Urban high schools have become increasingly militarized spaces, particularly after the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act and the unprecedented recruitment campaign of the military post 9/11. As a response, anti-war activists and community organizations have launched “counter-recruitment” campaigns to educate students and communities of the realities of military service and “recruit” students away from the military. While these efforts have provided a much-needed response to the increased militarization of schools, they have not always employed liberatory means. This paper offers a critical analysis of certain counter-recruitment actions that employ what Freire (1970/1993) calls the “banking” approach, through the reflective narratives of the authors. The paper also proposes critical consciousness-raising through the example of a digital-storytelling project in a high school classroom, where students were able to tell their stories, gain academic skills and engage critically with topics such as poverty, violence, war and militarism.
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