Army looking for a few good men, but American kids are too fat

Being overweight and in the Army is a pain in the ass. If you're overweight, you have to take a tape test and have your body fat calculated. If you fail that, you go on a weight-control program. If you continue to fail, eventually you're medically discharged.

Passing a PT test is one thing, but when you're in the promotion pool you have to do more, like score 270-plus.

 

Nobody eats pineapples before one of your PT sessions, anymore, right?

 

I'm happy to be a Liberal Hippy Vagina.

And the Army's response to this? Lower their standards:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/142640/output/print

 

But they still won't let gay people in.

 

Yeah, i still carry a 275-285 PT score, depending on my run. I enjoy smoking the young guys on push-ups and sit-ups.

 

"You'll be glad to know I've notified your local draft boards, and you are all eligible for military service!"

 

OK then.

 

I just realized what you were talking about. I wasn't running that PT session, but it was a pretty good smoker.

 

An excellent point.

 

What I hear from kids?

"I got a job (driving a truck, doing manual labor, in a factory) for $15/hour."
Usually, it's "I know someone who can hook me up for a job."
"I can get a GED" (as if that's the same as a diploma).
"I'm going to the army anyway" (if they'll take a dropout)

I keep telling my students, you can't drop out of high school and just assume you're going to get some $25/hour factory job. They don't exist. Whether you hate it or not, you need to finish high school.

And, to be honest, these kids don't understand how freaking easy high school is. If you can spell your name, find answers in a book and write them down and hand in assignments, you'll at least get Ds in most places. If I'm an employer and you haven't finished high school, why should I hire you if you don't have the discipline to finish something fairly easy.

 

Not quite sure what you're driving at, here.

 

You're right. Every so often you hear stories of a high school dropout who became a millionaire or even a billionaire, but those guys are the exceptions, not the rule.
If a high school dropout wants to make something of his life, the first thing he has to do is break the pattern of behavior that led him to drop out.