“Yes, Sir!” — Turning Students into Soldiers
Book Review
Breaking the War Habit: The Debate over Militarism in American Education
By Seth Kershner, Scott Harding, and Charles Howlett
(University of Georgia Press, 2022)
204 pp.
Teenagers mount the army tank, shyly at first and then more boldly when they realize no one is stopping them. Soon more than half a dozen kids vie for space. Someone climbs to the top, takes the helm, and begins steering the turret and pointing the tank’s main gun, aiming it. A girl takes over, her red hair flying, and then someone else. Nearby students climb into a Humvee from the Iraq War. From the back of a jeep, a youngish military vet pulls out fatigues, a flak jacket, and helmet, which he quietly hands to a gangly teenage boy who slowly dons the uniform and stands up tall. Moments later, the same vet emerges with a heavy shoulder mounted grenade launcher that he passes to a small boy who smiles broadly. The vet assists him in balancing and pointing the big gun. Dozens of students gather round, and they pass the weapon one to another. Each takes a turn aiming at other kids. Then I see Alex, my student who an hour before had exploded with rage at an education system that has failed him and a family that cannot support him. He aims the weighty gun at me and says “Pow.”
It was “Living History Day” at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, a working-class suburb of Portland, Oregon, in November 2016. At that annual event, our administration and the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) hijacked our schedule and curriculum so that our 2,800 students could hear presentations by more than 300 military veterans. This embrace of militarism is not unique to Reynolds High School. Schools throughout the country organize Veterans Day programs such as Reynolds’ Living History Day.
Seth Kershner, Scott Harding, and Charles Howlett in their thoughtful, well-researched book, Breaking the War Habit: The Debate over Militarism in American Education, demonstrate how the military presence in schools today has become a pervasive normalized element in the educational landscape. According to the authors, 3,500 public high schools, one in six, have a JROTC unit. In the Southeast, JROTC is present in 30 to 60 percent of public high schools. Even some middle schools boast military-based “leadership programs.” The Pentagon continues to promote the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) as a career aptitude exam, even though the military developed it as a recruitment tool. Military recruiters regularly visit high schools, targeting students primarily from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and students of color. In 2013, Congress instructed the secretary of defense to expand further and to report on “efforts to increase distribution of units in educationally and economically deprived areas.”
Targeting low-income students is nothing new to the military. Due to a dearth of opportunities caused by institutionalized racism, students of color, lured by misleading promises of glamorous military careers, participate in JROTC in far greater numbers than their share of the population. By 1975, nationally, 43 percent of JROTC enrollees were young people of color. Today, more than half of the approximately 550,000 JROTC cadets are students of color. In addition, according to a December 2022 exposé in the New York Times, a significant number of low-income high schools automatically enroll incoming 9th graders in JROTC programs.
The Long History of Anti-War Resistance in Schools
Employing numerous primary resources, the Breaking the War Habit authors explain that the military presence in schools owns a long history of ever-increasing power. Yet, despite long odds, they note, peace activists, educators, students, veterans, labor organizers, social workers, clergy, and socialists have resisted military influence in our schools to stop war where it begins — “in the shaping of the psychological mindset that creates young people submissive to authority and in thrall to military symbolism.” As the book argues, it is essential that education, social justice, and peace activists rebuild that coalition in order to counter the pervasive role that the military — and accompanying military mindset — plays in our schools.
Breaking the War Habit offers readers a well-researched road map of the resistance to the steady growth of school militarism. As early as the 1830s, Horace Mann argued that history textbooks must be revised so that students “be educated to that strength of intellect which shall dispel the illusions of (military) glory.” The authors describe the inspiring efforts of several peace organizations, including the Universal Peace Union and the New York branch of the Women’s Party, to quell the military’s march into schools in the period between the Civil War and WWI. For instance, in the latter half of the 19th century, the Universal Peace Union warned against the “science of arms among youth, the establishment of military academies, and the introduction of military professorships into public schools” because they “sowed the seeds of future wars, and contributed to make us a nation of warriors.” Seeing how political and business leaders used the military to violently suppress labor strikes, unions and socialists also advocated for an end to military training in schools.
During this period, the movement against school militarism drew strong support from educational leaders such as Columbia University educator John Dewey and president of Stanford University David Starr Jordan, as well as from rank-and-file teachers like Fannie Fern Andrews, who founded the American School Peace League. In the middle of WWI, Jordan wrote that the country must resist efforts to insert militarism into public education. “Voluntary drill,” he argued, was a “misuse of time that might generally be better employed,” while compulsory military drill was “thoroughly evil [and] an entering wedge of a movement subversive of democratic freedom.”
With the National Defense Acts of 1916 and 1920, which established ROTC in colleges and JROTC in high schools, military drill in schools transitioned from what the authors describe as a relatively informal, community-organized activity to a well-funded formal institution. In many schools, military training, alongside standardized testing and tracking, became mandatory.
In a pattern repeated throughout U.S. history when war leads to increasing militarism in our schools, students, teachers, and other peace activists ramped up their resistance, giving birth to the modern U.S. peace movement. In 1915, suffragists founded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). In 1923, Jessie Wallace Hughan, a New York City English teacher fired for her socialist and pacifist views, created the War Resisters League (WRL). The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) also were founded in response to increasing militarization. These organizations, active to this day, have embraced an intersectional approach to war and militarism. According to the authors, “The eradication of violence” was considered just as important as “getting rid of racism, sexism, class inequality, and exploitation of human and natural resources.”
Between the wars, the Committee on Militarism in Education (CME) focused exclusively on the issue of militarism in schools, particularly compulsory ROTC programs in colleges and the rise of JROTC in high schools. In doing so, they developed models of activism that continue to inform the movement today. CME hired investigative journalist Winthrop Lane to write Military Training in Schools and Colleges in the United States, an expertly researched report that had a powerful influence on the debate about school militarism. According to the authors, “While the War Department sought to deceive a war-weary public by dressing up the program in the pleasant-sounding language of ‘citizenship training,’ Lane reminded readers of the true purpose of ROTC: ‘To make soldiers.’” In addition to educating the public about the armed forces’ growing tentacles in schools, the Lane report and CME called for people to organize forums and discussion groups, critique ROTC textbooks and the infusion of a military mindset in schools, register their concerns at school board meetings, adopt student-led resolutions against military training, organize student-led strikes against the military presence on campuses, and petition Congress regarding the waste of taxpayer dollars on school militarism. Notable activists, including W. E. B. Du Bois, co-founder of the NAACP, and women’s suffrage leaders Jane Addams and Carrie Chapman Catt, supported CME. CME succeeded in alerting the public to the dangers of school militarism and winning modest victories at the state and local levels until the start of WWII. We would not see a comparable peace movement until the Vietnam War era.
After Vietnam: Selling the Military in Schools
During the 1960s and 1970s, coalitions of peace activists, teachers, and students engaged in anti-ROTC campaigns that finally brought an end to compulsory ROTC programs. However, with the end of the draft, the Pentagon dramatically increased its marketing and advertising — and its presence in schools — to sell military enlistment to young people and school personnel.
JROTC units increased throughout the country, especially in low-income schools with high percentages of students of color. The Army developed video games as thinly veiled recruitment tools. The Department of Defense developed the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test as a means of harvesting student data, including future goals, which has allowed recruiters to devise individually targeted recruitment proposals.
Because of local control in the U.S. education system, schools did not have to administer the ASVAB test or accept JROTC units, or even — until the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 — allow recruiters on campus. The DoD thus began courting educators in earnest, especially guidance counselors, administrators, and school board members, through the newly formed Education/Military Liaison Project. Recruiters organized all-expense paid excursions to military installations. They put up booths at conferences for guidance counselors, administrators, and school board members and distributed gadgets to willing recipients. Most importantly, they tailored public presentations to assuage skeptical educators and parents, weary and wary of war. Military commanders consistently presented JROTC as a form of “citizenship education” and “leadership training.” “We’re not trying to play up militaristic objectives at all,” said a Navy commander in charge of the Navy’s high school program. “Joining Navy JROTC is like joining an extracurricular activity — like joining band.”
Out of the public eye, military officials were more forthcoming. All Hands, a U.S. Navy publication, admitted “Like every education program sponsored by the Navy, the NJROTC has a mission: to develop and motivate young men toward careers in the Navy.”
In response, peace and justice organizations worked with Veterans for Peace to organize several successful campaigns against JROTC and ASVAB testing in the 1970s and early ’80s. During this era, they garnered support from the media, interfaith religious groups, individual teachers, and Democratic Party members of Congress, such as Parren Mitchell of Maryland. To keep JROTC out of Baltimore schools in 1979, Rep. Mitchell wrote to the Baltimore School Board, “There are those who believe that by having military training for students, it will dissipate underlying currents of unrest, anger, or frustration. This is a poor solution to a serious problem. . . . You do not solve problems of our young people by teaching them to march and shout ‘Yes sir!’”
The increasing conservatism since the 1980s has made criticism of the military — and therefore coalition building — more challenging even while the military’s presence in schools has grown exponentially, as school officials largely swallowed the lies that JROTC and ASVAB are not recruiting tools and that they benefit schools financially and otherwise. Despite the challenges, counter-recruitment organizers achieved significant successes in the wake of the Iraq War. In the 1990s in Rochester, New York, and Portland, Oregon, activists allied with LGBTQ+ groups to argue for a ban on in-school military recruitment on the grounds that U.S. military discriminates against openly gay service members. They succeeded. In both districts, school boards passed policies banning access to schools by any organization, including all branches of the military, that employ discriminatory hiring practices. In 1991, school boards in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles voted to stop providing recruiters with student data. These bans lasted until 2002 when Congress passed NCLB. In a 1993 New York Times op-ed, retired Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll rejected the idea promoted by Sen. Sam Nunn and others that JROTC could resolve urban problems. “It is appalling that the Pentagon is selling a military training program as a remedy for intractable social and economic problems in inner cities. Surely, its real motive is to inculcate a positive attitude towards military service at an early age, thus creating a storehouse of potential recruits.”
In the “hawkish tide” of the post-9/11 period, the authors of Breaking the War Habit point to new military partnerships, in addition to JROTC, with schools — all part of the mission to establish what the Army calls “school ownership.” For example, STARBASE brings 5th graders from lower socioeconomic schools to military bases for a week of interactive science learning. Although civilians teach the courses, uniformed personnel devote at least one full day to military indoctrination. The Pentagon tests students before and after the week to determine the efficacy of their efforts to make children think more positively about the military. In this era of standardized testing, March 2 Success is a U.S. Army-sponsored website purportedly designed to help students improve their test-taking skills. According to the authors, “While the Army depicts March 2 Success as a community service, evidence suggests that recruiters are using it to gain access to schools and thus be able to better befriend and recruit young people.”
With the exceptions of Project YANO (Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities) in San Diego and Peaceful Vocations in Houston, activists have struggled to provide viable economic alternatives to the military. Consequently, some local leaders and educators have pushed back, arguing that the military provides a path to discipline and stable employment, especially for students of color. Even some charter schools, such as KIPP, have adopted military-style instruction and management techniques. “Sometimes the military is the best option for these kids,” is a frequent refrain.
Considering the increasing embrace of the military’s presence in schools — and the increasing militarization of police forces — it is not surprising we also have seen a dramatic increase in police presence in schools. According to the 2019 ACLU report Cops and No Counselors, 1.7 million students are in schools with cops but no counselors and 3 million students attend schools with cops but no nurses. Though the movement to take cops out of schools has gained considerable traction in the last few years, it is notably absent from Breaking the War Habit.
Lessons from the Struggle Against Militarism in Schools
Nevertheless, the authors provide inspiring examples of how activists have organized against school militarism as a crucial strategy to stop war where it begins — in the spread of militaristic values in the hearts and minds of our youth. To provide young people with accurate information so that they can make informed choices, activists have collaborated with students, veterans, investigative journalists, and academics to demand equal access to schools. With the antiwar movement on the rise after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, counter-recruitment efforts also gained steam. In 2011, the Portland School Board voted to provide equal access to peace activists. Of particular significance is the Education Not Arms Coalition’s successful cross-generational and multiracial campaign to eliminate an established JROTC from San Diego’s Mission Bay High School in 2012 by demonstrating how “militarism effectively starved the largely Hispanic student body of academic resources.” Despite small budgets, organizations such as National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) continue to work to build a broad-based multiracial network of activists who provide critical information and strategies for countering militarism in our schools.
Yet these successes seem to have slowed with the dwindling anti-war movement and the removal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Another important missing ingredient, according to the authors of Breaking the War Habit, is the broader coalition of anti-war activists of the pre-WWII years. Loudly missing in action are the teacher-led organizations, labor unions, religious leaders, and intellectuals, so proactive prior to WWII. A hundred years ago, socialists adamantly condemned school-based military programs. In the words of Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Party candidate for president, “I would no more teach school children military training than teach them arson, robbery, or assassination.” Today, Bernie Sanders, the most widely known democratic socialist in the country, has been an outspoken supporter of the STARBASE program. Between the world wars, labor unions and teachers such as Jessie Wallace Hughan vocally opposed school militarism. Remarkably few teachers and no unions today make an organized stand against school militarism. In the post-Vietnam War era, some Democratic Party politicians opposed the growth of JROTC on high school campuses and ROTC on college campuses. Today, we have seen exponential expansion of both, due in part to the cheerleading of former President Obama, who in his 2011 State of the Union address urged all college campuses “to open their doors to our military recruiters and JROTC.” When in 2006, the San Francisco School Board voted to eliminate JROTC from city schools, Gavin Newsom, then mayor of San Francisco, argued that opposing JROTC was tantamount to “disrespecting the sacrifice of men and women in uniform.” (Subsequently, a new school board in 2009 voted to retain JROTC units in SF high schools.)
Kershner, Harding, and Howlett demonstrated how today’s counter-recruitment movement has made important strides by incorporating key stakeholders. But, they argue, the difficulty in creating sustainable coalitions that include teacher-led organizations, organized labor, and civil rights groups has hampered today’s counter-recruitment movement. As longtime counter-recruitment organizer Rick Jahnkow notes, “School militarism is not just a peace issue, since militaristic values reinforce racism, sexism, homophobia, and a variety of other attitudes that are the cause of injustice in the world.”
In the complicated, sometimes Sisyphean struggle to end school militarism, the authors of Breaking the War Habit offer a strong, well-documented case for learning from both the successes and challenges of the movement’s history, and moving forward with that knowledge to develop a clear vision, organize powerful coalitions, and implement effective strategies to create a more just and peaceful world.
