The "My Education for Peace" document is available for printing and distribution to encourage public knowledge of this campaign for students and educators who support a peace framework in their beliefs and to form a community of networking and support.

https://myeducationforpeace.org/

Teachers have stated that they are sometimes in an uncomfortable position when students ask them what they think.  As representatives of the State, teachers must respond thoughtfully and carefully.  Since the issue of military recruiting is laden with emotional overtones and raises the issue of patriotism, it can be a difficult subject to discuss objectively and rationally.  How do we handle the difficult questions?

• Author : Pat Elder
• Publisher : Unknown
• Release Date : 2016-12-08
• Genre: Uncategoriezed
• Pages : 260
• ISBN 10 : 1540353753

Military Recruiting in the United States Book Description :

Military Recruiting in the United States provides a fearless and penetrating description of the deceptive practices of the U.S. military as it recruits American youth into the armed forces. Long-time antiwar activist Pat Elder exposes the underworld of American military recruiting in this explosive and consequential book. The book describes how recruiters manage to convince youth to enlist. It details a sophisticated psy-ops campaign directed at children. Elder describes how the military encourages first-person shooter games and places firearms into the hands of thousands using the schools, its JROTC programs, and the Civilian Marksmanship Program to inculcate youth with a reverence for guns. Previously unpublished investigative work reveals how indoor shooting ranges in schools are threatening the health of children and school staff through exposure to lead particulate matter. The book provides a kind of "what's coming next manual" for European peacemakers as they also confront a rising tide of militarism. The book examines the disturbing, nurturing role of the Catholic Church in recruiting youth. It surveys the wholesale military censorship of Hollywood films, pervasive military testing in the high schools, and an explosion of military programs directed toward youth.

For the past four years, TRC has published an annual report recording the involvement of the U.S. military in Western Massachusetts high schools. We started compiling data on military recruitment in 2012 by sending simple, one page requests to public high schools for information about the frequency of recruiter involvement. These went ignored by most schools. After submitting our inquiries in the form of Massachusetts Public Records Act requests, we received more responses. Responses collected between 2012-2015 were compiled into the first edition of Military Recruitment in Western Massachusetts High Schools. We repeated the process of submitting public record requests to schools to obtain information for the 2015-2016 School Year and the 2016-2017 School Year, which were compiled into the second and third edition respectively.

The Northwest Suburban Peace & Education Project formed in the spring of 2004. We all lived and worked in the community. Many of us had children in the public schools. As parents and community members we were concerned about the role of the military in our schools. This became very clear in the run-up to the Iraq war. The government was beating the drums of war and the military recruiters were all over the high schools trying to recruit young people. We felt the need to offer an alternative view.

District 214 is the second largest high school district in the state of Illinois. It includes the suburbs of Elk Grove Village, Rolling Meadows, Arlington Heights, Wheeling, Mt Prospect, Prospect Heights and Buffalo Grove. There are six high schools. Together this includes about 12,000 students.

Starting in 2004 until 2019 we set up a table in the commons area in each high school usually once a month. We talked to the students; offered career alternatives; and tried to raise their awareness of the militarism in society. We often had a theme centered on a particular event – e.g. International Day of Peace, Memorial Day, Mother’s Day. We produced a zine which included submissions from District 214 students. And we hosted public events.

We had been losing members over the years. None of us have children or grandchildren in any D214 schools any longer. Then in 2019 the school district essentially made the decision for us by implementing a new policy which restricts all outside groups to one visit/semester. Although there were slight differences in how the policy was administered between the six high schools, it was a game changer for us. To be clear, the same policy applied to the military. In fact there was a rumor that the policy came about by a parent angry about the presence of recruiters at the school with free access to the students. Then the pandemic hit and access to students was limited. At that point we decided to disband. Our blog, which we started in 2010, follows.

Libby Frank June 2021