Some people don't want to waste 2 years doing something like that! They'd rather be at university bettering themselves.
Not all 18 year olds are druggy twats who have no focus.
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Then maybe at an earlier age? Just having seen the most positive thing that works for kids on the turn is travel and a chance to do something good.
Also a good equaliser if the working class kids and the middle class kids much in together.
Quote: sootyj @ June 28 2009, 7:11 PM BSTAt 18 having to make a positive decision about travelling leaving home and experiencing the world.
What about if you have children, are married, look after a parent, etc? What happen about National Service (military or otherwise) then?.
My time was better spent studying at that age, than doing push-ups in a parade ground or polishing my boots. To me it seems it would make you institutionalised rather than independentant.
Quote: zooo @ June 28 2009, 7:14 PM BSTNot all 18 year olds are druggy twats who have no focus.
Well, a lot of students are!
Quote: sootyj @ June 28 2009, 7:15 PM BSTThen maybe at an earlier age? Just having seen the most positive thing that works for kids on the turn is travel and a chance to do something good.
Also a good equaliser if the working class kids and the middle class kids much in together.
Well yeah, being involved in something positive and mind expanding as you're growing up can't be a bad thing.
We had a sad situation here not too long ago. This asshole, who has been fired from multiple jobs, waited outside the workplace of the last person to blow him in for sexual harassment and began to attack her when she came out of work. Two people saw the struggle, stopped to help and were also attacked. In the end, the girl died, the man that tried to help died, and the other woman who tried to help was able to get away after being shot and made it to the police station. The attacker then drove to my small sleepy town, went door to door trying to find the house of another woman whom he had harassed and assaulted, found the house, tied up the woman and her husband, and kept their 2 children hostage, one of which is a very close friend of my 11 year old son (he has cerebral palsy and was hours behind on his medication). After hours of this, he shot the parents execution style and left the house. Eventually he was caught. We are about a month away from 2 major murder trials and this scum, who has been positively identified by everyone he came in contact with, and his wife are now saying that he did nothing wrong. They're trying to get him off on technicalities and that the women were the ones to drive him to it. He feels he was justified. Every time this comes up in the papers I just sit there stunned, trying to understand how someone feels that such actions are justified. Sorry, had to vent. I have a terrified 11 year old who jumps every time the doorbell rings and I know that nothing I can say will never make him feel truly safe.
Quote: zooo @ June 28 2009, 7:14 PM BSTSome people don't want to waste 2 years doing something like that! They'd rather be at university bettering themselves.
I went to university after I left the Army and I can say with confidence that at least 75% of the students I encountered would have benefited from a few months in boots. What a bunch of whiny, self-important twats who felt like the world owed them a comfortable existence and there wasn't any problem that couldn't be solved by complaining and begging and finger pointing. 
Quote: Matthew Stott @ June 28 2009, 7:10 PM BSTThat's a pretty silly thing to say Sooty that I imagine you're voicing for effect.
Not at all they same one of the reasons that kids who go to boarding school at an early age do so well.
Is at an early age they learn life isn't fair.
The demand for respect or that stuff isn't fair has made us a nation of whiners.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ June 28 2009, 7:10 PM BSTThat's a pretty silly thing to say Sooty that I imagine you're voicing for effect.
I don't think it is that silly. The "I am entitled" culture is at the root of a lot of problems. If people stopped taking every supposed instance of injustice as a personal affront we might find ourselves living in a more reasonable society.
Quote: DaButt @ June 28 2009, 7:17 PM BSTI went to university after I left the Army
I'll just say again though, the army isn't and shouldn't be for everyone. And this from someone whos Step-Dad was in the army, had a brother in the army and whose brother-in-law is currently in the army.
Quote: AndreaLynne @ June 28 2009, 7:17 PM BSTWe had a sad situation here not too long ago. This a**hole, who has been fired from multiple jobs, waited outside the workplace of the last person to blow him in for sexual harassment and began to attack her when she came out of work. Two people saw the struggle, stopped to help and were also attacked. In the end, the girl died, the man that tried to help died, and the other woman who tried to help was able to get away after being shot and made it to the police station. The attacker then drove to my small sleepy town, went door to door trying to find the house of another woman whom he had harassed and assaulted, found the house, tied up the woman and her husband, and kept their 2 children hostage, one of which is a very close friend of my 11 year old son (he has cerebral palsy and was hours behind on his medication). After hours of this, he shot the parents execution style and left the house. Eventually he was caught. We are about a month away from 2 major murder trials and this scum, who has been positively identified by everyone he came in contact with, and his wife are now saying that he did nothing wrong. They're trying to get him off on technicalities and that the women were the ones to drive him to it. He feels he was justified. Every time this comes up in the papers I just sit there stunned, trying to understand how someone feels that such actions are justified. Sorry, had to vent. I have a terrified 11 year old who jumps every time the doorbell rings and I know that nothing I can say will never make him feel truly safe.
That is horrific.
And a very good argument against easy gun ownership.
Quote: Timbo @ June 28 2009, 7:18 PM BSTI don't think it is that silly.
Being punished when you're a perfectly decent person whose done nothing, and will do nothing, wrong isn't silly? Maybe you've got a different dictionary definition of the word than me!
Quote: sootyj @ June 28 2009, 7:17 PM BSTNot at all they same one of the reasons that kids who go to boarding school at an early age do so well.
Nothing to do with the very wealthy parents and the better education then? 
I really wouldn't say that people who have gone to boarding school are all well-rounded individuals!
Quote: sootyj @ June 28 2009, 7:17 PM BSTNot at all they same one of the reasons that kids who go to boarding school at an early age do so well.
Don't a large portion of those self same successful boys tell of the horror of actually growing up in such places? Doesn't sound like a good idea to me.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ June 28 2009, 7:21 PM BSTBeing punished when you're a perfectly decent person whose done nothing, and will do nothing, wrong isn't silly? Maybe you've got a different dictionary definition of the word than me!
One of the most successful parenting tools is praising and rewarding good behaviour and ignoring the bad.
Similar thing in Kibbutzim and certain Soviet academies found the same thing. Life isn't fair, people who learn and move on from that at an early age do well.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ June 28 2009, 7:22 PM BSTDon't a large portion of those self same successful boys tell of the horror of actually growing up in such places? Doesn't sound like a good idea to me.
So? Having things to complain about is character building.