Because of Covid, entire age groups have never known sports, music, or other school clubs. Clubs, including JROTC, are important to development.
I recently commented on a New York Times piece detailing criticisms of Junior ROTC programs in high schools. The major revelation from the Times was that some schools required the martial course of instruction or automatically enrolled students in it; only after submitting a change request would a student be allowed out of the program. Majority-minority schools were more likely to adopt universal JROTC, both for the additional funding as well as the added accountability among the student body; activists suggested JROTC engagement was a form of brainwashing.
As I wrote:
Were I appointed High Lord Chancellor of Education and Traffic Cones, every American student would spend a semester in JROTC, along with shop class and music instruction. The liberal arts should include the art of war, automotive repair, and bugling. Additionally, it’s good for students to understand their relationship with the federal government’s whims at an early age.
Readers were less interested in requiring JROTC, preferring it as an optional course. I must disagree; children are not small adults — we can and should take an active role in their development. With students disengaging from extracurriculars, especially following long periods of remote learning during Covid, there are entire age groups that have never known sports, music, and other school clubs. For those of limited means, clubs within school hours are vital, as parents struggle with dynamic schedules and transportation needs for activities conducted after the school day concludes.
Most clubs require a degree of competency. JROTC, like the Army, requires only the ability to breathe and maintain posture in a prescribed location. The barrier to entry is minimal but offers the same expectations of a student’s conduct and academic progress as other activities. For this reason, a school population can benefit from an esprit de corps, united by a common experience — similar to boot camp, which mixed me with guys from every kind of socioeconomic and racial background.
Young men and women, in the process of developing empathy and experience, would be better off being forced to mix with their non-peers. Schools currently attempt to create better kids with slide shows and activities under the left-leaning “social-emotional learning” (SEL) umbrella. Tosh. Corporate challenges and punishment can accomplish that goal much more effectively, adding in some grit along the way.
Some on the right would like to see a form of national service post–high school — military or civilian work. That seems un-American to me. However, a few months of JROTC at the start of high school makes sense. There’s no natural cap to such a program; students can continue with it if they choose, but every American student would have that period in common.
As for who would preside over the program, the best option would be through something other than an entirely federal program. Federalism, instead? State National Guard units could preside over the JROTC programs so that the feds would not be unduly influential in a locality’s education system. A degree of separation is preferable.
What I describe is a pipe dream, I know. But public-school students are already enrolled in nonelective programs to make them “better people.” Perhaps conservatives should consider how to improve these “better people” programs instead of fecklessly whingeing about them in comments sections (something I’m guilty of, too).
Next time, traffic-cone hot takes. I promise.