Militarization

The school’s punitive treatment to resistance indicates that the militarization of schools mirrors the broader militarization of culture. Intensifying recruiting efforts, however, represents only one dimension of a much larger pattern of militarization in America’s schools, particularly those serving working-class, poor, and non-White students. Neoliberal policies have dramatically increased the population of disposable youth who are marginalized from the economy and the political system. Rising youth poverty and unemployment targets not only working-class and poor students, but predominantly African American and Latino students. The neoconservative solution to the problem has entailed using militarization as a strategy for molding youth suffering grinding levels of poverty into obedient citizens. The militarization of schools can only be understood in relation to the broader cultural pedagogy of militarism and expanding authoritarianism that extends beyond formal educational institutions. Militarism is clearly hostile to the development of a critical democratic public empowered to deliberate collectively over the future of culture, economics, and politics.