Military Recruiting In High Schools

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Military Recruiting In High Schools In the source articles examined, Army Uses Aggressive Tactics to Recruit Teenagers by Deborah White and Military Recruiters Invading High Schools by Jeannine Johnson, both authors agree that the goal of recruitment personnel is to find a way to appeal to the students on campus and sign them up to join the armed services after graduation but the process recruiters use to achieve this goal is perceived differently by the two authors. Typically, a military recruitment officer is allowed to set up a booth in a quad or lunch area. Posters are often hung in well-traveled hallways and the table filled with information about the armed services is equipped with video games and television monitors showing film loops of the military in action. Also featured are short activities where students can compete to test their endurance and strength. On occasion, a small car or motorcycle is displayed and the engine revved to show raw strength and power. The military has unmatched resources dedicated to marketing and recruiting and can impress and lure students on many levels. (Blake and Harvey, 9, 11). Recruiters are allowed to approach students and hang around the lunchroom. While university representatives might set up a table in the career center for a few days, the armed services are a constant presence on high school campuses. The Army School Recruiting Program Handbook encourages recruiters to attend as many school functions and assemblies as possible and to extend themselves in ways such as delivering donuts to faculty members on a monthly basis. It explains that an effective sales approach is to tailor a program to fit the needs and interests of the individual high school. For example, one school may place a premium on its music program; another on its
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