Pentagon Set to Allow Calculator Use on Military Entrance Exam

[Chalkie]

That is a headline from an article in the Daily Brief email I get from military.com. I don't think this is a political topic and hope it will not go in that direction.

The reason for doing this is to help in shortfalls of recruiting goals in the three major services (Army, Navy, Air Force). What seems dang near a lifetime ago I pulled a 4 year stint as a Navy Recruiter in Lincoln, NE. Even then meeting goals was tough although we mostly did overall nationally. We used to laugh, although it was true, that our hardest time was college football season. None of the young folks wanted to ship out when it might mean missing a Huskers game. At that time no aids of any sort were allowed in taking the ASVAB but having people pass the test wasn't nearly the issue that drug usage, mainly marijuana, or physical failures were. 

Calculators of some sort or another have become ubiquitous in today's everyday life with nearly everyone having a cell phone which has a calculator function. Heck, even my Samsung watch has that function. I know that calculator use has been relaxed in schools and even college entrance exams but I just can't decide if relaxing the standard for military entrance is a good idea or not. In the back of my mind I can think of situations where electronics might not work and there will be a need for even some rudimentary math.

My feeling is that this is a bad idea but I don't know, but what say you all?

Here is the full article Pentagon Set to Allow Calculator Use on Military Entrance Exam as Recruiting Slumps 

[DJW]

Chalkie

At the rate the military is missing their recruiting goals they will be giving them the answers to the questions soon.  20 years of useless wars which has resulted in nothing has soured young people from any interest in serving.

 

Dennis

[Ray,IN]

Might be part of pre-basic.  https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2022/07/26/army-plans-prep-course-to-help-hopeful-soldiers-lose-weight-improve-test-scores/

 

I don't like it, but society has created a generation of over-weight, computer-dependent people.  IMO

Shoot, some schools aren't even teaching cursive now.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Ray,IN

[sandsys]

Amusing/frustrating: watching a kid try to make change when their electronic register has no power.

Linda

[RV_]

Yep, we could be doing calligraphy yet had it not been for that durn Gutenburg, and they stopped teaching it in school to boot! Most Young folks today can't even read a clock with hands. Using the clock face for directions like "at your six!" are meaningless to them. They can't run a mimeograph machine either. They took them out of schools when Xerox debuted electrostatic copying and printing. And forget them being able to use a tractor feed dot matrix printer. And who needs printers now anyway? Now they load pics and memos and docs online and share there with a link or in emails/messages. Yeah let's go back -NOT! Just kidding.

😉🖖

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by RV_

[Kirk W]

9 hours ago, Ray,IN said:

Shoot, some schools aren't even teaching cursive now.

Some states have continued to teach cursive writing. Starting in the 2019-2020 school year, cursive was added back into elementary school curriculum of all Texas districts ( here ). A bill passed in 2014 in Tennessee made cursive a mandatory subject in grades two through four ( here ). By 2019, similar measures had been introduced in Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Virginia, California, Florida and North Carolina.

The 21 States that Require Cursive Writing [Updated!]

[Chalkie]

2 hours ago, Kirk W said:

Some states have continued to teach cursive writing.

This is a good thing although it probably is ruining some college dean's plans of adding "Translation of pre-1960's Documents" to go along with "Basic Basket Weaving".

[ashton23l]

I actually dont think its a big deal.  during my time in the Army, i never needed any real math skills.  the people that really need math skills, like Intelligence and topography and maybe artillery will fail out of training if they cant do it and be recycled to a different MOS.  and the people that want those MOSs probably dont need calculators anyway. 

[Ray,IN]

12 hours ago, Kirk W said:

Some states have continued to teach cursive writing. Starting in the 2019-2020 school year, cursive was added back into elementary school curriculum of all Texas districts ( here ). A bill passed in 2014 in Tennessee made cursive a mandatory subject in grades two through four ( here ). By 2019, similar measures had been introduced in Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Virginia, California, Florida and North Carolina.

The 21 States that Require Cursive Writing [Updated!]

Less than half the states_.