dant
The Living Force
==========================================
Source: Oregonian, Weds, Oct 11, 2006, ppg: B1: Metro
Title: Military-linked class stirs protest
Author: Joseph Rose
The Starbase program, which promises five days of space and aviation
"field experiences" using real jet engines and advanced computer technology,
would usually seem a perfect fit for a math and science magnet school.
But add U.S. Military funding, classes at an Oregon National Guard base and
anger about the Iraq war, and the experiment goes haywire, at least at Southeast
Portland's Winterhaven k-8 School.
Worried that Starbase is as much about military indoctrination as hands-on education,
parents of 12 Winterhaven fourth- and fifth-graders have refused to let their children
take part in the program at the Guard's Jackson Armory and Portland Air Base.
The boycott means 20 percent of the 60 eligible Winterhaven students won't attend
what school officials insist is one of the year's most exciting and illuminating lessons.
The first day of camp was Monday; the program will continue one day a week for a
month.
"Just on principle, I couldn't do it," sauid James Ewing, who refused to sign the
Starbase permission slip send home last week with his fourth-grade daughter.
"It's not appropriate for the military to be conducting what amounts to a recruiting
program at an elementary school level."
This is the first time Winterhaven has been invited to the Department of Defense-funded
Starbase. But students from the Portland, North Clackamas, Canby, and David Douglas
school districts have gone to local military post for the aeronautics and team building
academy since the early 1990s.
Of the $15 million that the Pentagon sent to the Starbase programs nationwide this year,
$240,000 landed in Portland, paying for a director, two teachers and two aides. Five
percent also goes to the school district, covering administrative costs.
ppg: B8, "Protest: Progam aims to improve military's image"
[continued from B1]
Each year, four or five students don't get on the bus to the Guard base because
of their parent's objections to the military's role, said Marilyn Sholian, Starbase
director for Portland Public Schools.
But Sholian has never seen anything like the mass protest at Winterhaven. "I was
shocked by the number and adamancy," she said.
Winderhaven Principal Yanya Ghattas signed the school up for Starbase two weeks
ago, after another Portland school suddenly gave up its spot in the program's fall
schedule.
Parents voiced concerns right away. Some were alarmed simply by the wording of
the note sent home: "Starbase is targeting fifth-grade students in Portland Public
Schools."
At a meeting with 32 parents last week, Ghattas tried to ease the anxiety. Yes, she
told them, their childreb would see fighter jets up close and hear presentations from
engineers and pilots in uniform, but the only misson was to offer hands-on mechanical
experiments and computer labs beyond anything at Winterhaven.
"I assured them that this was a good science program that happens to be a military
facility," she said.
Yet, as Ewing noted, Starbase's Web site states that part of the program's misson is
improve the military's image among young people. "They may not come out and say
it's recruitment," he said. "But they're definitely laying the groundwork for that."
Trying to improve the misperceptions about the military's image isn't the same as
recruiting, said Capt. Mike Braibrich, an Oregon National Guard spokesman. "There
are a lot of misconceptions about the military out there," he said.
As far as the Starbase being used as a recruiting tool, Braibish said no one has
tracked the number of kids going through the program who join the armed forces.
"But I imagine those numbers are quite low," he said. "The fact is, this program
improves skills in critical fields that help not only the military, but society at large."
Ewing said he isn't anti-military. Another of his objections to Starbase is that it
appears to redirect money that could be used to buy better equipment and body
armor for soilders in Iraq, he said.
After attending Starbase with his daughter's fifth-grade class Monday, Larry Risley
wonders whether Ewing and other parents are overreacting.
"It was pretty sophisticated stuff, showing how planes fly and the properties of air,"
he said. "You actually felt like you were in a classroom. We didn't even see the
airbase."
Michelle Shultz, Winterhaven's PTSA president is equally perplexed, especially because
parents send their children to the school to focus on math and science -- not politics.
"I can't follow that line of logic."
But for Jessica Applegate-Brown making the connection was easy: If she openly talks
about her opposition to the Iraq war around her fourth-grade son, how could she
encourage him to spend time around soldiers and war machines?
"I'm objecting to the climate we're in right now," she said. "Ten years ago, this may
not have been a big deal. But now, it is."
Joseph Rose: 503-221-8029;
josephrose@news.oregonian.com
==========================================
This is amazing! There are so many things going on this this article
it just blows my socks off! This explictly reminds me of what the C's
warned Laura, not to send the kids off to NASA camps, they might
be programmed, exchanged, God knows what! Geez!
Source: Oregonian, Weds, Oct 11, 2006, ppg: B1: Metro
Title: Military-linked class stirs protest
Author: Joseph Rose
The Starbase program, which promises five days of space and aviation
"field experiences" using real jet engines and advanced computer technology,
would usually seem a perfect fit for a math and science magnet school.
But add U.S. Military funding, classes at an Oregon National Guard base and
anger about the Iraq war, and the experiment goes haywire, at least at Southeast
Portland's Winterhaven k-8 School.
Worried that Starbase is as much about military indoctrination as hands-on education,
parents of 12 Winterhaven fourth- and fifth-graders have refused to let their children
take part in the program at the Guard's Jackson Armory and Portland Air Base.
The boycott means 20 percent of the 60 eligible Winterhaven students won't attend
what school officials insist is one of the year's most exciting and illuminating lessons.
The first day of camp was Monday; the program will continue one day a week for a
month.
"Just on principle, I couldn't do it," sauid James Ewing, who refused to sign the
Starbase permission slip send home last week with his fourth-grade daughter.
"It's not appropriate for the military to be conducting what amounts to a recruiting
program at an elementary school level."
This is the first time Winterhaven has been invited to the Department of Defense-funded
Starbase. But students from the Portland, North Clackamas, Canby, and David Douglas
school districts have gone to local military post for the aeronautics and team building
academy since the early 1990s.
Of the $15 million that the Pentagon sent to the Starbase programs nationwide this year,
$240,000 landed in Portland, paying for a director, two teachers and two aides. Five
percent also goes to the school district, covering administrative costs.
ppg: B8, "Protest: Progam aims to improve military's image"
[continued from B1]
Each year, four or five students don't get on the bus to the Guard base because
of their parent's objections to the military's role, said Marilyn Sholian, Starbase
director for Portland Public Schools.
But Sholian has never seen anything like the mass protest at Winterhaven. "I was
shocked by the number and adamancy," she said.
Winderhaven Principal Yanya Ghattas signed the school up for Starbase two weeks
ago, after another Portland school suddenly gave up its spot in the program's fall
schedule.
Parents voiced concerns right away. Some were alarmed simply by the wording of
the note sent home: "Starbase is targeting fifth-grade students in Portland Public
Schools."
At a meeting with 32 parents last week, Ghattas tried to ease the anxiety. Yes, she
told them, their childreb would see fighter jets up close and hear presentations from
engineers and pilots in uniform, but the only misson was to offer hands-on mechanical
experiments and computer labs beyond anything at Winterhaven.
"I assured them that this was a good science program that happens to be a military
facility," she said.
Yet, as Ewing noted, Starbase's Web site states that part of the program's misson is
improve the military's image among young people. "They may not come out and say
it's recruitment," he said. "But they're definitely laying the groundwork for that."
Trying to improve the misperceptions about the military's image isn't the same as
recruiting, said Capt. Mike Braibrich, an Oregon National Guard spokesman. "There
are a lot of misconceptions about the military out there," he said.
As far as the Starbase being used as a recruiting tool, Braibish said no one has
tracked the number of kids going through the program who join the armed forces.
"But I imagine those numbers are quite low," he said. "The fact is, this program
improves skills in critical fields that help not only the military, but society at large."
Ewing said he isn't anti-military. Another of his objections to Starbase is that it
appears to redirect money that could be used to buy better equipment and body
armor for soilders in Iraq, he said.
After attending Starbase with his daughter's fifth-grade class Monday, Larry Risley
wonders whether Ewing and other parents are overreacting.
"It was pretty sophisticated stuff, showing how planes fly and the properties of air,"
he said. "You actually felt like you were in a classroom. We didn't even see the
airbase."
Michelle Shultz, Winterhaven's PTSA president is equally perplexed, especially because
parents send their children to the school to focus on math and science -- not politics.
"I can't follow that line of logic."
But for Jessica Applegate-Brown making the connection was easy: If she openly talks
about her opposition to the Iraq war around her fourth-grade son, how could she
encourage him to spend time around soldiers and war machines?
"I'm objecting to the climate we're in right now," she said. "Ten years ago, this may
not have been a big deal. But now, it is."
Joseph Rose: 503-221-8029;
josephrose@news.oregonian.com
==========================================
This is amazing! There are so many things going on this this article
it just blows my socks off! This explictly reminds me of what the C's
warned Laura, not to send the kids off to NASA camps, they might
be programmed, exchanged, God knows what! Geez!
