According to March 6, 2006, “Education Report” in The New American: “Home-schoolers will find it easier and more rewarding to join our nation’s military forces. They are now considered ‘preferred enlistees,’ and are on an equal footing with other top recruits.” In turns out that prior to 1998, home-schoolers were in the military’s “less likely to succeed” “Tier 2” category. A five-year pilot program and a one-year renewal “allowed a limited number of home-schooled recruits full access to the armed services.” Now it is permanent.
But is this a good thing? Why would a bright home-schooled student, who was probably raised in a Christian environment, want to waste his life (and maybe end his life) in service to the state by making his career the U.S. military–currently the greatest force for aggression in the world today? If this war is a monstrous evil–and it certainly is–why would any parent encourage his child to join the military? Duty, honor, country, you say? No one has a duty to kill for the state. It is not an honor to kill for the state. Killing for the state in a foreign land does not help protect the country. We need to deprive the military of cannon fodder, not supply it with cannon fodder.