Serving in the United States Military is a noble calling. I am personally grateful for the freedom which I enjoy and which American soldiers have earned on my behalf at great personal sacrifice to them and their families. LH has many fine young men and women serving in the military, and many of them chose the military even while being recruited by universities all over the United States.
But, it seems that everytime I visit the high school to help sell pizzas at lunch or work in the clinic, the military recruiters are there. I understand that they are in a recruiting crunch and that they must aggrerssively recruit or fall short of their staffing goals. But I just feel a bit uncomfortable with the full-court-press to convince LHHS students to join.
Recently, I got another call from a military recruiter. Seems my daughter, now a college sophomore, wanted to enter a fun game or contest the recruiters were having at the high school during lunch a few years ago. In order to participate, she had to give them her contact information, which she did without hesitation (and certainly without intention to consider military service). After that, she received frequent phone calls from them, asking how she was doing and encouraging her to join. The latest caller gave me the impression he was hoping she might have decided "college wasn’t for her" and that the armed forces might now be a match.
Please don’t interpret my apprehension as lackluster patriotism – it isn’t. I want our armed services to be successful and to have enough personnel to complete their mission. But I often use this blog to encourage my neighbors to "notice" something and to decide how we feel as a community.
The good news is that LHHS also allows access to colleges and universities who wish to visit and recruit our students. They set up tables and pass out leaflets. The difference seems to be that each college visits once per year.
