The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)

Advocates of progressive social change in this country are asking important questions about possible directions to follow after the 2008 election. For the peace movement, this question is particularly challenging because, while there is good reason to celebrate the defeat of the Republican Party and the election of the first African American president, there is also a real danger that Obama’s victory will under-cut anti-war protest if he doesn’t move quickly to end the Bush administration’s two wars.

Source: Project YANO

Camouflaged: Investigating How the U.S. Military Affects You and Your Community is a tool for educators to help middle and high school-aged students explore the role of the military in their lives and in their communities. Local New York City teachers, led by the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE), generated the Camouflaged curriculum with the intent of making it accessible to educators across the country in a variety of settings and curricular areas. NYCoRE believes that it is the role of educators as allies to young people to ensure that students have information from a variety of sources before considering enlisting in the armed forces. At this point in U.S. history, military recruiters have unprecedented access to young people in and out of school through a variety of mediums. This curriculum provides a critical lens to help students navigate recruiters’ messages and to examine the role of the military throughout this country’s history to the present.

As students, we are constantly being targeted by the military, whether it’s through military recruiters at our schools, calls at our homes or even through our educational curriculum.
Toward the end of our high school years, we find ourselves deciding whether or not to pursue higher education or to choose what seems to be “the easy way out” (military, in some cases). Sometimes raised by immigrants or by a single parent, we struggle with the reality that we do not all receive equal access to resources to prepare us for college. What should be our right is only a privilege for a few.

Source: Nancy Cruz