ABSTRACT
By awarding boys “military” rank, schools are not attempting to foist on them any part of the adult responsibility that remains paramount. Nor, at the better schools, are ranks passed out primarily as incentive rewards, although this appears to be the case in a couple of schools where officers mostly outnumber privates to a degree where rank has little meaning either to those who hold it or to those who conferred it. The policies regulating the awarding of ranks are another element of change in military schools. Whether it has been found necessary to bribe cadets with frequent awards of ribbons, medals, and ranks as a means of boosting the retention quotient it was impossible to discover. But the fact remains that all schools now have a higher percentage of cadet commissioned and noncommissioned officers than academies had half a century ago, irrespective of the size of the student body. Below are examples from two schools, now defunct:
San Rafael Military Academy (San Rafael, California). Class of 1946: enrollment 202 cadets, grades 4–12; eight commissioned officers, all seniors (twenty-four noncommissioned officers)
Augusta Military Academy (Fort Defiance, Virginia). Class of 1959: enrollment 502 cadets, junior and high school combined; twenty-eight commissioned officers
