Class Warfare

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That may be true. But former Army JROTC cadet Kimberly Allen, 22, is not complaining, even though she admits that her experience at Jackson's Provine High School often felt like a dress rehearsal for a future in the military. Allen, a chemistry major in her junior year at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, says JROTC's instructors often invited Army recruiters for meetings with cadets and encouraged them to fill out applications for the Army Reserves and National Guard. "I was really naive," Allen recalls. "I didn't think females or blacks were even allowed into West Point. But during my junior year, a female officer came down to talk to us, and I became really interested."

Not everyone is as receptive to JROTC's soft nudge into the rank and file. "I enjoyed [JROTC], but I never wanted to pursue a career in the military," says the Rev. Edward Cook, 27, a former JROTC cadet and a 1993 graduate of Jackson's Forest Hill High School. Still, as a seminary student and director of the day-care center at Greater New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church in Jackson, Cook says those old experiences in JROTC are proving relevant in his work today. "The same truths you learn in JROTC you will also find in the Bible," Cook says, "especially being accountable not just for yourself but for the people around you." It's a valuable lesson to learn. The question is whether JROTC is the only way to teach it.