Smart As You, Johnny

New York Sun ^ | 11/2/06 | Larry Schweikart (LS)

[LS]

Senator Kerry's comments about uneducated people being "stuck" in Iraq — essentially calling the men and women of the American military stupid — is one of the political blunders of the age. Seldom does a candidate single-handedly sink his party once, let alone twice, though William Jennings Bryan came close. Mr. Kerry may have done so.

Worse, it's simply not right to promote the idea that soldiers are dumb or even undereducated. New York Times reporter Chris Hedges asserted, "poor kids from Mississippi … who could not get a decent job … joined the Army because it was all we offered them." In reality, however, the American military — yes, even the foot soldiers — is the most educated in history and better educated than the American public on average. Annually, thousands of top honor students take the military entrance exams. The recruitment test, which all inductees must pass, includes questions that many Ph.D.s would miss, and I would gladly hold a contest pitting any 10 American Army soldiers, randomly selected, against any 10 public school teachers on a standardized test.

(Read the remainder of the article at the Sun)

[Chena]

Thanks for the ping, Bahbah. You bet this was a worthy one. A "must read" for everyone.

[AnAmericanMother]

That's exactly why I was doubtful . . . the other two math problems yielded nice, round, non-negative numbers.

Multiple choice problems generally have fairly straightforward choices (except when you draw a really bad section on the SAT maths, or the Math ACT, then all bets are off.)

[maine-iac7]

media outlets per my post above:

Brit.Hume@foxnews.com
Special@foxnews.com
Hannity@foxnews.com
Oreilly@foxnews.com
Special@foxnews.com (Brit Hume)
Studiob@foxnews.com (Shepard Smith)
hardball@msnbc.com
myword@foxnews.com (John Gibson)
Drudge@drudgereport.com
captainsquartersblog.com
writemalkin@gmail.com
hhewitt@hughhewitt.com
pundit@instapundit.com
powerlinefeedback@gmail.com
Rush@eibnet.com
Intelligence@senate.gov
captain@captainsquartersblog.com
Pete.King@mail.house.gov
letters@nytimes.com
joe@msnbc.com

[maine-iac7]

media outlets per my post above

Brit.Hume@foxnews.com
Special@foxnews.com
Hannity@foxnews.com
Oreilly@foxnews.com
Special@foxnews.com (Brit Hume)
Studiob@foxnews.com (Shepard Smith)
hardball@msnbc.com
myword@foxnews.com (John Gibson)
Drudge@drudgereport.com
captainsquartersblog.com
writemalkin@gmail.com
hhewitt@hughhewitt.com
pundit@instapundit.com
powerlinefeedback@gmail.com
Rush@eibnet.com
Intelligence@senate.gov
captain@captainsquartersblog.com
Pete.King@mail.house.gov
letters@nytimes.com
joe@msnbc.com

[LS]

My pleasure, Kelly. I was 4-F during Vietnam (1972, so highly unlikely I would have gone anyway), due to knees. I always regretted not being able to serve, especially in my adult years. Now, I do anything I can to help our troops, whether my ROTC students or packages to Iraq, or editorial support.

[LS]

You misunderstood. I certainly didn't mean MY piece would shift anything, but that the Kerry flap overall will affect the election by 1-2%.

[LS]

You read right between the lines.

[LS]

LOL, actually my ORIGINAL title was "SMARTER than you, Senator," and the NY Sun changed it.

[ErnBatavia]

[LS]

"Obsession" is a great movie.

[LS]

Beat you to it. I show this film in my classes.

[LS]

Ah, point of honesty here. I couldn't do a couple of the math questions.

[pattty]

Congratulations, and great editorial!

[billhilly]

See post #117

[NavyCanDo]

Below is a Letter to the Editor I wrote to the Seattle Times today.



Assume for a moment that John Kerry did botch a joke, and it was meant to come out as a slam against President Bush’s intelligence. How did the university students he was speaking to react to this botched joke, with gasp of disbelief and shock at what he said, or applause, cheers and laughter? Listen to the audio and decide for yourself how his audience felt about his defamatory comments on the education of our military men and women. I don’t believe all Democrats would show such disrespect to the Military in the way Kerry or his audience did and I would hope most know we have the finest most educated military in our country's history, but it does demonstrate a disturbing trend among those in the Democratic Party to look at our military only as hapless victims of society.

[LS]

Thanks for those. I sent the column to some (though not all---Chrissy Matthews needs a good beat down, and is a hopeless case.)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[kellynla]

"I do anything I can to help our troops, whether my ROTC students or packages to Iraq, or editorial support."

Well Lord knows, we Marines, Soldiers, Sailors & Airmen need all the support we can get. Looks like since 1945, every time our country gets into a war; the support for our military lasts for about 24 hours and then the Leftists start coming out of the gutter to smear those of us who have and are serving our country. Little do they know that without us they wouldn't have the freedom of speech they so easily use to denigrate those who fight for it. And with Kerry, it is just more of the same lies that he has been spouting since 1971!

[fr_freak]

and I would gladly hold a contest pitting any 10 American Army soldiers, randomly selected, against any 10 public school teachers on a standardized test.

Including the infantry?

Having been a grunt, myself, I would say yes. You do get a significant amount of non-academically inclined individuals in the infantry, but the majority probably represent the average level of intelligence that you find in the general population, and there are plenty who are above average. There are a lot of reasons that guys join up (adventure, serve the country, college money, all of the above). The stereotype of the average grunt being poor and uneducated with few other opportunities is a relic from the draft days.

Oh, also, there are a lot of really, really, stupid public school teachers (as well as some really bright ones). From what I've seen of the certification program, it's more about indoctrination than learning any real material.