Students view of Canadian military power changing?

[Greymatters]

Another thing I would say is more stories about Afghanistan like that one titled "Fighting Ghosts"...

This is the type of thing we should have been doing from the start of the deployment...

 

[ex-Sup]

It was scary reading some of those answers... University students using internet lingo on their answers? This is why I always insist on producing the final product on group projects. I take everybody's piece and translate it to English.
As for their answers.... a little too cliche for my liking. They've plagiarized their opinions from someone else who's probably less intelligent than them.
This peacekeeping thing drives me nuts, more so than all the mentioning of Iraq and just doing what the US tells us to. Honestly, this is pure gold:
"I consider us peacekeepers, which I think is better. The closer we are to no military the closer we are to world peace."
He/She wants peacekeepers but wants no military. Seriously?!?! This reminds me of my friend's dad, a musician, who has absolutely CONDEMNED me for joining the CF, but has a song dedicated to Peacekeepers called "The Keeper's."

For clarification (as was mentioned already), this was taken from my Gr.12 history class. These were totally off the cuff comments; we've never spoken of this in class (as it has nothing to do with our curriculum). As I mentioned, I will be making time for some discussion next week as I'd like to know where they are coming from. I'll report back.

 

[ex-Sup]

The phrase “fights for peace” seems to be the general theme here…

Yes, this was mentioned quite a bit (since I only included some selected answers). It was actually interesting to read some of the answers and see contradictory statements ie. "we're peacekeepers", but in the next question "we fight for peace." This is why (even though it has nothing to do with the course) I'm curious to hear what they have to say about all of this.

 

[Rahul]

The phrase “fights for peace” seems to be the general theme here…

I think that a lot of youth have the wrong opinion that Canada is a top UN peacekeeper country. Yes, peacekeeping was a Canadian idea, but in the last 2 decades countries like Bangladesh have dwarfed Canadian contributions. We have only made token contributions to UN missions and never more than 80-100 personnel on a single mission. Except in Afghanistan, we just don't "peacekeep" anymore.

What is sadly lost is the acknowledgement of the military heritage of the pre war era. Also, we have the wrong perception that if we remain isolated no one will target us. Sad to say, we will be targetted and on that day will a strong CF be required. This is not just my perception, a lot of other people have it too, especially people in the Executive Security business.

In fact, one of my professors'  (served in the US marines I think, he's Canadian) and his friend, ex Royal Marine and SAS (He runs a very exclusive outfit) often talked about this in guest lectures.

 

[ex-Sup]

This is why (even though it has nothing to do with the course) I'm curious to hear what they have to say about all of this.

So I made time to talk about this today and...nothing! NOTHING!
Nobody wanted to talk...period (despite the fact that some couldn't shut up during the lesson). They wanted me to read back the responses to the first question, since they said they couldn't? remember what they wrote. So I did that and I commented as I went along, but it didn't get anywhere. I spent some time talking about the whole peacekeeping thing, since many of them mentioned that we weren't a military power, but peacekeepers. But even after that nobody wanted to talk. So here's a couple theories:
1. They don't give a sh^t (apathy is huge around here).
2. What they wrote was bullsh*t.
3. I "enlightened" them to what really goes on and they're all informed experts.
Since I highly doubt #3 happened; I'm good, but not that good...miracles are Jesus' dept  ;D (Catholic school joke). That brings me back to 1 or 2, and based on my experience, it's probably #1. If it doesn't have anything to do with their ipod/cellphone, booze, drugs, why everyone treats them like crap, who's copulating with who or what's happening on Friday night, they probably don't care.
So in the end, my Gr.12's could care less and probably just regurgitate what they hear in the MSM. This is best summarized by the comment someone wrote on their quiz "Canada has a military?" which everyone thought was quite humorous.
I tried 

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

I tried 

Its all one can do,...thanks.

 

[kratz]

It's disappointing to hear the result ex-Sup. I was looking forward to hearing how it went.

Thank you for trying.

 

[ltmaverick25]

If its any consolation, the students in my first year university class are far more engaged.  I find myself in the opposite situation of having to limit class discussion time so we can carry on with the planned lectures.

I think the reality is, alot of students really only start to give a crap about whats going on around them when they hit university, but again, im teaching a class of over 130 students and its a Canadian military history class, so totally different audience.

 

[SoldierInTheMaking]

I'd have to agree with you ltmaverick25, people in high school these days only care about what there doing after school, when school ends etc.

If that was me in that class I would be right on this topic, giving actual answers, and backing it up with loads of information. Even if I were the only one doing so, maybe I would educate others with my answers, well those who we're willing to listen.

 

[Antoine]

I'am going to do my home work, educate myself on CF and develop good arguments in favor of CF, specially that I'am at university too.

 

[ltmaverick25]

I'am going to do my home work, educate myself on CF and develop good arguments in favor of CF, specially that I'am at university too.

One down, several more million to go!

But seriously, good for you for going out of your way to inform yourself.  Although I caution you.  The more informed you get, the more aggrevated you will become about the lack of knowledge among your peers!

 

[Antoine]

Specially in my field where people are smarts on scientific thinking but lack of humanities and arts knowledge. Don't get me wrong, I include myself in the geek community and I should read more on military, foreign politics and so on.

Back on topic, your thread is inspiring for us (student, TA or prof,...) to inform positively people on CF, but I don't want to be out of my lane by doing so too extensively for now.

I hope it won't be out of topic, but I'am not convinced that Combat School show and similar are opening the eyes of 'intelligentsia', but may be it is not the purpose of those shows.

So what is happening, where does the university community get their info? I can't say the proportion of 'educated' (no offense to anyone) people that are well informed on the Canadian military power.

I have an interview for MARS Res tomorrow, so, I'am going to finish some reading on the trade.

Bonne soiree 

 

[ex-Sup]

Well, since 25cm of snow isn't enough to close the school, I have lots of time to write a response (yes, all the buses are cancelled, but the school is open...I have 3 kids in period 1  ).
Yes, I am disappointed in their lack of willingness to discuss the topic, but I guess in retrospect it was a stretch. As I mentioned already, this is a World History class and the curriculum has nothing to do with the issue.
I know I went on a little rant about the whole apathy thing, which I would imagine is true in some cases, but I can't say that for all of them. I don't know why they didn't want to talk about it; I think it had probably more to do with the fact that their teacher is a former reservist and a strong supporter of the military. They did ask me what my position was, which I did tell them, but I was also clear that my job is not to tell them what to think; they need to formulate their own opinions. Maybe they were intimidated getting into a discussion about it. They did listen attentively when I explained the whole issue around "peacekeeping," but that's where it ended.
I did pass on the quizzes to the World Issues teacher in case she wanted to discuss the issue, which I think she might.There are some kids in my class taking World Issues, so maybe something might happen there.
Some of these kids are very socially aware, and yes I think that more of it comes out in university, but they are quite capable of discussing issues that they feel matters. I would imagine that more discussions will take place in a class devoted to military history since there would be more of a common interest.
Oh well, it was worth a shot.