Probably an obsolete datapoint: My parents were both children of US military and educated domestically and internationally between 1955 - 1966. Although my mom became an accountant and dad was a mechanic, they were well-educated compared to the average American. They grew up in a time where college was for about 40% of high school graduates.
It's also obsolete but worth mentioning my grandfather, child of blue-collar people, still had to take Latin and French in a 1930's Stamford, Connecticut public school. Although he was a mechanic, electronics hobbyist, and home-improver, he owned Jeopardy almost to Ken Jennings'-level. He grew up in a time where not everyone went past 7th grade education (12.5 yrs old on average).
I think there are 4 positive traits of military culture that civilian culture doesn't appreciate:
It's also obsolete but worth mentioning my grandfather, child of blue-collar people, still had to take Latin and French in a 1930's Stamford, Connecticut public school. Although he was a mechanic, electronics hobbyist, and home-improver, he owned Jeopardy almost to Ken Jennings'-level. He grew up in a time where not everyone went past 7th grade education (12.5 yrs old on average).
I think there are 4 positive traits of military culture that civilian culture doesn't appreciate:
- Excellence - doing more, striving, mastery, competitiveness
- Discipline - self-restraint, following through, doing hard things, completing a task
- Collectivism - other people are important, a team can accomplish more than one person
- Egalitarianism - treat everyone equally, respect the office not the individual