Castle Heights Military Academy - Yearbook (Lebanon, TN)

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ment, which means that he cannot leave post until they are improved. He begins to study! He is taught how to prepare his quarters for inspection. The Hoor is swept: every drawer is open, its contents neatly arranged: his bed is made up with clean linen: his uniforms hang on certain hooks: his clothing is folded thus and so on open shelves: the broom is behind the door: his polished shoes are in a row under the foot of the bed: there is no trash behind the radiator, no dust on the top of the dresser: his person is immaculate from his toes to the top of his head. If he offends in any of these respects, he walks extra duty. He begins to bc neat and orderly! From reveille until taps he is under authority. He spends three- fourths of the day doing as he is told. Curiously enough, he does not object to it. Section marchers tell him, non-coms tell him, cadet commissioned officers tell him, sentries tell him, faculty officers tell him. He is told when to sit down and when to stand up, when to eat and when to stop eating, when to enter his room, when he may leave it, when to keep silent, when he may speak, when to go to bed at night and when to get up in the morning. Nobody tells him anything but once. He never talks back. He never argues. Within a month he would never dream of questioning an order. He is fitting himself to give orders. He begins to obey! He is punctilious in the rendering of courtesy to his superiors. He salutes with a snap. He jumps to attention when an officer-passes him in the hall or enters his quarters. He prefixes his remarks with Silt He knocks at a door once, and waits. He reports his presence deferentially, 011 approaching those of higher rank than his own. He begins to be respecU'uI! At first it seems to him that military school life is made up of countless impossible requirements. He forgets to take his book to ClaSS'af1d Pays the Price. He turns his head in ranks, forgetting that he 15 at atteHti0r1-and pays the price. He neglects to wear his bloflse Cl0Wfl t0WI1-and pays the price. He fails to hear the bugle, he IS a .half minute late getting to his quarters, he is in such a hurry at reveille that he leaves off his leggings-and pays the price, In two weeks he is looking ahead as he never looked ahead in his life before. He begins to think! 69

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And so this process of moulding the boy, most of it while he is utterly unconscious that it is happening, goes on day after day in every phase of his school life. The ideal of discipline at Castle Heights is nothing but a continuous efort to apply 100 per cent. common sense. THE HONOR SYSTEM Yet any system of discipline that failed to take into consideration the higher nature of the boy would be a specious pretext. All its results would he on the surface. It would he a thing of shadow, not of substance. Every Castle Heights cadet lives under the Honor System. His word is good. If it is not good, he leaves the Academy. When a cadet is reported, he goes to the Commandant's office, where the charge against him is read to him. He may reply, Sir, the report is correct, or Sir, the report is correct: may I explain? in which case he is given every opportunity to explain the circum- stances: or he may say, Sir, the report is incorrect, upon which the charge is at once removed. This same implicit trust characterizes the reception of the cadet's every official utterance or written statement. When the Cadet Officer of the Day signs his inspection return, he certifies on honor to the strict performance of his duty. When the Cadet Division Officer checks .up at call to quarters, he merely knocks at the door and calls Right? The reply, Right, Sir, signifies the orderly's statement, on his honor, that the cadets supposed to be in the room are present. When a cadet says in the class-room, Sir, I am excused from reciting to-day, his word is accepted. Through examination period the same high standard of ideals prevails. The Honor System has been unanimously endorsed and adopted by the Corps of Cadets of Castle Heights as the present and future standard of the Academy. The administration of the system is in the hands of an Honor Council of cadets appointed by the Commandant, and approved by the President, with whom always sits a faculty officer. In the rare instances in which matters come before this tribunal for adjudication, 71