Covering the business of education and training

Military training is intense and can be quite extensive, not to mention technical, advanced and practical.

In the military I sat in the classroom 6-8 hours a day five days a week. And, I was still expected to study outside the classroom to prepare for my time in the classroom.

One day, either I wasn't paying attention, was bored, already knew the material or was already lost, I calculated the classroom hours I spent in military training and compared it to the time I sat in the classroom for my 4-year undergraduate degree at a fully accredited school.

I spent more time in the classroom in 2.5 years of military training than I did in four years of academic training, including summer school and internships.

Why can't I have two undergrad degrees?

Soldiers and sailors are too often not given credit for what they learned and practiced while serving in the Armed Forces.

Something is not right with that picture.

Why don't colleges give credit for military service?

1. College staffs don't know how to handle military personnel.

2. College staffs don't know how to evaluate military training. 

3. Some colleges are just plain not 'military friendly.' Academics opposed to the military? Nah.

4. Colleges say military training is incompatible with academic programs. Not theoretical enough for the academics perhaps?

5. There is no process in place for evaluating military service for credit at most colleges. Those colleges also don't give credit for life service in other fields.

6. Colleges say military personnel have false expectations for receiving credit for their service.

7. Colleges say that a good deal of military training is too technical to transfer to a college program. Too advanced for college? Too, dare we think, practical?

8. College students can't compete with the training the military student received. 

9. Money - the less credit that is awarded the more classroom hours the student has to spend in time and money. 

If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was the last. If credit is given, then it's not paid for.

What do you think?

source