Too Dumb To Fight

"January 8, 2011: Why are so many young Americans too stupid to be soldiers. A fourth of potential American military recruits can't join because they are too fat. That got some media attention. But the fact that a quarter of high school graduates who tried to join failed the written exam attracted less attention. "

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatri ... 10108.aspx

It is truly a condemnation of the powerful Educational Unions!

The left continually calls for throwing more money at it which has proven to be useless waste.

Sounds more like a condemnation of "No Child Left Behind", which has been the policy for the last 9 years...

LadyJazzer wrote: Sounds more like a condemnation of "No Child Left Behind", which has been the policy for the last 9 years...

I find it hard to believe that even you could believe that.

Neptune:

To LJ, it is always the fault of George Bush. No matter what the subject.

Didn't Teddy Kennedy & "W" combine on NCLB?

When you look at dollar spent per student, 90% of developed nations do a better job than the US. I am willing to lay blame all around, teachers, education bureaucrats, parents, and students who not only don't care but ridicule the students who do get good grades.

And I disagree with the strategypage, both the poor physical fitness and also the poor test results have been covered nationally as well as being discussed in multiple threads here.

I do wonder if the economy got a lot better, if the military would relax both standards. During WWII & the Great Depression, many recruits showed up underweight and out of shape but the military took them because they needed them.

Do not believe that will happen. Cuts in all federal departments is suppose to happen. Gates stated he was looking at downsizing the Army and Marines both of which increased thier numbers due to the wars. The Navy and Air Force have already been down sized

Tell me, since No Child Left Behind was brought up - tell me, a former teacher, how that's a stellar program?

Under NCLB, instead of helping get the best teachers in, getting the right equipment, books, staff, encouraging parental participation, a failing school is punished - it's funding is cut, its teachers pay is cut, forcing cutbacks to the basics because the extras are already gone. crap pay guaranteeds mediocre at best teachers. How does that improve anything?

Wouldn't hiring the best teachers - and giving them pay commensurate with their skills - be the right thing? Wouldn't making sure a failing school had textbooks that were newer than 20 years old (or textbooks at all) be the right thing? What about science equipment, fitness equipment, counselors that do more than just sit on their asses in their offices, administrators that actually try to keep crime at a minimum in their schools - wouldn't that be the right thing to do?

NCLB is a freaking joke, it's crap, has always been crap. If a child is hungry, they will not learn. Cutting funding to that school does not get them a decent breakfast or lunch(oh and don't say they should get it at home - there's no food at home for a lot fo the kids affected by this either)If that child is afraid of his peers, that child does not learn. Cutting funding so you get the worst of the teaching and administrative staff out there does not help a child feel safe. How do you teach a kid to read without a book, or just a simple box of chalk to write the words on the board? You don't.

Take a real good look at it. Ask a teacher you think does a great job what they think about. Ask several. Most will tell you the same thing, especially those that don't already work in schools where the funding is high and the local socio-economic level is high. Ask a teacher who works in Denver, or Davenport, Iowa, or East LA. You'll find out how great NCLB ISN'T.

BTW, this is going to seriously affect Jeffco in the next couple of years - if your kids are in Jeffco schools, time to start paying attention.

Thank you for making my point, Historian....

When did feeding the children become an education's responsibility? Oh yea, we are training up little socialist...I forgot...they need to learn how to depend on government for their food and education....

Too many teachers get left behind because of the unions.