The armored plated elephant in the room that few are willing to acknowledge is the historical and increasing presence of U.S. cultural militarism in our society including its expansion in our public schools. This reality is coloring everything from our policing to our entertainment offerings. The worse effect is the militarization of our children. Pentagon programs in our public schools have gone past the development and funding of militarized programs for adolescents like JROTC and Young Marines and have now introduced programs to integrate younger audiences to the correctness of militaristic values and to ultimately recruit them into military service.

The NNOMY Reader is a document comprised of the most relevant writings and subject areas that have come out of the U.S. based counter-recruitment movement of the last 15 years and reflect the primary challenges that have shaped this activism. The chosen writings were authored by principal contributors and activists of the U.S. based “CR movement” and reveal how they engaged to effect legislative protections, gain access to schools, and develop strategies to present a counter-narrative to recruitment age youth, different and more complete than that of military recruiters of the Department of Defense while working inside the confines of national laws, equal access rules, and school district regulations.

The NNOMY Reader, does not include more extensive documents from the U.S. based counter-recruitment movement such as; Using Equal Access to Counter Militarism in High Schools, or addresses the many specific Department of Defense programs to militarize our youth like JROTC, DoD Starbase, DoD STEM, or Young Marines, but represents a good selection of the larger subject areas that activists have “specialized” in to try to slow the process of militarization in U.S. public schools and the recruitment techniques of the Pentagon. Much of what is not represented in the NNOMY Reader is available on NNOMY’s website in our counter-recruitment, articles and document sections. There is much more funding, research, written analysis, and strategic activism needed to further explore and develop a more profound awareness of cultural militarization before there can be accomplished a movement with the strength that can turn the tide on the military’s invasion upon our youth and our schools. However, counter-recruitment and youth de-militarization is an ongoing activism where new ideas will be introduced and strategies applied in the communities and in the schools to offer alternatives to entering into the U.S. military and its ongoing wars.

Those who come to engage in the proactive peace work of counter-recruitment will play an important part in creating a different world by contributing with small and collective steps, to raise the awareness to students, parents, teachers, and all who believe that wars are the status quo, of the dangers of the cultural militarization of our schools and youth, and how it threatens the foundations of a democratic society.

1. National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)
2. Counter-recruitment
3. Cultural Militarization
4. Health Concerns
5. Militarizing Education
6. Military Recruitment
7. Privacy Rights in Schools
8. Alternatives to Militarism

The NNOMY Reader is recommended reading for those who plan to engage in counter-recruitment activism, or are planning on working with or contributing to the work of The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth.

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