Military schools producing army of solid performance

USA Today ^ | Updated 3/31/2004 | Fredreka Schouten

[decimon]

Military schools producing army of solid performance By Fredreka Schouten, Gannett News Service When U.S. Army Maj. Tony Fish and his family moved to Fort Campbell, Ky., they faced a yearlong wait to move into housing on post.

Instead of settling in a nearby town, Fish and his wife, Judy, seized on an unorthodox approach: They spent $100,000 on a recreational vehicle and set up housekeeping on the post's campground — all so their two kids could immediately begin attending classes at Fort Campbell.

[decimon]

Via joannejacobs.com

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[ccmay]

No doubt credit is due to the DoD school system for its successes.

But I suspect that the main reason they do so well is because the military parents care strongly about their kids' education and support the school curriculum at home.

-ccm

[ccmay]

state-of-the-art computer labs where second-graders learn how to make PowerPoint presentations.

This is the only sour note in the whole article. There is no advantage to learning PowerPoint at such a young age.

In fact, most people would be better served by never learning PowerPoint. It is all about presentation and frills at the expense of content.

There is a great deal kids can learn about computers without wasting time in such an unproductive backwater.

-ccm

[garyhope]

My dad (RIP) was career Army (he was Airborne All The Way! and don't you forget it!!) and I was an "army brat". I was lucky. I went to military dependant schools that were strict and disciplined. I got a good education and saw the world. No phony bologna in those days. Travel is a great education.

[SandRat]

... I suspect that the main reason they do so well is because the military parents care strongly about their kids' education and support the school curriculum at home.

Yep, add in that both the students and the parents are held to and held accountable for conduct as well as high levels of morals and ethics are instilled starting at birth. By the time these students hit the NEA run High Schools they run circles around the rest of the students and seem to always make up the bulk of the very top of the graduating class and get the bulk of the good $$$$$ scholarships.

Hey! NEA! Are you listening?!

[Alas Babylon!]

My wife taught at the DODDS at San Vito Air Station, Italy, while we were stationed there in 1991-93. Not long ago at all. She was my new bride then, not familiar with the military lifestyle, but very, very impressed with these kids. They said "Yes, Ma'am" and "No, Ma'am", got their work done on time, didn't make up excuses, and enjoyed life without a lot of rude, obnoxious behavior. Plus, they were smart. And yet if you talk to a liberal, all the armed forces of the USA are a bunch of slack-jawed gun loving yokels, the officers are right-wing fascists, and the families are trailer trash. They don't have a clue. Serving in the military was the best thing I ever did, and will forever be proud!

[decimon]

But I suspect that the main reason they do so well is because the military parents care strongly about their kids' education and support the school curriculum at home.

And a matter of expectations which here are mainly the expectations of an insulated group. Where expectations are high the educational surroundings become less important. Any style of teaching might work because the onus is on the kids to learn and not on some teaching method to magically transfer information.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

"Those principals never had a discipline problem," he said. "They could call the colonel. The colonel could call the parent, and that was that."

. . . Fail to appear at a parent-teacher conference and the school might complain to your commanding officer — a stick that administrators say they rarely use.

. . . maybe because the possibility of being called on the carpet is enough of a hammer that dad makes sure the school doesn't have to use it.

Another source of stress is a pending announcement by Pentagon budget-cutters on whether authority over the schools should be transferred to local school districts. Military parents vocally oppose any change.

. . . and if the military wants reenlistments the parents should be pretty likely to prevail.

But Smrekar and other education experts say the system offers lessons for other schools.

Smrekar, at work on her second major report on the Pentagon's schools, said schools everywhere should study this system. "You can't copy it, but you can learn from it."

A public government school sure can't copy it, but a private school should be able to come fairly close. A matter being able to be selective and of not accepting a student lacking of parental support . . . thus de-collectivizing the effect of a parent's undiscipline on other people's kids.