Last year, recruiting efforts at Rindge and Latin yielded two Army recruits, Johnson said. George Finn, a guidance counselor at the school, estimated that 2 percent of each graduating class go on to the armed forces.

And even though Cambridge maintains its non-discrimination policy, military recruiting at Rindge and Latin has drawn little public protest. What protest does exist focuses on anti-war objections.

“It’s a bad idea,” said Ruth E. Corona, a senior at Rindge and Latin. “They get [the idea] into students’ heads that they won’t get sent to the war that quick.”

Corona’s noted that both her brother, who graduated from Rindge and Latin last year, and his girlfriend enlisted in the Army. Corona said her brother will be sent to Iraq in February 2005.

“Kids should experience better things than learning to kill people,” Corona said. “It’ll be interesting to see if he’s changed when he gets back from basic training.”

Other critics suggest that the military is incompatible with public education, because of its “hard sell” tactics of promoting military service as a hyperreal video game.

But proponents emphasize that the military may be an appropriate career choice for some students, and that choice is essential.

Fred Fantini, a member of the Cambridge School Committee, said he voted against the decision to ban recruiting in 1991, and would vote for a ROTC program there if it were a possibility.

“The hallmark of what Cambridge represents is choice,” Fantini said. “People are very aware of the consequences of military [service], and kids need to be afforded ... a full range of traditional options,” he said.