Love Those Kids of Yours? Better Read This Then
When George Bush got the No Child Left Behind Act passed, he wasn't kidding (for reasons I'll reveal shortly).
All this time I've been critical of the title because I've heard that there are too many unfunded mandates that the local schools have to figure out how to fund. In the course of doing that, other programs get cut to the point that...well...how do I put this? Some kids get left behind.
There was a little-known proviso buried deep in that No Child Left Behind Act that was so cunning that I'm going to have to think twice when I get the notion to call Republicans idiots. They're oh-so-smarter than I thought! Let me step you through this little item:
If you were a president and you had an agenda that almost certainly would include one or more wars in foreign lands, what's one of the first things you know? You know you're gonna need soldiers. Lots of 'em. How do you get lots of soldiers? The draft! No...can't do that. The draft is really unpopular.
Mmm...how can they get a steady supply of soldiers? Appeal to lots-n-lots-n-lots of our must manipulable populace...teens. God, what a great idea! Get 'em fresh off the tree before they ripen and fall into...say, college. But how to get inside their noggins before they can really get their life plans in place?
I've got it! Write into the No Child Left Behind Act a stipulation that requires high schools to provide recruiters with names, social security numbers, addresses and phone numbers of kids starting at age 16. That way they can send them recruitment literature with their names on it, not the parents' names. They can call them on the phone and start painting the pictures in those young kids' minds as to what their lives in the military might be like.
Okay, change of gears: This is where I break out of the wise-cracking blogger mode and into the outraged parent mode. My 16 year-old daughter has probably gotten a dozen or more pieces of propaganda from 2 or 3 different branches of the military. My child's name has been shared with military recruiters whose only objective is to meet their monthly quota of recruits.
You might by now be thinking, well...the school doesn't have to comply with that...surely it's optional? You'd be wrong if you thought that. Not optional. In fact, federal funding to the school can be pulled if they don't comply. Kinda takes the school out of the education bidness and into the soldier pimping bidness, doesn't it? I'll apologize if that strikes you as crude. But that's a pretty accurate statement!
Them's some pretty smart, pretty devious, pretty dastardly Republicans what wrote that 670-page bill, doncha think? But if it seems like you've been painted into a corner without your even knowing it, I have a solution. Schools by law have to co-operate, but parents don't! You can get your kids taken off the student list that the school has to provide.
Just go here to a place called Leave My Child Alone and you can find out how you can borrow advice from Nancy Reagan: Just Say No! While you're there, take a few minutes and watch the video by Cindy Sheehan's photograph on the right side of the screen. If you're a grandparent and you don't like the military beckoning 16 year-olds to consider enlistment, please share this info with your kids.
I like to say that I think there's a perfectly justifiable reason for our having a military, and that a career in the military is exactly what some people need. Nothing wrong with that. But President Bush (who rushed into a terrible and unnecessary war) has proven that war is not the last option for him. And despite his pretty words, he doesn't care about the kids who are being snookered into the military on false promises.
As for me, I had my daughter sit and watch the video referred to above. I asked her if she understood everything in it, and she said yes. I asked her if she minded if I "opted her out" of the program through her school. She wanted out. So tomorrow I'm going to act on this information. My child is one that they're definitely going to leave behind. And I'm damned well happy of that.
All this time I've been critical of the title because I've heard that there are too many unfunded mandates that the local schools have to figure out how to fund. In the course of doing that, other programs get cut to the point that...well...how do I put this? Some kids get left behind.
There was a little-known proviso buried deep in that No Child Left Behind Act that was so cunning that I'm going to have to think twice when I get the notion to call Republicans idiots. They're oh-so-smarter than I thought! Let me step you through this little item:
If you were a president and you had an agenda that almost certainly would include one or more wars in foreign lands, what's one of the first things you know? You know you're gonna need soldiers. Lots of 'em. How do you get lots of soldiers? The draft! No...can't do that. The draft is really unpopular.
Mmm...how can they get a steady supply of soldiers? Appeal to lots-n-lots-n-lots of our must manipulable populace...teens. God, what a great idea! Get 'em fresh off the tree before they ripen and fall into...say, college. But how to get inside their noggins before they can really get their life plans in place?
I've got it! Write into the No Child Left Behind Act a stipulation that requires high schools to provide recruiters with names, social security numbers, addresses and phone numbers of kids starting at age 16. That way they can send them recruitment literature with their names on it, not the parents' names. They can call them on the phone and start painting the pictures in those young kids' minds as to what their lives in the military might be like.
Okay, change of gears: This is where I break out of the wise-cracking blogger mode and into the outraged parent mode. My 16 year-old daughter has probably gotten a dozen or more pieces of propaganda from 2 or 3 different branches of the military. My child's name has been shared with military recruiters whose only objective is to meet their monthly quota of recruits.
You might by now be thinking, well...the school doesn't have to comply with that...surely it's optional? You'd be wrong if you thought that. Not optional. In fact, federal funding to the school can be pulled if they don't comply. Kinda takes the school out of the education bidness and into the soldier pimping bidness, doesn't it? I'll apologize if that strikes you as crude. But that's a pretty accurate statement!
Them's some pretty smart, pretty devious, pretty dastardly Republicans what wrote that 670-page bill, doncha think? But if it seems like you've been painted into a corner without your even knowing it, I have a solution. Schools by law have to co-operate, but parents don't! You can get your kids taken off the student list that the school has to provide.
Just go here to a place called Leave My Child Alone and you can find out how you can borrow advice from Nancy Reagan: Just Say No! While you're there, take a few minutes and watch the video by Cindy Sheehan's photograph on the right side of the screen. If you're a grandparent and you don't like the military beckoning 16 year-olds to consider enlistment, please share this info with your kids.
I like to say that I think there's a perfectly justifiable reason for our having a military, and that a career in the military is exactly what some people need. Nothing wrong with that. But President Bush (who rushed into a terrible and unnecessary war) has proven that war is not the last option for him. And despite his pretty words, he doesn't care about the kids who are being snookered into the military on false promises.
As for me, I had my daughter sit and watch the video referred to above. I asked her if she understood everything in it, and she said yes. I asked her if she minded if I "opted her out" of the program through her school. She wanted out. So tomorrow I'm going to act on this information. My child is one that they're definitely going to leave behind. And I'm damned well happy of that.
posted by VTexan at 9:21 PM
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