Product Description
Nine Weeks tells the honest story of Army Basic Training. Rich Stowell left his career as a high school teacher and college education professor as an enlistee in the United States Army. At the barracks of F Battery, 1/40 Field Artillery at Fort Sill Oklahoma, he trained for just over two months as a Soldier in the most powerful Army in the world. His story is exceptional. As the oldest man in his training battery (of over 200 soldiers) and the most educated, … More >>
This book made me laugh. Rich’s storytelling is captivating and funny. It’s a serious book with serious messages, but Rich tells it in a fun, self-deprecating way.
I didn’t know much about the Army before I read Nine Weeks, but now I feel like I understand the insanity that is Basic Combat Training. Week by week, Rich details the basic training regimen in excruciating detail. It was almost exhausting to read about the sleepless nights, the long marches with a couple dozen pounds of gear, the long hot days on the firing ranges, and the early morning exercise sessions. God bless our Soldiers! I couldn’t help but wonder why they treat people so badly who they lionize so much. The day Rich’s battery graduated was such a relief! I felt like I was right there with them.
Of particular interest was how Rich compared Army training with his teaching career. There is, of course, a lot common to both fields of endeavor, yet they are worlds apart. Nevertheless, the parallels and the differences are insightful–this may be the only book that could be required reading for drill sergeant school and teacher credential programs.
Nine Weeks was entertaining and educational, and is an absolute must-read for anyone who thinks they are informed about what the military does or are interested in how people learn.
Rating: 5 / 5
The book, Nine Weeks, by Rich Stowell, was both poignant and frustrating. I could just feel how he felt as he went through the nine, or rather ten weeks of basic training. Luckily, it was written with a great deal of the author’s witty asides and with his well developed sense of humor. Although I was a little dismayed that he was so surprised by his training, didn’t he watch G.I. Jane? It certainly put it all into perspective for any newbie to the army.
As a student who plans to be a teacher this book really spoke to me. He makes it easy to relate so many things that happened during basic training to being in a classroom with a bunch of new students. The drill sergeants weren’t the best role models for a beginning teacher, but perhaps I could learn just as Rich Stowell did from observing his NCOs. I agree with him that the autocratic task-master style of teaching is not the way I would teach.
In another example of how the Army makes it far more difficult to learn, in the first week they had to sit through classes that which as he says, did not include the “erudite lectures, note-taking, question and answer sessions, studying, and tests”, that he expected. They were scripted lectures with PowerPoint presentations that had no reason for them. They were not adding anything to the lecture and so were a waste of technology. I learned that the way to keep a class involved and interested was not the Army way. As a teacher he knew how the classes could have been handled so everyone could learn and I am now very conscious of paying attention to use of technology in my teaching.
Although I have no interest in joining the Army, I gained an appreciation for the men and women who do and learned a lot about how I don’t want to teach my classes when I get them.
Rating: 5 / 5
I am studying to become a teacher and I thought this book was very applicable to me. It goes through the first 9 (but really 10) weeks of training in the army, which revolves a lot around teaching. It provides great insight into how the U.S. Military teaches and why some of these strategies are more successful than others. One of the things I took away from this book was how to monitor student’s learning during instruction. Or, rather, I learned how absent this concept is in the army. In Week One, Stowell writes of how the soldiers-in-training “learn” from their superiors. After a lesson taught by a PowerPoint, the students were supposed to go study a book about CLS (Combat Life Saver) while simultaneously doing push-ups. Then were then tested on the material in multiple-choice fashion. If they did not get it, it was too bad, and they wouldn’t know they didn’t get it until that final test. This is what I don’t want to do as a teacher. It is so important to monitor student’s progress as the lessons and units progress, so they’re not out of luck in the end like the soldiers who didn’t learn about enough about CLS. In conclusion, I think this book can definitely benefit teachers of adolescents who have no relationship with the military. Mostly, they will learn what not to do from Stowell and his experience of the 9 weeks of Basic Training.
Rating: 5 / 5
Nine Weeks…for civilians that term used to mean a period in school. For soldiers, Nine Weeks often times can mean nine weeks of the most grueling time in their lives. This book offers a rare glimpse into those weeks as soldiers in the Army struggle to complete basic training.
As civilians we don’t often understand or see the hardships these men and women go through except in movies. Mr. Stowell’s book, Nine Weeks, gives us a rarely seen honest glimpse into this time as he shares his experiances. It was an interesting book to read and I found it very detailed, well written and honest.
If you’re a civilian who has wondered what goes on in a basic training camp then pick this book up. I think it will give many people a newfound respect for those who serve in the Army.
Rating: 5 / 5
Very insightful and extremely well written. Anyone who works with students should read this; one receives an intimate, day-to-day experience with all things military which can only help prepare students for one possible life choice.
Rating: 5 / 5