Arcata hates our military no matter who is president (Arnold: credit, school)

[Stacy From Cali]

Originally Posted by BayDude

You enlist by choice not by force. People enlist because they choose the military as a career option and they do so because they want to.

Get your head out your asses.

My experience has shown me that recruiters who are allowed to come into high schools tend to target those students who are performing poorly and offer then them a backdoor out of having to actually pass their classes. How is that appropriate? On any level?

[fizbin]

Originally Posted by clongirl

PS..I come from a military family (Dad and all 3 of his brothers were in army, marines, navy). Get your head out of your a**.

It might be too deep . . .

[D-Towner]

Originally Posted by nmnita

Happ, are you suggesting we have no military???

Nita

Happ has suggested many crazy things. He/she said that California was unjustly conquered by the Americans from Mexico.

[clongirl]

I also had a handful of very good friends join the military during high school. One friend in particular had joined due to some peer pressure from the others that were entering. I even drove him to the bus station. Three weeks later or so he regrets the decision, has a "flare up" with some football injury, and manages to get discharged. I strongly believe that if he had waited, put a little more thought into such a commitment that he would have save himself from any regrets.

I don't have any problems with the military as a career option, but I don't see any problems with letting kids wait until they can weigh their options on such a commitment without being pressured by the recruiters that make this option seem like the only way to go.

Many of these kids (all of my friends that enlisted, actually) were coming from backgrounds of drug/alcohol abuse and family problems and were searching for an "out". One is able to make a decision to go to college and drop out if this is what they choose..you don't have this option with the military..you're stuck in it if you decide a month in that it's not where you belong.

[cali-grown]

Originally Posted by Stacy From Cali

My experience has shown me that recruiters who are allowed to come into high schools tend to target those students who are performing poorly and offer then them a backdoor out of having to actually pass their classes. How is that appropriate? On any level?

Not sure where you get this information from, but there is no "back door" that they can offer to pass any class. They have to pass it all on their own. If they are performing that poorly then I don't see how they can score high enough on the ASVAB to even get in the military. I'm sure the recruiters would much rather have students who are smarter and doing well in school than the ones that you are suggesting. It sure makes their job a whole lot easier in the long run.
I have no problem with them coming to the schools. All those students have a choice and they can choose to say no or just ignore them. They'll soon be making adult choices in life, seems that's a good starting point for them.

[Stacy From Cali]

I get it from my own experiences as a highschool teacher. These were the students that were targeted where I taught.

These students see the military as an "out" from having to do well in school. There is then no pressure to go to college or get a job. They just have to join the military to get school and family off of their backs.

[D-Towner]

Originally Posted by Stacy From Cali

I get it from my own experiences as a highschool teacher. These were the students that were targeted where I taught.

These students see the military as an "out" from having to do well in school. There is then no pressure to go to college or get a job. They just have to join the military to get school and family off of their backs.

That is a ridiculous assumption. That statement insults the Men and Women of the Military.

[Stacy From Cali]

Not an assumption I'm afraid. This comes from what these students told me.

How is that a ridiculous assumption?

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by D-Towner

Happ has suggested many crazy things. He/she said that California was unjustly conquered by the Americans from Mexico.

you are right there...I know we all have our ideas and some of us are more verbal than others, but he really is out there to the left of left...

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by clongirl

I also had a handful of very good friends join the military during high school. One friend in particular had joined due to some peer pressure from the others that were entering. I even drove him to the bus station. Three weeks later or so he regrets the decision, has a "flare up" with some football injury, and manages to get discharged. I strongly believe that if he had waited, put a little more thought into such a commitment that he would have save himself from any regrets.

I don't have any problems with the military as a career option, but I don't see any problems with letting kids wait until they can weigh their options on such a commitment without being pressured by the recruiters that make this option seem like the only way to go.

Many of these kids (all of my friends that enlisted, actually) were coming from backgrounds of drug/alcohol abuse and family problems and were searching for an "out". One is able to make a decision to go to college and drop out if this is what they choose..you don't have this option with the military..you're stuck in it if you decide a month in that it's not where you belong.

Still, recruiting of all kinds take place while kids are still in high school. What about the countries that make you decide in the 8th grade what direction you will take? What if the draft was still enforced like it was for many years and is, in some countries. First kids want to be treated like adults, with all the legal rights: get married, buy a home, vote, drink, make all their own decisions and then when it comes to the decision whether or not they will serve their country, it is don't ask a poor little teen to make such a decision....

And Stacy, I am sure you have had kids tell you that, some do join for those reasons, but that is a pretty generalized, blanket statement, not to mention it isn't always a bad decision.
Nita