Military aptitude test coming under greater scrutiny(Schools and Parents)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/02/28/military_aptitude_test_coming_under_greater_scrutiny?mode=PF

A military aptitude test traditionally given to high school juniors is coming under increased scrutiny by school administrators and parents.

Immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, military recruiters had no trouble getting New England high schools to offer the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, which is used to screen promising candidates. But three years later, in the midst of a controversial war in Iraq, things have changed dramatically.

"It's much more difficult right now to get into schools," said Petty Officer Jason Lowe, ASVAB testing coordinator at the Military Entrance Processing Station in Boston, which handles enlistment processing for Rhode Island, much of New Hampshire and parts of Massachusetts.

"People aren't happy, I guess," he said. "They just don't like the military in there right now with everything going on in the world. It makes it real tough."

Administrators at Nashua High School North this year reversed a long-standing policy of giving the three-hour test to the entire junior class, which usually numbers around 500.

[shadowknows69]

1. when did this become mandatory?

I elected to take it in my senior year but I actually had to go to a recruiter to do it.

[vpigrad]

2. I thought this was going to be about racism and the test...

Ever notice how slanted this test is? Blacks aren't allowed to score nearly as high as whites. It has a horrible bias.

[SouthernDem2004]

5. How so? The question are rather basic; reading, math etc. How are they

racist?

[vpigrad]

8. They are biases like IQ tests.

Just look at a copy of one, and you'll see how it helps people like Bush.

[SouthernDem2004]

9. I have taken the test. Please be more specific. It is just math, reading,

problem solving, mechanical and some odd shape matching stuff. How is any of that racist? How is it political in anyway? Is it racist or pro-Republican and how so?

If you are going to make some wild claim please be specfic. This test has been around for a long time.


http://www.asvabprogram.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=overview.test

[Sandpiper]

3. Taking the ASVAB my Junior year helped me to see

That I was imminently overqualified for any position in the enlisted ranks of the United States Armed Forces.

That alone makes me glad I took it.

[shadowknows69]

4. me too

I tested high enough to go in for MD training. In retrospect perhaps I should have enlisted because I'm not a doctor in civilian life either.

[NewHampshireDem]

6. I posted about this earlier ... notice how the recruiter blames Kerry?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=109309&mesg_id=109309

[murielm99]

7. It is a nice change from blaming Clinton.

eom

[gratuitous]

10. "Makes it real tough."

You know, what might make recruiting for the military real tough might not be people's happiness or unhappiness; it just might be all those flag-draped coffins coming through Dover AFB, or the maimed and crippled veterans wheeling themselves around, or the pictures of U.S. sponsored and sanctioned torture that keep surfacing. Odd as it may seem, a lot of people have a negative visceral reaction to such things.

But if Mr. Lowe thinks it's tough for recruiters, maybe he should go to the amputee ward at Walter Reed and see some guys who really have it tough.

[newscott]

11. They offered it at my high school.

Took it junior year in 1980 or 81.

It was the only Aptitude test that I aced!!!!!!

My dad told me not to listen to the recruiters BS though. Sage advice indeed.

[maxsolomon]

12. They just don't like the military in there right now with everything going

you mean the tsunami is making people not like the us military?

or perhaps global warming?

is there anything else going on that could make them not like the military? why don't you say what do you mean, son?

[sybylla]

13. They tried to make it mandatory at my kids school

When my son came home and said they were going to make him miss his online AP classes because of the ASVAB, I said no way. I already sent a letter to school preventing them from giving his info to recruiters. Taking the ASVAB would hand it to them on a silver platter.

I sent a note with him to school saying that I would not allow him to take the test. When a few other students heard, they brought in notes as well. The guidance counselor, who was also an military recruiter in the off season, had a fit. Turns out it wasn't school policy to require taking the test. It was her policy.

Needless to say, we now have a new guidance counselor at the school and my kids classmates aren't getting coralled into the military like cattle.

[yellowcanine]

15. Legally I believe one could make the case that parental permission is

required to take the test (for students under 18), since it is part of the recruitment process. That counselor had it ass backwards. At the very least the test should be given on a Saturday so that it does not interfere with other schoolwork, NCLB act and all, dontcha know?

[havocmom]

14. Seems likely parents, administrators and students have not changed their

opinion of the military so much as they have about the junta giving the orders.

If the leadership is not worthy of the people who serve, it's likely there won't be a lot of enlistments until leadership improves. Why are they blaming it on people not liking the military? People just don't want to send their kids off to fight for lies and profiteers.

[lakemonster11]

16. It was mandatory in my parents' high school (around 1974-76)

My dad told me that he refused to write down his social security number so the army recruiter/proctor told him he had to leave. He said that when he left just about the whole basketball team and a few others followed him (once they realized it wasn't *really* mandatory).

My mother had taken it the year before and scored really high---she was plagued by recruiters forever.

No one even mentioned it to me when I was in high school, but of course that was way post-Vietnam and just pre-9/11.