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Plan B Shouldn't Be the Military

By Christine Senteno, Pacific News Service. Posted October 10, 2005.


A mother with a daughter graduating from boot camp hopes her sons will opt out of military service and choose direct paths toward college.
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Since the day my kids were born, my mantra has been, "Go to college." But next week marks not only my daughter's graduation from boot camp, but the Oct. 15 deadline for my son to opt out of the military recruitment directory at his school.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) makes school administrators responsible for delivering the personal information of high school students to the military for their recruitment efforts. While NCLB provides an "opt-out" alternative, it places the responsibility for opting out on students and parents. But many do not even know about the NCLB. In other cases, students who have opted-out have mistakenly had their information removed from honor roll and college recruiters lists.

For my mixed Mexican-American/African-American family, military service is the GED of career plans. The military is Plan B, when you haven't had enough success in high school to go directly to a four-year college. It is not that I do not believe in patriotic duty. Latinos in particular have a proven history of military service, with more Congressional Medals of Honor winners than any other minority. I teach my kids we all have a responsibility to serve the common good. But I also tell them that there are many ways to participate in public service.

When my daughter entered high school four years ago, the military option was toward the bottom of the list. She has always been a bright kid with decent grades. She demonstrated natural leadership skills in her business club, but was often recognized more for her good looks, which seemed to embarrass this shy girl. She chose to live with her father, who worked an afternoon shift, leaving her to an empty house after school and little motivation to get on the college track. She became a prime target for military recruiters, who offered her some sense of family and praised her leadership ability instead of her beauty.

As Harvard, Princeton and Yale slipped away and UCLA and USC became a pipe dream, I tried to steer her toward the Cal State system and community colleges. When my daughter showed little interest in any college, I pointed her toward community service, like the Peace Corps. But I was no match for military recruiters. They were calling three times a week, taking her to lunch, promising her independence and a way out of her small desert town, as well as a way to help her "poverty-ridden" single mother in East L.A., who still had two other kids to raise. They even gave her "scholarship" money, complete with a giant check presented at a luncheon as if she had won the lotto (to be cashed when she completed boot camp.)

When she finally surprised me by signing her paperwork to join the Army (her Mother's Day "gift" to me), I almost wished instead that she had come to tell me she was pregnant. She tried to console me by showing me her GI Bill benefits, which will give her money for college after she completes her five years of service. But I know of Veterans Administration statistics that show only 5 percent of military personnel receive the maximum education benefit.

I will continue to support my daughter, but I felt her intelligence, grace and compassion were better suited outside the military. Plan B is not something any mother wants for her child.

I hope the two boys I still have at home will choose a different path. But statistics show that because my high-school son goes to a predominately minority school, he is four times more likely to enroll in a Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) class than if he attended a predominately white school. And because his school is considered low-income, he is four times more likely to be offered a JRTOC class in the first place. JROTC classes are a powerful recruitment tool for the military.

According to the American Friends Service Committee, the JROTC has approximately 310,000 students enrolled in programs in 2,200 schools across the nation. Many schools are offering JROTC as an alternative to overcrowded PE classes that often enroll more than 70 students. Many schools have standards so low they look upon the military as the best a poor kid of color can do to get out of the hood. Often, they steer students toward the military instead of enrolling them in a college prep class -- playing God with our children's futures.

My daughter graduates boot camp next week, while my son will be opting out of giving his information to the military. He has already decided he is going to apply to the University of Maryland and UCLA. His English teacher (an attorney for 20 years before he became a teacher) has told him he would make a good lawyer. I think he would make an even better senator.

My daughter is headed to six months of training in Arizona after she graduates boot camp. Just a month after her 19th birthday, the Army can do with her what they please, including sending her to Iraq. In the meantime, what is a mother to do but worry and pray and for the future of her children?

Digg!

Christine Senteno is a single mother from East Los Angeles who works full-time and attends East Los Angeles College part-time.

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I'm so sorry , Christine
Posted by: thirteentrees on Oct 10, 2005 3:54 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This letter is in apology from a high school teacher who is working hard to stop recruitment success in her high school. You are right, poor students of color are the main target of recruiters in our schools. The recruiters are young and try to take our students under their wing with praise and by being their (big brother) uniformed supporters. I am happy that your son has a teacher to help him realize that he has potential regardless of what society thinks. . I only wish your daughter had a teacher who encouraged her to take a different path also, I will pray for her and for you. Come on teachers, we're there, lets stop this insanity. A Teacher and mother in Florida

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Opting Out
Posted by: churchofone on Oct 10, 2005 4:22 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Each time I read an article such as this, I take the time to forward it to the parents of juniors and seniors as a reminder that they can "opt-out" of providing information. I'll bet that most of them don't even KNOW about this provision!

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» RE: Opting Out Posted by: Doubtom
college and military service
Posted by: jpramelis on Oct 10, 2005 5:48 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In 1969 I was a kid from Detroit who had been in Jr. ROTC and whose parents couldn't afford to send him to college. I was already in that military frame of mind from Jr ROTC so I went into the army. To a kid, JR ROTC is a lot of fun, marching around, karate, and back then we shot .22 rifles. I went to Vietnam and now have an agent organge claim in. I now advise all kids, if what you want to do is go to college, then go to college, If you can't afford to go full time, then go part time. If it takes you 6 years or even 8 years of part time study and you work part time to do it, then so be it. For most of us the military is a negative experience. 4 years of military plus 4 years of college equals 8 years. If you go to college 8 years part time to get a B.A. then in 8 years one is still in the same situation. I am working to get recruiters out of schools andt I want to stop the crazy militarization of America.Jim From Michigan

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» A bad gamble for sure Posted by: Allison
Don't forget the broken marriage that may have left the children vulnerable in the first place too
Posted by: maxpayne on Oct 10, 2005 6:54 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Further example of how the current military recruiters are trained to brainwash and bait-and-switch innocent students. There is one thing though that doesn't get mentioned. As political conservatives continue to do virtually nothing about the marriage mess, it's likely that military recruiters may have also cashed in on the fact that the child's mother and father are seperated. There are far more divorces than there are gay couples as it is. As it is, everyone knows that children under a separated couple household are far more likely to get in trouble in school and even with the law than children under a married couple. At least now it's clear why "conservatives" have no true plans to fix the real marriage problems.

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Take A Chill Pill
Posted by: NoPCZone on Oct 10, 2005 11:59 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
#1 There is NOTHING WRONG with service in the Armed Forces of our country. Your daughter, like millions before her, can serve a term or for a career and build a productive and fruitful life for herself.
#2 The Army offers educational benefits and opportunities both while in service and afterward. What an individual does with these opportunities is strictly up to them. She should easily be able to complete between 30-60 semester hours of college work DURING a 4 year enlistment even if she is deployed overseas.
#3 When your daughter completes her enlistment she will be a more mature and worldly person. Service in the Army affords people opportunities to do things, meet & work with people and travel far beyond what most people would ever otherwise have.
#4 Our Army can be and is no more or less than the country that sends it's sons & daughters to it. Another fine young person is always welcome and needed.
#5 You cannot live your children's lives for them any more than your parents could live yours for you.

As a veteran of 8 years service in the US Army, it really irks me when people try to portray the service as an evil organization populated by marginal people. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Our Army is populated by some of the finest people our nation has ever produced and come from every race, creed, ethnicity, locality and socio-economic background.
I am proud of my service to my nation, the people who have served , those who are now serving and those who will serve in the future. The freedoms each of us enjoy every day in this nation were purchased and retained in part by the sacrifices made by the millions who have served. I am sure she will serve our nation proudly and well.

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» RE: Take A Chill Pill Posted by: churchofone
» RE: Take A Chill Pill Posted by: cstriker
» RE: Take A Chill Pill Posted by: Doubtom
» RE: Take A Chill Pill Posted by: Steve
» RE: Take A Chill Pill Posted by: adp3d
I'm sorry too
Posted by: cstriker on Oct 10, 2005 12:07 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
At the ripe young age of 19 I was considering a life in the military. I was working for fast food or grocery stores and living with 2 or 3 roommates just to make ends meet. It was very frustrating for me. The one thing that kept me from joining was the fact that they said they required a valid driver's license or at least I was able to get one. Mine was suspended for failure to pay fines because I couldn't afford it.

Now, I am semi-successful working as a computer tech/office manager. I have managed to work my way up and have had my license back for years. It's pretty funny to think that because I was broke I couldn't pay my fines, lost my license, and couldn't join the military who I was looking to because I was broke.

Best of luck with your own children!

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an alternative
Posted by: akdave on Oct 10, 2005 12:15 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Unfortunately, for some people military service is the only way they have any chance of getting post-secondary education. I have been suggesting that anyone considering the military to look closely at the US Coast Guard. I believe they have the same benefits as the other branches of the military, but their primary mission is humanitarian. I live in a town with the US's largest Coast Guard base and I am continually impressed with this organization and its people. Even with funding cuts and increased responsibilities due to being brought into Homeland inSecurity, they have continued to do their job. They were the first responders to hurricane Katrina - no one had to tell them what to do, they just did it!

Peace,
David
Kodiak

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We need compulsory National Service...from a Vet, and a Woman
Posted by: AbnStranger on Oct 10, 2005 4:54 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In 1972, I entered the US Army because the college benefits and opportunities to enroll in graduate classes during my military service at absolutely no expense to myself were far better than anything in the civilian world. Once at Basic Training, I realized that I had made a choice that would affect my life, but just how much I had yet to learn.

It is my firm belief that every American young person should serve in the Armed Forces for two years. Why? Because folks like me --from middle class, professional and college educated families-- need to meet the rest of our fellow citizens, and not in contrived or short-term situations. In the military, there _is_ a level playing field in Basic Training and many other situations. I believe that tasks and environment are geared to the motto we adopted: "Cooperate and Graduate"! Yes. In my platoon were hillbillies from West Virginia, African Americans from ghettos, Latinas, Puerto Ricans and every sort of young woman you can imagine. Our collective efforts were what mattered. We _had_ to learn to get along, even in adverse situations involving unscrupulous training cadre'. None of use could hide behind clothing, clique or any other artifice.

Learning the lingo and operative behaviors of the military is a must for each of us. If we had national service, conducted by the military, there would be far less 'smoke and mirrors' from the Pentagon, trying desperately to portray everything from civilian contracts to cost overrun weapons systems as "patriotic". There would be less mystique associated with military life and problems. Veterans Administration funding and standards would be scrutinized differently and our national security would be enhanced by all citizens' familiarity with basic armaments, maneuvers and group organization.

In the US Army I had the opportunity to attend language immersion schools, graduate (civilian) courses, and many, many other training situations from group dynamics to survival schools. The military teaches each member to either loathe or love the opportunities they find and experience, and either reaction leaves the person wiser and more thoughtful. And, it hones one's "bullshit detectors"!

This learning can often demand a high price. As a now seriously disabled vet, I know the risks and physical as well as mental price that can accompany military experience and hostile fire situations.

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adp3d
Posted by: adp3d on Oct 11, 2005 3:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Wow, Man! Sign me up!

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» RE: adp3d Posted by: Doubtom