What Does This Tell You?

Thought experiment: A magazine that has a target age group of 9-14 year olds puts out an issue describing careers in teaching. Study guides accompany the magazine and encourage teachers to have students write essays pretending they are going to become a teacher?

Any problems with that?

Substitute fireman for teacher. Substitute lawyer. Substitute banker, doctor, musician figure skater or any other career. Do any provoke your outrage? Would you complain? Would you contact the press and get stories written about how outraged you were?

I wouldn't. So what's different when the career is in the US Army?

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. - Parents and teachers are complaining that the latest issue of a popular magazine for preteens amounts to little more than an early recruitment pitch for the Army.

Cobblestone magazine, which is put out by Carus Publishing in Peterborough, is aimed at children ages 9-14 and is distributed nationwide to schools and libraries. Its latest issue features a cover photo of a soldier in Iraq clutching a machine gun and articles on what it's like to go through boot camp, a rundown of the Army's "awesome arsenal" and a detailed description of Army career opportunities.

Most controversial has been a set of classroom guides that accompany the magazine, which suggest teachers invite a soldier, Army recruiter or veteran to speak to their classes and ask students whether they might want to join the Army someday.

One of the teaching guides — written by Mary Lawson, a teacher in Saint Cloud., Fla. — suggests having students write essays pretending they are going to join the Army: "Have them decide which career they feel they would qualify for and write a paper to persuade a recruiter why that should be the career."

"Some of the teachers were like, 'Holy cow, look at this,'" said Francis Lunney, a sixth-grade English teacher in Hudson, Mass., who quickly called the publishing company to complain. He told The Boston Globe that the guides looked exactly like the official recruiting material distributed at high schools.

The dozen or so similar complaints come at a time when the military, struggling to meet recruitment goals, has become more aggressive in trying to attract young people. But Cobblestone's editors insist the idea for the special issue was theirs alone, though they received permission to use Army photos.

I'd say this says a great deal more about the people complaining than it does about the magazine.

Other Links to this Post

1. The Storms Blog » Blog Archive » Army Publicity in Pre-Teen Magazine — Monday, 3 July , 2006 @ 12:09 pm