Cannon Fodder
Image: KitchenEmporium.com
HERE’S Retired Vice Adm. J.D. Williams, speaking on behalf of Mission: Readiness:
…an estimated 75 percent of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 cannot join the military. There are several major disqualifying factors, such as being overweight or having a criminal record. But Williams says another major problem is lack of proper education.
“In Maine, 21 percent of high school students do not graduate on time, and without a high school diploma, it is virtually impossible to enlist,” he said. “Even among our state’s high school graduates, 19 percent seeking to enlist, cannot join for the low scores on the military’s basic exam for math, literacy and problem solving.”
Williams joined retired Maj. Gen. Thomas D. Kinley of Cape Elizabeth in calling for state, local and federal policy makers to support an expansion of early childhood education programs, such as Head Start. Kinley cited a Michigan study that found that students who attended preschool programs were three times as likely to be at a basic level of achievement or higher at age 14, and were 44 percent more likely to graduate from high school. [MPBN]
Your Montag is parent to two precious Test Scores himself. And, especially at this time of year, I have to wonder if we’re doing right by them sending them back into the prison system most people like to call “school” or “education.” OK, okay, I’m sorry! It’s more of a disciplinary sorting machine to get the little slabs of Test Scores flowing down the appropriate tubes.
But this. THIS. The Portland, Maine school superintendent wants to implement universal preschool for national security purposes.
Reducing young people to numbers and percentages — BMI ratios, graduation rates and AFQT scores — like we’re tracking Six Sigma process outputs, isn’t just humiliation towards conformity with societal norms, it’s a means of dehumanization. Just as the enemy must be dehumanized in war so that soldiers can dispassionately destroy them and the public at home can commend them for doing so, so must our own fighters be thought of as something other than breathing human beings.
Between the sheer turpitude of “education” as the manufacture of inhuman killing machines [added for emphasis: from the age of 4! –ed] and the perverse rationalizing of the R2P crowd (see George Jones and IOZ) it’s kind of amazing people aren’t just constantly fucking puking in the streets from the stress of coping with the violence and depravity of US culture.
Stump Lane 
We don’t puke in the streets because a sizable percentage of our education is devoted to keeping us operating with conflicting programming.
true. it was also kind of crass of me to not acknowledge the people who do puke, and bleed, and cry over the bodies of dead loved ones in the streets where the violence and depravity of US whim is brought to bear.
Our Enemies™ don’t wait until 4 to begin indoctrination. No wonder we’re losing!
“Mission: Readiness is the nonprofit, nonpartisan national security organization led by over 200 retired generals, admirals, and other senior military leaders who work to ensure continued American security and prosperity by calling for smart investments in the next generation of American children. ”
investments in children. jesus.
I used to hear craploads of PSAs on a local college radio station that would start out with someone narrating their life and making it sound like it’s (consumer-culture approvedly) awesome–like, say, “This car totally rules! I look so cool in it, chicks etc.”–and then ending with, oop, hilarious surprise twist, it isn’t–i.e., he’s a valet and gets humiliated by the owner of the car–and then they would end with a threat that if you don’t finish high school, this could be you. Paid for by the US Army and the Ad Council.
why would any young person want to just be an ordinary mortal human?
generally speaking, they don’t, do we – if we can’t be princesses and wizards and superheroes and world champions and filthy rich, we at least want to be good looking and popular and above-average. it takes a heap a livin’ before bein’ an ordinary human seems to be worth the trouble.
with regard to your own precious Test Scores, have you considered home schooling ? – it’s not just for wingnuts anymore. but it does take a lot of time, admittedly. missus charley and i just have a cat. who knows if it’s good or bad? (well, the cat herself is a good cat – what’s in question is whether having ONLY a cat is good or bad. we used to have two cats.)
i do think there is something to gain from them being around other young people, socializing, and whatnot. i try to homeschool in addition to regular school. it’s more of a deprogramming regimen really. our young Test Scores are really quite independently minded. i only hope they’re ok.
[kiss on the head] “okay, have a good day at school today. DON’T GET BRAINWASHED!” :-D