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The Armed Forces are essentially for recruits that are die hard/bleed red white and blue or dopey folks with few other prospects. So you start with a low tier group and upon discharge they are the same folks.
You are painting vets with a very broad brush.
There are some servicemembers who could only barely get a high enough score on the ASVAB to get in, those servicemembers are trained to perform simpler jobs. And there are also some servicemembers who ace the ASVAB, who go on to operate nuclear reactors or do maintenance on the micro-hydraulic systems of Multi-Reentry-Vehicles.
Jobs that require higher intelligence and test scores tend to have longer enlistment contracts, guaranteed advancement, and because those quality recruits are harder to come by, they are offered pretty decent Re-Enlistment bonus cash each time their contract is about to expire.
I have worked with servicemembers who were high-functioning 'rain man' type autistic savants. They are amazing physicists.
My primary job was working with mainframe computers that monitor gravity fluctuations and we navigate from them. Not everyone can do gravity vector math in their heads, but I have known a lot of fellow submariners who are good at it. That is why they are paid the big bucks if they will stay in.
The Armed Forces are essentially for recruits that are die hard/bleed red white and blue or dopey folks with few other prospects. So you start with a low tier group and upon discharge they are the same folks.
I have a relative that volunteers in a program to help discharged soldiers transition into the workforce. They said some have a chance at factory work or something simple but others will likely be bagging groceries or working at a gas station.
I hired an ex-Army private. He was working in a supermarket meat department. Nice kid, had some funny stories but really wasn't real bright. He lasted about 4 months. One of his biggest faults was he never asked for help! I guess the Army saw that as a sign of weakness. The kid would literally have someone else report the problem before he would mention anything.
Tire low?......... he would keep driving until someone in traffic screamed he had a flat tire!
Not even remotely close, lol.
I take it you never served? Because you have not even the slightest clue.
As a recruiter, I would say more than half the people that come into my office are overweight, or they have ADHD, or both. These are all disqualifiers.
Others have tattoos that stop them from joining, or other health issues.
When someone walks in that is NOT disqualified, I'm generally surprised and confused, because it's that unusual. Often, the people we do recruit have at least one waiver. To have someone completely qualified always makes me wonder if they're lying, but it's just so rare.
This certainly isn't true. I don't have time to fact check Jamie Dimon. But to say young people can't read or write at the low bar set by the military? Preposterous.
I don't think it's preposterous. I have been a recruiter for over a decade, and there are ENTIRE high schools where I would try to recruit people for years, and not one single solitary kid could pass the ASVAB. Entire high schools where the test is administered by the school to the student body, and under 10% pass, and the 10% that pass are overweight or already have criminal records. A good majority of high schools in our low income or minority areas have beyond sub par education systems. This is a big part of the Black Lives Matter movement, is the disparities in education and other such opportunities.
The VAST majority of people that come through my office door can't join, and we make every single person take a practice ASVAB, and many many many fail it.
As a military, I can tell you that we do track items like what the original article discusses, and they're true. The ASVAB is given at thousands of schools across the country, and the pass rate is pretty abysmal.
I wonder where those stats come from as well. As a parent of an 18-year old, I'm around tons of that age group. I for one find them much more active and definitely more intelligent than my generation.
The classes they take are mind-blowing. Subjects my husband and I didn't take till college. Out of 500 kids in her graduation class there are 120 Summa *** Laude, 87 Magna *** Laude, and 112 *** Laudes. That's well over half the class graduating with honors. In my class it was like 15% graduated with honors.
I get those same kids when they go to college. And while it is unlikely that I've ever had any of the kids from your child's high school, my experience spans several states, and multiple decades. Short answer, for many kids, "Honors" in high school aren't what they used to be. In some locations, it's reduced to little more than participation trophy's.
Sounds like Lake Wobegone where "all the people (kids) are better than average."
"*** laude (/kuːm ˈlaʊdeɪ/), meaning "with praise", typically awarded to graduates in the top 20%, 25%, or 30% of their class, depending on the institution.[2][3]
magna *** laude (/ˈmæɡnə/), meaning "with great praise", typically awarded to graduates in the top 10% or 15% of their class, depending on the institution.
summa *** laude (/ˈsuːmə/), meaning "with highest praise", typically awarded to graduates in the top 1%, 2%, or 5% of their class, depending on the institution. Some institutions do not award the summa *** laude distinction or only award it in extraordinary circumstances.
Nope, just one high school in an otherwise mediocre school district. But it is in a military town, lots of engineers etc and highly sought after. They do the honors in this high school, (no idea how it is done in others) by simple grade point average. Certain average then you get that honor. My daughter has a 4.37, I think the cutoff for summa was 4.25 or something. The honors ceremony will have so many kids they moved it to the stadium.
And trust me this is not getting an award for participation. My daughter is taking 4 AP level classes right now, and two classes at the college. Advanced Calculus, Statistics, Government, Sociology. No advance basket weaving here. She has taken 12 AP classes and the rest all honors. The problem is so does everyone else. At least 4 kids share the top honors...5.0 GPA.
My point is not to share my daughters' praises, but to show that I find it hard to believe that such a high % aren't smart enough.
In reading Maries posts, I see where she's coming from. It is low % of people that walk through the door to see about joining. The rest of the kids aren't walking into the recruiter. They are going to college.
I get those same kids when they go to college. And while it is unlikely that I've ever had any of the kids from your child's high school, my experience spans several states, and multiple decades. Short answer, for many kids, "Honors" in high school aren't what they used to be. In some locations, it's reduced to little more than participation trophy's.
See my post above. I would have agreed with you, but this particular group of kids have kinda blown me away the past couple years. Not to say it is necessarily a good thing, as the pressure on the kids to get the higher GPA is immense and the pressure on the teachers to NOT merely give a good grade is often discussed. My neighbor is a teacher at the school and I hear all the crap that goes on from her.
Ivy notifications just came out this week, from what I have heard so far we have 16 kids going to ivy schools. Pretty good for a small southern town.
I think they only need about 180K to join each year? So even though many aren’t eligible, there is still more than enough who can hack it.
People 18-24 number about 30 million total in the US. 30% of that is 9 million.
So we only need 180,000 out of 9 million able bodied youngsters to join up.
I see the young troops of today. I think in a lot of ways they are better than my generation of 30 years ago. They lack in some areas, but for the most part I think they are more intelligent and more physically fit than we were.
I agree. Here is my take as well. I joined back in 1976. I went on active duty and stayed active through one reenlistment. Then I joined the Army National Guard where I stayed working full time for them over 29 years. During that time I saw many, many soldiers. Some better than others. All of them green. But throughout even with the soldiers that were not ideal there was a sense of worth among them. They were willing to learn from us older NCO's. It was easy to mentor someone that actually wanted to be better. As 1SG I was privileged to lead a lot of excellent men and women.
Quote:
Originally Posted by City Guy997S
They aren't if you play a sport........... Go Black Knights!
I'm not buying it. I could much more easily believe that such a high percentage are ineligible for military service due to being physically unfit (obesity, etc.). There is no one educational standard/litmus test for military service. Ultimately, some jobs will require more book smarts than other jobs, which is a big reason why I have difficulty believing the report.
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