An Apache helicopter gunship. Photo: waldopepper / flickr CC.
Militarism and schools
Steve Whiting considers the armed forces’ approach to young people
In November last year an Apache helicopter gunship landed in Stevenage to help pupils mark their remembrance day. A helicopter landing in your school field is obviously an exciting experience for reception class pupils, but this raises serious questions. In an era of austerity and public sector cuts, how is there still public money to fly a military helicopter and crew of four on public relations visits to schools? What’s behind this?
The director general of media and communications for the Ministry of Defence explained to a parliamentary committee in 2007 that visits to schools and colleges are a ‘powerful tool for facilitating recruitment’ and that engagement with schools is an important way to ‘provide positive information to influence future opinion-formers’.
According to colonel David Allfrey, head of the army’s recruitment strategy: ‘Our new model is about raising awareness, and that takes a ten-year span. It starts with a seven-year-old boy seeing a parachutist at an air show and thinking “That looks great’. From then the army is trying to build interest by drip, drip, drip.’
Actually, this doesn’t seem a new strategy at all. The number of military visits to schools has grown massively in recent years, and it’s reminiscent of how things were done in the run-up to the first world war. It is curious how the armed forces manage to gain a level of access to educational institutions denied to other organisations.
Some people might see no issue here, but there is an issue – and the government knows it. The government response to strong popular opposition to recent wars has been to introduce initiatives designed to normalise the military in our everyday lives.
Fewer young people find the armed forces an attractive career option (and who can blame them?). So, the armed forces need to get them while they’re young and impressionable. And they need to cultivate public support for the future wars these young people may be sent to. Perhaps, more cynically, there is a move towards introducing a military-style culture of unquestioning acceptance in our classrooms and beyond.
But I hope there is still a place in our education system for the development of critical and independent thinking. The 1996 Education Act sets out a legal framework to guard against indoctrination of younger children and ensure balance.
Perhaps the staff and governors of Peartree Spring Primary School, the school visited by the helicopter in Stevenage, and other schools, might consider holding sessions focusing on peace, doing conflict without violence, and exploring alternatives to war.
The Peace Education Network has some excellent resources and can help organise and deliver a school Peace Week. For older age groups, members of Veterans for Peace UK are always willing to come and talk of their experiences in the military.
