The “Dumbing Down” Of America

By Dannie McIntire

June 8, 2022

Another morning, coffee in hand, I sat down to peruse the internet news sites searching for inspiration in writing my next column. 

Well, that certainly didn’t take very long, I was dumbfounded in reading a Fox News article relating the comments by Major General Edward Thomas Jr., the commander of the Air Force recruiting service. The Major General was talking about how both the Army and Navy reserves were currently failing to meet their recruitment goals, saying the separate military branches had seen a decline in recruitment during the pandemic.

What sent me back to my kitchen this morning to “fortify” my cup of coffee was his comment; “Today, 77% of American youth aged 17 to 24 will not qualify to serve the United States military without a waiver”. He further clarified that statistic by saying, “That’s based on a variety of different reasons, from weight to medical issues to academic issues to behavioral issues, mental health issues”.

Not accepting a recruit applicant due to behavioral or mental health issues is quite understandable, and I’m glad to see our military is filtering out those individuals. 

The weight issue while discerning is understandable, America has been “super sizing” itself for some years now. The CDC estimates that 22.2% of 12- to 19-year-olds suffer from obesity.

For me, his most unsettling comment was on potential recruits being rejected due to academics. Some branches of our military limit no more than 10 percent of their service members to having only a GED. Potential recruits are required to take the ASVAB test, (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), of which about I in 4 potential recruits, approximately 23 percent, do not attain the minimum score to join any branch of our military.

Think about the above statistic, of the potential applicants who have graduated high school, 23 percent can’t score the minimum on the ASVAB test to get into our military. 

I have to say the above statistic doesn’t surprise me. If you have ever watched one of Jay Leno’s “JayWalking” civic tests, where he stops and interviews college kids, many were unable to identify their own state on a map, unable to name their President or Vice President, unable to identify the three branches of our government, truly mind boggling to me.

Our country has many issues facing it today that need addressing if America is to maintain its standing in not only today’s global economy but also as the world’s leading democracy. 

To me, none of our country’s current pressing issues are more important than ensuring our young adults of tomorrow receive the quality of education that enables them to have the skills necessary to compete. We need to focus less on high school graduation rates and more on the quality of education they are graduating with. 

At the high school level, I believe we need to invest more in vocational training. Students that struggle within a normal high school curriculum may excel within a vocational trade curriculum. 

I believe too many of our school systems are “rubber stamping” our high school graduates with diplomas to meet set graduation rate standards.

No, I’m not an educator, and I don’t profess to have the answers, but when 23 percent of our high school students want to join a branch of our military and can’t pass the required ASVAB test, something within our educational system clearly is not working.   

We as a country can do better in preparing our youth for tomorrow.