The head of the City Council’s Education Committee wants to shoot down the school system’s Junior ROTC programs — charging they’re training high-school students for a “war machine.”
Councilman Daniel Dromm, a Queens Democrat, said he has a “philosophical problem” with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs conducted in 14 schools.
“I always wondered why these programs are mainly in schools with students of color,” he said last week during a City Hall hearing. “I have concerns about the way they go about recruitment. It contributes to a war machine, and I have some problems with that.”
Schools officials were taken aback.
“I would appreciate the opportunity to take you out to see one or two of these schools,” Department of Education Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm said.
But Dromm said he had already visited the programs and opposed their very existence.
“I really have a problem with . . . them being there. It sends a message to kids about armed forces and their policies, what happens when they move forward with college,” he said.
Dromm, who represents Jackson Heights, also called on the city to end its support of the federally subsidized program. The city pays the instructors who teach the courses.
31 comments:
Tell Dromm to stop trying to foist his sissy agenda on our city and schools. He obviously doesn't understand the history behind our country and how it got to be the most powerful country in the world. I can't imagine what kind of teacher he was. He definitely has psychological problems.
Stop being a bully Dromm.
Perhaps Dromm should read this.
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After four decades, ROTC has returned to a handful of CUNY campuses (including York College in Jamaica), and both the faculty union and numerous left-wing faculty have been up in arms about it. Some have tried to use their curriculum power in their respective Senates to block approval of the required courses.
Here are my objections to ROTC in high schools:
1- first we say schools are firearm-free zones, and then we have students parading around with (fake) rifles. Mixed message.
2- And the mixed messages are: violence is not the solution... oh, wait, let's spend billions to maintain the largest military in the world, and invade countries but that's not violence because the government is doing it! Huh?
3- ROTC instructors are sometimes paid more than professional teachers but THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO TEACHING TRAINING OR TRAINING IN WORKING WITH TEENAGERS.
Why don't we spend as much to have in-school programs teaching students to be conflict resolvers/transformers?
The political, social, and cultural elites of Queens are collectively falling off the edge.
This is what happens when a small clique becomes inward looking, self centered, and fueled by a general intellectual level that doesn't make them collectively the sharpest knife in the drawer.
They will become increasingly inward looking, detached from the real world and frankly, bizarre (if that is possible).
As some point their disconnect with reality will be too much even for the sheeple of Queens, and we will rid ourselves of this bad dream.
Sorry but your link doesn't work, anonymous #3
Dromm had supporters prancing about the Gay Pride Parade on Sunday wearing T-shirts that read " Dromm Corps". Danny, did you sanction that militarism?
Here is the link without tags:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/education/20oneducation.html?pagewanted=all
Here is the link.
Hopefully it'll work.
The Francis Lewis High School J-ROTC is a mix of whites, Asians and Hispanics. Dromm's race-baiting is patently false.
I can't stand this guy's voice. It exudes weakness.
We are a big immigrant town. Serving in our armed forces is a short cut route to citizenship for many. Could be a factor why immigrant families want ROTC in our schools. It also helps motivated children from families with discipline issues to learn discipline. I have known those children.
Knowing the Dromm was born in 1955 tells you a lot. He was too young for the Vietnam-era draft (as I was as well) but he lived with the stories of the baby killers and with the fear that he would be sent over there to die in that meaningless war before the draft ended around 1973.
Let's suppose that the DOD was in the hands of sexists, racists and homophobes, and that it declared that NYC was too feminist, too non-white, too gay to get funding for Junior ROTC.
Would Dromm be backing that?
I think the young men and women and their parents should be free to choose to participate in JROTC. It is honorable, and perhaps, for some of them, will lead to a great career in the service of our country.
God forbid a person of color uses the military to get up a few more rungs on the socio-economic ladder of life.
If there was a gay division in the Jr. ROTC program Dromm would be it's biggest supporter.
Does this douchebag have any idea what black unemployment would be WITHOUT the military?
Jr. ROTC should be in every High School.
Mr Dromm, by supporting illegal aliens you are also supporting the federal governments need for those illegals and their offspring to fill grunt roles in the armed sercvices. You cant have it both ways.
ROTC is a great program. My wifes nephew did ROTC from High School through College.
He just graduated from one of the better colleges here in the city (paid for by the program) and he will now enter the military as an Officer (meaning, his butt wont be on nightly patrols getting shot at).
So he got 'free' school, housing, and a job that pays well that isn't grunt work.
Yeah, what a horrible thing.
I know in these polticians minds that you should have 100% graduation rate out of High School that goes on to Yale and Harvard, but we need more 'trade' training in schools. Yes, a lot of manufacturing jobs are gone (so dont bother with wood shop) but service-based industries like Auto Repair, Computer Repair, HVAC, electrician, etc, should all be options to high school students.
Less than 15% of the NYC school population of over 1.1 million kids are classified as Caucasain. Since Northern Africans and Middle Eastern students are part of this group, so Whites are less than 10% of the school population, if that.
So how is this program racists again?
Maybe we should add that one requirement for elected office is to have served in the US military.
each Memorial Day parade at Little Neck /Douglaston ,in honor of America'S war dead fighting the Nazi (Europe)/Communist(Korea)(the forgotten war -my era -37,000 k.i.a. in three years) enemy, I applaud the Francis Lewis H.S. R.O.T.C. marching band. their tutor should be given a" well done" for his training of the future patriots.
it is reported that Stalin ordered the Korean War ONLY after the American communist traitor spys stole the atomic bomb technology from the U.S.
most of these atomic spys graduated from C.C.N.Y.(now C.U.N.Y.),in NYC.
the group is mostly Asian/African American youth.
"I always wondered why these programs are mainly in schools with students of color"
Is that how Dromm speaks about his constituency when they're not around? As "colored" people?
Anon No. 23:
CCNY is still CCNY. CUNY is the overall body for all of the city colleges (Queens, Hunter, York, etc.).
Dromm has absolutely no idea what he's talking about. I was a college student at Queens College during the Vietnam War, and was very much against that war. I went to demonstrations and got tear-gassed in Washington, D.C. I grew up in a town in the middle of Nassau County where very competent and patriotic students enlisted as young men instead of going to college and a number of them were killed in that war. ROTC was forbidden from many campuses, including Queens College. For the last 23 years of my teaching career, I was a teacher in the special education department at Francis Lewis High School. I was very much against JROTC's presence at FLHS, until it saved the life of a student whom I will call Steve. Steve was a white kid from eastern Queens who was extremely neglected, needy, and angry. As a baby, his crib was a dresser drawer. He had learning disabilities, but his parents were intractable alcoholics and couldnt deal with their child. Steve was taken away from his parents for a number of weeks, don't remember how many. He returned after the parents did a rehab program. He also, with the help of our department assistant principal, became a member of the fairly new JROTC. Steve's transformation was beyond remarkable, and he went on to graduate high school. In the meantime, I got to know the JROTC instructors, including Sgt. Gogarty, who was mentioned in the article. There couldn't have been a better group of warm, caring, involved educators. They ordered and instilled discipline in the lives of at risk kids like Steve, and provided a family-like support system. I grew to love these instructors, who were bright and down to earth. They didn't want these kids to become cannon fodder; they wanted them to become self sufficient happy and productive members of our society. Dromm doesn't know the difference between JROTC and predatory recruiters who do lie to potential recruits, who are indeed cannon fodder for the never-ending wars our country involves itself with. I also was upset seeing kids marching around with fake guns, but marveled at the structure and strict code of behavior they were able to adhere to. Dromm should put his energies toward those who are destroying, not enhancing, our public education system.
Dromm would have a point if it wasn't shrouded with transparent pandering to minorities.
I think The ROTC is unneccessary,what the country needs is to reinstate the draft.That'll get this generation to get off facebook and their smartphones and playstations and back on the streets protesting again.
And that post above bragging about some kid who is an officer so that he won't wind up in the field and fight,what kind of message is that to the ones that enlist?how will his troops react if that was his motive to be in the rotc?
The military industrial complex is a bad influence on our lives and environment.It must be put in check.The rotc is bad for all races.Dromm is one quarter right this time.
there's also a big difference between JROTC and ROTC. You join ROTC you're essentially enlisting because you have an obligation to serve in the armed forces following university. JROTC has absolutely zero military service requirement. Yes, they wear uniforms and hold rank. But the primary function of JROTC is to develop discipline and key skills, such as public speaking, presentation (how many teens do you know who polish their shoes?), and discipline, all of which make for highly marketable people in college, business, and, if they are inclined, the military. But enlisting is NOT the focus -- college is.
As today is the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, I thought it might be appropriate to comment on Daniel Dromm's views regarding ROTC programs in schools.
On June 6, 1944, many brave American soldiers sacrificed their lives to preserve our freedoms from the threat of Nazi totalitarianism. Were it not for our armed forces, the United States, the greatest country the world has ever known, would no longer exist. Contrary to the characterization of our military as a "war machine," we should be praising our Armed Forces as a bulwark against those who would seek our destruction. Six million Jews, and others, were exterminated by the Nazis. It was the Allied military force that brought these atrocities to an end. If Daniel Dromm had a sense of history, he would realize that his remarks opposing the ROTC as supportive of our "war machine" are irresponsible.
The United States does not invade other countries for the purpose of conquest. History reveals that the United States military has been used to free people from those who would seek to deprive them of their natural rights. As Colin Powell once said, the United States has only claimed enough foreign soil to bury its dead soldiers.
The implication in Mr. Dromm's comments is that the United States military is somehow bad, and that schools should not promote the military, or, as he put it, our "war machine." Pride in our country, and its values, should be promoted, not denigrated. Discipline and responsibility in our young people should be promoted, not denigrated.
Mr. Dromm's statements are ignorant and reprehensible. With politicians like Dromm in the City Council, it is unsurprising that the quality of life in Queens County has declined greatly in the recent past.
Dromm says that ROTC supports a "war machine." Seventy years ago, on D-Day, our brave military heroes made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our precious freedoms from annihilation by the Nazis. Would Dromm denigrate our efforts on the shores of Normandy as nothing more than the product of a "war machine?" Dromm should be reminded that, were it not for our military, he would not have the right to make such ignorant and irresponsible remarks.
ROTC programs should be praised for instilling values, patriotism, discipline, and a sense of responsibility in our young people.
Dromm opposes ROTC programs because they promote a "war machine." On the contrary, they instill patriotism, discipline, and a sense of responsibility in our young people.
Dromm should be reminded that, were it not for our military on June 6, 1944, we would not have the freedoms that we enjoy today, and politicians would not have the right to make such ignorant and irresponsible remarks.
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