A Better Educated NCO Corps.(Human Capital Investment Strategy)

[Multi-skilled Leader]

The trick is opening a community-wide set of eyes to the potential of formal education.

Great points! I believe formal education will gain greater momentum with the incoming generation. Gen-Y wants life-work balance, choice, credentials and counseling (feedback, How am I doing?) more so than previous generations. Despite the media reports that the US Army is getting only 70-80% High School grad equivalents, the incoming generation has an opportunity to reinvent, retrain and retool themselves to become something. The lifelong learning process and culture that all services want to develop will start with the recruiting poster and continue into the first day of Basic Training. Linking all training together can build a huge amount of real credit hours towards something. You say, "great idea, getting three credits for weapons expertise only gives me elective credits." True, the kicker is Math and English. The reason many of our "experienced" and "practical" are so anti-intellectual, is that they are borderline illiterate. They have trouble balancing their checkbook or writing a letter home, much more an argumentative paragraph with a topic sentence, three arguments and a concluding sentence. Here is the secret--developmental stages (ball bearings)
Vignette: When I taught Soldiers down range, the University made me teach Math even though I wanted to teach something like "Leadership and Motivation." (don't we all?) The University said, "Soldiers need Math." "We have over 20 Soldiers that need pre-Algebra." On day one, I asked them, "How many of you haven't seen a math book since High School?" Of course, they all raised their hands. "How many of you truly hate Math?" All continued to raise their hands. So, why were they there? "You are successful Soldiers, right? You are in a different place now (developmental psychology). You have learned how to train, retain knowledge and even teach subordinates. You will be successful in this Math course because you are ready to be disciplined, do the homework problems and crawl, walk, run through this course." There were lots of screams over the next 12 weeks, but they actually learned math and became confident in their ability to learn and teach themselves.

We need to instill discipline in our NCO Corps to push themselves academically while also in the "Git-r-done" & "school of hard knocks" mentality. It will take a generation of leaders to change the culture. NCOs need to know that when they leave service, they get to take their ability to learn, their college degree with them.

There is so much learning occurring downrange. The amount of experience that we have right now is simply amazing. The technical skills working with modern equipment. If Soldiers could reflectively journal this learning about themselves, how they connected issues? If they could communicate this in well written prose. Should commanders emphasize Math & English proficiency like PT, weapons qualification and Warrior Tasks? I believe it should be linked to the unit and not a basic skills class at the ed center. Now, we're starting to change culture.

[marct]

Hi MSL,

I believe formal education will gain greater momentum with the incoming generation. Gen-Y wants life-work balance, choice, credentials and counseling (feedback, How am I doing?) more so than previous generations.

Definitely spot on on the Gen Y outlook! On the formal education, I'm not so sure.

Despite the media reports that the US Army is getting only 70-80% High School grad equivalents, the incoming generation has an opportunity to reinvent, retrain and retool themselves to become something.

On of the (many) problems with formal education as it currently exists is the confusion of the symbol (certification) for the reality (skill set being certified). This as become more and more of a problem in two main ways. First, high schools are graduating functional illiterates, and second, some of the brightest students are dropping out of high school because they are so bored.

The lifelong learning process and culture that all services want to develop will start with the recruiting poster and continue into the first day of Basic Training.

I would hope it would last longer that the first day of Basic !

Linking all training together can build a huge amount of real credit hours towards something. You say, "great idea, getting three credits for weapons expertise only gives me elective credits."

There is a growing literature and interest in Prior Learning Assessment Recognition (PLAR). Right now, at least in Canada, it is used primarily for the recognition of immigrant trade skills, but much of the original thinking on it went back to how the Canadian educational system could recognize British military training certifications. In Canada at least, the main trust of PLAR activities is at the Community College level where a lot of these skills are class as "gen ed" (general education). I don't think any of them gives a gen ed credit for weapons skills, though .

True, the kicker is Math and English. The reason many of our "experienced" and "practical" are so anti-intellectual, is that they are borderline illiterate. They have trouble balancing their checkbook or writing a letter home, much more an argumentative paragraph with a topic sentence, three arguments and a concluding sentence. Here is the secret--developmental stages (ball bearings)

Agreed on the Math and English as major stumbling blocks. I'm not sure if the anti-intellectualism comes from functional illiteracy or from having had poor teachers; I've seen both as root causes amongst my students. Personally, I have a tendency to also add "pernicious equality" as a root cause - kids are told they are "equal", not challenged in schools, rarely failed, and may develop an attitude that disdains any serious examination of a topic as a result. There's a rather famous quote although I'm going to have to paraphrase it, that goes something like I may not know anything about plays, but I know what I like (written by a reviewer). Rather than studying the area, they rely on emotional feelings and, if something is too complex, it is likely to cause confusion and revulsion.

Just a point about your note on the "argumentative paragraph". In the Ontario school system, it has been canonized into the "five paragraph essay" and has a doctrinal status. When the kids show up in university and have to deal with real essays, it usually takes them about 1-2 years to get out of that mindset. A couple of years back when I was teaching an intro class, I was asked how long the paper had to be and said 12+ pages. The student looked at me and said, "wow, so, that's like 2-3 pages per paragraph!". As a side note, I have also had students change their essay topics because the "experts" disagreed.

What I'm pointing to here is, IMO, a much more pernicious effect of formalized education - the sanctification of expertise and, by corollary, of the "expert". Now that is anti-intellectualism that strikes at the heart of a "learning culture" and the individualized form of it; lifelong learning. It's also one of the reasons why I teach "applied epistemology" .

We need to instill discipline in our NCO Corps to push themselves academically while also in the "Git-r-done" & "school of hard knocks" mentality. It will take a generation of leaders to change the culture. NCOs need to know that when they leave service, they get to take their ability to learn, their college degree with them.

Agreed and, as an added kicker, if all of the basic skills (maths, English, geography, history, social science, civics, technology,etc.) are in the curriculum there shouldn't be any reason why the can't a) use the older standards from, say the 1940's and b) make much of it available in online courses. Personally, I would still require a seminar in applied epistemology as the basis for intellectual learning as opposed to rote/kinesthetic learning; then again, I am biased towards such .

Marc

[120mm]

I'm also not a big fan of formal education. In particular, the way we teach mathematics in schools is whacked, to put it bluntly.

Learning math in a vacuum is why people don't feel it applies to them. I think mathematics that is taught in the context of real life situations would be much more effective, and there our lots of military NCO specific uses for math, even advanced math.

Same thing with English. English is generally taught as a rule unto itself, and nearly everyone sees the internal contradiction between the way English is taught, and the way it is actually used, which makes them rightfully dismiss formal English instruction.

There is much more wrong with formal education, but that's my top two right there.