Last week I realized that the ability of our children to communicate is a fundamental national security issue. By "communicate" I don't mean their ability to use technological infrastructure, but their ability to interact socially - to appreciate and share thoughts and feelings.

Some months ago I read a report that indicated that these essential social skills stop developing in most American kids after sixth grade. This has fairly obvious affects on their ability to perform in the workplace, where sophisticated abilities to communicate ideas and activities are essential. However, I hadn't really given the national security implications much thought until my youngest nephew joined the Marines.

It's amazing how quickly our kids grow up. One day William was reading the last book in the Harry Potter series, and the next he was off to San Diego for U.S.M.C. basic training (well, actually, there was a week between Potter and Basic).

William completed Basic in December (his parents, grandparents, and I were there cheering for him), spent the holidays in Washington with his parents and siblings, and is now staying with us during his first assignment. During most of January he is assigned to the local U.S.M.C. recruiting station.

William was one of a group of brand-new Privates assigned there. Naturally I asked him what they had him doing, and his explanation sounded a bit like one of my first jobs - as a Fuller Brush salesman.

Apparently, every day William and the other Privates are dropped off at locations where youth hang out - local shopping centers and malls, etc., with orders to gather contact information from kids who would be willing to speak with a recruiter. Basically, the Privates have to approach kids they do not know, strike up a conversation, extol the virtues of the Marine Corp., and get names and phone numbers. I would have a difficult time doing this, and I'm a seasoned adult who has been a salesman a number of times over the years.

William's verbal communication skills are much more limited. He can speak rapidly and at great length about the characters in his favorite video game or manga (illustrated novel), but can't describe or outline the plot or identify the ideas and values behind the story.  His descriptions are limited to physical abilities and actions.

He does not seem able to connect with others, to establish common interests and draw them into conversation.

That's probably fine when his orders involve simple physical actions that he's practiced repeatedly. But it becomes a big problem when he’s ordered to strike up a conversation with strangers, extol the virtues of the U.S.M.C., and get a name and phone number.

I do not know how typical William's limits are, but the evidence I've seen indicates that the less time kids spend interacting with each other in the real world, the more limited their social skills remain. They simply do not get the practice to develop sophisticated social skills.

So, if our youth have severely limited social skills, it’s not just a problem for business, it's a problem for national security, because our armed forces depend on those skills to maintain their numbers.

Regards,

Glen Knape