Permalink Reply by Doyle on September 30, 2010 at 2:20pm
I never said 16 and 17..My point was 18. you can leave school to fish hunt and tend to the farm and also fight for your country, so a little firefighting is ok. Where I come from we have calving season, no spring break like most schools. we are on the farm helping when needed, and we are not clueless and backwards as most folks think. Leaving school for a couple hours maybe a couple times a year is not going to Break a good student. the nearest mutual aide being 30 minutes away, I will take the help of a TRAINED 16,17,18 year old to help me battle a fire
As far as the GED training in the military that is for the people who got in prior to the military tighting up the requirements
Actually no. The issue WP is making is that there is a new program the Army is doing where those without a GED are sent to a program BEFORE going to boot camp, to obtain a GED. The Army is helping those who don't have the resources to obtain a GED on their own and they must pass this program and get their GED before they are allowed to go to boot camp. One is not in the Army until they do go through boot camp.
This program is ONLY limited to the Army. All other branches the education requirements apply. Also, I didn't read if the MOS one can get is limited or not. A minimum requirement for this program is a 50 on the ASVAB, which is a low score and is part of basing what jobs one is able to do.
I have a nephew who was hired when he turned 18. (Law in MI, one has to be 18 to be a FF) He did not leave school, he did not perform any tasks that he was not trained for. But he was far and away mature enough to be a firefighter. He's more capable and more mature than some 25 or 30 year old's. He was probably more mature at 18 than I was at 20 when I started.
I know what the sentence was actually referring to. What my sentence was actually referring to is that you might want to avoid your own misspelling - I mean "mistype" - if you're going to criticize Doyle for his.
Also, don't think for a minute that I'm somehow of the opinion that education isn't important. Of course it is. And so is the service that an 18 year-old can provide to his community in an emergency. Unless this is happening on a daily basis, I'm pretty sure his education won't suffer.
Education first. We have enough firefighters that do not know enough to think for themselves. There will always be emergency calls. A good education is required in this profession. If you want to be a pro you need to act like one. Read, write, communicate, and math are a must. Stay in class. This is part of my No More Dumb Firefighters campaign.
Perhaps we have different working definitions of what "accept" or "in the army" means. Let me come at this another way. An 18 year-old can leave school permanently to smoke dope and drink beer on the corner. Can we agree that an 18 year-old leaving school for an hour or so (on very rare occasions) to help his fire department and community is not such a terrible thing, and that his education is not exactly jeopardized in doing so?
I was thinking along those lines as well. I believed that a student, even if 18, was still subjected to the same rules of the school, meaning they still needed parents excuse if they would not be in school or late. They couldn't just check themselves in and out etc, even if they were of legal age. I'm sure if more people would look at the school district policies, such issues are addressed like the ones you presented.