RebeldePorLaPAZ
4th December 2006, 17:24
The Hartford Courant
December 4, 2006
By RACHEL GOTTLIEB, Courant Staff Writer
Picture this: Hartford middle and high school students standing at attention in formation for morning roll call, walking quietly in single file through school hallways, addressing their teachers as `Sir' and `Ma'am' and sporting neatly pressed military uniforms.
Child soldiers?
Military school. A public military magnet school.
It's a school that the new superintendent of schools, Steven J. Adamowski, says the district should consider. Ditto for Mayor Eddie A. Perez, chairman of the school board, who also suggests a role for boot camp, a residential reform school and perhaps some other residential magnet school if funding can be identified.
Beyond Hartford, the idea has caught the attention of educators in some urban districts seeking to find a way to impose a sense of order and discipline among children who often lead chaotic lives at home.
"The idea is to put them into schools with high expectations and standards of behavioral norms that spill into other areas of their lives," said Henry Levin, professor of economics and education at Teachers College at Columbia University and director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education based at Columbia.
But what some see as a path to order, others see as exploitation.
Dave Ionno, a Vietnam veteran who lectures students in Hartford about the realities of war, says it's immoral to place military schools in poor cities where children are desperate for resources to pay for college.
"Do you think Glastonbury is going to get a military school?" Ionno asked. "Let the poor kids do the dying. It's the same old story."
City Councilwoman Elizabeth Horton Sheff, the mother of the lead plaintiff in the court case to desegregate Hartford schools, shares Ionno's concerns.
"The thought of a military school is scary to me," Horton Sheff said.
"Even with the National Guard," she said, "you sign up, think you're going to get a college education and defend our shores and the next thing you know you're in Baghdad."
The debate comes at a unique moment in American history. The post-Sept. 11 mood, combined with a spotlight on troubled urban youths and the challenges in improving their academic achievement, creates fertile terrain for the structure offered by military academies, experts say.
At the same time, many are beginning to question the fairness about who is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. A week before Thanksgiving, U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said he would introduce legislation to reinstitute the draft.
"As long as Americans are being shipped off to war, then everyone should be vulnerable, not just those who, because of economic circumstances, are attracted by lucrative enlistment bonuses and educational incentives," Rangel said in a statement.
A Touchy Subject
While private military academies have long been a fixture of the educational terrain, public academies are a relatively new phenomenon.
Franklin Military Academy in Richmond, Va., was the first public military school to open in 1980, and more sprang up in the 1990s. There are about a dozen public military schools in the nation.
Structure, small class sizes and the development of leadership skills and pride are the major benefits that military schools trumpet. Strict rules are set for hair styles, uniforms, accessories, posture and language. Several military schools have Saturday school, too. Students who defy their teachers or military instructors find themselves shoveling sand, doing pushups or performing other physical tasks.
Some schools, such as the Toole Military Magnet Academy in Charleston Heights, S.C., require students to attend a special summer camp before their first year at the school to learn military vocabulary, drills, marching and saluting skills.
But although there is a military theme, Col. Joseph Dawson, the commandant at Toole, says academics are the main focus. The classes are taught by certified teachers, and students are encouraged to continue their education after high school.
"We do not steer them toward the military," Toole said. "We encourage them to go to college."
FULL STORY (http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-militaryschool1203.artdec04,0,4893652.story?page=1&coll=hc-headlines-education)
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I couldn't believe what I was reading, I actually had no knowledge of this. What are people's thoughts and have anybody seen this in their area???
--Paz
December 4, 2006
By RACHEL GOTTLIEB, Courant Staff Writer
Picture this: Hartford middle and high school students standing at attention in formation for morning roll call, walking quietly in single file through school hallways, addressing their teachers as `Sir' and `Ma'am' and sporting neatly pressed military uniforms.
Child soldiers?
Military school. A public military magnet school.
It's a school that the new superintendent of schools, Steven J. Adamowski, says the district should consider. Ditto for Mayor Eddie A. Perez, chairman of the school board, who also suggests a role for boot camp, a residential reform school and perhaps some other residential magnet school if funding can be identified.
Beyond Hartford, the idea has caught the attention of educators in some urban districts seeking to find a way to impose a sense of order and discipline among children who often lead chaotic lives at home.
"The idea is to put them into schools with high expectations and standards of behavioral norms that spill into other areas of their lives," said Henry Levin, professor of economics and education at Teachers College at Columbia University and director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education based at Columbia.
But what some see as a path to order, others see as exploitation.
Dave Ionno, a Vietnam veteran who lectures students in Hartford about the realities of war, says it's immoral to place military schools in poor cities where children are desperate for resources to pay for college.
"Do you think Glastonbury is going to get a military school?" Ionno asked. "Let the poor kids do the dying. It's the same old story."
City Councilwoman Elizabeth Horton Sheff, the mother of the lead plaintiff in the court case to desegregate Hartford schools, shares Ionno's concerns.
"The thought of a military school is scary to me," Horton Sheff said.
"Even with the National Guard," she said, "you sign up, think you're going to get a college education and defend our shores and the next thing you know you're in Baghdad."
The debate comes at a unique moment in American history. The post-Sept. 11 mood, combined with a spotlight on troubled urban youths and the challenges in improving their academic achievement, creates fertile terrain for the structure offered by military academies, experts say.
At the same time, many are beginning to question the fairness about who is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. A week before Thanksgiving, U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said he would introduce legislation to reinstitute the draft.
"As long as Americans are being shipped off to war, then everyone should be vulnerable, not just those who, because of economic circumstances, are attracted by lucrative enlistment bonuses and educational incentives," Rangel said in a statement.
A Touchy Subject
While private military academies have long been a fixture of the educational terrain, public academies are a relatively new phenomenon.
Franklin Military Academy in Richmond, Va., was the first public military school to open in 1980, and more sprang up in the 1990s. There are about a dozen public military schools in the nation.
Structure, small class sizes and the development of leadership skills and pride are the major benefits that military schools trumpet. Strict rules are set for hair styles, uniforms, accessories, posture and language. Several military schools have Saturday school, too. Students who defy their teachers or military instructors find themselves shoveling sand, doing pushups or performing other physical tasks.
Some schools, such as the Toole Military Magnet Academy in Charleston Heights, S.C., require students to attend a special summer camp before their first year at the school to learn military vocabulary, drills, marching and saluting skills.
But although there is a military theme, Col. Joseph Dawson, the commandant at Toole, says academics are the main focus. The classes are taught by certified teachers, and students are encouraged to continue their education after high school.
"We do not steer them toward the military," Toole said. "We encourage them to go to college."
FULL STORY (http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-militaryschool1203.artdec04,0,4893652.story?page=1&coll=hc-headlines-education)
--------------------------------------------------
I couldn't believe what I was reading, I actually had no knowledge of this. What are people's thoughts and have anybody seen this in their area???
--Paz