This touring show was commissioned by Central England Quakers in response to the increasing influence of military values in everyday life, especially in our schools (ex-Education Minister Michael Gove’s professed wish to see a ‘military ethos’ in all schools). As has been demonstrated recently by Gove’s successor, Nicky Morgan, this policy is still being pursued and if anything, is being ‘upped’.
Over the Top focuses on the dilemma created when two contrasting points of view over the role of the military in our schools clash and come to a head-on confrontation.
The pupils of year five at St Aloysius Catholic primary in Roby, Liverpool stand shoulder to shoulder, listening closely as the man in combat trousers and army boots outlines the task ahead.
Dressed in their blue PE shorts and white tops, they stand tall as the instructor speaks. First they have to imagine they are stranded in a desert and work out what they need to survive.
Military recruitment tactics are increasingly fine-tuned to where a person lives, and how they perceive the world’s geography
‘The basic argument is that military recruitment has a geography. It happens in certain places, and maps on to broader trends in society – particularly inequality,’ says Matthew Rech, a researcher at Newcastle University who specialises in geopolitics and military recruitment.
‘There’s also an imagined geography to military recruitment. The military has to persuade people of a particular vision or version of the world, which is based on assumptions of cultural difference and otherness,’ says Rech.
Different services present the world in different ways. ‘The Royal Air Force, for instance, is distinct. It promises world travel. There’s also an idea bound up in the theatre and romance of flight. The pilot is a transcendent person,’ he says.
THEIR expertise has helped protect Britain for more than 350 years.
And a taste of the survival skills needed to be a Royal Marine were passed on to children in a dressing-up game with a difference.
As part of a survival-themed year of activities, The Royal Marines Museum, in Eastney Esplanade, Portsmouth, has been giving families the chance to wear marines’ combat gear for different types of conditions.
Now we’re in the winter months, the challenge to be a part of an Arctic convoy was set this weekend, including camouflaging in pure white snow and choosing the right equipment for sub-zero temperatures.
There was a choice of gear to wear, including jackets and helmets, as well as white mesh worn for colder climates.
Did you know that the UK armed forces recruit 16-year-olds? Owen Everett from ForcesWatch explores the UK military’s wide influence in the education system and the concerns that arise from this.
The UK is the only country in the European Union that recruits 16-year-olds, and the influence of the UK military within UK schools, colleges, and universities is increasing. This article focuses upon the military’s influence in secondary schools and colleges, and challenges the ethics of the UK’s military recruitment.
The country’s military institutions must not be seen as deserving of special consideration. Once the ethos of public service has been smashed and discredited by neoliberal restructuring, the danger is that it will take more than an army to bring it back.
The author of this article wishes to remain anonymous, so she is known as 'E'.
'When E first saw pupils walking down from the school along the road carrying weapons (to the firing range, as it turned out) – she thought “SHIT! KIDS WITH GUNS – WHAT’S THAT ALL ABOUT!”
Today – it is “THE NORM” for E, she doesn’t even give it a second glance as it’s just an everyday occurrence. Now E, or as she is NOW called Sergeant H hands the guns to the kids of 13 and 14 and puts the bullets into their bullet holders – even though she says, that at the time it feels normal and ordinary – when she thinks about it, it feels wrong.
WRI's new booklet, Countering Military Recruitment: Learning the lessons of counter-recruitment campaigns internationally, is out now. The booklet includes examples of campaigning against youth militarisation across different countries with the contribution of grassroot activists.