance blossomed 3 years later!
I was a coach for their marksmanship team for two years. Two of my cadets went on to serve in Afghanistan and Iraq, joining the Army after High School.
Our High School has one of the highest award rates for scholarships to the military academies. We also pull in over a million dollars a year in scholarships for graduating seniors to go to non-military schools.
The average JROTC student here places in the top half of their graduating class, and there are very few who are in trouble with the law or the school.
And when it comes to dealing with bullies in school, there's nothing like having 250 JROTC cadets on your side!
Than to have my tax dollars appropriated for the kind of crap schools teach these days
I have a 15 yr old nephew who would love to have Marine Jr. ROTC available at his school...he enlist now if he could.
This is a tremendous opportunity for kids. It will give them a leg up on those who choose not to attend, and parents who want their children to understand our country, it's history, and it's future will be awfully pleased that these classes are offered.
The writer sounds like a whack job compensating for having been too young to have experienced the original Woodstock. The Air Force could use some really intelligent, highly motivated kids.
This is about the only place where the writer's opinion makes sense to me.
I guess he's trying to be moderate and reasonable and nuanced with his split-the-difference opinion. But he comes across as merely weak. Most people involved with the military (even the young folks involved with JROTC) have a better moral compass than this guy.
I was privileged to go through Army JROTC in high school in Macon, GA, 1962-65. ROTC was one of the best things that every happened to education! Never had a discipline problem there!
Public high school, completely segregated, white boys only (no girls either - they went to a separate high school) until my senior year when a few Negro boys were admitted. (My grandma would have washed my mouth out with soap for being so crude to call someone black. "Negro" was proper, but "colored" was also considered respectful) Integration went smoothly, but the school didn't get any girls until long after I graduated.
It is over the line to teach the kids that freedom has to be preserved across the generations? It is over the line to teach kids that there are bad guys, really, really evil people who will try to rob us of our hard won riches? It is over the line to teach kids that they owe something to the country who gives them so much? Personal responsibility and freedom go hand-in-glove and it is not wrong to encourage someone to consider serving instead of being served.
Gee the kids might learn some important things like respect, determination, confidence, motivation, THE TRUTH, and that the media/left/DNC (if that includes their parents tough!) is lying.
This program (JROTC) isn't new. I, myself took three years of it when I went to high school ( I am 50 at present)...
the infowarrior
Mine was in JROTC at Buena, as well (even though it took him a while to appreciate it). He is now a LEO at Ft Meade. I couldn't be more proud.
I just wish CT had that program when I was in high school. Doesn't matter, I joined the Army at 17 anyway, but the extra training would have been nice.
In the military, a major part of the job of NCOs and officers involves TEACHING. They have to know how to teach people how to use complicated equiptment without killing themselves or others, plus how to do 1001 other tasks. Putting experienced military people into schools is a natural, and would also go a long way to curing discipline problems. (I'm a graduate of a JROTC high school)
AFJROTC is a fantastic program. Retiring officers compete for slots all over the nation, and splitting the cost of such a program between the school and the military is a great deal for both entities.
Thanks for your comments. I enjoyed reading what you wrote.
He gets a big F for his failure to research. The oldest JROTC program in the Nation is in Bangor Maine. Our sons learned more about history in LET classes than they did in the formal History classes. They also learned a lot about respect and deportment. Some of the young men and women who take JROTC do go on to have military careers but not all.
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