Basic training

[unhappycamper]

The Gloucester High School Armed Drill Team (top) is inspected by John Saldana of the Army National Guard. In photo above right, the Lynn English High School Drill Team watches a team from New Jersey. Above left, Zachary Jermyn of Gloucester High School.


Basic training
By Steven Rosenberg
Globe Staff / January 10, 2008

Jason Geary likes to raise the flag in the morning at Gloucester High School. Eranis Vizcaino tutors other students after school at Lynn English. In Hampton, N.H., Sam Lieber and his friends regularly clean Hampton Beach.

The students say they're just like other teenagers who want to give back to their community. But giving back, they say, begins with the work they do as members of their schools' Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps - a group, they say, that's often misunderstood by other students, teachers, and community residents.

"Some people think all this program is for is getting you ready for the military, but it's really not," said Geary, 17. "It's really just helping you get ready for life."

While the program's military teachings have raised concerns in places like San Francisco - which threatened to ban JROTC after next year - the programs are as popular as ever in seven high schools in the Globe North area. In each high school, more than 100 students are enrolled in the program, and in each school at least half of the students are female. Two retired military veterans teach each class, and their salaries are split between the school districts and the military. To stay in the program, students must pass all courses.

Each program focuses on instilling leadership skills and performing community service projects. While students are required to take a course each day and wear a military uniform one day a week, military recruitment is prohibited. According to the instructors at the schools, fewer then 10 percent of the enrolled students join the military.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/10/basic_training/

[Shipwreck7]

1. JROTC is one of the leading causes of children's death in the

current climate, IMO.

[unhappycamper]

2. Hi Shipwreck7.

Welcome to DU! :hi: