PEACEWORK MAGAZINE: In the spring of 2008, a group of high school seniors followed in the tradition of earlier teenaged Israeli conscientious objectors (traditionally referred to as the shministim) and publicly declared their refusal to serve in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) as required by law. Four women COs, signatories of the 2008 high school seniors’ refusal letter, have been sentenced to brief prison terms this fall, and may face further punishment. Others will be sentenced soon. For updates, visit the campaign’s Facebook page (search for “shministim”) or visit www.gush-shalom.org.
Coming to a Mall Near You: High Tech Recruiting
STUDENT PEACE ACTION NETWORK: “This is so cool! This is so cool,” the enthralled 13 year-old kept repeating as he squeezed rounds from his M-16, picking off “enemy combatants” while perched on a real Army Humvee. We’re in the new Army Experience Center in suburban Philadelphia and the young teen, who doesn’t look older than eleven, was obviously impressed with the Army’s killing machines. “I just came to the mall to skateboard in the skate park across the hall but everyone said this was pretty cool. I just had to try it and its great!”
Maryland Fails to Protect Students’ Privacy from Military
PAT ELDER: Maryland has failed to enact legislation to protect the privacy of students who take Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) in Maryland’s public schools.The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, (ASVAB) is the military’s entrance exam that is given to fresh recruits to determine their aptitude for various military occupations. The test is also used as a recruiting tool in 182 high schools throughout Maryland and in11, 900 schools across the country. The four-hour test is used by military recruiting services to gain valuable information on more than 600,000 high school students every year. In most cases, students take the test without parental knowledge or consent.
There is a Field
CHARLES BUSCH: Fields of Peace is a response to what is happening in today’s Global Village: the awareness of people throughout the world that they are part of an immense, intimate whole; and that to injure a neighbor is to injure oneself. Governments can’t respond to this; their understanding is subject to borders. It is our religions that know about oneness and the power of love; and it is out of the smallness of local congregations that this world change will happen.
Peace Teaching Tool Now Available
MICHAEL TROKAN: Rethinking Schools Press has announced the publication of a new book by nationally renowned teacher and writer Linda Christensen — Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re-imagining the Language Arts Classroom. It combines concrete, hands-on advice with inspiration, hope and joy. As Christensen writes in her introduction, the book begins “with the non-negotiable belief that all students are capable of brilliance.”
Brief-ings
Brief insights: 1) No Longer Home of the WOPR; 2) What’s Happening to the Economy? and 3) George Carlin’s thoughts about the “American Dream”.