Peace Class

Educating for Peace

 

A few weeks ago at the college and career fair during third period, a gleaming red SUV was parked out in the mall area, by the far the most prominent display.  It could not help but catch the attention of the students (a favorite phrase of theirs, as in, "Why did you choose that/ like that?"  they reply, with a shrug, "I don't know, Miss, it caught my attention."  In front stood a row of fit and impressively uniformed Marines.   As if feeling followed by the two patrolling the tables inside was not conspicuous enough!

 

That same week I presented my students with the question "How should someone respond when denied power, privilege or equal standing with other Americans?"  and, inherently, "What is an American?"   Included in our materials were stories that surprised me when I was putting together the unit:  young men and women who served and died in the military, in the U.S. military, only to be granted citizenship after service or death.   (I know I wrote about this before, but I still am shocked).  The same government that has spent the past several years (decades) trying to get schools to disclose illegal aliens, that has continued to test and set obstacles to student achievement reminding them how much more difficult it will always be for them to get ahead is sending these Marines to recruit our same students to bolster Bush's illegal war!

 

Today, I received my copy of neatoday (Nat'l Education Association), which I normally throw into the trash.  Browsing through the contents I am intrigued by an article about recruiters courting teachers to gain access to campuses.  Inside the article it exposes programs to bring teachers to workshops at Parris Island for an inside sales pitch about what the Marines can do for your students.  There are stories of harassment of teachers who discourage students from falling for recruiter ploys.   Moreover, there are excerpts from a recruiting handbook with not so revolutionary advice like buying donuts and coffee for teacher meetings (how I would hate to see that school faculty), keep up with faculty meetings and events, volunteer for events, and so on.  Yet, the insidious targeting of high school students is best expressed with this simile: "Like the farmer who fails to guard the hen house, we can easily lose our schools and relinquish ownership to the other services if we fail to maintain a strong school recruiting program" (Neatoday, April 2007, 37).  (And you know all of this entails lots of money.)

 

Meanwhile, with No Child Left Behind, I am not allowed to teach one period of yoga (it is not in my credentialed area) nor am I able to get a few hundred dollars to buy yoga mats.  Last week I started offering yoga at lunch on Wednesdays.  Only three showed up for the last 10 minutes.  I let my advertising slip -- with regular work duties and trying to organize the new class for semester as my excuses -- so expect even fewer tomorrow. 

 

Yesterday, I asked my students to write about what they want or their dream world.  One student joked, "You would want a world where everyone did yoga all the time, wouldn't you Miss?"  I said, no, just at least an hour a day because I believe it could create world peace.   And I do.  

 

Lesson plans can wait; I have some yoga mats to scrounge up before the recruiters steal my students and my colleagues.