Reactionary Brown wants militarised comprehensive schools

Free Socialist Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 12:28:29 AM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

Wasn't this some barmy Tory policy idea from the mid-90s that was quietly abandoned? Why the need to blanket-militarise today's teenagers? Why introduce such a reactionary, atavistic and totalitarian policy idea that deserves to be buried in the graveyard of history along with the Hitler Youth and FDJ?

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2271362,00.html

 




I'm strongly libertarian, so to be honest this very policy idea disgusts me a great deal. I'm all for young adults joining the military if it is by their own free choice; what I don't want the State using the public education system as an apparatus to indoctrinate youngsters with militarism. That is coercive, backwards, sick and doesn't belong in a modern free society.



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Reactionary Brown wants militarised comprehensive schools | 11 comments (11 topical)

militarised comprehensive schools (#1)

by doctordunc on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 09:42:53 AM GMT

Combined with Davies' proposals for changes to history teaching, the plan appears to be to turn our youth into ignorant gun-toting bigots.  Great.

I understand that at the public school up the road you here things like, 'I won't be able to do my homework tonight, I've got Army'.  The day I hear those words from a student is the day I give up teaching.


Re: militarised comprehensive schools (#2)

by jkitleft on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 10:37:52 AM GMT

One of Labour's first actions in governments, was to tighten gun control. Fantabulous.

I see a tactic used when we were in opposition. Labour triangulated the Tories into introducing authoritarian policies, opposed them, and they didn't have a majority, so cuoldn't get them enacted, then Labour introduced them, to make them fit the 'Tough on crime' rhetoric.


The government need to remember their other notably famous soundbite, 'Education, Education, Education'. The unskilled labour market is to collapse by 2020, from 3.6 million now, to 0.6 million then. Now is not the time to be diverting the particular importance of Education at this time, to the interests of pacifying people who think that discipline will be enforced by introducing cadet schools.


[ Parent ]

Rootin Tootin n, Shootin, School kids (#3)

by HOWLERMONKEY on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 05:13:00 PM GMT

It’s probable that a good number of school children understand firearms and can shoot better, more than most serving infantrymen.   Mostly due to the fact that UK military firearm training is abysmal. As to the armed police they are just laughable.


Re: Rootin Tootin n, Shootin, School kids (#4)

by swatantra on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 06:45:00 PM GMT

No guns; you're just going to make them into better killers.  Teach them Judo and Karate instead and they can learn the discipline to control their agressiveness. Better still, take a leaf out of Squeer's book (Doothboys Hall); his philosophy was: When I want boys to learn about horses, I tell them to clean out the stables. It starts with the basics. If kids did the cleaning up of schools and public buildings, they might show a bit more respect for them. Let me add, before someone points it out, that Squeer's views on corporal punishment were abominable and he was an altogether very unpleasant fellow.


[ Parent ]

Re: Reactionary Brown wants militarised (#5)

by LabourOutlook on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 10:13:50 PM GMT

I can't see why everyone is reacting so badly to this idea. It seems to me that something that gives structure to young people's lives is a good thing.

The talk of Hitler Youth is pretty offensive too. Comparing the people to run Army Cadets to Nazis is pretty cheap.


Re: Reactionary Brown wants militarised (#6)

by jkitleft on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 10:31:44 PM GMT

I tried to ignore the Nazi jibes, because otherwise there would just be a debate about Nazis. Well, not so much a debate, because I'm hoping that all of the bloggers are against Naziism.........

Anywho, discipline can't be enforced this way. I'm becoming more libertarian with regards to other issues, but not guns. It is not like liberalising alcohol, smoking, or drugs laws. Guns are made to enforce harm. I learnt Aikido for a couple of months, it really helped to discipline me. There have to be alternative ways of disciplining children, rather than resorting to pur aggressiveness.


[ Parent ]

Re: Reactionary Brown wants militarised (#7)

by jkitleft on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 10:32:03 PM GMT

'pure'


[ Parent ]

Re: Reactionary Brown wants militarised (#8)

by LabourOutlook on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 12:08:31 AM GMT

I'm not quite sure what this has to do with liberalising gun laws?


[ Parent ]

Re: Reactionary Brown wants militarised (#10)

by jkitleft on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 11:25:31 AM GMT

Well, as proved last year when the sports minister was encouraging rifle use, to 'enforce' discipline, guns would be used in these 'cadet schools'


[ Parent ]

Re: Reactionary Brown .... (#9)

by bishophill on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 09:48:05 AM GMT

It's not obvious to me that the cadet forces are going to be compulsory. The report talks of children "signing up" for them, which implies they will be voluntary.

If that's the case then I think it's a good thing. 


Children's Army (#11)

by rwendland on Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 06:17:06 PM GMT

An amusing(?) aspect of this proposal is that whenever on TV we see children marching around in uniforms carrying guns we generally look upon it with horror, and think that it reflects poorly on their government and society. But here we are proposing to do more of that in the UK.

I have to admit I was a member of the CCF, and can remember myself marching around carrying guns at age 12 or 13 (I fainted on one long parade!).

At 13 or 14 I went on a delightful course at Warminster, where we were told about the wonderful effectiveness of Claymore type mines. We got to play with training versions of them, and remember as an excercise having to set them up in corridors around the classroom to provide a layered (both tripwire and command-wired) anti-personnel screen for us! I still remember myself wondering, with some horror, what all those small ball-bearings would do to a person.

Also had lots of fun (at the time) firing training rounds from anti-tank weapons, and firing machine guns!

To be fair that was in the 1960s, and nowaday CCF courses probably don't cover mines anymore. But still, in these modern days, is this really the kind of way we want to bring up our kids? Though my experience was that not many CCF pupils ended up joining the military.

(NB if I had terrorist ambitions, this would have been handy training!)


Reactionary Brown wants militarised comprehensive schools | 11 comments (11 topical)