education

This week Forces Watch from the UK launched a critique, with Quaker Peace & Social Witness, against the Government's 'learning resource' about the UK armed forces.

The report and video examines The British Armed Forces Learning Resource (published in September 2014 by the Prime Minister's Office and promoted to schools by the Department for Education) and finds that it:

• is a poor quality educational resource, unsuitable for many of those it is aimed at (pupils aged 5 to 16)

• is politically-driven

An education system that brings an inherently violent organization in through the front door is failing at its most basic obligation. This policy is the first injection of militarism, ultimately meant to prevent our children from becoming critical citizens.

Ten years ago, when my oldest daughter was five years old, I already had the honor of being the mother of a draft refuser.

One day, when she was in kindergarten, my young daughter came home with a notice from the kindergarten teacher asking parents to help their children prepare care packages for a soldier. The notice included a list of suggested items, and requested that the package include a drawing and letter from the child to the soldier.

I immediately called the kindergarten teacher and asked her if she didn’t think that four- and five-year-old children were a bit too young to be drafted into the Home Front Command. “What do you mean,” she responded, “It’s the most basic civic act!”

School life in army green

4 February 2015, by Stephan Löwenstein, Wiener Neustadt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Wiener Neustadt is home to a school run by the Austrian armed forces which offers pupils a “pre-military” education. But funding cuts are threatening the school’s future.