The public military high school: A powerful educational possibility

Armed Forces and Society

Volumn 32, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 44-62

  Hajjar, Remi M ^a,b  

^a UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY   (United States)

^b Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

Agency; Cultural capital; Life skills; Military capital; Social capital; Upward mobility

Indexed keywords

EID: 33644973825     PISSN: 0095327X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X05277882     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. Dirk Johnson, "High School at Attention," Newsweek, January 21, 2002, 42-44. The article discusses the emergence of public military schools in California, Maryland, South Carolina, Illinois, and Virginia.
2. Although this study focused on an Army Junior ReserveOfficers'Training Corps (JROTC) school in America, all of the U.S. military services offer JROTC, and this trend of public military schools may spread internationally.
3. See AppendixA(under "Military Capital") for the concise definition of agency used in this article.
4. Social capital carries two meanings in this article. First, it is most often used as an umbrella term to represent cultural, moral, and military capital. Second, it refers to social networks that lead to enhanced life opportunities and productive capacities (such as networks with adult members of the school and parents). A chart that characterizes the various forms of social capital is presented in Appendix A.
5. Anthony Bryk, Catholic Schools and the Common Good (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993). 294-294 ; Marc N. Elliot, Lawrence M. Hanser, and Curtis L. Gilroy, Evidence of Positive Student Outcomes in JROTCCareer Academies(Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2001), 18; Janice Laurence and Peter F. Ramsberger, Low-Aptitude Men in the Military(New York: Praeger, 1991); Charles Moskos and John Butler, All that We Can Be: Racial Integration and Black Leadership the Army Way(New York: Basic Books, 1996), 122-28; and Abby E. Robyn and Lawrence M. Hanser, JROTC Career Academies'Guidebook(Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1995), 21.
6. William J. Taylor, Using Military Capabilities to Help Young Adults in U.S. Inner-city Areas (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1997). 22-22.
7. William J. Taylor, Using Military Capabilities to Help Young Adults in U.S. Inner-city Areas Ibid., 23;
8. See also an unpublished article that supports the "military out of our schools" movement, written by Bill Galvin, "JROTC: Military 'Discipline' in Place of Education" (Unpublished manuscript, Reporter for Conscience's Sake, Oakland, CA, 2001). Regarding the issue of JROTCprograms recruiting for the military, the survey revealed (Appendix B, items 5-7) that the number of cadets who intend to perform national service (including military service) closely approximates national JROTC figures.
9. Nan L. Maxwell and Victor Rubin, High School Career Academies: A Pathway to Educational Reform in Urban School Districts? (Kalamazoo, MI: W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2000). 112-112 ; and see Taylor, Using Military Capabilities, 18-19.
10. Bryk, Catholic Schools and the Common Good, 294-294 ; Elliot et al., Evidence of Positive Student Outcomes, 18; Laurence et al., Low-Aptitude Men in the Military, 94-95; Maxwell et al., High School Career Academies, 109-12; Moskos and Butler, All thatWe Can Be, 122-28; Robyn and Hanser, JROTC Career, 21; and Taylor, Using Military Capabilities, 9.
11. John Hagan, Crime and Disrepute (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1994). This newtheory of military capital draws on John Hagan's discussion of social, cultural, human, and criminal capital.
12. The student body is 60 percent African American, 30 percent Latino/Hispanic, 10 percent other groups, and 55 percent male and has a total of 385 students. The adult faculty is 55 percent women, 48 percent African American, 38 percent Caucasian, 14 percent other groups (e.g., Hispanic, Asian), and 28 percent retired military professionals (mainly from the U.S. Army but from other services as well), with a total of 29 adults. The school staff provided these data. The sample used in this study approximates these demographics.
13. JROTC is designed to socialize and teach youth (in middle school and high school) about the U.S. Army, and some of its charters include teaching citizenship, leadership, integrity, discipline, and selfless service, among other values. This description is based on discussions with JROTC instructors and on material from several JROTC pamphlets and booklets that describe the program's objectives and purpose. Although all of the students are part of this army-basedJROTCprogram, there is no armybase located near the school.
14. The school did not have a senior class during the time frame of the ethnography; it commenced academic classes in the fall of 1999.
15. Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler, Membership Roles in Field Research (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1987). 36-49.
16. One weakness in this studywas the lack of a comparative aspect. The external validity of the findings is uncertain; since they are grounded in one site, we cannot be sure that the findings, including the causal relationships, can be generalized to other similar institutions.
17. Students are selected based on a holistic assessment including an interview, demonstrated level of interest in entering a military school, test scores, and overall qualifications.
18. Hagan, Crime and Disrepute, 38-39.
19. Hagan, Crime and Disrepute, Ibid., 80.
20. Stephen L. Carter, Civility (New York: HarperPerennial, 1998). 11-11.
21. Cadets viewed me as a social scientist, or an academic researcher. When the cadets treated me respectfully, it presented evidence of concern and respect for strangers and adults, an indication of civility.
22. Mistakes in the students' essays and dialogue were maintained.
23. Michele Lamont, Money, Morals & Manners: The Culture of the French and the American Upper-Middle Class (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). Building on Lamont's theories of symbolic moral boundaries (that include consideration of others) and cultural boundaries (that include manners), the development of civility should lead to upward mobility because it should help academy graduates to penetrate these symbolic social boundaries.
24. In all, 65 percent of sophomores and juniors surveyed had been in at least one leadership position.
25. Joseph C. Rost, Leadership for the Twenty-first Century (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993). 102-103.
26. William Sewell, "ATheory of Structure: Duality, Agency, andTransformation," American Journal of Sociology 98, no. 1 (1992). 18-18, 21-21.
27. William J. Taylor, Junior Reserve Officers'Training Corps: Contributions to America's Communities -(Washington, DC: Center For Strategic and International Studies, 1999). Data show that women were selected for leadership roles disproportionately in the military academy; that is, they are overrepresented in academy leadership positions this school year. This is consistent with national JROTC data, which illustrate that units generally place women in positions of responsibility more often and in greater proportions than men.
28. William A. Gamson, "Constructing Social Protest," in Social Movements and Culture, ed. Hank Johnston and Bert Klandermans (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995). 90-90.
29. I base this assessment on both adult staff opinions and observations.
30. I do not point to this parent's comparison as hard evidence, but her observations seem to highlight some of the environmental differences in these metropolitan schools.
31. Hagan's conceptualization of various forms of social capital in Crime and Disrepute contributed to this chart. Social capital carries a double meaning in this article: (1) the definition at the fourth point in AppendixAand (2) an umbrella term that represents cultural, moral, and military capital. The second definition is used more frequently in the article.