Kitsap Education

A few days ago I posted this about a report on the fitness of young people for military service. The full story came out Thursday and can be read here. It includes a link for the full report.

A couple high (or maybe they should be called “low”) lights:

• 27 percent of youngsters are too fat to serve
• One in 10 would not be eligible to join because they have a prior felony or serious misdemeanor conviction
• 32 percent have other health problems, including asthma, ADD and poor hearing or eyesight, that prevent them from serving
• One in four do not have a high school diploma, making them ineligible. Some can join with a GED, but they have to score high enough on the military entrance exam to receive a waiver. However, according to the report, most of those who dropped out and received a GED instead do not possess good enough reading and math skills to serve.
• Lots of kids have a combination of these problems.

As a result, only two in 10 are fully ready to join the Army without any waivers.

So what do all these top military leaders propose to do to combat these problems?  The answer will probably at least surprise, if not shock, you. It’s preschool.

The report takes evidence from a long-term study done in Michigan called the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project. reschool students, along with a group of kids who did not attend preschool, were followed for years to see how their early education experiences (or lack of experiences) affected their lives.

Call me an education geek, but this is fascinating stuff.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 10:22 am by marietta nelson and is filed under Early Childhood, Federal Policies, Military Students. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.