ABSTRACT
The chief of staff at one military academy asked me a question that is the reverse of what normally transpires at such meetings. He asked if I thought there was any conceivable way the academy could attract the public high school boy who has a 4.0 grade point average, is captain of the football team, and extremely popular among his classmates. After brief reflection, I replied that I thought there was no way such a boy could be attracted, unless he craved above all else to belong to a JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps) unit not offered at his school. I further said that I believed the mission of the academy had nothing to offer such a boy he did not already have. Boys come, or more often are sent, to military schools so that they may achieve what this hypothetical Olympian paragon already possessed—academic success, physical prowess and achievement, pride, initiative, and self-esteem. Furthermore, one could be virtually certain that he would not have and be all those things if he had not already a strong, supportive family and the confidence and high self-esteem imparted to him from within the family setting before he arrived at school. There was nothing at the academy for such a boy. The academy’s real mission lay elsewhere.
