Navy veteran, former schoolteacher finds public education ‘utterly inept’ at preparing youth for real life compared to military 

Despite all modern technological advances, the U.S. military’s “most impressive asset” remains its young servicemakers “often barely out of high school,” argues one Navy veteran. 

“The Navy has mastered the formidable task of turning fresh-faced teenagers into engineers, technicians, radar operators, information systems specialists, chefs, and logisticians,” writes Thibaut Delloue in a commentary for RealClearEducation. 

However, Delloue – a former teacher and public-school administrator, now charter school advocate – finds U.S. public education far less inspiring. 

“Though I entered education with a renewed mission of ‘making a difference for these kids,’ my optimism crashed head-on into the stark realization that school remains a place utterly inept at preparing young people for the world,” he recalls. 

“It’s worth asking why our public education system, which is better funded on average than in nearly every other developed country, isn’t capable of doing in 12 years what the military does in a few months.” 

Reforming a ‘wayward institution’ 

Delloue credits the military’s emphasis on future employment and career advancement as part of the reason why it surpasses schools in training youth. 

“Reshaping public schooling to equip young people with the skills and incentives to enter the job market is a potent path to reforming this wayward institution,” he argues. 

“There is a growing movement in public education, sometimes called opportunity pluralism, to reverse the ‘college for all’ mentality with a system that more meaningfully connects students with employment.” 

However, few public-school districts are implementing programs that successfully transition students from learning to firsthand experience, according to Delloue. 

“Career Technical Education programs, while common in public school districts, generally fail to emphasize school-business partnerships that allow employers to provide mentorship and real-world learning opportunities for students,” he writes. 

“Apprenticeships, meanwhile, once a common system for upward mobility, have been supplanted by the ballooning college industrial complex. Every year, we invest over $500 billion of taxpayer money in colleges and universities, and under $400 million in apprenticeship programs.” 

Delloue points to an increasing sentiment among today’s business owners expressing concerns over recent graduates’ skills such as math proficiency, creative problem solving, data analysis and persistence. 

“If you only looked at their test scores, you would conclude the average GenZer was barely able to tie their shoelaces together,” he quips. 

“Give them some time aboard a Navy ship, however, and they suddenly become technical experts. The Navy alone trained over 40,000 sailors last year, many newly out of high school, in hundreds of specialties.” 

Until the movement to reform public education broadens to involve a greater leadership nationally, Delloue writes, little will change on the local and state level. 

“Schools cannot do it alone – they do not direct education policy,” he concludes. “It is up to policymakers and education leaders to refocus the function of schools toward what young people will actually do with their education.”