Ernest Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River

Ernest Hemingway's "Big Two-Hearted River" There are a number of eminent boons associated with the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC), a program which is offered as an elective at public high schools across the nation. However, many of these positives do not directly correlate to academic achievement.

An explanation of this fact partially stems from the very nature of the program -- as an elective, it is limited in the amount of educational value it can impart to students, which is certainly lesser than that of the value afforded students via daily coursework offered in standard classes. Importantly, the public funds of the JROTC make it a viable option for students in light of regulations regarding federal and state regulations limitations mandated by 1995's Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (Dilger and Bess, 2008, p. 1).

Yet a thorough analysis of this program, which includes the Navy JROTC as well as that relating to the Army, Air Force and Marines, indicates that the positives associated with this program include both tangible and intangible aspects, which rewards America's high school students both during and after their postsecondary careers.

In order to determine the degree of efficacy the JROTC produces within the lives of its students, it is first necessary to elucidate the history of this program, which was implemented on a nationwide level in 1916 yet had individual components as far back as the latter portion of the 19th century (Pema and Mehay, 2009, p. 533). The program significantly increased in scope and participation during the final decade of the 20th century due to a variety of factors, including the 1992 development of the JROTC Career Academy model by the U.S.

Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Education (Hanser and Robyn, 2000, p. 1). By the end of the last decade, over half a million students were involved in the program at more than 3,000 high schools. The programs are principally taught by retired embers of the armed forces; for instance, Navy JROTC programs are taught by former Naval officers. Although the JROTC has many goals, one of the most important of these is the prevention of attrition and the increase of the rate of high school graduation.

As such, there are specific components of JROTC programs that target students who are the most at risk for attrition. One of these is the fact that these programs are located within public high schools, which have traditionally had more dropouts than their private school counterparts. Additionally, the degree of diversity that the program encompasses addresses the rate of dropout.

Approximately half of students enrolled in JROTC are minorities, approximately half of the schools in which these programs exist are in urban environments, and nearly half of the students involved are girls (Pema and Mehay, 2009, p. 533). By targeting inner city communities and minority students (particularly Blacks and Latinos) (Aguirre and Johnson, 2005, p. 151, ), this program is able to directly impact those who are greatest at risk for attrition. Furthermore, it is able to do so by teaching students values and mores that are founded in large part through the military itself.

Although academics and cognitive processes are certainly a part of Navy JROTC programs, they also emphasize the virtues of leadership and teach students how to set examples for their peers since "A key emphasis within the JROTC is the teaching of leadership principles that were validated by the U.S. Army in 1970" (Clapper, 2001, p. ii). In this respect, JROTC functions somewhat akin to conventional extracurricular activities in high school such as clubs and student council, in that it allows students to develop their leadership potential.

The primary distinction is that JROTC programs combine leadership curriculum with its academic curriculum. This is useful to students who might not otherwise get this instruction, due to the renewed focus on math and English which the No Child Left Behind Act has invoked (Jennings and Rentner, 2006, p. 110-111). In addition to presenting students with formal academic theory in leadership (Funk, 2002, p. 44), JROTC also facilitates opportunities for students to demonstrate leadership by participating in drill instructions, military customs, and in community service opportunities.

The benefits of such instruction are both tangible and intangible. Of the former, there is evidence that "the program appears to reduce dropout rates and improve graduation rates for black participants and self-esteem scores for female participants" (Pema and Mehay, 2009, p. 533). There are also certain character traits that are associated with leadership and core values that are desirable in students, military personnel, and people in general, that the JROTC fosters due to its emphasis on leadership skills.

A 2002 research study determined that of 16 desirable character traits, JROTC students enrolled in an Atlanta public high school consistently displayed more of these traits and the behaviors associated with them than their counterparts who were not in the program (Bulach, 2002, p. 561). Behaviors included controlling oneself when one needs to, taking things that belong to others, and using drugs and alcohol.

This sort of discipline is integral to the pursuit and fulfillment of career and personal obligations in the real world related to responsibility, and is a particularly good example of the positive effects of JROTC programs including those of the Navy. Another noteworthy aspect of JROTC programs are the degree of attention it places upon academics. In many ways, the primary criticism of this program is that its students are not as academically successful as those not enrolled in it.

While this statement is true, it can be explained due in part to the demographic of students enrolled in JROTC, which are predominantly at-risk students who, whether or not they were enrolled in such a program, are academically challenged. Yet JROTC programs have made an effort to address this discrepancy by attempting to integrate an approach of differentiated instruction. A 2001 research study indicated that learning styles for JROTC students varies by ethnicity/race and gender (Dunn et al., 2001, p. 11).

A number of systematic changes took place throughout the United States Army Cadet Command in order to implement this change. Instructors were trained and curriculum was readily adapted to make way for this student-centered learning approach. A 2011 study utilizing quantitative measures attempted to demonstrate the efficacy of differentiated instruction by presenting a pair of student groups with exams before and after their learning via conventional and differentiated instruction.

The findings indicated that "the experimental group that received differentiated instruction achieved a statistically significant effect size and scored higher than the control group on each test" (Clapper, 2011, p. ii). These findings emphasize JROTC's determination to close the academic scoring gap between participants and non-participants, and are indicative of its commitment towards academics. Navy JROTC as a school elective has made a considerable difference in the lives of students for several years.

It has helped to increase the rate of graduation, to boost self-esteem for female participants, and to provide an alternative for at-risk students to complete their studies. Additionally, this program has allowed for students to pursue the formal, academic study of.