I just got the following in my email. I think you all will find it very interesting, too.<P>Terri<P>=============================================<P>From: "American Values Reporter" <jtiav@worldnet.att.net><BR>To: <americanvaluesreporter@hotmail.com><BR>Subject: What the Military Teaches Us About Divorce<BR>Date sent: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 15:07:29 -0800<P>American Values Reporter<BR>November 21, 2000<P>What the Military Teaches Us About Divorce<BR>by Elizabeth Marquardt<BR>Affiliate Scholar<P>Judith Wallerstein and others have argued convincingly that divorce is not just a passing crisis in children's lives, but is an experience that influences a child's identity and the kind of person he or she becomes. This realization was recently affirmed in a study of the U.S. Army reported in the Washington Post. In 1989, 6.7 percent of Army captains left the service voluntary. In 1999, 10.6 left voluntarily, an increase of 58 percent. Because captains are the pool from which the institution's top leaders are drawn, these departures raise questions about the Army's ability to find good leaders in the future.<P>Leonard Wong, a recently retired Army Lieutenant colonel who is on the staff of the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute, set out to investigate the question. He found that Generation X officers, born between 1960 and 1980, have a very different world view than baby boom <BR>officers. Generation X officers grew up in a time of widespread divorce, with 40 percent of their peers spending at least some time in a single-parent home. They were, Wong writes, "the ultimate latchkey children." As adults, Wong found these officers to be "extremely skeptical of authority" because they have been "let down by too many authority figures, ranging from their overworked parents to their commander in chief." He also found they were less willing to give up time with families to succeed at wrk. Indeed, only 21 percent of captains<BR>surveyed in 1998 said that the Army allowed for a good balance between work and family life, compared to 47 percent in 1988.<P>Wong's recommendation to today's generals and colonels: stop assuming that you understand the experience of younger officers. He writes, "Spend 95 percent of the time listening and 5 percent of the time giving advice." As the influences of family dissolution begin to affect even our most<BR>structured institutions, this strikes me as good advice. <P>-To comment or for more information on this and other related topics, visit our website at <A HREF="http://www.americanvalues.org." TARGET=_blank>www.americanvalues.org.</A> <P>-To unsubscribe to this list, please reply to this message and write REMOVE in the subject heading.<P>Institute for American Values<BR>1841 Broadway, Suite 211<BR>New York, New York 10023<BR>(212) 246-3942