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DoD schools person here, a major point left out of this article is that if you do something bad enough in school your parent's CO will be notified and this can
by anarticle 3y ago
DoD schools person here, a major point left out of this article is that if you do something bad enough in school your parent's CO will be notified and this can have real career results. In a foreign country you can get deported if you do something stupid enough to warrant it.
I went to several DoD and civilian schools, NC (dod), NJ (civ), Erie PA (civ), Okinawa (dod), NJ (civ). I would say the standards are higher in DoD, mostly because of standardized curriculum. In civilian world, the variance is very high. In South NJ things were more rigid, in Erie more lax.
As for "not having social groups" this can be a plus, looking at my civilian counterparts in high school. It has pluses and minuses, but being an outgroup in high school let me leave that stuff behind much easier on my way to college. It makes me an alien to most of civilian world, but many benefits.
Housing is provided in the military.
AMA. I am anecdotal, but I have seen both sides at all three levels split down the middle.
Edit: I definitely received an education way above my parents earning level, I am first to go to college in my family. I went to a very good engineering school.
- ethbr1 3y agoDo you feel you faced any detrimental challenges your non-military family peers didn't, as you made the transition from high school to college? If so, what? Have a child soon to be in a similar situation, so any thoughts helpful.
- anarticle 3y agoThe major benefit/challenge of being a military kid that moved every 2-3y is that you make friends really fast and resocialize very easily. This also means you don't have any roots. My example is often that my friends in high school were friends since kindergarten, something I have no frame of reference for. It probably only hurt in high school for sports and clique based activities. For going from highschool to college there is almost zero negative, since it's the nth time you've moved and had to rebuild a social structure. Consider the number of total school changes for an average domestic student is 3. K-5, 6-8, 9-12, and in those cases they keep their friend groups.
- jmoss20 3y agoYeah, I had a similar upbringing, and this is my feeling as well. There's a massive trade-off here, but I do feel like the military kids I knew (and run into now) are radically more adaptable and sociable. Another upside, in retrospect: you end up getting to see, up-close, a huge range of the social/cultural/political landscape. It's hard to demonize an outgroup much when you at times were that outgroup -- or were at least, in the abstract, some outgroup. You end up forced to confront (deep-down, maybe mostly unconsciously) the arbitrariness and...malleability of a lot of things. You end up with a lot of tolerance. I'm thankful I had that experience, even if it was at times not particularly fun.
- ethbr1 3y agoI've found foreign exchange students have a (lesser) version of this too. I think it's fundamentally about increased tolerance to uncomfortable/novel situations. Which suck. But apparently it is a learned skill! Or at least coping strategies are. I'd be fascinated to see a study on adolescent coping strategies in non-military vs military child populations.