Jrotc in Perspective
Every day over 4000 kids begin to smoke. Every year over 10000 kids as young as 11 began to drink for the first time. The reason for all of this? It is simply peer pressure. Kids see older and cooler kids, lighting up at the corner of their school and talking about the huge parties that they have during the weekends, so then the kids think if I could do that then I would be cool. Unfortunately they are wrong and end up going down a path of self-destruction and misery. This doesnt only happen with drugs though. It happens with images. Girls who desire to be thin like super models, boys wanting to be buff like wrestlers or pro-sports players. Peer pressure can make a person do things that normally they would never do. So how are you suppose to deal with it when its everywhere in the school and in public? My solution is JROTC.
In JROTC you get to be around people just like and who are just as scared about how they will look to others. This helps because you learn that you are not alone. If a cadet had a problem of any kind they could always go talk to an older cadet, the AI, or the SAI and get some kind of help. I think that this is quite helpful to the student because they know that they only have to be themselves and nothing else. In JROTC there is vitually no peer pressure. It lets you make decisions on your own. In turn, what it does is teaches you about what happens when you make certain decisions. This way the cadet could make the choice on there own but contemplate the outcome of it before it happens. JROTCs motto happens to be, motivating young students to become better citizens. I believe that by teaching this and showing a person that they can be themselves and still have many other friends, peer pressure becomes eliminated and the student is much happier.