No one expects a Ranger and a long rant about education

republic · October 23, 2013, 06:26:44 AM

I'm a teacher/IT person and yesterday I happened to notice one of our newer teachers (he came here last year) was drinking from a cup that had am Army rank on the side. I'm not terribly familiar with rank insignia, but I knew he was at least a 1st Seargent. I asked him "I didn't know you were in the Army, were you a 1st Sergent?" "I was a Master Sergent" I then started talked to him about how my father-in-law was a Airborne Ranger.

The guy, who I've known for almost 2years, turns the cup around to show his Airborne Ranger insignia. I was amazed, and spent most of the day asking my co-workers "Did you know Mr. So and so was an Airborne Ranger?!" Unfortunately I was met with a lot of blank stares and "That's neat."

The guy is a rockstar in my mind...but then I realize that 99% of the people I work with and know in life have no idea what it means to be a Master Sergent or to be a Ranger...or anything. My school is one of the few that make a big deal about Veterans day, but other than that one day...

The schools are having to adopt this new way of teaching called "Core Curriculum" and 50% of whether you are able to remain a teacher or not is tied to your students performance on these Core Curriculum tests. We are teaching 1st graders to solve for X...but by 12th grade most of the student's still have no history background. Our history classes are taught by coaches. It has been that way in every school I've been in. (My soapbox: If you want a coach hire a coach...don't make him/her teach. That is not what they want to do 99% of the time...so they don't do it well.)

You walk into a math class and kids are on task and beaten down with equations. The teacher is up there fighting against ignorance getting the kids up to the board, etc. You walk into a history class and the 'teacher' is laid back in their chair surfing ESPN and saying "Ok read chapter 14 about WWI and answer the questions at the end." ...and that's it.

I'm a keyboarding teacher, but part of "Core Curriculum" is getting the students to write. Your supposed to start the period with a writing prompt and get the kids int he habit of 'expressing themselves'. So I often have them write about military history. First of all because I like it, second I'm afraid I'm the only one who's going to actually teach them anything about it, and thirdly...many of the kids actually enjoy it. I can't tell you how many times a student has said, "I didn't know anything about that, how come you don't teach history?"

Even that is a battle though... Since most of the kids play Call of Duty and the like, they think they know all about history. Actually, because of the Internet kids think they know everything because they can Google something. One of my most interesting 'writing prompts' was when I disconnected the Internet and had them tell me what WWII was about and what the Cold War was... By it being "interesting" I mean absolutely depressing...

W8taminute · October 23, 2013, 07:04:26 AM

Great story republic. It's sad to hear the state of our kids education. By the time I reached 4th grade I was very familiar with WW2, but that was only because of self interest. The rest of my class was still struggling with intro to social studies.

Your coworker sounds really interesting. I have a lot of respect for people in the military in general but when someone says they were part of an elite team of whatever branch they served I take notice. I worked with a sergeant who was an army ranger. He served in the Vietnam war and the stories he told me...whew! To this day I respectfully refer to him as Sarge instead of by his first name.

Rangers rock!

besilarius · October 23, 2013, 07:04:53 AM

Republic, it's very confusing. I was in the Navy and every summer four Naval Academy midshipmen were assigned to the ship for a six week midshipman cruise.
It was no big deal that my dad was on the Yorktown and crossed the Pacific on her. The mids were polite, and some showed some interest, but it was all ancient history to them. I had a copy of the history book, co authored by Admiral Nimitz, that they got for naval history, but it went in one ear and out the other.
What always made me chuckle ruefully, was that the ship was homeported in Elefsina, Greece. Going in to there required a trip in, and a return trip later, through the Strait of Salamis.
None of them had any comprehension of the history of the place. Or wanted to know.
If anyplace could engender some interest in military history, one would think it would be one of the service academies.

LongBlade · October 23, 2013, 07:14:44 AM

Interesting posts, both Bes and Republic.

I'm hearing on the news that the "core curriculum" is getting some resistance. I haven't looked deeply into it.

Barthheart · October 23, 2013, 07:22:59 AM

Cool story Republic. I have something similar...
I'm an engineer for a physics department and I have a couple of mechanical designers working for me. One guy is the very tall, thin fellow, maybe 12-15 years older than I am. His very pleasant, friendly and never gets riled about anything, almost quiet. And funny.
One day we're at a department gathering and he mentions that he's actually an American citizen. So we talk about where he's from etc. and just casually as you can be mentions " After I returned form Vietnam I was at a loss for what to do....".... ! "You were in Vietnam?" sez me. "Yeah, I didn't know what I wanted to do and my buddy got drafted so I signed up".
"What did you end up doing?"
"Oh, we went through basic and got offered to join the Airborne so we said sure what the hell."
:o
"You were Airborne?"
"Yeah, got my jump wings, spent 2 tours in Vietnam and then came home, got out and worked on a fishing boat in Florida for a while."
:o :o
I've been very slowly pulling stories out of him ever since.
Ya just never know who's around you....

bayonetbrant · October 23, 2013, 07:59:37 AM

I wish it were just the kids that were ignorant.
I'm astounded by the numbers of my peers who have no idea what Veterans' Day is, why it exists, or why it's on that particular day.
We're not talking 24-year-old fresh college grads, either. We're talking about 50-year-old guys with MBAs and MS degrees from land-grant schools. Speaking of which - don't even ask 'em why they're called "land grant schools"...

eyebiter · October 23, 2013, 09:48:54 AM

.

Dolan50 · October 23, 2013, 10:52:23 AM

I served with the 3/7th infantry battalion at Ft.Benning during the early 1980s.
Most the guys in my unit had been to the Airborne or Ranger school or both and at least 90% of our officers and senior Sgts were Airborne Ranger qualified.

bayonetbrant · October 23, 2013, 10:57:13 AM

There used to be a running note about Infantry Officer Basic Course that if you did *not* request Ranger school as an immediate follow-on course, you were expected to explain to the COL in charge of the training brigade why not.

Over in Tank-land, we used to refer to Ranger school as the "Armor Appreciation Course" ;)

Windigo · October 23, 2013, 11:35:56 AM

Quote from: bayonetbrant on October 23, 2013, 10:57:13 AM
There used to be a running note about Infantry Officer Basic Course that if you did *not* request Ranger school as an immediate follow-on course, you were expected to explain to the COL in charge of the training brigade why not.

Over in Tank-land, we used to refer to Ranger school as the "Armor Appreciation Course" ;)

LMAO... and a Force 2 coffee spew

Airborne Rifles · October 23, 2013, 01:56:04 PM

Quote from: bayonetbrant on October 23, 2013, 10:57:13 AM
There used to be a running note about Infantry Officer Basic Course that if you did *not* request Ranger school as an immediate follow-on course, you were expected to explain to the COL in charge of the training brigade why not.

Over in Tank-land, we used to refer to Ranger school as the "Armor Appreciation Course" ;)

It's still like that. If an infantry LT shows up to his battalion without a tab the first two questions he usually gets are "why don't you have one?" and "when are you going back to get it?"

republic · October 23, 2013, 02:15:04 PM

That was actually a major gripe from my coworker. He (and my father in law for that matter) both joined in the 50's and 60's. The Ranger I work said there were only 2 battalions? (I forget the unit size) of Rangers when he joined but now there are WAY more. He also complained how the Ranger black beret was in wise use in other divisions. I really had no idea about either.

Dolan50 · October 23, 2013, 02:46:34 PM

When I was in you weren't authorized to wear the red or black beret unless you were actually in an Airborne or Ranger unit.Completing the schools only let you wear the patch and wings.

I signed on for 2 years active in 1981 in hopes of getting into the 173rd Airborne in Italy.
After I completed OSUT and Airborne school I went to the 18th replacement at FT,Benning I found out I was being assigned to the 3/7th 197th Inf brigade at Benning and was upset about that and asked why.

I was told I had to enlist for 4 years to get into the 173rd and since I only enlisted for 2 that I wasn't qualified.
They said I could extend my enlistment for 2 more years and I could probably get Italy but I didn't really want to commit myself to that yet.I figured if I still wanted to be a soldier after my 1st two years I'd try again then.

After I got frostbite up in Alaska and almost had my finger tips amputated I decided I didn't want to be a soldier anymore after my 2 years was up and left the Army and soon moved to Florida.

bayonetbrant · October 23, 2013, 03:04:11 PM

Quote from: republic on October 23, 2013, 02:15:04 PMThat was actually a major gripe from my coworker. He (and my father in law for that matter) both joined in the 50's and 60's. The Ranger I work said there were only 2 battalions? (I forget the unit size) of Rangers when he joined but now there are WAY more. He also complained how the Ranger black beret was in wise use in other divisions. I really had no idea about either.

So there are 2 issues here:

1. Ranger school just gets you an individual qualification. It's a required qual to be in the Ranger Bats (and there are still only 2 active ones + the training BN) but there are far more folks who are 'tabbed' than are in the Bats. There are a lot of guys who have the individual qualification of having a Ranger tab, and as AR noted, if you're in a crunchy, and you don't have one, people think there's something wrong with you.

2. The beret thing... The Rangers act like they invented black berets and the rest of the world are assholes for "stealing" their berets. The first units to wear berets at all were the Brit/French armor forces in WWI, b/c they needed something that would fit under the radio headsets they wore inside the tanks. When the Rangers were stood up in WWII, they started out in tan berets, adapted from the SAS.
Throughout the 60s and 70s, into the early 80s, the border cav regiments in Germany (originally the 6th, later the 11th and 2nd) wore black berets as their daily uniform. When I was stationed at Ft Irwin in the 11th ACR, all the old pics of the unit leadership from Germany all had black berets on, years before Shinseki's ill-fated "everyone gets a black beret" idea. When the USAREUR commander (I think it was Vuono, but I could be wrong) made the 11th ditch their berets in the early 80s, they actually held a ceremony in Fulda and buried their berets under the parade ground in caskets.

The Rangers bitched the loudest, but the black beret was never exclusively "theirs" to start with, no matter what they tell you.

LongBlade · October 24, 2013, 09:15:39 AM

Quote from: bayonetbrant on October 23, 2013, 03:04:11 PM
The Rangers bitched the loudest, but the black beret was never exclusively "theirs" to start with, no matter what they tell you.

Speaking of bad headgear...

QuoteA change to the Marine Corps' uniform hats could take the hard-nosed Leathernecks from the Halls of Montezuma to the shops of Christopher Street.

Thanks to a plan by President Obama to create a "unisex" look for the Corps, officials are on the verge of swapping out the Marines' iconic caps with a new hat that some have derided as so "girly" that they would make the French blush.

source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/24/obama-wants-marines-to-wear-girly-hats/