Normal Teenage Problems [Archive]

Han Tzu

12-23-2009, 04:18 AM

1.I'm trying to get into better shape; though I'm still unfit.
2.I have something like a 3.7, Pre-Calculus Is a bitch.
3.I've been reading the psychological aspects of war including, but not limited to human nature.
4.Currently reading Catch-22.
5.I had planned on something in business, both for the grades and the practical applications. Like you I have no focus, my GPA is on the lower half of the spectrum in a lot of my classes and yet I continue to get the highest entrance exam scores in my grade(250-300 kids).
6.Who, the only veteran I know of that won’t instantly classify me as a hippie(I’m not, it’s just Nebraska) is my brother, who’s a artillery sergeant.

What I really wanted to learn was skills that I could use in the military. From what I learned basic produces cheap, under-educated soldiers. I want things that can be practical for both a grunt and an officer’s lifestyle-and of course thank you for actually responding. Any other advice?

Adam L

12-23-2009, 05:35 AM

I am not a military fellow, but I think I have some useful advice.

On the issue of getting in shape, I must say that this does take some time. So often I see young fellows about your age hurrying to be fit and simply making a mess of themselves doing so. Here is some advice on getting in shape.
Don't over train: Take it easy. I have known many world class athletes who have set themselves back many months or even years by starting off with too much.
Focus on endurance and smooth muscle: Start off with recumbent biking. If you have the opportunity to swim, DO IT. Swimming is by far the best physical training that you can get. It is low impact and exercises the entire body. If you can't swim, rowing is also good. If you are going to run, make sure you are not carrying excessive weight. Also, learn how to run. Running with improper technique can destroy your feet, knees and hips. You're high school's track coach would be a good person to talk to. Do sit ups and leg lifts everyday, but don't do too much. It takes time to build the strength. There is a lot of info about weight training on line. All I can say is take it easy, you are only 16. You are far from your physical peak (23-29) and you are still developing. A few often forgotten areas that are easy and important to work on are: Ankle strength, foot strength and finger strength.

As far as academics go, you have a pretty good GPA. Sorry you are having trouble with pre-calculus. My advice on this is to not be afraid to look to sources other than your teacher and assigned textbook. In my experience the textbooks are dreadful these days. Also, most math teachers are not math people (this is hard to explain if you are not a math person.) Many of the older calc texts (40+ years old) are much simpler and too the point. They are far easier to understand and learn from.
Stop reading about the psychological aspects of war. You do not have the psychological knowledge or the life experience to understand this personally or theoretically. At your age you need to learn about a lot of things before you go there. I agree with Cavguy that military history is an area to study. Still, there is a lot to learn in history in general. (Note: Cavguy, I am not in anyone implying that you were saying that he shouldn't study history as a whole.) You're secondary education will give you a very spotty and superficial overview. Also, remember in your studies that there is much fiction that is essential to your comprehension of historical events.
Catch-22 is a good book. Still, I think that Cavguy meant that you need to read something really different. Why don't you try something like the Iliad and the Odyssey (use the Lattimore translation.) These epic poems are at the root of the western literary cannon. Also, they are a lot more complex and meaningful than what you have been shown. Try another piece of historical fiction like I, Claudius by Robert Graves. I'm sure you will learn a lot and get a kick out of it. How about something like The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh (He was a marine before he was LAPD.) (FYI - this is a cop novel) Ender's Game is a good book that is on the Marine Corp reading list if I am not mistaken. If you wish to stick with modern historical fiction, try All Quiet on the Western Front.
You have a lot of time to choose your major, but having an idea of the areas you would consider will help you choose where you would like to attend college.
Why would they classify you as a hippie?

What I really wanted to learn was skills that I could use in the military. From what I learned basic produces cheap, under-educated soldiers. I want things that can be practical for both a grunt and an officer’s lifestyle-and of course thank you for actually responding. Any other advice?

Learn to think and educate yourself. The ability to go into a situation and be able to asses, analyze and react will help you greatly in any field civilian or military as will the ability to educate yourself.

Adam L

Entropy

12-23-2009, 05:44 AM

In addition to what others have said, I think it would be a good idea to join an organization where you can get real-world teamwork and leadership experience. This will also help you in civilian life. If getting fit is a problem then look into a hiking/backpacking club or similar outdoorsy or sports-related activity - that way you can kill two birds with one stone. Unlike what you see in the movies, the military is all about teamwork, so people skills are important, particularly if you want to be an officer.

Schmedlap

12-23-2009, 07:05 AM

I did not decide to join the Army until I was 18. Like everything else that I've done since then, I went into it blind. I was going to enlist, but my teachers begged me to go the ROTC route instead. So, I did. Being the only person in my family to attend college, I had no idea how to choose a college, pay for it, what to major in, etc. You know what? It didn't matter. A degree is a degree in terms of getting into the Army. Nobody in the Army will ask you what you majored in, nor will they care if you tell them. I never met anyone who cared about my major or where I graduated from.

When I was in high school, all I knew was that I wanted to be in the Infantry. My preparation for college consisted of absolutely nothing, other than taking a year off after high school to work and save money to pay for college. While in high school, I drank heavily, got into a ton of trouble, had awful grades (but good SAT scores!), and my extracurricular activities were just fall and winter sports. When I went off to military school, a lot of my peers had done JROTC in high school. Their only advantage was that they knew how to march around. Talk about a useless skill. You will learn everything that you need to know about the Army from the Army. Don't worry about trying to get a head start on it. You can learn how to read a map, use a compass, do terrain association, and estimate your pace count in a few hours in basic training. You don't need to figure it out now.

Looking back, I would have gotten into less trouble and drank less. Other than that, I see very little consequence to what occurs in high school. Unless you're trying to get into an Ivy League school or West Point, your grades are not super important. I think you only need to worry about two things.

1) Get in shape - focus on the basics of pull-ups and running. If you can do pull-ups, then you can do pushups. If you can do that and run, then you can probably do lots of sit-ups. That puts you ahead of the vast majority of your peers once you get into ROTC/Academy. You are young and enthusiastic, so you will probably want to put together some insanely complex and ambitious workout plan, but it really is not necessary. Pull-ups and running. That alone will put you in the 90th percentile.

2) Take a foreign language. I suspect your high school offers at least one. My advice is to take anything BUT Latin because nobody speaks Latin. Learn a language well. When you learn a language, you also learn about the culture that speaks it. The more you learn about other cultures, the more you analyze your own. Analyzing your own culture is the most useful way to understand other cultures. This process will better prepare you to interact with other cultures, which will be necessary regardless of what type of war we fight or operations we conduct. Plus, once you learn one foreign language, learning a second one is easier. This is one of the few valuable, practical skills that you can acquire in high school. If your other classes suffer at the expense of you mastering a foreign language, I say: so what?

Don't worry about choice of major. Your first two years of college will largely be core curriculum of more English, math, science, and history. You don't need to choose a major until you're halfway through college. Besides, you're only halfway through high school. Your interests will change.

Adam L

12-23-2009, 07:10 AM

I
My advice is to take anything BUT Latin because nobody speaks Latin.

No one speaks Latin, but even a basic understanding of Latin allows one to pick up almost any romance language with ease. Latin doesn't take long at all to learn anyway. It also will improve his English grammar a great deal. I'm not necessarily suggesting he take Latin, rather that quickly going through Wheelock's Latin would be a good idea.

Adam L

Schmedlap

12-23-2009, 07:14 AM

Stan

12-23-2009, 10:10 AM

John T. Fishel

12-23-2009, 01:20 PM

Cole--

I'm an old soldier and an old college professor. My daughter is only 10 but will soon be reaching the point where you are.

For all the disagreement among us on details of our advice there are some common threads. Read widely, study a foreign language, get into shape slowly but methodically. To this, i would add, do as well as you can in high school. There are advantages to getting into a highly competetive college like West Point or the Ivy League for a future career both military and non military. Those advantages can be overcome by later hard work but starting early is a help. I would also add travel to the list of things you ought to try to do, especially to foreign countries.

Reading: I'd suggest Thucydides and Donald Kagan's modern study (the one volume version) of the Peloponnesian War. Anton Myrer's Once an Eagle is a classic novel of soldiers. Definitely read Nathanial Fick's One Bullet Away. Fick is interesting because he majored in Classics at Dartmouth College, became a Marine officer serivingin both Afghanistan and Iraq, left to pursue graduate degrees at Harvard both an MBA and a masters from the Kennedy School and is now CEO of CNAS (where john nagl is President).

Good luck

JohnT

Adam L

12-23-2009, 01:57 PM

To this, i would add, do as well as you can in high school. There are advantages to getting into a highly competetive college like West Point or the Ivy League for a future career both military and non military. Those advantages can be overcome by later hard work but starting early is a help.

I agree with this 100%. The reason I push for a language like Latin, which is primarily a very focused study of grammar and the structure of language, is that by far the most common skill that is lacked by college students and professors is the ability to write competently. I have observed this in many of this countries finest institutions over the past few years (These schools include: Williams, Union, Middlebury, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Berkely, Wesleyan, Wellesley.) Sadly, I must say that in my experience many, if not most, of the students who are graduating graduate still lacking this skill.

I should point out that it is not just grammar that I am complaining about, it is the ability to write a proper essay. They often seem incapable of logical analysis.

Reading: I'd suggest Thucydides and Donald Kagan's modern study (the one volume version) of the Peloponnesian War.

Use this (http://www.amazon.com/Landmark-Thucydides-Comprehensive-Guide-Peloponnesian/dp/0684827905/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261576313&sr=8-3)version when reading Thucydides (http://www.amazon.com/Landmark-Thucydides-Comprehensive-Guide-Peloponnesian/dp/0684827905/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261576313&sr=8-3).

Adam L

Adam L

12-23-2009, 02:19 PM

My rationale is that learning a foreign language is valuable, largely, because of the understanding that one develops of the culture that speaks it. This is an incredibly eye-opening experience, even if you eventually forget the language (as I did after studying French and Russian).

True. I normally have not studied a language formally. I often find myself reading in translation. Then, I become frustrated with the translation and put myself through a crash course in the native language of the text. Normally, this is so I can understand an important or key fragment in the text. I grew up with a lot of people from all over the world. The language wasn't really necessary to absorbing a lot of cultures. My K-3 school class (20 students) had students from 10+ countries (non-english speaking countries.) I had a classmate who spoke 11 languages at the age of 6! I come from a family that has a lot of languages. That is until my parents. My mom's family, especially her grandparents, would never speak any of the plethora of languages they spoke around her. They wanted her to be a normal American girl. LOL!

I should note that I grew up playing chess. My teacher was Russian. His teachers was Russian. Everybody was Russian. I spent a week at chess champ where they refused to speek English to me except when we played Scrabble at night. LOL!

If the fellow were a bit older I would tell him to date women of many cultures. Dating a foreign grad student can a be a lot of fun and a great way to learn about foreign cultures. (Don't even think about it kid. You can see if you can do this when you are an undergrad.)

Adam L

marct

12-23-2009, 03:18 PM

Hi Cole,

Some great advice already posted....

On the Latin issue, I would suggest you take it, mainly for the benefits to you use of written English. A couple of other works from the classical world you might consider reading are Sallusts' The Jugurthine War (http://www.amazon.com/Jehovah-Contract-Victor-Koman/dp/0977764907/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261579437&sr=8-1), Tacitus The Histories (http://www.amazon.com/Histories-Penguin-Classics-Tacitus/dp/0140449647/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261580830&sr=1-2), and The Meditations (http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/1438509480/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261580927&sr=1-2) of Marcus Aurelius. For a break, there is some very well crafted, albeit somewhat "dark", SF by Tom Kratman (who posts here occasionally): A Desert Called Peace (http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Called-Peace-Science-Fiction/dp/1416555927/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261581058&sr=1-6) and Carnifex (http://www.amazon.com/Carnifex-Tom-Kratman/dp/1416591508/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261581058&sr=1-4). Also, if you haven't read it yet, take a look at Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers (http://www.amazon.com/Starship-Troopers-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441783589/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261581168&sr=1-1) (the book avoid the movie!).

On what you do your degree in once you hit college, people are quite right - no one will care (and, BTW, that operates outside of the military as well except for the professional degrees like engineering). Half of the trick to getting a degree is to follow your passions. Personally, I didn't the first time I was in university; I went through five different majors before getting kicked out and, when i went back, I ended up in two (actually three) different disciplines.

A final note: see if you can find any really good yoga instructors. Yoga is excellent for stretching, balance and breath control and, if you get a really good instructor, they will help you learn how to use it for meditation. believe me, having the ability to "set aside" many emotional reactions and still your mind will prove to be very useful :wry:.

Cheers,

Marc

Steve Blair

12-23-2009, 03:20 PM

On what you do your degree in once you hit college, people are quite right - no one will care (and, BTW, that operates outside of the military as well except for the professional degrees like engineering). Half of the trick to getting a degree is to follow your passions. Personally, I didn't the first time I was in university; I went through five different majors before getting kicked out and, when i went back, I ended up in two (actually three) different disciplines.

I just want to second and third Marc's advice about degree programs. One of the biggest issues I see (and I work with an AFROTC program) are kids coming in with majors that they picked in order to have a better chance at an AFROTC scholarship. They don't tend to do near as well as those who major in something they actually enjoy and have an excitement about or ability for. Study what you love, and you'll make it through classes with bad professors (and they ARE out there).

Tom Kratman

12-23-2009, 05:27 PM

That's not exactly true. While it is certainly possible to get infantry, as Han suggests he wants, with any degree, some degrees tend to push the board to push the prospective officer to other branches. Worse, and this happened to one of my platoon leaders, certain degrees (he was Mechanical Engineering) tend to get one involuntarily rebranched as a captain, depending on the latest personnel policies. Rebranching may not be in effect at the moment (I frankly don't know if it is), but I've seen it pop up in one form or another about 4 times between 74 and 06, so it's always out there.

Latin? Mmmm. I took it for six years. No, it wasn't exactly voluntary except insofar as the high school I went to required it and I volunteered for that. It's not useful in itself, no, but it is - precisely because it's not self-useful - an excellent discipline drill and intro to all the other Romance languages. Unfortunately, we have few if any non-madrassa high schools that offer languages that are militarily useful at the moment.

I did not decide to join the Army until I was 18. Like everything else that I've done since then, I went into it blind. I was going to enlist, but my teachers begged me to go the ROTC route instead. So, I did. Being the only person in my family to attend college, I had no idea how to choose a college, pay for it, what to major in, etc. You know what? It didn't matter. A degree is a degree in terms of getting into the Army. Nobody in the Army will ask you what you majored in, nor will they care if you tell them. I never met anyone who cared about my major or where I graduated from.

When I was in high school, all I knew was that I wanted to be in the Infantry. My preparation for college consisted of absolutely nothing, other than taking a year off after high school to work and save money to pay for college. While in high school, I drank heavily, got into a ton of trouble, had awful grades (but good SAT scores!), and my extracurricular activities were just fall and winter sports. When I went off to military school, a lot of my peers had done JROTC in high school. Their only advantage was that they knew how to march around. Talk about a useless skill. You will learn everything that you need to know about the Army from the Army. Don't worry about trying to get a head start on it. You can learn how to read a map, use a compass, do terrain association, and estimate your pace count in a few hours in basic training. You don't need to figure it out now.

Looking back, I would have gotten into less trouble and drank less. Other than that, I see very little consequence to what occurs in high school. Unless you're trying to get into an Ivy League school or West Point, your grades are not super important. I think you only need to worry about two things.

1) Get in shape - focus on the basics of pull-ups and running. If you can do pull-ups, then you can do pushups. If you can do that and run, then you can probably do lots of sit-ups. That puts you ahead of the vast majority of your peers once you get into ROTC/Academy. You are young and enthusiastic, so you will probably want to put together some insanely complex and ambitious workout plan, but it really is not necessary. Pull-ups and running. That alone will put you in the 90th percentile.

2) Take a foreign language. I suspect your high school offers at least one. My advice is to take anything BUT Latin because nobody speaks Latin. Learn a language well. When you learn a language, you also learn about the culture that speaks it. The more you learn about other cultures, the more you analyze your own. Analyzing your own culture is the most useful way to understand other cultures. This process will better prepare you to interact with other cultures, which will be necessary regardless of what type of war we fight or operations we conduct. Plus, once you learn one foreign language, learning a second one is easier. This is one of the few valuable, practical skills that you can acquire in high school. If your other classes suffer at the expense of you mastering a foreign language, I say: so what?

Don't worry about choice of major. Your first two years of college will largely be core curriculum of more English, math, science, and history. You don't need to choose a major until you're halfway through college. Besides, you're only halfway through high school. Your interests will change.

Tom Kratman

12-23-2009, 05:31 PM

Your check is in the mail, Marc. ;)

Hi Cole,

Some great advice already posted....

On the Latin issue, I would suggest you take it, mainly for the benefits to you use of written English. A couple of other works from the classical world you might consider reading are Sallusts' The Jugurthine War (http://www.amazon.com/Jehovah-Contract-Victor-Koman/dp/0977764907/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261579437&sr=8-1), Tacitus The Histories (http://www.amazon.com/Histories-Penguin-Classics-Tacitus/dp/0140449647/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261580830&sr=1-2), and The Meditations (http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/1438509480/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261580927&sr=1-2) of Marcus Aurelius. For a break, there is some very well crafted, albeit somewhat "dark", SF by Tom Kratman (who posts here occasionally): A Desert Called Peace (http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Called-Peace-Science-Fiction/dp/1416555927/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261581058&sr=1-6) and Carnifex (http://www.amazon.com/Carnifex-Tom-Kratman/dp/1416591508/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261581058&sr=1-4). Also, if you haven't read it yet, take a look at Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers (http://www.amazon.com/Starship-Troopers-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441783589/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261581168&sr=1-1) (the book avoid the movie!).

On what you do your degree in once you hit college, people are quite right - no one will care (and, BTW, that operates outside of the military as well except for the professional degrees like engineering). Half of the trick to getting a degree is to follow your passions. Personally, I didn't the first time I was in university; I went through five different majors before getting kicked out and, when i went back, I ended up in two (actually three) different disciplines.

A final note: see if you can find any really good yoga instructors. Yoga is excellent for stretching, balance and breath control and, if you get a really good instructor, they will help you learn how to use it for meditation. believe me, having the ability to "set aside" many emotional reactions and still your mind will prove to be very useful :wry:.

Cheers,

Marc

Schmedlap

12-23-2009, 06:08 PM

This thread is starting to resemble THIS (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/Afghanistan_Dynamic_Planning.pdf).

Let's back up for a moment. A 16-year-old wants to join the Army.

jmm99

12-23-2009, 06:29 PM

Dynamic Planning for COIN in Afghanistan (http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/Afghanistan_Dynamic_Planning.pdf) would be enough to convince anyone to avoid PowerPoint and become a pacifist.

So far, no one has outdone Niel:

from Cavguy
1) Get in shape, if not already
2) Get good grades
3) Read military history - whatever interests you
4) Read other stuff
5) Major in whatever you want, anticipating for life after the military and also understand the grades you get in college can open or close certain doors for you. ...
6) Engage some local recent veterans, find out their perspective on military life.

Merry Christmas

Mike

Stan

12-23-2009, 06:50 PM

Hmmm, I joined when I was 17 :D

And, that recent Joint Staff SNAFU locked up my Mozilla browser :mad:

Merry Christmas Folks !

Regards, Stan

SWJED

12-23-2009, 06:55 PM

Dear Small War Warriors,
I’m a sixteen year old high school student. I plan on going to college and then into an officer program, possibly infantry. I would like to know what I should do to improve myself for that position and what I should major in.

Cole

Cole,

Are you a guy or a gal?" I ask because you mention infantry but your e-mail addy - only known to site admin types - indicates you are female. Infantry and several other combat arms and combat arms related fields are closed to females and I think you might know that - maybe not - but this is an upfront Council and I'd hate to think our members might be wasting time here. What say you?

Dave D.

Han Tzu

12-23-2009, 09:23 PM

Adam-
2.Are the older textbooks accurate for the things we need them to be. I don’t have pre-Calculus anymore and won’t be taking Calculus but this sounds like something useful for college. It would be useful to learn that (A*Derivative of B-Derivative of B*A/A*A) instead of F*D(G)-G*D(F)/F*F.

3.We already study military victory’s in Psych and Advanced Psych(which is a college course).

4.Good reading list, but I read Ender’s Game in sixth grade(and still pick it up on a yearly basis) and the Odyssey in 9th. I’ll probably be picking up the Illiad for the reasons you mentioned.

6.I have shoulder length hair. In Nebraska, this leads people to believe that I do drugs(haven’t even tried them), drink(nope), and/or smoke(which I don’t).

I’ve been that, it’s incredibly useful on pre-tests.

Entropy-
Unfortunately there are no mountains/hills in Nebraska. Oh, and I’m already in an organizations that gives me leadership experience along with general(history and electives) classes.

Schmedlap-
I’m in Spanish III(it’s a five year course). I find it’s best to turn your movie and game settings to Spanish and put on subtitles.

Adam-
Thankfully my English teacher cares more about us than her job. She, instead of teaching us how to write an essay the Junior English approved way, graded us on the SAT essay score which emphasizes logic and flow.

Unfortunately where I live is a mix of German/Irish and Mexican/Hispanic. Therefore I won’t be dating anyone outside of the languages and cultures I already speak or am studying.

Steve Blair-
I’m very interested in History, both military and civil.

SWJED-
Guy. However, I don’t have an email address and just use throw away accounts. That would be my mother’s email address.

jmm99

12-23-2009, 09:36 PM

from HT
Unfortunately there are no mountains/hills in Nebraska.

and I was just going to suggest taking 25 mile hikes over hill and dale with ruck filled with bricks. :D

Spanish is good. I expect (hope ?) that a decade or so into the future, the US will be paying a lot more attention to Latin America.

You might also keep in mind that both political and military efforts are involved in what we call "Small Wars".

Cheers

Mike

selil

12-23-2009, 09:48 PM

Hmmm, I joined when I was 17 :D

I joined the USANG when I was 17 and a junior in high school. Went to basic training between junior and senior year, drove tanks, blew stuff up, and went back to high school for senior year. Emancipated, incorrigible, and generally despicable. Loved it so much I agreed to go active duty Marines and did it all over again starting with boot camp.

82redleg

12-23-2009, 11:14 PM

In addition to getting in shape and participating in leader-development, team-building activities (sports, scouts, etc), I would suggest reading small unit leader's memoirs- you can never prepare yourself fully for the psychological reaction of your first combat, but having some idea of what is coming up can help, as well as reading of others challenges can only help you prepare to face your own.

Some specific recommendations:
Platoon Leader, by James R. McDonough
Company Commander, by Charles McDonald
Once a Warrior King, by David Donavan
If You Survive, by George Wilson
Comanche 6: Company Commander, Vietnam, by James L. Estep
The Battles of Peace, by Michael Lee Lanning (also wrote The Only War We Had, and Vietnam 1969-1970: A Company Commander's Journal, which I haven't read)
Acceptable Loss, by Kregg Jorgenson
Lifer and Team Sergeant, by William T. Craig
Top Sergeant, by Willaim Bainbridge
A Ranger Born, by Robert W. Black

I'll have to look at my library when I get home next month for some more specific ideas.

Roughneck 91, by Frank Antenori (I haven't read this one, but have heard of the author by reputation)
Follow Me I, II and III, by Aubrey Newman are pretty good.
all three books in the 6 Silent Men Series

Starship Troopers by Heinlein, and Once an Eagle, by Myrer are good fiction books.

IntelTrooper

12-23-2009, 11:59 PM

As long as we're recommending books, I've had a fond place for CAP Mot (http://www.amazon.com/CAP-Mot-Special-19681969-Southwest/dp/1574410040) since I read it in high school. It's more about unconventional warfare than leadership but a good lesson about the kinds of demands a small unit leader can face.

Schmedlap

12-24-2009, 12:35 AM

Books are nice. Movies are quicker (and renting is probably cheaper than book-buying, seeing as though your local library probably doesn't stock most of our recommendations). Watch The Battle of Algiers (http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Battle_of_Algiers/60011023), Control Room (http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Control_Room/60037333), Michael Collins (http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Michael_Collins/757743), and Cromwell (http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Cromwell/60010266).

Adam L

12-24-2009, 03:28 AM

2.Are the older textbooks accurate for the things we need them to be. I don’t have pre-Calculus anymore and won’t be taking Calculus but this sounds like something useful for college. It would be useful to learn that (A*Derivative of B-Derivative of B*A/A*A) instead of F*D(G)-G*D(F)/F*F.

Calculus hasn't changed. Yes, the textbooks will be accurate. If you plan on studying an area where you might have to use calc you should take it in high school. In most areas you will not have any use for your calculus. (That includes most sciences. Having calc may be a requirement, but it will be not used in many areas of study.) I always encourage people to learn new things in math. Calc will be useful in life!

3.We already study military victory’s in Psych and Advanced Psych(which is a college course).

What are you studying about military victories in your psych courses?

4.Good reading list, but I read Ender’s Game in sixth grade(and still pick it up on a yearly basis) and the Odyssey in 9th. I’ll probably be picking up the Illiad for the reasons you mentioned.

When you do so let me know. I'll e-mail you a few good texts to accompany it.

6.I have shoulder length hair. In Nebraska, this leads people to believe that I do drugs(haven’t even tried them), drink(nope), and/or smoke(which I don’t).

Be as tidy as possible and put your hair in a ponytail if it is straight. If your hair is curly and shoulder length you should cut it. Buy a Ranger UP t-shirt. This (http://www.rangerup.com/iclhiblt.html)shirt will assure them you are not a hippie. So will this one (http://www.rangerup.com/american.html), and this one (http://www.rangerup.com/patriotday.html). My main suggestion for you is to not dress like a hippie. Maybe try to play yourself off as more of a nerd or something (dockers, button down shirt, pocket protector..maybe not the pocket protector.) Above all else, don't act like a hippie.

Thankfully my English teacher cares more about us than her job. She, instead of teaching us how to write an essay the Junior English approved way, graded us on the SAT essay score which emphasizes logic and flow.

That's not what I'm really talking about. SAT essays score the most rudimentary logic. I'm talking about being able to right at a much higher level. I don't think I was very clear with what I was trying to get at. I am talking about critical analysis. The goal is not just to be able to create, but deconstruct. A great deal of your future academic and professional writing will involve analysis of a given work or situation. The SAT (I am very familiar with the test as well as the grading rubric) does not prepare you for this.
The best way to learn this skill is to read others works which provide models. A lot of the non-fiction that has been suggested in this thread will help you. If there is one magazine that I would have you read to learn from, it would be The Economist. The Economist might be the only broadly distributed publication that still maintains its high standards.

Unfortunately where I live is a mix of German/Irish and Mexican/Hispanic. Therefore I won’t be dating anyone outside of the languages and cultures I already speak or am studying.

As I said, this comes later. You are in high school. You are not old enough to start targeting who and what you want in a woman. Once you get to college, more realistically after you graduate, you can start a check list of the different types of women you want to date. Also, you date girls, not women yet. Remember that. You should just find yourself I nice young girl who isn't just eye candy. Eye candy is for when your older and you actually know what to do with it. Also, promise me that if you are doing anything with the girl you decide to date, which you shouldn't be as you are still too young, that you don't make a mistake that would really screw up your life. (You know what I mean by this. )

I am assuming that when you mean Mexican/Hispanic you really just mean Mexican, because you "Hispanic" covers a lot of different peoples. They may all be Latin, but they are very, very different. Argentinians, El Salvadorians and Dominicans are very different from each other. Culturally there are also a lot of differences. Dominicans came up with Bachatta while the Argentinians have Tango. They are different and reflect interesting cultural histories. Tango was developed in Buenos Aires. It was also invented by men dancing with men. (Don't try this in Nebraska!) The city at that time almost had a 3-1 ratio of men to women. So, men had to learn to dance with other men so that they could be good enough to get a dance with a woman. That's why it is so damn macho. Sorry for veering off like this, but you get the point I'm trying to make.

Adam L

Levi

12-24-2009, 07:04 AM

Have you considered Rangers? They are still respected, from what I am told. You seem about a light year ahead of me when I was 17. Or Marine Recon, or FFL. Any of those would lead to a lucrative career as a private contractor, if you decide not to stay in. Special Forces looks like the way to go, these days. Although, for all I know they pick you. Basic skills? Amazon sells tons of used and obsolete (but still perfectly useful ) army training manuals. Just type in common infantry skills, or U.S. sniper manual, or whatnot. Get'm for pennies. Do you shoot allot? 9mm pistol, I would run through the air marshal pistol qual, you can google it. Need a shot timer, and lots of ammo. Do you know how to use rifle optics? I mean, really know? Thats a good skill. Land nav is easy enough I wouldn't sweat it. I guess I would say run and that stuff, that's good, but my best advice would be to look at your options and set yourself the greatest challenge. You won't regret it.

Schoolkid

12-24-2009, 08:09 AM

jimm99-
That does sound like nice exercise, unfortunately the only hiking I can think of in Nebraska is a near vertical climb(Chimney Rock, part of the Oregon Trail). Oh, and yes, I would hope to think that any country wouldn’t strong arm its way through a conflict.

Adam-
I don’t plan on going into any field that needs extensive calc, but it still is good problem solving practice.

About Psych, we studied the Christmas truce on the Western Front, among other things, and subjects related to it. Deionization of the enemy, propaganda, why the officers tried to stop it. Psych is a social science and our teacher knows we’ll actually try to learn if we get interested in it so he ties it to parenting/war/money.

My hair is straight but I don’t put it in a ponytail, may I ask why I should? I’m fairly white(can’t catch a tan) and have glasses so looking like a nerd shouldn’t be a problem. And of course, I don’t act like a hippie.

If you’re talking about ripping symbols, foreshadowing, and mood out of a story than we’ve been doing that since sophomore comp.

Where I live the Mexican population is about 80 to 90 percent of the Latin population. Unsurprisingly the smaller cultures have simply taken on Mexican customs. However, I was talking about learning a language because of the person I’m dating. Wow, that’s an interesting tidbit of info about Tango, I’ll remember that.

I figured that Special Forces would be the way to go. Western countries seem to be moving increasingly towards small operations.

marct

12-24-2009, 02:25 PM

Hi Cole,

I don’t plan on going into any field that needs extensive calc, but it still is good problem solving practice.

I didn't either - then I discovered how useful Hildebrandt Space could be for what I do (I'm a symbolic Anthropologist) :wry:. It's definitely worth getting if you can, as is almost any dialect of math.

About Psych, we studied the Christmas truce on the Western Front, among other things, and subjects related to it. Deionization of the enemy, propaganda, why the officers tried to stop it. Psych is a social science and our teacher knows we’ll actually try to learn if we get interested in it so he ties it to parenting/war/money.

Interesting; sounds like you actually have a good teacher :D! I remember listening to my great uncle and his friends as a young kid talking about it. In many ways, it presaged the actual way that WW I ended when you think of it.

Personally, I wouldn't call most of Psychology a "social science", although some of it is. From the sounds of it, what you are getting is primarily the social psych side of things. It would be very useful for you to learn as much as you can about the neuro-psych / neuro-biology side of things as well. I've found over the years that the best way to engage in a critical analysis is to be able to come at it from multiple directions, and having a fairly solid grounding in neuro-psych / neuro-bio is an excellent place to start one of those directions.

My hair is straight but I don’t put it in a ponytail, may I ask why I should? I’m fairly white(can’t catch a tan) and have glasses so looking like a nerd shouldn’t be a problem. And of course, I don’t act like a hippie.

Pony tails are a cultural signal that even though you may have long hair, you "fit in". They have become icons inside the IT sector for a particular type of programmer / analyst, and they signal that you are "not a drone". And, just in case you are wondering, I have longer hair than you and keep it in a pony tail :D! Personally, I find it exceptionally useful since most of my work is with corporate clients and the military; the pony tail acts as a sign that while I can act as one of "them" I am not, which is very useful for anthropologists.

On another note, there's no need to shift your user ID. Why not get a 'net based, free email email account and stick with a single ID? It makes it easier for everyone.

Cheers,

Marc

marct

12-24-2009, 02:53 PM

Your check is in the mail, Marc. ;)

LOL - I'm actually thinking of assigning A Desert Called Peace as a textbook this summer for a course I'll be teaching :D.

Tom Kratman

12-24-2009, 03:44 PM

LOL - I'm actually thinking of assigning A Desert Called Peace as a textbook this summer for a course I'll be teaching :D.

Now for _that_ I would consider driving to deepest, darkest C, eh? N, eh? D, eh? to be a guest speaker. (Problem is, I can commit to anything because I'm still on call for fun and frolic in other climes.)

marct

12-24-2009, 04:02 PM

Now for _that_ I would consider driving to deepest, darkest C, eh? N, eh? D, eh? to be a guest speaker. (Problem is, I can commit to anything because I'm still on call for fun and frolic in other climes.)

Don't tempt me, Tom :D! Actually, if you do find yourself available for a drive and talk, let me know. I'll be using it as a text for a 2nd year course this summer (mid-May to June), and I may use it for a 4th year course in either the fall or winter (it's not scheduled yet :wry:).

BTW, the reason I want to use it, outside of the fact that it's a pretty darn good story (:eek:!), is that I really want to hammer home to the students that there is very little difference in "narrative construction" between "fact" and "fiction". And, let's face it, most students just don't want to read "hard" stuff. Picking the readings for these courses are going to be "interesting" :wry:!

Cheers,

Marc

AmericanPride

12-24-2009, 04:47 PM

On top of the advice from everyone else:

Push yourself, know your limits, don't burn yourself out and make the most of your free time.

marct

12-24-2009, 05:30 PM

On top of the advice from everyone else:

Push yourself, know your limits, don't burn yourself out and make the most of your free time.

Really good advice, AP.

Cole, some advice I give to my students:

do what you love
no knowledge is wasted as long as you never believe it is the "Truth"
find a mentor - hell, find 10!
ask everyone for advice and then make up your own mind

Adam L

12-24-2009, 06:45 PM

Personally, I wouldn't call most of Psychology a "social science", although some of it is. From the sounds of it, what you are getting is primarily the social psych side of things. It would be very useful for you to learn as much as you can about the neuro-psych / neuro-biology side of things as well. I've found over the years that the best way to engage in a critical analysis is to be able to come at it from multiple directions, and having a fairly solid grounding in neuro-psych / neuro-bio is an excellent place to start one of those directions.

I agree completely with this. Neuro-psych/bio is excellent area and you will find it is very useful in almost any field. Just be prepared to suddenly have a desire to study a lot of chemistry and then physics so you can understand the chemistry. Then you will start getting frustrated with physicists for their inability to resolve the conflict between relativity and quantum theory. Without this stuff you can't figure out how any of the Neuro-psyc/bio works. LOL!

Pony tails are a cultural signal that even though you may have long hair, you "fit in". They have become icons inside the IT sector for a particular type of programmer / analyst, and they signal that you are "not a drone". And, just in case you are wondering, I have longer hair than you and keep it in a pony tail :D! Personally, I find it exceptionally useful since most of my work is with corporate clients and the military; the pony tail acts as a sign that while I can act as one of "them" I am not, which is very useful for anthropologists.

Also, in the event of society's collapse (or the creation of Waterwold,) you and Marc will be able to patch and/or make rope. LOL!

About Psych, we studied the Christmas truce on the Western Front, among other things, and subjects related to it. Deionization of the enemy, propaganda, why the officers tried to stop it. Psych is a social science and our teacher knows we’ll actually try to learn if we get interested in it so he ties it to parenting/war/money.

Interesting. I'd love to see the curriculum at some point. I find it interesting how so many secondary schools are offering basic psych courses.

If you’re talking about ripping symbols, foreshadowing, and mood out of a story than we’ve been doing that since sophomore comp.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about critical analysis of scholarship. For example: You are given an essay by a Cambridge scholar on the Odyssey. It is entitled, "Class and Gender in the Odyssey." Your job is to write a critical analysis of the essay. Your job is to deconstruct the whole thing and see if it works. Does he have a clear thesis statement? (Sadly, many scholars in very prestigious opinion seem to be incapable of having any idea what they are writing about.) Are the arguments logical? Are they well supported? Are any of the arguments cyclical? Does the author have any biases? Are they justified? Do his views have merit? How does his essay compare to other scholarship.

I am trying to think of good examples to give you. The only example I have a critical response to is a bit too complex, and long, to get the point across. When I get home in a couple of days I'll try to find you something.

However, I was talking about learning a language because of the person I’m dating.

I was discussing culture because of Schmedlap's original comment about how learnging about other cultures is very important in learning to understand your own and other.

Wow, that’s an interesting tidbit of info about Tango, I’ll remember that.

Dancing may be hard to learn where you are, but it is great exercise. Also, you will have a lot of fun with it when you go to college. Dancing, especially Latin and Swing, seem to have become a very popular activity on campuses (I have found there are clubs on many college campuses.) Actually, a lot of places seem to have ballroom teams these days. When I was observing the exercise Meh held last year for his COIN course, I was surprised by how many of his students were wearing "Tufts Ballroom Dancing" clothing. That reminds me, I have to e-mail him. I've had a hell of year and haven't had a chance to sit down and do anything till the last couple of weeks.

Adam L

davidbfpo

12-24-2009, 07:43 PM

jmm99

12-24-2009, 08:42 PM

Two books by Dave Grossman - which should not be considered bibles, but which raise many issues - are On Killing (http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Psychological-Cost-Learning-Society/dp/0316040932/ref=pd_sim_b_1) and On Combat (http://www.amazon.com/Combat-Psychology-Physiology-Deadly-Conflict/dp/0964920514). Not your average psych class stuff, but pertinent to David's two questions.

Another large elephant in the room for officers and NCOs is the impact of having to order your brothers into situations where some will be killed and some horribly wounded.

Tough stuff for Christmas Eve.

Mike

Adam L

12-24-2009, 09:18 PM

Another large elephant in the room for officers and NCOs is the impact of having to order your brothers into situations where some will be killed and some horribly wounded.

Fick's book discusses that a little. It has been suggested on this thread.

Adam L

Schoolkid

12-25-2009, 03:18 AM

Marct-
Our teacher forces us to view most lesson through the 6 major approaches to psychology: functionalism, behaviorism, psychoanalytic, physiological, social-cognitive, and humanistic.

I created a new account because I didn’t want anyone to think I was trolling due to the email address I was using.

Truth varies from person to person. To a schizophrenic person the truth could be that all cats really are conspiring to assassinate them. It all depends on perceptions. What I mean to say that the “Truth” is shapeless and will transform according to what and how important the information I take in is.

Oh, and alternatively, find twenty role models and take what you like from each.

Adam L-
Don’t state a thesis well. How hard is it to say, “Mac McLeod uses manipulation to dictate the tempo of action.”, or “For decades this Dream has reduced generation after generation of Americans to ashes.” Can you give me an example of a cyclical argument? The only ones I have seen are example, Mr. Lyon is the greatest teacher ever because he is the best.

Granite_State

12-25-2009, 03:38 AM

You will need to resolve two practical, moral questions - maybe not at your age, certainly before making a choice - can you kill people and always obey (lawful) orders? If you cannot answer those two questions in the affirmative the military is not for you.

Very good advice.

My only addition, and this is probably just because I'm a guy who took home a dreaded "boombox" (double Marksman awards) from the TBS range two weeks ago, is it wouldn't hurt to do some shooting and become familiar with marksmanship. They will teach it to you, but it will be fast and it wouldn't hurt to come in with a background as long as you don't have bad habits.

Other than that, get a good physical fitness foundation, read lots (especially military history), and don't make any really bad decisions (kids, drugs, academic failure). And if you're not a people person, become one. In my very limited experience, the guys that struggle on the path to becoming officers mainly have problems in that area.

Merry Christmas all.

Adam L

12-25-2009, 04:00 AM

Adam L-
Don’t state a thesis well. How hard is it to say, “Mac McLeod uses manipulation to dictate the tempo of action.”, or “For decades this Dream has reduced generation after generation of Americans to ashes.”

Many scholars some how fail to decide on and stick to their thesis. As I mentioned before, I can give you an example of this when I get home and have access to my books. I know this may sound like something that would be very hard to do, but when the topic of the essay is complex this can occur.

Can you give me an example of a cyclical argument? The only ones I have seen are example, Mr. Lyon is the greatest teacher ever because he is the best.

That is a very basic example. This is the basic idea:

Argument A is true because of argument B. Argument B is true because of argument C. Argument C is true becaue of argument A.

I will find you a good example of this when I get home.

Adam L

marct

12-25-2009, 02:12 PM

Hi Cole,

Our teacher forces us to view most lesson through the 6 major approaches to psychology: functionalism, behaviorism, psychoanalytic, physiological, social-cognitive, and humanistic.

Okay, that's a good start then. Most of the psych I've been playing with recently is evolutionary psych and neuro-psych, although i'm familiar with the rest of it (not my field, really, but related).

I created a new account because I didn’t want anyone to think I was trolling due to the email address I was using.

I thought so :D! Just wanted to clarify that.

Truth varies from person to person. To a schizophrenic person the truth could be that all cats really are conspiring to assassinate them. It all depends on perceptions. What I mean to say that the “Truth” is shapeless and will transform according to what and how important the information I take in is.

This could be a fun discussion :D! I've spent a fair bit of time playing with this for the past 10-12 years, and there is some very good thinking on it around. One of the really important things is to distinguish, analytically and verbally, between objective "Truth" and subjective "truths" (we should get WM in on this discussion!). Perception, and interpretive schemas, define subjective "truths", while objective "Truth" appears to be non-definable due to the subject nature of the symbol systems we attempt to define it with such as languages (including mathematics). We can come up with some excellent (i.e. 99.999% predictive validity) "definitions" of some component parts of objective "Truth", but they are extremely limited and contingent.

Oh, and alternatively, find twenty role models and take what you like from each.

That works, too ;).

Don’t state a thesis well. How hard is it to say, “Mac McLeod uses manipulation to dictate the tempo of action.”, or “For decades this Dream has reduced generation after generation of Americans to ashes.” Can you give me an example of a cyclical argument? The only ones I have seen are example, Mr. Lyon is the greatest teacher ever because he is the best.

Actually, all symbol systems are tautologies because they are self referential with only limited connections to sharable, externally verifiable (and perceptible) "reality". Leaving that general problem behind, any type of argument that uses a nomonological-deductive format will be "circular" IFF (if and only if) it must exclude verifyiable and perceptible sensory input that a) cannot be conceptually included (e.g. so-called excluded outliers) and/or b) its logic cannot accurately (at, say, 95%+) post-dict past events.

Cheers and Merry Christmas!

Marc

Schoolkid

01-01-2010, 04:36 AM

Levi-
I always wondered how a PMC’s life is compared to a government soldier. How are they thought of in the civilian world? Are they well supplied and supported, and of course the pay?

Granite State-
What do you mean by a people person?

Marct-
Why don’t we just have the discussion on truth now? A few years before the movie came out, my teacher and I discussed the “truth” perceived by the six main characters from Watchmen. When did you discover the concept of multiple “truths”?

All-
Actually the skills I was talking about learning are the ones that you would need for life in that field, but which the military only brushes upon or skips altogether.

Oh, and happy new year.

marct

01-01-2010, 04:24 PM

Hi Cole,

Marct-
Why don’t we just have the discussion on truth now? A few years before the movie came out, my teacher and I discussed the “truth” perceived by the six main characters from Watchmen. When did you discover the concept of multiple “truths”?

We've actually had a fair number of discussions that circle around it here. I'm not averse to starting another one, but I'm not sure I have the time at the moment :wry:. 'sides that, how much philosophy do we really want to get into :D?!?

When did I "discover" the concept? Hmmm, hard to say really, I grew up with it along with multiple religions, languages and cultures, so stance point epistemology and ontology were "normal" for me, as was a via negativa epistemological bias.

Cheers, and a happy new year to you, too.

Marc

Adam L

01-02-2010, 05:06 AM

Make sure you include a theoretical physicist in your discussion. That way when you finally get tired of it he will explain that until they (physicists) find a way to resolve relativity and quantumn mechanics, this discussion is pointless. LOL! (I once had this discussion with a group comprised of 3 engineers, 2 physicist (one theoretical the other bio,) 1 anthropologist, 1 industrial psychologist and a psychiatrist. If it hadn't been for the theoretical physicist I think we would still be sitting there, actually standing there, discussing the issue. Of course, I find that theoretical physicists try to claim that membrane theory (the current way of resolving the two) must be understood in order to deal with any problem.)

Happy New Year!

Adam L

marct

01-02-2010, 12:47 PM

Hi Adam,

Make sure you include a theoretical physicist in your discussion. That way when you finally get tired of it he will explain that until they (physicists) find a way to resolve relativity and quantumn mechanics, this discussion is pointless. LOL! (I once had this discussion with a group comprised of 3 engineers, 2 physicist (one theoretical the other bio,) 1 anthropologist, 1 industrial psychologist and a psychiatrist. If it hadn't been for the theoretical physicist I think we would still be sitting there, actually standing there, discussing the issue. Of course, I find that theoretical physicists try to claim that membrane theory (the current way of resolving the two) must be understood in order to deal with any problem.)

LOL!

Trying to re-create the Tower of Babel :eek::D?

Actually, I do agree, although I have a suspicion that you would have to pick your theoretical physicist pretty carefully to avoid one of the superstring theologians ;)!

There was a really good debate in cosmology in the 1990's or so that led to the concept of quantum consciousness (via Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind (http://www.amazon.com/Emperors-New-Mind-Concerning-Computers/dp/0192861980/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262436319&sr=8-3) and some of Daniel Dennet's work). I haven't really kept up with it too much, but it was a lot of fun. I'll have to check out membrane theory.... when i get a free moment :D!

Cheers,

Marc