Don't Ask! Certainly Don't Tell!
In my weekly column (not coming out until next week [so don't bother looking for it until after November 8th]), I have juxtaposed two Bits that deserve a closer look and a bit more comment! Denial is a powerful force and allows certain things to continue unabated. The two issues in question are (1) how broken our schools really are and (2) how broken our military really is. They are not broken to the extent that they have stopped functioning (they're close), but neither is functioning well or coming anywhere even close to their potential.
Both institutions produce some fine, more than competent people, but it that because of or in spite of the systems that are in place? Without going into excruciatingly boring details that cite numbers and statistics, trust me when I say the public doesn't have a clue. All so many people care about is their latest tattoos or piercings or which Brad Pitt haircut looks best.
Schools are producing workers barely capable of getting and keeping minimum wage jobs and the military is asking an overstretched body of people to deploy multiple times to fight and risk all in unpopular wars that existed long before we got involved and wars that will continue long after we finally realize much more than military might is needed and we finally disengage. The first (suggesting there may be more to follow) high-ranking US government official recently quit because he has "...lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan" and has "... doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end." At least someone gets it, and if there is one, more will eventually follow.
The solution to return us to the status of producing the best and the brightest will only come when more of the current best and brightest stop following like sheep and admit there is a problem. Then, and only then, can we move forward.
Both institutions produce some fine, more than competent people, but it that because of or in spite of the systems that are in place? Without going into excruciatingly boring details that cite numbers and statistics, trust me when I say the public doesn't have a clue. All so many people care about is their latest tattoos or piercings or which Brad Pitt haircut looks best.
Schools are producing workers barely capable of getting and keeping minimum wage jobs and the military is asking an overstretched body of people to deploy multiple times to fight and risk all in unpopular wars that existed long before we got involved and wars that will continue long after we finally realize much more than military might is needed and we finally disengage. The first (suggesting there may be more to follow) high-ranking US government official recently quit because he has "...lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan" and has "... doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end." At least someone gets it, and if there is one, more will eventually follow.
The solution to return us to the status of producing the best and the brightest will only come when more of the current best and brightest stop following like sheep and admit there is a problem. Then, and only then, can we move forward.
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