In this or that form military recruiters were often associated with high schools; yet, with the beginning of the Iraq War this presence became much more noticeable and led to controversy in the recent years. For some reasons, the society and, most notably, parents consider high school students to be far less intelligent than the ones studying in college, only a couple of years older, and try to prevent them from taking rash decisions.
It is rather strange, if we think about it logically. What military service is if not yet another career prospect, however negatively we may think of the armed forces and wars? And a career prospect that may be a real way out for students who are unable to find more lucrative options or cannot pay for college. What is most important, if high school students are mature enough to choose what college they are going to apply to and what career they are going to pursue, why are they not considered to be intelligent enough to choose the career of a soldier?
Understand me correctly – I am no fan of the military myself. Yet, I like the signs of nanny-statism ever growing around us even less. And what is worse, the majority of people seem to support this and similar ideas, not understanding that what they are trying to do is creating the nation of people who remain infants until they are suddenly called grown-ups. Do they really believe that such people may ever be independent and self-sufficient in their life? When we persuade somebody really energetically that he is this and that, he finally starts to believe it. Impressing upon a teenager that he is a stupid child incapable of competent decisions, we imprint it in his consciousness until the end of his life.