Covert Ops: a high school military recruiting tale

A student teacher I work with informed me that his cooperating teacher invited a National Guard recruiter in to her high school class, ostensibly to speak about "going to college" for the Careers unit they just started. Instead, he apparently spent over 75 minutes informing students (falsely) how expensive college is and how hard it is to pay for it. He managed to work in quite a few plugs for the NG along the way and handed out a booklet with a quiz supposedly designed to tell you what career you're best suited for. He also managed to work in this comment: "I can't imagine how anyone who considers himself a patriot wouldn't want to fight for their country." (The student teacher refrained from pointing out the recruiter's pronoun/antecedent error.)

Adding insult to injury, he and his partner were invited back for a SECOND visit the next day.

My favorite part is where, in reference to a student who's a lot slower than the rest, the recruiter whispered to the teacher, "God, that kid's a dumbass."

This is SO wrong that I don't even know where to start. The student teacher was infuriated by the whole thing, but he can't do anything about it. I only hope some of the parents get wind of this little activity and voice some objections.

I'm going to assume that this covert approach is from the recruiting textbook on how to get your foot in the door at local schools.

Worked pretty well, too.

It's been a bad day.

I hate the way one generation enslaves the next to reassure itself that its own sacrifices were not in vain.

When I came home, they asked me to come speak to the high-schoolers.

After the intro, I walked to the podium, thanked them for having me, and said, "The first thing we would do after entering a village was to round up all the elders and throw them in the well".

I did not last long.

One of my social studies teachers had just come back a year earlier. I didn't learn much geography that year, but I found out a whole lot about Vietnam. I was very happy to be 15 and female and not ever have to worry about doing what he did.

I use to invite the AF Recruiter to speak to my technology classes, because they do have a lot of advanced technical opportunities. But I quit doing that because they began using what I considered were underhanded techniques to recruit kids. I never had ours say anything out of the way, such as your story shows, but he did go into a financial explanation of how much money they saved by not having to pay any housing, medical, or food costs.

Most high schools offer the ASVAB test sponsored by the AF; it's a career/aptitude test to show your strengths & interests correlated to career options. Our counselors encouraged all of our students to take this test to help them decide on careers after graduation. When my own children took this test, they began receiving an onslaught of military recruitment mail, followed by many phone calls to our home. The Navy in particular hounded my son until he was force to be rather rude to the guy. (My son would never speak harshly to someone; just not his nature, but this guy was relentless.) Now the Marines are calling.

I realize this ASVAB test is a HOOK to get the info on the kids, so they can harass them into joining, or grab those that don't immediately have other options at their disposal upon graduation. When my students ask me if they should take this test, I now tell them what will happen & explain to them that they must decide if it is worth their while.

I would really like to see these recruiters banned from the schools. I have had students tell me that they didn't have to study or try to make good grades in my classes because they were going into the military & their recruiter told them so! It actually can undermine some kids effort to succeed in school.

"he apparently spent over 75 minutes informing students (falsely) how expensive college is and how hard it is to pay for it"

What's false about that?

I have two kids getting ready for college. Can you tell me how this won't be expensive?

Dupe. Delete.

For example, he told them tuition alone would cost them "about $9000" each semester at the local state system school, which is waaaaay off reality.

It costs about 20K per year at the University of Maryland for residents. That's the local state system school.

http://www.uga.umd.edu/admissions/finaid/tuition.asp