Saltman, K.J., & Gabbard, D.A. (Eds.). (2003). Education as enforcement: The militarization and corporatization of schools. Reviewed by Michael W. Simpson, University of Wisconsin-Madison

	Saltman, K.J., & Gabbard, D.A. (Eds.). (2003). Education as enforcement: The militarization and corporatization of schools. New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Pp. xxiv + 332 $85.00     ISBN 0-415-94489-0 (Cloth) $24.95     ISBN 0-415-94489-9 (Paper) Reviewed by Michael W. Simpson University of Wisconsin-Madison June 8, 2004 “We don’t select our students in K-12” exclaimed a former elementary teacher. This is the response to my statement in a graduate class on higher education history concerning differing views that the public holds about schools at different levels. This statement was intended to communicate that any failure of the schools was that of the students and not the system and society. The speaker made clear that under our merit based democratic institutions that any student that didn’t succeed just didn’t have the right stuff. This same person praised democratic access but failed to see that she blamed democracy as the reason for student failure. In essence, we let in all “those people” who not surprisingly fail. My attempts to explain how the selection of students starts at least with the first day of kindergarten were unconvincing. The authors in Education as Enforcement are a distinguished group that can more than adequately challenge the assumptions of this teacher. Schooling is placed in broader contexts but the book also pays attention to the local. The unifying theme is the militarization and corporatization of schools. Our experiences shape what we know. Some teach in rich suburban schools preparing the elite for their roles as owners/managers/professionals in the new information economy. My experience was in an urban school preparing persons to be the warrior protectors or low level service providers for the elite. A summary of my experiences are found in Essays in Education (Simpson, 2003 Fall). Education as Enforcement addresses the issues I faced in the school. These include: deskilling of teachers, inequity in funding, segregation, urban as equal to evil, Troops to Teachers, uniforms, military recruitment, testing, curriculum, money and economic dominance, students as consumers, policing, sorting and ranking, discrimination, devaluing of education, drugs, and gangs. Teaching in an alternative charter school placed me squarely in another major relevant theme: privatization of the public. They way we treated the students placed me squarely in the major relevant theme of militarization. We constantly hear that 9-11 changed everything. Some may be tempted to dismiss this book as a reactionary work of the left against post-September 11 actions. But Kenneth Saltman makes clear in the Introduction that it would be myopic to only see what has happened in schools since September 11. His introduction demonstrates how militarism pervades everything in America. JROTC programs, Troops to Teachers, uniforms, increased policing in school, intrusion of corporate curriculum, and other matters existed long before the events of September 11. Noam Chomsky’s chapter “The Function of School” details how schools have always been tolerated as long as they serve their institutional role as indoctrination of obedience and conformity. In “Rivers of Fire”, Saltman and Goodman show how corporations have used progressive educational methods to develop school curricula that hide the role corporations play in environmental devastation and military actions around the globe. This occurred before September 11 and teachers that are strapped for resources welcome any assistance especially free materials. David Gabbard shows how state-sponsored compulsory schooling functions as ritual enforcing what the state sees as its main function – market support and enforcement. This analysis extends back to the very formation of nation-states hundreds of years ago. The Chicago schools crackdown on Black and Latino youth as described by Pauline Lipman came in 1995 not 2001. The first two public military high schools and the expansion of scripted direct instruction were aimed at deficient students which meant those of color or poor. Increased stratification in schools meets the needs of Chicago as a Global City. Affluent white magnet schools prepare students for the new information economy and the other schools prepare the “others” for low level service jobs or prison. Enora Brown details stratification in the new economy as a continuation of the educational stratification in the old economy of industrial education for the poor and minority and classical liberal education for the affluent all of which prepared them for their respective worlds of work. Don Trent Jacobs connects us with the original Americans and how the traditional Indian paradigm can stand against the neoliberal global market world view and provide some hope for restoration of the common good. In “The Proliferation of JROTC” Berlowitz and Long show how such military entry into the curriculum extends back to the 1862 Morrill Act, an act usually championed as the great democratizer of higher education. Ron Scapp attributes the birth of our “predatory culture” to the Reagan years when taxes were cut, military increased, deficits soared and deep cuts in social and public expenditures were then deemed unavoidable. This should sound familiar to those in the public sector facing budget cuts over the last few years as we wage expensive wars around the globe. Sandra Jackson’s “Commentary on the Rhetoric of Reform” looks at language as a form of cultural politics and focuses on the 1983 report called A Nation at Risk. Robin Truth Goodman shows how the substantive collapse between domestic policing and international intelligence and intervention took place in popular culture long before September 11 and the so-called Patriot Act. In “Virtuous War”, Eugene Provenzo Jr. writes of his concern that the 1999 establishment of the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California is exactly what President Eisenhower warned us against in his farewell address in 1961. This brief summary of various chapters in the book supports the idea that the book is not a reaction to the events of September 11 or a reactionary dialogue arising from those events. The book does not shy from or ignore the events of September 11 either. The forward is Henry Giroux’s “Democracy, Schooling, and the Culture of Fear after September 11.” A note indicates that many of the ideas come from his book of 2003 called The Abandoned Generation: Democracy Beyond the Culture of Fear. Giroux calls for educators to posit public time for the emergency time imposed by Bush. Public time envisions civic education. We can inspect the past, talk to power, question, and assume public responsibility through active participation in governing. Politics is not demonized but seen as essential to a democracy that needs to imagine itself in ways other than militarily. Somewhat prophetically, Giroux notes that militarism will not get at the root of terrorism but only exacerbate the conditions that give rise to it. It is a year since Bush flew unto the deck of an aircraft carrier and declared mission accomplished. The fighting, death and destruction continue today. If Alexis de Tocqueville is correct, the permanent war on terrorism declared by Bush and “necessary” to police the world for corporate interests is not sustainable by a democracy (Tocqueville, 1945, 235-238). A more authoritarian, apolitical regime is needed to “save” the mythology of democracy or perhaps the concept of democracy that Michael Apple describes in his chapter “The Politics of Compulsory Patriotism: On the Educational Meanings of September 11.” This concept of democracy is economic not political. Collective senses of freedom are replaced by individualistic notions of consumer choice. Thus, we want troops as teachers. We will start them higher on the pay scale than other first year teachers, waive some certification requirements, and provide stipends. We want former generals as CEO’s of schools. We need standardized tests to deskill teachers and prevent critical inquiry. We need “The Proliferation of JROTC.” We need September 11 to work like the Holocaust in Israel, as described by Haggith Gor in “Education for War in Israel”, to naturalize violence and form the basis of an ideology of survival-justified aggression. We need September 11 to obscure global corporate interests that drive our intensified aggression. Like Israel, we need to distort history and our school curriculum to celebrate power and violence and to ban any other curriculum. According to Julie Weber in “Post-Columbine Reflections on Youth Violence as a (Trans)National Movement”, the hidden curriculum of the schools is the creation of the perfect citizen-consumer who is disciplined and quieted by consumer comforts. Support for war is driven by the right to consume without disruption. Teachers truly become “clerks for the empire.” Schools no longer need to build-nations and incubate democracy under old paradigms. Schools are sites for corporate exploitation, training individual consumers that compete against one another, and fear an uncertain future. Fear motivates us to snitch on our neighbor which is reminiscent of the McCarthy era. Being different was a crime in that era. We become uncivil and violent. Our children, not seeing hope for future progress, will take up arms in the military or perhaps against our own meanness toward them. They can become “An Army of One” as the new military promotion promises. The shooters at Columbine were tired of the abuse and violence at the hands of classmates, especially athletes who apparently had free run at the school. Eugene F. Provenzo Jr. reminds us in his chapter about how the Marines adopted the video game Doom II and altered it for training. The shooters at Columbine did the same thing with the original Doom. The author notes how this blurring of reality and game creates a virtuous war where death is experienced without tragic consequences. People look to blame the students, the parents, or video games without questioning the larger context of violence and the connections the military-industrial complex makes. Sandra Jackson reminds us of how white suburban school violence is portrayed differently in the media. Despite the violence at such affluent schools, the schools with children of color are deemed the hotbeds of violence that calls for more policing of “them.” Michael Apple makes a good point about the need for hegemonic alliances to appeal to “good sense” of the people. He notes two populist strands in Wisconsin. I can relate to the “authoritarian populism” in my home state of Oklahoma. In short, “them” are the problem. Jesus is a right-wing, pro-military, corporate welfare supporter, who hates the government unless Uncle Sam signs the check he gets or is cracking down on the poor, minorities, and especially foreigners. Oklahoma is a federal military reserve. The state gets more money from Washington than it sends. Brains leave the state as soon as they can. Fear permeates every aspect of society. Dissent gets a beating. To question, is unpatriotic. Consumerism is rampant as consumer debt becomes enormous as people try to meet the “needs” defined by the market. Perhaps Oklahoma is what the future is for the country. If so, that is a very good reason to read this book, share it, and consider our individual and collective role in the world. If you need proof, examine how Oklahoma ranks on education, health, livability, violence, teen pregnancy, and such. September 11th reinforced the events of April 19th and both were only about those terrorists and you are either for us or against us. Toby Keith, country singer and military worshiper, graduated from my high school. Write me in Wisconsin. The president of a community college recently praised the military as an example of how to run a college at a national conference of instructional leaders. My perusal of the participants showed no reaction. I was in shock. He specifically mentioned the time period of the 1960s and later. Maybe we were from different countries. I seem to remember a little thing called Vietnam, covert operations expressly prohibited by Congress, and $5,000 hammers. It seems lying, cheating, and blowing taxpayer money is now the way to run a college. Of course, this president merely reflected the “revitalized practice of regarding military and corporate institutions as hallmarks of achievement and success, embracing them as welcomed models for guiding the transformation of the nation’s public schools” as noted by Ron Scapp in his chapter “Taking Command: The Pathology of Identity and Agency in Predatory Culture.” Interestingly, this community college president was in a city with large Black and Hispanic populations. Militaristic education is popular in application toward minorities who are seen as dangerous and deficient. We must also wonder if the revision of Vietnam in popular films is having an effect. Reynolds and Gabbard discuss this point in “We Were Soldiers: The Rewriting of Memory and the Corporate Order.” The Vietnam syndrome caused a substantial number of the American public to distrust the role of the U.S. and its military in world affairs. The movies on Vietnam in the 1970’s and early 1980’s showed pot-smoking, acid-dropping soldiers and berserk commanders in movies such as Apocalpse Now and Platoon. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone were one man killing machines in movies such as Rambo. More recent movies such as We Were Soldiers portray the soldier as good family man and everyday hero. All Americans should be concerned about the Office of Strategic Influence and meetings between the government and Hollywood executives like the one that took place in October, 2001. The soldiers in movies like We Were Soldiers fit nicely into Bush’s “compassionate conservatism.” Rugged individualism is portrayed as the way to victory in battle and corresponds to the values of business. It also fits nicely with the new recruiting motto of “An Army of One.” This same community college president in the same conference was discussing change in the community college. Students were not mentioned once. I asked where the students were in this process of change. He didn’t have much of an answer. In all of our talk about change and reform, the students seem to be ignored. Sheila Macrine’s chapter “Imprisoning Minds” details wonderful student activism and voice against the private takeover of the Philadelphia school system. The poem “I Am Not for Sale!” is recommended for those resisting corporate takeover of public schools. Pepi Leistyna’s chapter “Facing Oppression: Youth Voices from the Front” is a powerful chapter based on interviews with young people doing community service. When we listen to these young people, we begin to see how intelligent and full of potential they are. We also begin to see how we have failed them. Perhaps that is why we silence them. These young people are full of life experiences. They love to talk about these. They use their experiences to connect to education generally. This is consistent with adult education theory. We need teachers that can listen without judgment. We need teachers that understand the difference between pathology and acts of resistance. We need teachers who themselves have life experiences that allow them the confidence and maturity to deal with students from other than middle-class backgrounds. Postman and Weingartner recommended one year leave out of every five for teachers to work in a field other than education so they can experience something other than teaching (Postman & Weingartner, 1969, 139). The practical suggestions in Teaching as a Subversive Activity complement much in Education as Enforcement. Education as Enforcement would be a worthy book if all it did was explore the connection between globalization, neoliberal corporatism, militarism, and education. However, many of the authors provide suggestions for action. Chomsky notes that we should encourage those students who ask questions and challenge us. We should say “why take my word for it? Who the heck am I? Figure it out for yourself. That’s what real education ought to be about, in fact.” Saltman suggests local resistance by linking to multiple movements against oppression such as Military Out of our Schools. Gor and others suggest that we teach differing visions and a history of diverse viewpoints not absolute truths. McLaren and Farahmandpur urge critical educators to participate in popular social movements among other suggestions in their chapter “Critical Revolutionary Pedagogy at Ground Zero.” The book offers many other suggestions. A recent headline in The Oklahoman read “Schools Teach to Avoid Closure as Testing Nears (Bratcher, 2004).” The article expresses concern that a year-round school had just returned from a three week break and teachers only had a few days to prepare students. We must wonder if any learning at all occurs if schooling is merely the process of filling heads with information soon forgotten. The tests are required under No Child Left Behind. Education as Enforcement adequately shows the effects of standardization and testing on teachers, students, schools, and society. The “good news” reported in the newspaper article was that the tests would soon be online so that teachers would have more time to prepare the students for the tests! No one challenged the whole process. The school, stripped of adequate public funds, had to rely on volunteer business leaders. Corporations failing to support adequate funding for schools are willing to “work” with the schools. I earned a bachelor degree in economics at the start of the so-called Reagan Revolution. My courses consisted of the neoliberal theology though one old New Deal labor economist clung to his position. Economics was becoming popular for study. People had become disillusioned by government; Vietnam and economic hard times had their toll. We lost faith in ourselves. Some may dismiss Education as Enforcement as old Marxist or liberals trying to hang on in a world that has passed them by. This would not be fair. While one or more writers may claim Marxist philosophy and critical pedagogy itself is often associated with such, this book is more about the public, the collective, the “we”, and civic education. We should teach market economics. Look at what our economy provides us. But this includes the limits of market economics as well. This includes the dangers from oligopoly and monopoly. This includes examining the dangers of wealth concentration and increased stratification. We ask questions such as whether concepts about public good/private good needs updated concerning the level of education that should be supported publicly. This book is full of questions to ask. Aren’t the questions we ask more important than the answers we think we know? The decontextualized trivia masquerading as accountability in standardized tests is mostly useless. According to Giroux, civic education provides the skills, knowledge, and passions to talk to power. It assumes the necessity to question and that active participation is the process of governing. Interestingly, I personally learned how to challenge the market dominance from a conservative Christian counselor. While writers in our subject book are often critical of religion, and rightfully so, we must be cognizant that we may learn valuable strategies from many sources. Larry Burkett helped empower me to determine what my needs truly are rather than letting the market impose values on me (Burkett, 1993; Burkett, 2003). By teaching students what needs verse wants are, how to handle money, and how to stay out of debt, we can free them to have the time to be participating citizens. The critical writers could do a better job at developing practical curriculum that meets these goals. I recommend this book. Who should read it? Hopefully teacher educators will. They have a tremendous responsibility. The training they provide future teachers has impact for thirty or forty years or more. Teachers should read it and be empowered to resist. Anyone should read it that still believes in democracy. References Bratcher, M. (2004, April 11). Schools teach to avoid closure as testing nears. The Oklahoman, p. A6. Burkett, L. (1993). Complete financial guide for young couples: A lifetime approach to spending, saving, and investing. Wheaton, IL:Chariot Victor Books. Burkett, L. (2003). Debt-free living: How to get out (and stay out). Chicago: Moody. Postman, N., & Weingartner, C. (1969). Teaching as a subversive activity.New York: Dell. Simpson, M.W. (2003, Fall). The charter school as factory: This is reform? Essays in Education, 7. Retrieved May 4, 2004, from http://www.usca.edu/essays/vol7fall2003.html. Tocqueville, A. (1945). Democracy in America. New York: Random House. About the Reviewer Michael W. Simpson Michael Simpson entered the doctoral program in Educational Policy Studies in the Fall of 2004 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He completed an M.Ed. in adult and higher education at the University of Oklahoma. He holds a J.D. from Oklahoma City University. Michael has practiced law, served as a mediator, and taught in the community college, a prison college program, an alternative charter high school, and in Upward Bound programs. His research interests are varied and include the history of education, financial equity in education, the law of education and how it creates inequity, and teacher education.