Slim said:
Teens, whether they like it or not-or- will admit it or not ARE influenced by outside events. I personally lay the blame for the way the service is treated at the doorstep of the highschool teachers in our country today.( for the most part)
For the most part they are ex-hippies who "don't agree" with the idea of a nation having an armed force of any type. They view the service as a place where people go if they can't seem to get a "real" job, not as a serious career.
Tell one of them that Frredom Isn't Free- they'll go ballistic (as one of mine did - if fact I failed her course for that remark)
I would ask some of the students on the board what their teachers say about the service?
Slim
My Grade V teacher sat us down and gave a long lecture on Rememberance Day - he actually gathered us in a circle if I remember it correctly. He was my fav teacher in elementary school but I regret that I can't remember why. I remember part of the story he told us was about a vet telling him of taking his boot off and half his foot with it due to trenchfoot. He had a lot of respect for servicemen.
Flash forward to my second year in the Miilitia - I was a piper then, and the Adjutant was a school teacher. Myself and a corporal piper went to play Amazing Grace at his school. The principal was a grizzled looking guy, bald head, beard, looked like something out of Soldier of Fortune. "Are you Mike Dorosh" he asked as I signed a guestbook. Yup, same teacher, who remembered me, congratulated me on my choice of getting into the military and had nothing but fond wishes.
I remember one other thing about Grade V - I had a green shirt with shoulder straps on it - dad bought me a set of CANADA slip ons which I put on my shirt, along with the old work dress Corporal chevrons. Don't remember why - dad had been a bombardier. Mr. Hunter said something like 'youngest corporal in the Canadian Army' when I wore my ensemble to class one day. (I was a weird kid with indulgent parents....)
And the only other thing I remember about that class is having to design a coat of arms for our families. Mr. Hunter took one look at mine and said "that's not a coat of arms." I had simply drawn a set of corporal's chevrons.
I had no idea what Army Cadets were then, nor did I even dream of one day serving. Much less did I foresee actually being a corporal - for 15 years and counting!
But he certainly, IIRC, knew what it was all about and tried to pass that off to us.
On the other hand, I remember in Junior High School, some of the teachers - liberals I presume - who were very concerned that we shouldn't laugh or cheer during the air-to-air combat sequences in the WW II documentaries they were forced to show us. They were right, of course, but seemed to preach on that point over and over....