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British Army lower standards for recruits to the reading age of a 5 year old.

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British Army lower standards for recruits to the reading age of a 5 year old.

Old 9th Apr 2020, 09:29
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Since this broke, I just cannot get out of my mind two army officers sitting in a landrover discussing tactics with Haribo's, rather like this

https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/film/haribo_police
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Old 9th Apr 2020, 09:38
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Rolling20

My experience of the TA in the mid- late 80's was:
  • that some people saw it as a social club and went with their mates. If one left they all left................................. (usually just as they were becoming useful to the unit)
  • that some people saw it as a proving ground and left after a year or so to join the regulars.............
  • that some saw it as an area where they used their civilian skills in a military context.............. to the benefit of both parties
  • that some people stayed for many years until retirement age while the average time was between 18 months and 6 years - usually they joined at 18/19 and then left when they got married............................
  • that some people were fantasists (Walts).............................

As a rule they were reasonably well educated (CSE or GCE 'O' Levels) and saw the TA as a challenge/change, they made good basic Rifleman in the platoons. There were however a fair sprinkling of low literacy or illiterates in the mix, often they would ask me to help with filling forms and so on................ when they found I could write. They were good at humping the GPMG around though

Maybe that was a factor of the geographical area I was in though (SE UK). Not sure what it was like in other areas..........

Very much the 'Citizen Soldiers' of Kitcheners Army I think....................

Oh - and there were no formal educational qualifications required to join at that time.

Arc
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Old 9th Apr 2020, 12:10
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I was on Salisbury plain with our Puma and Wessex in the 70's and we had some TA arrive to play trooping and roping etc, they impressed the heck out of me in their dedication etc, their unit had travelled a long distance, (Bristol comes to mind) to take part and their fuel allowance wouldn't cover it, so they had been begging, stealing and borrowing fuel for the 4 tonner for months to allow them to take part, and they made the most of the opportunity.
They were game to try everything and put their new found skills to the test, they went away happy and better for it.
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Old 9th Apr 2020, 14:15
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Originally Posted by NutLoose
I was on Salisbury plain with our Puma and Wessex in the 70's and we had some TA arrive to play trooping and roping etc, they impressed the heck out of me in their dedication etc, their unit had travelled a long distance, (Bristol comes to mind) to take part and their fuel allowance wouldn't cover it, so they had been begging, stealing and borrowing fuel for the 4 tonner for months to allow them to take part, and they made the most of the opportunity.
They were game to try everything and put their new found skills to the test, they went away happy and better for it.
As a result of the various 'Cost Saving Measures' after 1987 it always annoyed me that we were required to feed ourselves for the first 24 hours, so had to bring a packed lunch for day one of any weekend. After 24hrs the QM would issue Ration Packs, 10 man for the use of....................... and then the competition for chocolate bars and red sweets began.........................

We knew all the good transport cafes though. And it's a long way from Surrey to Otterburn in a 4 tonner that was older than you were..............

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Old 9th Apr 2020, 23:16
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In the RNLI our station gets a decent cross section of educational life.. all volunteers, so you do get natural enthusiaism..and pretty much all blokes so fairly army standard.
the difference is of course the age range, with long servers at 30 yrs of age and beginners of 45 plus.

any way there is plenty of maths to get through and not everyone enjoys it,, my favourite is the radar course,, after hours and hours of training. you get in the boat,, it gets foggy. your rings and lines are set up.. you adjust for clutter and rain,, blah blah etc etc

then after 5 minutes you stick it on heads up and steer around the blibs and blobs... that's 5 o levels worth
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Old 10th Apr 2020, 14:24
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Originally Posted by meleagertoo
Blaming schools or the education system for the totally unacceptable numbers of illiterates and innumerates it released into socuety is exactly the same as blaming factories and the motor industry for the appaling build quality of BL cars in the '70s and '80s.
Lousy cars are not built by an industry or a factory, they are built by shonky, slovenly workers who take no pride in their job.
The same is true of illiterate schoolkids. They are not educated by a system or a school, they are 'educated' - or not - by teachers.
Typical “it’s someone else’s fault mantra.” I am afraid you have rather missed the mark here. It is poor parenting that it the key inhibitor to learning. Parents have their children for the first 5 years where the foundations are laid. Poor foundations provide the absence of a thirst for discovery.
Teachers provide the tools, parents must take ownership of the reinforcement of those tools by continuing the drive at home...
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Old 10th Apr 2020, 20:20
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Originally Posted by Boslandew
I'm slightly confused here. Why would you not want to pass your initials?
Presumably because he wanted to know what the actual change was (which was eventually passed). But there's something wrong in that story which is if the airfield colour state had been changed TO Green from Yellow or Blue, there must have been a change to the lowest level of 3 oktas cloud cover or visibility (on which the colour states (apart from Black) are based. A change to the QNH would not have any impact on the clolour state. I would not have given my initials either without the rest of the information.
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