For our class topic, I will be researching how the U.S Army has played a role in educating our country. For this topic I will be going in depth about army policies and rights including the G.I Bill, College ROTC and War-Time drafts. Other topics I want to include are U.S policies that were created to push education in hopes of advancing our military infrastructure and munitions.
I believe by using examples from several European countries that there are other education systems out their that benefit students and their respective country simultaneously.
I think the GI Bill is the last vestige of our sense of being an "imagined community" as Americans. Benedict Anderson's famous book by that title is still worth a look -- or he may have revisited the topic or there may be commentators too:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Imagined-Communities-Reflections-Nationalism-Revised/dp/1844670864
The ability to imagine yourself as part of a community is what makes it possible for the soldier to risk life for country -- and after WWII Americans recognized that and passed the GI Bill to recognize our debt to those who served. Education benefits for soldiers continue in various forms, and despite the move toward the privatization of higher education elsewhere, that collective benefit for a certain class of people continues. It is really worth examining how and why the GI Bill and benefits bucks the trend toward privatization. I think Benedict Anderson may help you theorize that.