There is a problem infecting every institution in American life beginning with the education system: The youngest generations of Americans fear intellectual, physical, and emotional adversity. These are the young people who will be responsible for preserving and defending the American way of life, and our schools’ failure to prepare them for this responsibility will result in a national security crisis.
In February, Georgetown Law students demanded a safe space to cry after a professor tweeted critically about a Supreme Court nominee. A month later, Yale Law students shouted down a professor attempting to teach a class on debate techniques that featured opposing viewpoints. Last month, Cornell University removed the Gettysburg Address and a bust of President Abraham Lincoln from the school library after complaints from students. These are not the actions of an intellectually confident and mature generation.
The problem may even be worse when it comes to physical fitness. A recent poll revealed that only 9% of those eligible would consider serving in the military. This may reflect a lagging sense of patriotism, but a staggering number of young people are also physically weak and incapable of meeting the challenges of military service. According to data from the Pentagon, about 71% of America’s 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for military service due to poor education and physical condition or criminal history.
Rather than address the problem at its root cause, our institutions are simply lowering their standards. In March, the U.S. Army decided to capitulate to complaints that the new combat fitness test was too difficult. The requirement to do a “knee tuck,” in which a soldier is required to hold on to a metal pull-up bar and raise his or her knees to his or her elbows a single time, was, according to several soldiers on social media, too strenuous. Never mind that some of the Army’s generals, many of them in their 60s, responded by posting videos of themselves doing knee tucks to encourage younger soldiers. In the end, in a scene reflective of many college campuses, the Army gave in and removed the knee tuck while also lowering standards on several other elements of the test.
It is not surprising, then, that young people balk at entering an institution such as the military, in which every day is filled with physical and mental challenges. The prospect has become too terrifying for younger generations. Indeed, recent reports revealed that every single military branch is struggling to meet its recruitment goals, leading some officials to question whether an all-volunteer service is sustainable.
This has massive implications for our security at home and abroad. A strong nation requires able soldiers who are resilient both physically and mentally. But right now, we’re struggling to find willing soldiers — period.
This recruitment crisis is directly related to the way in which young adults have been raised and educated. Public K-12 schools and universities have sanctioned “safe spaces” designed to shelter young people from both intellectual diversity and physical adversity. Sports are increasingly devoid of physical contact, scores, or even the experience of victory and defeat. Views that run counter to mainstream liberal thought are all but banned on most college campuses. The institutions most families rely on to prepare children for successful lives are systematically eliminating what is necessary for the development of resilience, and our military is suffering as a result.
Combat veterans regularly testify to Mark Twain’s quote, “Courage is the resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.” Parents must not shy away from raising children with ample opportunity to experience failure, fear, and challenge. And schools must join that effort rather than lowering mathematics standards in the name of diversity and equity, as California’s schools have done, and removing foundational texts on Western civilization such as Plato and Aristotle that will help form a foundation from which young people can approach the issues of the day. The security of our nation depends on it.
Garrett Exner is the executive director of the Public Interest Fellowship in Washington, D.C. He previously served as a staffer to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and a counterterrorism policy advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and was a special operations officer in the U.S. Marine Corps with deployments to Iraq, North Africa, East Africa, and the South Pacific.
