Unjust high school military recruitment
Julia GerhardtStaff WriterTheir presence alone causes heated controversy on campus. They are the constant subject of many peer discussions. Many students are confused when they see them on campus. Who is this infamous group? It’s the armed forces.Though I believe all Americans should respect what the army, marines and navy do and the daily sacrifices they make, I do no think it is okay that they are allowed to come on our campus and promote a military-based career to students. In a conversation with English teacher Maria Stevens, she mentioned that promoting an early career in the armed forces may lead students to make a decision that they will later regret.“High school students might be more impressionable or impulsive in their decision-making,” Stevens said. “Perhaps they haven’t taken the time to explore all of their choices after high school.”Although we Samo students may not like to believe it, our brains are still developing, and according to various scientific studies, will not even be fully developed until we are about twenty-five. This is part of the reason we arelegally not allowed to drink or gamble until we are 21.However, this creates a double standard. It’s ridiculous that kids can’t drink or gamble at eighteen, but they can put their lives at an obvious risk by joining the armed forces. If our government is going to influence kids to make healthy decisions like not drinking or gambling, then it should also inform kids about the obvious risks joining the army entails, and it should work to recruit older Americans who have already sought higher education. The only things that we should be encouraging high school students to do after graduating is to pursue further education or perhaps take a productive year off of college to figure out what they want to pursue in life. If students are going to make the life-altering decision to join the military, they need to be fully educated first.I would rather the military publicize their options for joining after college, so that students who want to go to the army could at least get a college education beforehand. Service members who are college graduates will be older, more worldly and educated, and will be major assets in the army.However, the army does offer to pay or help pay for one’s college education if they commit to joining the army after they graduate. This, however, creates pressure for some students who are unaware of other ways to pay for college. Instead of joining the armed forces they could apply for financial aid from the government, from colleges or separate scholarships.However, as teens we frequently make decisions because we are ignorant to our other options. We have grown up with the American mentality that if we mess up we can just fix it or do it over, like in video games where we can just press the “reset” button at any time. But here’s the difference: in reality, there is no reset button. There are no more lives to use. Some mistakes are permanent.