The war in Iraq got columnist Michael Barone thinking: America's military is chock full of the underskilled, undereducated graduates produced by so many schools. What happened in the intervening years to turn them into the determined, competent soldiers who toppled Saddam's regime? In fact, why is it that this country tends to produce "incompetent 18-year-olds and remarkably competent 30-year-olds?" Barone says it's because many kids spend their school years in "Soft America," which is marked by little or no competition or accountability and generous doses of ego massage. By contrast, most colleges, workplaces and the military are "Hard America," which sorts and measures people along meritocratic lines. Invoking Diane Ravitch's Left Back, Barone identifies the education system as the mushy center of Soft America, with its "mistrust of testing and competition and ... yearning to protect children from their rigors." Barone applauds education reforms that seek to stiffen the backbone of Soft America.
"A tale of two nations," by Michael Barone, U.S. News & World Report, May 12, 2003