JROTC Officers
How are Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) instructors selected? Are they "certified" teachers like most other teachers?
JROTC instructors are not chosen like regular teachers. First, they don't come into the schools in the usual way. JROTC instructors are retired military service members. They are recruited and approved by the military. JROTC officials then present the candidate to the school district.
There is no national requirement that they meet the same certification standards (such as college graduation requirements, specific course work, or student teaching experience) as other teachers. Individual school districts may set their own requirements. Few school districts hold JROTC instructors to the same standards.
What constitutes certification is sometimes an issue in schools that have JROTC. Many proponents of the program claim that all of the program's instructors are certified. Don't be fooled by this assertion. In most cases, what is being referred to as "certification" is nothing more than the fact that the military has approved the instructors. In some areas, a public agency may certify the instructor, but in all cases the instructor is held to a different (lower) standard than other teachers, including teachers of other elective courses.
Each branch of the military services has its own standards for selecting instructors. The published guidelines place disproportionate emphasis on candidates (military retirees) being physically fit and sounding like authority figures, rather than having educational credentials or training in teaching methods.
Some people argue that there is nothing wrong with this system of relying on the military to set its own standards. After all, JROTC instructors are teaching "military science," it is argued. A close review of what is actually taught in JROTC reveals otherwise. The curriculum used in the program – produced by the military – contains significant units on history, civics and leadership. For example, the new Army JROTC curriculum contains chapters such as "Overview of Citizenship Through American History" and "Democracy and Freedom in the United States." A teacher covering these subjects in a non-military classroom would have to meet higher teaching standards. In what appears to be a growing trend, some school districts allow JROTC to be substituted for social studies credit.
So there are many reasons to be concerned about who teaches these classes.
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