Marine-linked high school a good option for some
DeKalb County school officials are forging ahead with plans to open a first-of-its-kind military-style public high school, despite a growing campaign by activists upset at the involvement of the U.S. Marines.
“It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened in Georgia education,” said Michael Burke, a DeKalb resident and spokesman for the Georgia Veterans Alliance, a group that aligns itself with the work of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, among others.
“The whole thing is just a ploy” to help the Marines recruit, Burke said. “We expect to fight it tooth and nail.”
That response irritated DeKalb school system officials. They said it stereotypes the proposed Marine school and students who may be interested in it. The protests — mounted largely through e-mails and letters — have not deterred them, they said.
“This is not a training ground to send kids into the military,” said DeKalb schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis, whose system, with 99,700 students, is the state’s third-largest. “My job is not to look after a portion of children but all the children. One size does not fit all. For the mom who believes her child is capable of going to college but lacks discipline, this is a choice.”
The DeKalb Marine Corps Institute will be the first of its kind in Georgia, and joins an expanding network of such schools nationwide. The first public military academy opened in Richmond, Va., in 1980, and more than a dozen now exist in places from New York to Wisconsin.
One proponent has been Arne Duncan, recently nominated as the nation’s education secretary after leading the Chicago public school system since 2001. Chicago opened the nation’s first public high school run by the Army’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and now features six full-site military academies, among other military-style programs.
To use a military analogy, opponents of this school are fighting the wrong battle against the wrong enemy. Their real argument, I suspect, is not with the military as a profession or as an institution; it is with decisions by elected civilian leadership on how that institution has been used or, too often, misused.
But military service, if that’s what kids choose, is a honorable and often wise career choice. For a lot of young people, a few years in the military acts as a useful bridge from adolescence to adulthood, particularly for those not ready academically, economically or emotionally for college. Even many high school kids respond well to the challenge and discipline of a military setting but might falter under some less structured system.
Attendance at the school is voluntary. It creates no commitment to later enlistment. I hope DeKalb officials stick to their guns … so to speak.
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186 comments Add your comment
The Professor
March 24th, 2009
12:13 pm
OORAH!!!!
Copyleft
March 24th, 2009
12:14 pm
How is the Marine Corps suddenly in the business of running high-school education? Are they also going to be deployed to run the water-treatment plants and work on road crews? Will we have Marine dentists and bag boys too?
I thought the USMC had some sort of specific mission statement… something about “defending the country” or somesuch. What became of that?
The Corporal
March 24th, 2009
12:14 pm
Jay:
I’m picking myself up off the floor ! A big Ooo Rah to Jay!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iVAvb5_oXY
The Corporal
March 24th, 2009
12:15 pm
Copyleft:
Marine “dentists” are Navy officers. We don’t repair teeth – we knock them out.
DB, Gwinnettian
March 24th, 2009
12:24 pm
Our armed forces? Poking their nose in the public school systems? Let me think…
hey, who’s the Commander in Chief?
So long as the CiC’s not a total dork I guess it’s ok.
DB, Gwinnettian
March 24th, 2009
12:26 pm
I’d been catching up in the old threads. Kind of astonished that our Corporal is on record as wanting to limit executive compensation.
catlady
March 24th, 2009
12:28 pm
Unfortunately they are limiting the admission to those already showing mastery in algebra, a more select group. Don’t say they are not targeting for recruitment!
caz1158
March 24th, 2009
12:29 pm
Jay-If it’s ok to brain wash our kids to liberal idea’s & agenda’s in our public school’s now.Why is it wrong to have a pubic military school? Seems like a good idea to have alternative views and values taught as well. I don’t see a problem with it.
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
12:29 pm
Dekalb County kids as well as Clayton County kids need some sort of discipline. Not only do these kids not have discipline, they also have low grades and test scores. If their parents or should I say, baby momas, can’t learn them something then this school can.
The Corporal
March 24th, 2009
12:30 pm
DB, Gwinnettian:
This is not a “poking their nose”. This is a Marine High School !
They will memorize stuff like this !
“This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My rifle, without me, is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I WILL…
My rifle and myself know that what counts in this war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, nor the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. WE WILL HIT…
My rifle is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its sights and its barrel. I will ever guard it against the ravages of weather and damage as I will ever guard my legs, my arms, my eyes and my heart against damage. I will keep my rifle clean and ready. We will become part of each other. WE WILL…
Before God, I swear this creed. My rifle and myself are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. WE ARE THE SAVIORS OF MY LIFE….
So be it, until victory is America’s and there is no enemy, but peace! -Marine rifle creed …”
Ooo Rah!
The Corporal
March 24th, 2009
12:31 pm
DB, Gwinnettian:
Executive Compensation?
A little “tongue in cheek” and a little “hyperbole” ………..
)
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
12:32 pm
MORE PROOF THAT SARAH PALIN IS SMARTER THAN BARRACK HUSSEIN OBAMA.
Does Barack Obama know who the President of France is?
It’s long been the case that the easiest way for an American and a Brit – whatever their respective political persusasions – to bond is to chuckle over something rude about the French.
Jokes about garlic, frogs’ legs, surrender, duplicity, take your pick – it’s safe ground. If Barack Obama had gone on Leno and made a barbed quip about our Gallic friends instead of the Special Olympics he’d have been home free.
So perhaps the new president is being devilishly clever by, as Le Figaro reports, writing to Jacques Chirac, former French president, that: “I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world.”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/03/24/does_barack_obama_know_who_the_president_of_france_is
Joe
March 24th, 2009
12:33 pm
They are not. I was in MCJROTC in high school, and the overwhelming majority of my batallion did not enter into military careers after high school. Those who did, however, did so by choosing schools such as the United States Naval Academy or Virginia Military Institute or by winning ROTC scholarships at other universities.
MCJROTC teaches leadership and discipline. It is not a recruiting tool.
Those who know me know that I am as liberal as the day is long, and I support this decision. Personally, I think that more schools like this should be started in metropolitan areas.
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
12:34 pm
And….more proof that democrats are hypocritical morons.
Dodd’s Wife a Former Director of Bermuda-Based IPC Holdings, an AIG Controlled Company.
No wonder Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) went wobbly last week when asked about his February amendment ratifying hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives at insurance giant AIG. Dodd has been one of the company’s favorite recipients of campaign contributions. But it turns out that Senator Dodd’s wife has also benefited from past connections to AIG as well.
From 2001-2004, Jackie Clegg Dodd served as an “outside” director of IPC Holdings, Ltd., a Bermuda-based company controlled by AIG. IPC, which provides property casualty catastrophe insurance coverage, was formed in 1993 and currently has a market cap of $1.4 billion and trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol IPCR. In 2001, in addition to a public offering of 15 million shares of stock that raised $380 million, IPC raised more than $109 million through a simultaneous private placement sale of 5.6 million shares of stock to AIG – giving AIG a 20% stake in IPC. (AIG sold its 13.397 million shares in IPC in August, 2006.)
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/03/dodds_wife_a_former_director_o.html
DB, Gwinnettian
March 24th, 2009
12:35 pm
Corporal asks me: “Executive Compensation?”
Well, you said “We just need to get the salaries down.” I have no idea why you feel that that needs to happen, is all.
Taxpayer
March 24th, 2009
12:35 pm
Are they getting ready to handle the triage after all the followers of all things Bachman take up arms and start their revolution.
Copyleft
March 24th, 2009
12:36 pm
That one’s already been discredited, Commie; nice try. Obama was writing IN REPLY to Chirac’s earlier letter, and at no time did Obama address Chirac as president of France.
Just another cheap, badly-done smear attempt by the desperate right-wing media….
Midori
March 24th, 2009
12:36 pm
come back of the ledge, Commie.
it’s going to be all right.
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
12:37 pm
And….another democrat with tax problems.
So does Democrat Pete Stark represent California or Maryland?
Oh-oh, looks like more tax troubles for another Democrat in Washington.
California’s Rep. Pete Stark, a senior House Democrat who helps write the nation’s tax laws, has been claiming a $1.7 million Maryland home as his principal residence in recent years, although he represents the Golden State’s 13th District on the east side of San Francisco Bay.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/03/pete-stark-hous.html
DB, Gwinnettian
March 24th, 2009
12:38 pm
“come back of the ledge, Commie.”
Why? I think he looks swell there.
The Corporal
March 24th, 2009
12:38 pm
I know you libs. out there (with exceptions) just can’t stand the idea of this high school ……… too bad we can’t make ROTC mandatory again in our state universities.
“There is no better friend…
and no worse enemy than a United States Marine.”
————-
“I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front,
and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world.”
- General Douglas MacArthur, US Army, outskirts of Seoul, 21 September 1950.
—————–
“Come on, you sons of bitches-do you want to live forever?”
- Gunnery Sergeant Daniel Daly, USMC, near Lucy-`le-Bocage
as he led the 5th Marines’ attack into Belleau Wood, 6 June 1918.
————-
“Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
- Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, US Navy, 16 March 1945.
————-
“Retreat Hell! We’re just attacking in another direction.”
- Attributed to Major General Oliver P. Smith, USMC, Korea, December 1950.
————-
“Don’t you forget that you’re First Marines!
Not all the communists in Hell can overrun you!”
-Col. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, USMC rallying his First Marine
Regiment near the Chosin Reservoir, Korea, December 1950.
————-
“The safest place in Korea was right behind a platoon of Marines.
Lord, how they could fight!”
-MGen. Frank E. Lowe, US Army; Korea, 26 January 1952.
————-
“Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they’ve made a difference.
The Marines don’t have that problem.”
- President Ronald Reagan.
————-
“Marines I see as two breeds, Rottweilers or Dobermans,
because Marines come in two varieties, big and mean,
or skinny and mean. They’re aggressive on the attack and
tenacious on defense. They’ve got really short hair and they
always go for the throat.”
-RAdm. “Jay” R. Stark, US Navy; 10 November 1995.
————-
“For over 221 years our Corps has done two things for this great Nation.
We make Marines, and we win battles.”
-Gen. Charles C. Krulak, USMC (CMC); 5 May 1997
Joe
March 24th, 2009
12:38 pm
Commie, here is the rest of the article:
These kind of seem like the kind of words most suitable for a sitting head of state, not a former one. The use of the word “peace” is apparently being interpreted by the French newspaper as a tacit recognition of Chirac’s strong stance against the Iraq invasion.
Some have interpreted the move as a one-fingered gesture to Nicolas Sarkozy, the current president of France. “So, if I understand well, Mister O., who has already despised Gordon Brown, behaving with him as if he did not know he is Prime Minister of Britain, does not even know the name of the French president,” blogs Europumas.
“I wonder if someone had told him, when he came to France last summer, that the man he met was NOT Jacques Chirac!”
What better way to make up with Gordon Brown after the DVDs fiasco than to insult France’s president?
Or perhaps it could have been payback for Sarkozy’s supposed opinion that Obama’s stance on Iran was “utterly immature”.
But wait. The now online-only Christian Science Monitor reports that Obama was simply replying to a letter from Chirac “who was writing him as the head of his foundation – the Jacques Chirac Foundation for sustainable development and cultural dialogue”.
Perhaps the hair-trigger settings of the Obama gaffe detectors are leading to a few shots going wide of the mark.
And here is the article from the Christian Science Monitor that your article mentions but you lack the gonadal fortitude to post:
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/03/23/obama-writes-letter-to-chirac-blogosphere-goes-crazy/
Nice attempt at distracting from the topic at hand, by the way.
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
12:38 pm
Copyleft, keep telling yourself that. Also, keep telling yourself that President Teleprompter didn’t say that he’s been to all 57 states.
Midori, I’m far from any ledge Midori. Thanks
The Corporal
March 24th, 2009
12:40 pm
To DB G.:
Because some of it is off the charts whether 20 million for an executive or a quarterback.
However, it should be done WITHOUT the interference of the government.
caz1158
March 24th, 2009
12:41 pm
Joe- Imagine a school teaching our kids to read & write, but also respect and honor!! Boy,what a disater that would be for far left.
caz1158
March 24th, 2009
12:42 pm
sorry bout spelling,dang public schools!!!
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
12:43 pm
Joe, so why is the CS Moniter blog the only one reporting that President Teleprompter was writing to Chirac earlier?
you wrote: Nice attempt at distracting from the topic at hand, by the way.
This coming from a left winger who doesn’t want to talk about what a horrible job President Teleprompter is doing with the economy.
Jay
March 24th, 2009
12:52 pm
Commie, you are grossly stereotyping. My younger daughter was on her high-school mock-trial team; two years in a row, her team came lost in the state finals to the highly disciplined, highly effective mock-trial team from Jonesboro High, in Clayton County.
Both years, I believe, the Jonesboro team went on to win the national mock-trial championship. And they deserved it.
The Corporal
March 24th, 2009
12:52 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iVAvb5_oXY
DB, Gwinnettian
March 24th, 2009
12:54 pm
Corporal, I’m not sure how you get those salaries down without government intervention. But, then, I’m not looking to limit anyone’s pay.
Just FYI, here’s one of several lists I turned up–this is from Forbes’ 2008 Top 25 list of CEOs.
Looks like #25 still managed about about double A-Rod’s average per-year take in his current contract.
DB, Gwinnettian
March 24th, 2009
12:55 pm
Jay writes: Commie, you are gross
Indeed.
ESR
March 24th, 2009
1:00 pm
I think the kids in most DeKalb County schools could probably teach the military a thing or two about guns and how to shoot one.
caz1158
March 24th, 2009
1:00 pm
Jay-You to just grossly sterotyped. You gave one example!!! I lived in clayton county for over ten years. I took my kids out of the public schools there because of how poor they were at preparing my kids for the real world. I commuted my kids to another county using a false address (until we moved) to get them out of there. There many,many other parents that have done the same!!
The Corporal
March 24th, 2009
1:01 pm
DB G:
I don’t either (public pressure?) ….. but I know I DON’T want the government involved.
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
1:03 pm
Jay, you seriously need to hire a proofreader. Your daughter finished LOST? As in last, or maybe she was lost with the questions that the moderator asked?
Also, you wrote: Commie, you are grossly stereotyping.
Well oh well, Bookman. This coming from someone who consistently stereotypes republicans as “right-wing extremists.” Yeah, you have room to talk Bookman.
DB, Gwinnettian, yeah, you are in need of an eye doctor. Quick.
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
1:04 pm
ESR, the difference between Dekalb County thugs and the military is the military can actually hit their intended target.
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
1:07 pm
caz1158, you gotta understand Bookmans psyche. You see, to Bookman a Christian is an abortion clinic bomber, a white southern man is a member of the KKK or had relatives who were and on and on.
Midori
March 24th, 2009
1:07 pm
speaking of “teleprompters”:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/24/teleprompter-vs-no-telepr_n_178474.html
ESR
March 24th, 2009
1:14 pm
Okay, I can’t let this one go by me. Clayton County school kids should excel in mock trials, how many have they sat in, in their short lives?
caz1158
March 24th, 2009
1:15 pm
Midori-one question- With so much about Obama fake,how do we know if he even knows of which he speaks? He’s going to make a great “Made for Tv President” don’t cha think??
G
March 24th, 2009
1:17 pm
I believe there are many young people who would benefit from this type of school.
caz1158
March 24th, 2009
1:17 pm
ESR-Thats about the only time attendance is high!!
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
1:18 pm
Jay Bookman, what were the topics of debate?
Here are my guesses:
Topic 1: Discuss why Kelly Clarkson has better teeth than Beonce Knowles.
Topic 2: Clothing of Paris Hilton.
Topic 3: The Hills vs. Beverly Hills 90210.
DB, Gwinnettian
March 24th, 2009
1:20 pm
“With so much about Obama fake”
You’re calling him fake? The lady who’s on record as having defrauded a school district?
Mrs. Godzilla
March 24th, 2009
1:21 pm
I love the idea!
In fact, I would like to see more specialization in high schools.
We have “schools of the arts” (my kids thrived in theirs) and technical schools…..
I believe the correct thing to say is ….Ooo Rah.
Midori
March 24th, 2009
1:24 pm
Caz,
fake as in the fake ranch that Bush unloaded after he was finished using up you like minded “patriots”?
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
1:24 pm
Bookman, I was pondering your misfire of an attempt to convince me to thinking that Clayton County has or had smart students. One, you choose to throw at me, a mock-trial team, which is what, 5-10 people? So, how do those 5-10 kids represent the entire school system of Clayton County?
CommunistAJC
March 24th, 2009
1:25 pm
Mrs. Godzilla,
you are 100% correct on that. We do need more specialized schools.
Bosch
March 24th, 2009
1:32 pm
Copyleft, Midori, and Corporal,
Thanks. And thanks for the hug Midori. He’s been a good ol’ cat. I might have to actually sweep under the table now after a meal – he was always good at getting the crumbs. He always loved it when we made chicken, I’d always give him the skin.
Anywho –
I think this is a good idea. I agree with Mrs. G. that it doesn’t hurt to specialize schools – we see this in the charter school movement all the time, and I think it works well.
While me and my kids are public school born and raised, and my kids have done very well – and I’m married to a public school teacher, I don’t see a problem at all with charter schools or specialized schools as long as the instructors are properly trained to handle kids and know their subject matter, and are held to the same standards as regular teachers.
G
March 24th, 2009
1:33 pm
What’s up with Dick Cheney?
We’ve seen more of the Grim Reaper in the last month than in the 8 years he was in office.
The GOP is begging him to go back into hiding. They just don’t seem to want his input.