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June 16, 2005
How to Recruit: Go For the Football Team Captain, the Homecoming Queen. And the Boy Scouts.
So, what's next, sponsoring the Teletubbies or Sesame Street? Here's excerpts from a recruiting handbook, from Bob Herbert's column today:
Recruiters trying to sign up high school students are urged to schmooze, schmooze, schmooze."The football team usually starts practicing in August," the handbook says. "Contact the coach and volunteer to assist in leading calisthenics or calling cadence during team runs."
"Homecoming normally happens in October," the handbook says. "Coordinate with the homecoming committee to get involved with the parade."
Recruiters are urged to deliver doughnuts and coffee to the faculty once a month, and to eat lunch in the school cafeteria several times a month. And the book recommends that they assiduously cultivate the students that other students admire: "Some influential students such as the student president or the captain of the football team may not enlist; however, they can and will provide you with referrals who will enlist."
...
"If you wait until they're seniors, it's probably too late," the book says. It also says, "Don't forget the administrative staff. ... Have something to give them (pen, calendar, cup, donuts, etc.) and always remember secretary's week, with a card or flowers."
The sense of desperation is palpable: "Get involved with local Boy Scout troops. Scoutmasters are typically happy to get any assistance you can offer. Many scouts are [high school] students and potential enlistees or student influencers."
So the law recognizes that you may be too young to make responsible decisions about consuming alcohol in your teen years, but we see nothing wrong with subjecting 17 an 18 year olds to this kind of pressure and, frankly, manipulation. It's grossly unfair to those kids, and it's deadly to the people who are facing the muzzle of the guns that will be held by them.
Posted by zeynep at June 16, 2005 09:03 PM