Bueller....? Bueller.....?
Continuing with my never ending searches of CAP related material I decided to revisit a section of E-Services that I haven't bothered to view in quite some time, this being the Committee Minutes section. I began to peruse the Recruiting and Retention minutes (April 2005) and came across this passage:
Lt. Col. Cramer asked the group if anyone had ideas about why members leave CAP.
Some of the reasons discussed were:
Cadets have too many activities
Cost prohibitive for a lot of parents, especially single parents
Difficulty with written tests for cadets and even some seniors
Now I can agree with the first two, in fact in just the past two weeks I have watch a couple cadets leave the program because they had too many activities outside CAP that took precedence. That's fine, if you have something that takes priority over CAP by all means go do that instead. On the second point I have found there are usually two subsections of these parents. The first is the parent who is fully capable to support their cadet but instead shirk all responsibility off onto those in charge of the cadet program. I've seen first hand parents drop their child off in their BMW, but simply cant be bothered to buy their child uniform materials or help out monitarily in any way for CAP. The truly sad part is often these cadets do want to be at meetings and simply get no support from home.
Conversely you also have the cadets who are motivated, and parents who are motivated; yet the cash just simply isn't there, fortunately there are good members who will go far out of their way to help these cadets; driving them to meetings and helping them buy uniforms.
On the note of the tests: Too hard? According to who?
Sure a cadet or two may fail a test and miss a promotion, but I'm pretty the sure the majority do pass or else we wouldn't have standardized tests for the CP. I've worked closely with cadets and with our TCO and the majority of the problem is that often the ones who fail just cant be bothered with studying. Now that is not to say there are not cadets who truly do need help, and mentoring can be given to help them pass as well as tests correct up to a certain percent by the TCO. But how much of this is just this generation of cadets not wanting to try? How much is simply an extension of the "ritalin generation"? Kid wont study? Oh they must be ADD. Nope, it couldn't be that they just don't care or never had restrictions placed on them to study or repercussion for not studying. The answer is not "Oh its too hard, lets dumb it down and stuff some pills in their mouth". Again, there are true cases of ADD and ADHD, and I do not mean to belittle their disability, I just believe it has been seriously over diagnosed and often was chosen as the easy-way out. In this case the easy way is apparently quitting the CP. If at first you don't succeed, oh well quit doing it. [/rant]
Now in the case of the seniors, if I recall the first written test taken is the ECI13. In my opinion this test should be challenging, if not hard. Becoming a Capt should not be a sure thing in CAP. We already give 2d LT automatically after you watch a couple videos and are a warm body for 6 months. Again I don't think the answer is to dumb down things just for the sake of making everyone pass and feel good about themselves as they sew the railroad tracks on. You're taking an advanced rank within the organization and therefore had better be up to serving as that rank. Is it nice to progress in rank, absolutely it gives you something to work forward to. But if not making Capt because you failed ECI13 is enough to make you quit CAP, well then frankly you may have needed to reevaluate your reasons for joining in the first place. Alot of talk has been cycling boards about creating a new officer training course for CAP or restructuring the requirements to advance in grade. I for one fully support the idea. Some great ideas have been popping up over at Civil Air Portal that you can read here.
Lt. Col. Cramer asked the group if anyone had ideas about why members leave CAP.
Some of the reasons discussed were:
Cadets have too many activities
Cost prohibitive for a lot of parents, especially single parents
Difficulty with written tests for cadets and even some seniors
Now I can agree with the first two, in fact in just the past two weeks I have watch a couple cadets leave the program because they had too many activities outside CAP that took precedence. That's fine, if you have something that takes priority over CAP by all means go do that instead. On the second point I have found there are usually two subsections of these parents. The first is the parent who is fully capable to support their cadet but instead shirk all responsibility off onto those in charge of the cadet program. I've seen first hand parents drop their child off in their BMW, but simply cant be bothered to buy their child uniform materials or help out monitarily in any way for CAP. The truly sad part is often these cadets do want to be at meetings and simply get no support from home.
Conversely you also have the cadets who are motivated, and parents who are motivated; yet the cash just simply isn't there, fortunately there are good members who will go far out of their way to help these cadets; driving them to meetings and helping them buy uniforms.
On the note of the tests: Too hard? According to who?
Sure a cadet or two may fail a test and miss a promotion, but I'm pretty the sure the majority do pass or else we wouldn't have standardized tests for the CP. I've worked closely with cadets and with our TCO and the majority of the problem is that often the ones who fail just cant be bothered with studying. Now that is not to say there are not cadets who truly do need help, and mentoring can be given to help them pass as well as tests correct up to a certain percent by the TCO. But how much of this is just this generation of cadets not wanting to try? How much is simply an extension of the "ritalin generation"? Kid wont study? Oh they must be ADD. Nope, it couldn't be that they just don't care or never had restrictions placed on them to study or repercussion for not studying. The answer is not "Oh its too hard, lets dumb it down and stuff some pills in their mouth". Again, there are true cases of ADD and ADHD, and I do not mean to belittle their disability, I just believe it has been seriously over diagnosed and often was chosen as the easy-way out. In this case the easy way is apparently quitting the CP. If at first you don't succeed, oh well quit doing it. [/rant]
Now in the case of the seniors, if I recall the first written test taken is the ECI13. In my opinion this test should be challenging, if not hard. Becoming a Capt should not be a sure thing in CAP. We already give 2d LT automatically after you watch a couple videos and are a warm body for 6 months. Again I don't think the answer is to dumb down things just for the sake of making everyone pass and feel good about themselves as they sew the railroad tracks on. You're taking an advanced rank within the organization and therefore had better be up to serving as that rank. Is it nice to progress in rank, absolutely it gives you something to work forward to. But if not making Capt because you failed ECI13 is enough to make you quit CAP, well then frankly you may have needed to reevaluate your reasons for joining in the first place. Alot of talk has been cycling boards about creating a new officer training course for CAP or restructuring the requirements to advance in grade. I for one fully support the idea. Some great ideas have been popping up over at Civil Air Portal that you can read here.
posted by Becks at 09:50
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home