It's their most significant moment in high school, and it changes their life trajectory forever. Indeed, many Israeli high schoolers train for military examinations as of 16, some begin even earlier. They dream of serving in elite military units, and know that only a fraction are accepted. Hence, they take extracurricular drills, and arrive to the three days of military examinations as motivated as possible. They are at their peak. But then – they fail. Their dream, their fantasy of their future service and future self, is shattered. They return home broken, symbolically. Their self esteem is wounded, their self-efficacy is eroded. They lose motivation, and for years go through the motions listless. With lingering wounds in their identity, some even consider suicide and drop from military service altogether.
In this talk, Professor Gad Yair from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will present results from a qualitative study of 40 adults, aged 27-35, who at age 17 underwent examinations for serving in elite Israeli military units. The results provide sobering testimonies for the symbolic violence that examinations exert on young people. He will provide examples, and use those vignettes to return to Pierre Bourdieu’s exegeses on symbolic violence and the loss of possible selves and the curtailing of possible futures. He will try generalizing beyond our case study to argue that people failing in important exams carry symbolic wounds that may never heal. As his case study shows, high school students get wounded by the military even before being drafted. They end up carrying those wounds for decades, belittling them and hampering their motivation to expand their options in life.
