FREE THOUGHTS

OPINIONS WE
COULDN'T KEEP
TO OURSELVES


Teenage Wastelands
The U.S. Army is using Seattle's public schools as a captive audience for recruitment

by Vivian Sharples

The U.S. Army Recruiting Command is deploying a powerful recruiting weapon - and they're using America's classrooms to do it. The Army Cinema Van is criss-crossing the country as we speak, with high-tech "educational" slide shows that glamorize military life. The van is staffed by Army recruiters, backed up by their local counterparts.
On December 12, the Army Cinema Van visited West Seattle High School, with the permission of careers counselor Marian Wolfe. She sent memos to teachers asking them to sign up if they wanted to bring their classes to sessions in the van, a touring theater which can seat 40 each class period.
According to the army, last year the van and similar recruitment exhibits visited 2,000 schools across the country, reaching 380,000 "recruitable" students.
The military employs almost 15,000 full-time recruiters nationwide, spending over $200 million annually just for advertising. They use public high schools as their primary recruiting grounds, often with the complicity of school districts, many of which allow them unlimited access.
Although the army cinema van shows are billed as educational, there is no doubt that they are a recruiting effort, from the cards the students fill out, to the glamorization of military life portrayed, to the army pencils the recruiter gives out to reward students who answer questions "correctly." The Commander of the Portland Recruiters Battalion, when asked what the cinema vans accomplish, said that "they provide our recruiters with leads."
Groups opposing the recruitment feel that class time is too precious to sacrifice for military recruiters. Seattle School Board members have been contacted about these concerns, but only one member, Don Nielson, has shown some interest in limiting recruitment. The apathy of the school board on this issue is disturbing, since the military, as an organization which overtly discriminates against gay and disabled people, and which may also be violating the Seattle School District's non-discrimination policy, which states that contractors or vendors serving the district may not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. In August, 1995, Portland School District banned military recruiters and other employers from its schools because of anti-gay discrimination.
Here are reviews of two of the shows students were treated to at West Seattle High:
Path to Professionalism shows some basic physics equations and some of their applications, such as missile trajectories and lasers. The basic message is that science and math are useful skills for the military, "a career you can be proud of for the rest of your life" - and that once learned in the military, the skills can be transferred to civilian careers. It doesn't mention the Ohio State University researchers who found that only 12% of the men and 6% of the women in a sample group made any use of their military skills in later civilian jobs (Wall Street Journal, Oct.9, 1985).
We the People , a 17-minute "history" presentation, covers "217 years of American history, from the birth of the nation through Operation Desert Storm." Based on this show, one might think that white army males were the main creative force in U.S. society. It implies, for example, that all medical advances of any import were made by military doctors. There is no mention of the genocide of Native Americans, nor slavery. World War II, in which 50 million people died, is dealt with in two sentences. The sixties "era of self-doubt" is now in the past. It all leads up to the glory of the Gulf War, complete with images of fireworks from afar without any sight of the human cost.
"Without American resolve, American technology and the American military, yet another single-minded dictator could have embroiled the world in chaos."
If history teachers taught in this way, they would be open to serious criticism. Seattle students have a right to expect more from their class time than advertisements glorifying the military, and distorted history presentations.
Besides the Cinema Van, there is also the Adventure Van which sports the "weaponeer," an M16 simulator. Students fire ten shots at human-shaped target figures, and then are given a slip that shows where they hit the figure and their score - i.e. how many people they would have killed. Is this the sort of education that we want our young people to get in school?
The military spent $2.4 billion in 1994 on recruitment. Imagine if Congress chose instead to use that money directly for college grants and skills training for low-income young people!
Giving the military class time gives credence to the notion that war and killing are viable career options, and gives recruiters privileged access to young people, who have the right to be safe from recruitment in the classroom.
Write to Seattle School Board member Don Nielsen to encourage him to ensure that recruiters will not be given class time in Seattle schools when they return in Spring of this year: Donald Nielsen, Lloyd Building Suite 800, 603 Stewart St., Seattle, WA 98101

Vivien Sharples is Coordinator of the Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia, a local peace and justice group.

[Home] [This Issue's Directory] [WFP Index] [WFP Back Issues] [E-Mail WFP]

Contents on this page were published in the February/March, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1996 WFP Collective, Inc.