75 Percent of Young Americans Are Unfit for Military Duty Options

[*Janette*]

The latest Army statistics show a stunning 75 percent of military-age youth are ineligible to join the military because they are overweight, can't pass entrance exams, have dropped out of high school or had run-ins with the law.

So many young people between the prime recruiting ages of 17 and 24 cannot meet minimum standards that a group of retired military leaders is calling for more investment in early childhood education to combat the insidious effects of junk food and inadequate education.

story

Thoughts?

[brooklyneast05]

i think it's sad/messed up that 75 percent of them fit into the overweight/dropout/criminal category. that in itself is disturbing. but as far as the connection to the military i don't have much feeling towards that. i'm not like oh no!!!! our children are too fat and dumb to ship to another country to be killed!! but then i have this whole issue with the military recruiting high school students and junk anyway.

aka i think this stuff needs to be addressed, but not solely for the sake of the military.

[karmakiller]

Damn, kids are ill fit when it comes to health, education, character, and communication. I think this has been a problem overall, not just with the armed forces, but I'm glad that they at least have standards...

If this article is just about the kids who enlist, doesn't a lot of the trouble you get into when you're under 18 get swept under the rug?

It's pretty sad that kids aren't being kids nowadays, kids would rather play video games and watch TV than go outside and play (parents aren't helping either, because a lot of them are scared their kids are going to kidnapped if they go outside). Where I went to for high school we were required to have three years of P.E. (it was everyday for 45 minutes) to graduate, but we still had overweight kids at school.

[creole]

It's pretty sad that kids aren't being kids nowadays, kids would rather play video games and watch TV than go outside and play (parents aren't helping either, because a lot of them are scared their kids are going to kidnapped if they go outside). Where I went to for high school we were required to have three years of P.E. (it was everyday for 45 minutes) to graduate, but we still had overweight kids at school.

I don't think P.E. would be a major interest for kids in High School. Okay, maybe the jocks and the athletic kids will like it, but the others will possibly not dress out or not even try at all. They think sweat will kill them and crush their rep. Kids just want to get a passing grade from what I know..


Yeah, technology can be a procrastination for kids when they're about to do homework or get daily exercise.

[karmakiller]

^ Yeah, I keep hearing about funding getting cut for schools so they cut out music programs and P.E. then people complain that American kids are getting fat and unhealthy and are blaming it on the fact that so many schools are cutting P.E., but even when I had P.E. 5 days a week for 45 minutes it didn't change the activity of the people in those classes. Kids who didn't want to do whatever was going on that day in class either didn't show up or just didn't participate. It's nice and all that they want do have better school programs to get kids active, but they also need to find a way to motivate kids to want to be active so that develop habits that will follow them into adulthood (and that they will hopefully pass on to their kids).

[HeartOfPandora]

Cool, I've never been in a majority before.

[brooklyneast05]

Cool, I've never been in a majority before.

it's quite an honor to be in that majority, you should be proud of yourself

[brooklyneast05]

for real i don't think P.E. matters either. it was always the athletic ones of us who liked sports that participated and the people who didn't like it just half assed or didn't dress out.

[none345678]

All PE does is destroy self confidence and self esteem in fat kids thus causing them to either just think "f*ck it" or go on a killing rampage. PE may be the biggest fail at a class ever.

[brooklyneast05]

P.E. IS FUN!

[none345678]

NUH UHHH. They just brain washed you into thinking that so you wont get too fat to join the military. duh.

[brooklyneast05]

nah i really liked it. i had fun in there. their brainwashing must have failed though cause they couldn't pay me enough to join the military.

[creole]

to be honest, i only liked p.e. because of the locker rooms

[HeartOfPandora]

it's quite an honor to be in that majority, you should be proud of yourself

idk, now that I think about it, flat feet are totally not worth it.

[none345678]

to be honest, i only liked p.e. because of the locker rooms

lol y u such a pre-vert, beansy?

[brooklyneast05]

my feet are flat

[HeartOfPandora]

Does you has scoliosis, too? o:

[brooklyneast05]

no i don't



DAMN IS THERE ANYONE BESIDES ME HERE WHO LIKED P.E.

[none345678]

no i don't
DAMN IS THERE ANYONE BESIDES ME HERE WHO LIKED P.E.

DAMN DOUCHE BAG COACHES RUINED SPORTS FOR ME.

srsly. I was a motha f*cking tri-athlete once.

[queen]

phys ed was my favorite class mang ;o

and phys ed in asia is way different. maybe they should implement mandatory workouts here, too. just like how i think they should also implement the whole students-not-janitors-clean-the-classroom-before-class thing.

[COPE2]

good thing the 25% are doing their fair share of killing innocent people around the world to compensate for the other 75%.

[saintsaens]

75% eh? so what's 75% of the population of american "military eligible youth"? terrible article only designed to create controversy

[sixfive]

you're a terrible article