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