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Military academy

 
Military History Companion: military academies
 

The emergence of military academies is closely associated with the development of the concept of a professional officer corps. The claim of career officers to be regarded as members of a distinct profession rests largely on their having received a formal education in their own specialization, while at the same time being indoctrinated with the social attitudes expected of those in their chosen way of life.

The first military academy in Asia, and probably the world, was established in Vietnam in the 14th century. The term ‘military academy’ is generally used in western countries to refer to an establishment training young men, and now women, to become junior officers. In eastern Europe and the former USSR it usually refers to a ‘staff’ or ‘war college’ training more senior officers; junior officer training establishments are called ‘higher military command schools’.

Until the middle of the 18th century, European military officers learnt their duties mostly through following the advice, instructions, and example of senior colleagues, who had every personal interest in ensuring the efficiency of their subalterns. The conventional heroic qualities expected of leaders in war were assumed to have been developed by their position in the social order of their times. Specifically military skills were acquired by actual practice and performance under supervision. Companies of cadets (a term originally meaning the younger scions of noble houses) were first formed in France in 1682, to teach young noblemen the duties of an officer. The scheme was soon abandoned, but was revived in 1751, with the formation of the École Militaire Royale, which offered a general military education, primarily to the sons of aristocrats. Ritterakademien and ‘Cadet Houses’ existed in Germany and the Habsburg dominions from the late 16th century onwards, though these were really preparatory schools with a military ethos rather than colleges producing trained officers.

The first European military academies came into existence in the 18th century to provide future officers of the highly specialized scientific branches, the artillery and engineers. This aim was fused with the realization that the nobility and gentry could only justify their monopoly on officership if they could demonstrate superior professional skill and education. Among the earliest institutions was the British army's Royal Military Academy, formed in 1741 at Woolwich, where it remained as a separate establishment, training gentlemen cadets for the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers, until it closed on the outbreak of WW II in 1939. The Royal Military College, which trained gentlemen cadets for the cavalry and infantry, originally at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and later at Sandhurst, Berkshire, was not founded until 1799. This too closed in 1939 and a combined establishment reopened in 1947 as the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. The English East India Company maintained its own Military Seminary (patterned on the Royal Military Academy) at Addiscombe, near London from 1809 to 1861. In Austria, the first military college, known by the name of its foundress, the Empress Maria Theresa, was formed at Wiener Neustadt in 1748. In France, a school of military engineering was opened at Mézières in 1748, followed by a school of artillery in 1756. Swept away by the Revolution as relics of the ancien régime, their role was assumed in 1795 by the new École Polytechnique. This soon became, and remains, the most prestigious scientific academy in France, producing not only officers for artillery and engineers, but also for the technical branches of the navy, and other government departments. The corresponding school for future officers of the line, the École Spéciale Militaire, was established at Saint-Cyr in 1802. In Prussia, the Scharnhorst reconstruction of its military system after being humiliated by Napoleon at Jena/Auerstadt in 1806, converted the Ritterakadamie at Berlin into the Kriegsakademie, a military academy of the modern type. Even so minor a power as Portugal set up an Academia Real de Fortifiçao e Defesso in 1790 and formed an all-arms cadet college in 1837.

The possession of a military academy became one of the symbols of independent nationhood. The first to be formed outside Europe was the US Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, originally projected at the time of the foundation of the Republic, but not actually opened (from Congressional reluctance to encourage the development of a professional army) until 1812. At first combined with the Corps of Engineers (at that time, as in all armies, composed only of officers) the USMA became an all-arms academy. Its graduates were intended not only to play a part in the development of their nation and the garrisoning of its frontiers, but also to act as a cadre for the untrained militia or volunteers on whom its defence rested in time of major war. A similar role, with many making their careers in civil life, was performed by the graduates of the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, founded in 1839, and the Military College of South Carolina (the Citadel), established in 1842. The Royal Military Colleges of Canada and Australia, opened respectively at Kingston, Ontario, in 1874 and Duntroon, Canberra, in 1911, also had a nation-building role, signalling the emergence of their countries as self-governing dominions with their own armed forces. In British India, the formation of the Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun in 1932 was a long-awaited step on the road to self-government. The Heroic Military College of Mexico was formed in 1823, two years after independence. The National Military College of Argentina traces its descent from the Academia Militar de Matematicas, founded by General Belgrano in 1812 and an academy for infantry and cavalry cadets, established by the provisional government of the United Provinces of the River Plate in 1817.

Military academies are not combat units and their cadets are of infinitely more value as potential officers than as fighting soldiers. In extreme circumstances some have undertaken active service, with the military instructors and professors at the head of their students in the ultimate practical demonstration of what they taught. Among the most famous examples are the École Polytechnique, which manned a battery at the Barrière du Trône, defending Paris against the Allies (30 March 1814) ; the Heroic Military College of Mexico, whose title commemorates its cadets (niũos heróicos), who fought in the battle of Chapultepec, defending Mexico City against the Americans in the Mexican war, and the Virginia Military Institute, at the battle of New Market, Virginia, on 15 May 1864, where its cadets captured a Union battery and gained a Confederate victory. Officer cadets fought as military units in the 1917-20 Russian civil war. In 1940, in a similar emergency, the French military academy at Saumur was also mobilized to fight as a military unit.

Bibliography

  • Barnard, Henry, Military Schools etc of France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Sardinia, England and the United States (repr. West Point, 1969).
  • Stephens, Michael D., The Educating of Armies (London, 1989)

— Tony Heathcote

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US Military History Companion: Service Academies: U.S. Military Academy
 

This entry is a subentry of Service Academies.

The U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, located fifty miles north of New York City on the west bank of the Hudson River, originated as a Revolutionary War fortress. After the war it became a military stores depot. George Washington, however, advocated a military academy to train professional officers, and Thomas Jefferson saw an academy as a way to create a “republican” officer corps. On 16 March 1802, Jefferson signed the act establishing a military academy at West Point, the first American school of engineering.

West Point's existence remained tenuous until Sylvanus Thayer arrived as superintendent in 1817. Thayer studied European military academies after the War of 1812 and modeled USMA on the French Ecole Polytechnique. Under Thayer, the “Father of the Military Academy,” West Point became the nation's premier school for civil engineering. Thayer established a four‐year curriculum and annual examinations. The books he secured in Europe became America's first technical library. His insistence upon strict discipline, integrity, small classes, and daily recitations placed the burden for learning upon cadets. Thayer's “system,” copied throughout the United States, survives at West Point today.

West Point was criticized by many during its early years as being wasteful and aristocratic. Alden Partridge, an 1807 graduate and later superintendent, became an unrelenting critic of both USMA and Thayer, who had replaced him. Instead, Partridge advocated regional military schools like Norwich, which he founded after leaving the army. Other critics included Congressman Davy Crockett of Tennessee, who claimed that West Point taught undemocratic values and was too expensive. Fortunately, West Point enjoyed support from other influential Americans, including President Andrew Jackson, who declared it to be “the best school in the world.”

The critics were mostly silenced by the performance of the academy's graduates. When American expansion demanded engineers for internal improvements, West Point provided them. Most railroad lines built before the Civil War involved academy graduates. Others mapped new territory, and supervised roadbuilding, canal construction, and harbor improvements. However, West Pointers mainly achieved fame in battle, beginning with the Mexican War, where junior officers like Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson practiced what they had studied under Professor Dennis Hart Mahan, a disciple of the Swiss war philosopher, Antoine Henri Jomini.

Despite its superintendents' efforts, including those of Lee, the growing rift between North and South disrupted West Point life. When the Civil War began, most Southern cadets resigned and most Southern alumni sided with their native region. West Point graduates dominated in the Civil War, commanding both sides in fifty‐five of the sixty major battles and one side or the other in the other five. West Pointer Jefferson Davis served as president of the Confederacy; the contesting armies were commanded by the likes of Lee, “Stonewall” Jackson, Joseph E. Johnston, Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip H. Sheridan, George B. McClellan, and George Gordon Meade.

West Point stagnated after the Civil War, as the army was reduced to frontier constabulary duties. But America's colonial expansion after the Spanish‐American War and entry in World War I returned USMA graduates to prominence. Col. George W. Goethals supervised the building of the Panama Canal. John J. Pershing led the American Expeditionary Force in France and Chief of Staff Peyton C. March mobilized and trained the army. March also revitalized the academy by appointing Douglas MacArthur superintendent in 1919. MacArthur introduced curricular and other reforms, liberalizing USMA's course of study for the first time in a century and insisting upon every cadet being an athlete.

The Reserve Officer Training Corps and Officer Candidate Schools bolstered the army's officer corps in World War II, but West Point continued to furnish many of the highest ranking officers for the army and air force. Four of the five men promoted to five‐star General of the Army rank—MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Hap” Arnold, and Omar Bradley—were West Pointers. Over 85 percent of living West Point graduates served in the armed forces during World War II, 10 percent as general officers, including George S. Patton, Joseph Stilwell, and Mark Clark.

The advent of nuclear weapons and the Cold War limited warfare in scope and resources. Difficult conflicts tested West Pointers MacArthur, Matthew B. Ridgway, and Maxwell Taylor in Korea, and William C. Westmoreland and Creighton Abrams in Vietnam. These experiences also changed the academy's curriculum, broadening cadets' education in humanities. Reform superintendents, like Taylor and Garrison Davidson, pointed to military governors such as Lucius Clay in Germany and Douglas MacArthur in Japan to justify requiring more history, languages, economics, political science, and international relations. A 1960s building program supported doubling the Corps of Cadets, to over 4,000.

Although Henry O. Flipper, the first black graduate of West Point, graduated in 1877, black cadets were not treated well generally and only three African Americans graduated from West Point before 1941. These attitudes began to change following the integration of the armed forces after World War II, and minority recruitment increased significantly in the 1960s. After much controversy, USMA also admitted its first women cadets in 1976. Since the end of the Cold War, graduates have participated in expeditionary warfare, as in the Persian Gulf War, where Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf commanded Coalition Forces against Iraq.

The U.S. Military Academy's mission remains essentially as in 1802: to provide leaders of character, imbued with the academy's motto, “Duty, Honor, Country,” to serve the common defense. In 1994, the academy produced its 50,000th graduate.

[See also African Americans in the Military; Education, Military; Leadership, Concepts of Military; Women in the Military.]

Bibliography

  • Stephen E. Ambrose, Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point, 1966.
  • Dave Richard Palmer, The River and the Rock, 1969.
  • John P. Lovell, Neither Athens Nor Sparta? The American Service Academies in Transition, 1979.
  • James L. Morrison, Jr., The Best School in the World, 1986.
  • Theodore J. Crackel, The Illustrated History of West Point, 1991.
  • George S. Pappas, To The Point: The United States Military Academy, 1802–1902, 1993
 
US Military Dictionary: military academy
Top

A public or private school that educates and trains professional officers for the armed forces. The four major military service academies in the United States, one for each branch of the armed forces, are the U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, U.S. Military Academy, and U.S. Naval Academy. Graduates of these schools must serve five years of active duty in exchange for the government-provided education they receive. Private, state-supported military academies include The Citadel and the Virginia Military Institute.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

 
US History Encyclopedia: Military Academy
Top

During his presidency, George Washington pushed Congress to create a military academy for professional military training of promising youths. In 1794 Congress established a School for Artillerists and Engineers at West Point, New York, but it was a training school, not a professional one. The establishment of a true military academy did not occur until 1802, when President Thomas Jeffereson provided for a formal military academy at West Point. Jonathan Williams was the first superintendent (1801–1803, 1805–1812), followed by Joseph G. Swift (1812–1814) and Alden Partridge (1815–1817).

The academy initially languished for lack of congressional support. When the War of 1812 began, the academy existed only on paper. Spurred to action, Congress passed an act on 29 April 1812 providing for a reorganization, a maximum of 250 cadets, and age and mental requirements for admission. Not until Major Sylvanus Thayer took over as superintendent on 28 July 1817 did the academy begin truly to fulfill the purposes envisioned by its founders. Thayer, known as the father of the military academy, was superintendent for sixteen years (1817– 1833). He expanded the curriculum, introduced a new system of order, organization, and discipline, and left a lasting mark on the academy.

The U.S. Military Academy was for many years the only engineering school in the country, and its graduates, working both as civil and military engineers, were largely responsible for planning and directing the building of major canals, roads, and railroads in the period before the Civil War. The Mexican-American War meanwhile proved the value of West Point education in the training of army officers; academy graduates in the middle and lower officer ranks were largely responsible for the new professionalism demonstrated by the U.S. Army in Mexico. In the Civil War, West Point graduates dominated the higher positions on both sides, furnishing about 150 Confederate and 300 Union generals.

After the Civil War, with the rise of civilian engineering schools, the Military Academy lost its preeminent position in this field and, with appropriate curriculum changes, became an institution for training officers of all branches of the army. An act of Congress on 13 July 1866 transferred supervision from the Corps of Engineers to the War Department. From 1865 to 1914, most academy graduates pursued military careers, and in World War I they nearly monopolized the higher ranks. During World War II, graduates of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) claimed an increasing place in the sun, though 70 percent of full generals and 65 percent of all lieutenant generals were graduates of West Point.

After each of the world wars there were extensive curriculum changes to keep abreast of new developments in military art and technology. After World War II there was a progressive increase in the use of modern technology in the cadet's education. The academy introduced electives and fields of concentration. In 1975 the academy began admitting women, who by the 1990s made up more than 10 percent of the school's cadets. Enrollment has grown progressively from 10 students in 1802 and 250 in 1812 to 1,960 in 1935, 2,496 in 1942, and 4,417 in 1975. In the 1990s, enrollment was capped at roughly 4,000, but the military academy has seen a growing number of applicants interested in the discipline of army training. The United States Military Academy will celebrate its bicentennial in 2002.

Bibliography

Ambrose, Stephen E. Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966.

Ellis, Joseph J. School for Soldiers: West Point and the Profession of Arms. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

Franke, Volker. Preparing for Peace: Military Identity, Value Orientations, and Professional Military Education. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1999.

Ruggero, Ed. Duty First: West Point and the Making of American Leaders. New York: Harper Collins, 2001.

 
Wikipedia: Military academy
Top

A military academy or service academy (in American English) is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps of the Army, the Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard or provides education in a service environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned.

Three types of academy exists: High school-level institutions awarding academic qualifications, university-level institutions awarding Bachelor's degree level qualification, and those preparing officer cadets for commissioning into the armed services of the state.

Contents

Afghanistan

Argentina

Argentine Army

Argentine Navy

  • Escuela Naval Militar (Naval Military School), located in Río Santiago, Buenos Aires

Argentine Air Force

  • Escuela de Aviación Militar (Military Aviation School), located in the city of Córdoba

Australia

Bangladesh

Belgium

Brazil

Has several military academies, and the biggest is Academia Militar de Agulhas Negras (AMAN) in the municipality of Resende, in state of Rio de Janeiro, in the southeast of that country.

Bulgaria

Canada

Canada currently has one military-theme private boarding school open for students at the pre-university level, Robert Land Academy (RLA), which is located in West Lincoln, Ontario. Founded in 1977, it is an all-boys' institute whose funding arises solely from tuition fees. The Academy is an institute fully accredited by the province of Ontario, which accepts students from Grade 6 to Grade 12 (the Ontario Academic Credit level).

Canada formerly had three university level service academies, the Canadian Military Colleges. These included the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario, Royal Roads Military College (RRMC) in Victoria, British Columbia and the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean (CMR) in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec. RMC was founded in 1876, RRMC in 1941 and CMR in 1954. [1] By the 60s all three institutions were providing *military education to officer cadets of all three elements in the Canadian Forces; the navy, army and air force; and RMC received the authority to grant academic degrees in Arts, Science and Engineering. [2]

Graduates of the Colleges are widely acknowledged to have had a disproportionate impact in the Canadian services and society, thanks to the solid foundations provided by their military education. [3] In the modern era, emphasis was placed on a broad based, liberal education including core courses in the humanities, social, pure and applied sciences. Military discipline and training, as well as a focus on physical fitness and fluency in both of Canada's two official languages, English and French, provided cadets with ample challenges and a very fulfilling experience. [4] In 1995 the Department of National Defence was forced to close Royal Roads Military College and Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean due to budget considerations, but Royal Military College of Canada continues to carry the proud tradition educating Canada's future leaders into the twenty-first century. [5] The Royal Roads University reopened as a civilian university. In 2007, the Department of National Defence reopened Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean as a two year college.

China, People's Republic of

China, Republic of

Czech Republic

Univerzita obrany (University of Defence)
http://www.unob.cz/en/

Denmark

Egypt

Finland

France

Undergraduate academies :

Postgraduate academies :

  • Institut des hautes études de la défense nationale (Defense Postgraduate Institute)
  • École d'État-major (Staff School)
  • Collège d'enseignement supérieur de l'armée de terre (Army Higher Education College)
  • Collège interarmées de défense (Defense Joint College)

The Ecole Polytechnique, though its students are enlisted in the military, is no longer a military academy, as very few of its graduates remain in the military after graduation.

Germany

In Germany there exists a system which clearly differs from the common ones. The only true military academies are in fact the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr where mainly future staff officers and general staff officers are further trained and the Naval Academy Mürwik. The standard education in military leadership is the task of the Offizierschulen (officer's schools) run by the three branches. The contents differ from branch to branch. In the army all officer's are at least trained to lead a platoon. There they also have to pass an officer exam to become commissioned later on. Moreover there exist so called Waffenschulen like infantry school or artillery school. There the officer's learn to deal with the typical tasks of their respective corps. A specialty of the German concept of officer formation is the academic education. Germany runs two own Universities of the German Federal Armed Forces where almost every future officer has to pass non-military studies and achieve a Bachelor's or Master's degree. During their studies (after at least three years of service) the candidates become commissioned Leutnant (second-lieutenant).

Greece

The Hellenic Armed Forces have military academies supervised by each branch of the Armed Forces individually:

India

Indonesia

Akademi Angkatan Bersenjata Republic Indonesia (Indonesia Military Academy)[1] Founded in Yogyakarta, October 13, 1945 in order of General Staff Chief of Indonesia Army Leut. Gen Urip Sumoharjo with name Militaire Academie (MA) Yogyakarta. Now, Tentara Nasional Indonesia (National Military of Indonesia), placed each academy into:

Indonesian Army

Indonesian Air Force

  • Akademi Angkatan Udara - AAU (Air Force Academy), located in Yogyakarta, Province of Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta

Indonesian Navy

  • Akademi Angkatan Laut - AAL (Naval Academy), located in Surabaya, Province of Jawa Timur

Italy

University level institutions:

Japan

Korea, South

The three main military academies:

Other military academies:

Malaysia

Secondary level institutions:

University Level of Education

Specialist Training & Staff institutions:

Reserve Officer Training Units (Malay: Pasukan Latihan Pegawai Simpanan or PALAPES) or ROTU exists only in public universities in Malaysia. This is a tertiary institution based officer commissioning program to equip students as officer cadets with military knowledge and understanding for service as Commissioned Officers in the reserve components of the various branches of the Malaysian Armed Forces.

Mexico

University level institutions:

Netherlands

New Zealand

Tier One - Initial Officer Training

Tier Two - Junior Officer Education

Tier Three - Senior Officer Education

Norway

Undergraduate officer training

Postgraduate training

  • Norwegian Defence Staff College, Oslo (Joint)
  • Norwegian National Defence College, Oslo (Civil Service/Very senior officers)

Pakistan

The Pakistan Military Academy is the sole supplier of officers to the Pakistan Army while the Pakistan Air Force Academy supplies officers and fighter pilots to the Pakistan Air Force. The officers for the Pakistan Navy are supplied by the Pakistan Naval Academy.

Peru

Undergraduate officer training

Philippines

The Philippine Military Academy (PMA) is the training school for future officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It was established as an Officer's School of the Philippine Constabulary on February 17, 1905 at Intramuros, Manila, but was relocated on September 1, 1908 in Baguio City.

Romania

In Romania there are military academies for every military branch:

  • Land Forces:
  • Air Forces:
    • Academia Fortelor Aeriene (Air Forces Academy), located in Braṣov.
  • Naval Forces:
    • Academia Fortelor Navale (Naval Forces Academy), located in Constanṭa.

There is also a technical military academy:

Serbia

Military Academy Belgrade

Singapore

Spain

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has one defense university taking cadets from all three armed services , 3 non-university level Military Academies, one for each armed service providing basic training for officer and a Command and Staff College for senior officers of the three armed services. The General Sir John Kotelawala Defense University, was established in 1980 and is named after Gen. Sri John Kotelawala the 2nd Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

University
Officer training
Staff training

Soviet Union

Sweden

Military Academy Karlberg

Turkey

United Kingdom

The 149th Sovereign's Parade in front of Old College, RMA Sandhurst.

Pre-University level institutions:

  • Welbeck College - Sixth form college for 16 to 18 year olds providing A-Level education in preparation for entry into the British Armed Forces or Ministry of Defence Civil Service as Technical Officers, following undergraduate education.
  • Duke of York's Royal Military School - for the children of service men and women.

Officer training

Postgraduate and staff training

No longer operational:

Paralleling the way the School Cadet forces work at a pre-university level, at the university level there are the University Royal Naval Units, University Officer Training Corps (UOTC) and University Air Squadrons. However the mission of the UOTC is not the training of officers[6].

United States

US Air Force Academy cadets

The United States is almost unique in that the term "military academy" does not necessarily mean an institution run by the armed forces to train its own military officers; it may also mean a middle school, high school or tertiary-level college, whether public or private, which instructs its students in military-style education, discipline and tradition.

Many public high schools offer Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs sponsored by the United States Armed Forces.

  • The term military school primarily refers to pre-collegiate (middle and high school) institutions. Military schools were once far more common than they are today; see the extensive list of defunct military academies.
  • The term military academy commonly refers to all pre-collegiate, collegiate, and post-collegiate institutions, yet graduate institutions, catering for officers already in service, are often considered separately and termed staff colleges and Graduate Schools.

Military academies can be either private or have government sponsorship from regional (state) or national government.

The colleges operated by the U.S. Federal Government are referred to as the Federal Service Academies and are:

State-sponsored Military Academy:

In addition, several institutions which were at the time of their founding military colleges, maintain both a corps of cadets and a civilian student body. These include:

Along with Virginia Military Institute these institutions are known as the Senior Military Colleges.

Five institutions are considered Military Junior Colleges. These five schools participate in the Army's two-year Early Commissioning Program, an Army ROTC program where qualified students can earn a commission as a Second Lieutenant after only two years of college. The five Military Junior Colleges are:

Note: The terms college and university are interchangeable in the below discussion. They are both used to denote an institution of higher learning which a person might attend after attending high school, typically at age 17, 18, or 19.

Venezuela

Military academies are managed by each branch of the Armed Forces and offer five-year University courses. Enrolled students are Officer Candidates and receive a commission as Sub Teniente or Alférez on graduation.

The terms Escuela Militar or Academia Militar are always used to refer to these higher-education institutions:

Military-style high schools in Venezuela are known as Liceos Militares or Liceos Militarizados. These are managed by the Armed Forces or by private groups, with support and personnel from the Armed Forces.

Pre-collegiate institutions

A military school teaches various ages (middle school, high school, or both) in a manner that includes military traditions and training in military subjects. The vast majority are in the United States. Many military schools are also boarding schools, and others are simply magnet schools in a larger school system. Many are privately run institutions, though some are public and are run by either a public school system (such as the Chicago Public Schools), or by a state.

A common misperception results because some states have chosen to house their child criminal populations in higher-security boarding schools that are run in a manner similar to military boarding schools. These are also called reform schools, and are functionally a combination of school and prison. They attempt to emulate the high standards of established military boarding schools in the hope that a strict structured environment can reform these children. This may or may not be true. However, this should not reflect on the long and distinguished history of military schools; their associations are traditionally those of high academic achievement, with solid college preparatory curricula, schooling in the military arts, and considerably esteemed graduates.

Popular culture sometimes shows parents sending or threatening to send unruly children off to military school (or boarding school) to teach them good behavior.

Adult institutions

A college level military academy is an institute of higher learning of things military. It is part of a larger system of military education and training institutions. The primary educational goal at military academies is to provide a high quality education that includes significant coursework and training in the fields of military tactics and military strategy. The amount of non-military coursework varies by both the institution and the country, and the amount of practical military experience gained varies as well.

Military academies may or may not grant university degrees. In the U.S., graduates have a major field of study, earning a Bachelor's degree in that subject just as at other universities. However, in British academies, the graduate does not achieve a university degree, since the whole of the one-year course (nowadays undertaken mainly but not exclusively by university graduates) is dedicated to military training.

There are two types of military academies: national (government-run) and state/private-run.

  • Graduates from national academies are typically commissioned as officers in the country's military. The new officers usually have an obligation to serve for a certain number of years. In some countries (e.g. Britain) all military officers train at the appropriate academy, whereas in others (e.g. the United States) only a percentage do and the service academies are seen as institutions which supply service-specific officers within the forces (about 15 percent of US military officers).
  • State or private-run academy graduates have no requirement to join the military after graduation, although some schools have a high rate of graduate military service. Today, most of these schools have ventured away from their military roots and now enroll both military and civilian students. The only exception in the United States is the Virginia Military Institute which remains all-military.

See also

References

  1. ^ H16511 Dr. Richard Arthur Preston "To Serve Canada: A History of the Royal Military College of Canada" 1997 Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1969.
  2. ^ 4237 Dr. Adrian Preston & Peter Dennis (Edited) "Swords and Covenants" Rowman And Littlefield, London. Croom Helm. 1976.
  3. ^ H16511 Dr. Richard Preston "R.M.C. and Kingston: The effect of imperial and military influences on a Canadian community" 1968
  4. ^ H1877 R. Guy C. Smith (editor) "As You Were! Ex-Cadets Remember". In 2 Volumes. Volume I: 1876-1918. Volume II: 1919-1984. Royal Military College. [Kingston]. The R.M.C. Club of Canada. 1984
  5. ^ "To Serve Canada: A History of the Royal Military College since the Second World War", Ottawa, University of Ottawa Press, 1991.
  6. ^ "University Officer Training Corps About Us". Ministry of Defence. http://www2.army.mod.uk/uotc/about_us.htm. "UOTCs are military units but it is not about training students for war. Many UOTC members do go on to join the Armed Forces, both full and part time, but the majority have no further contact with the forces after they graduate." 

 
 

 

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Military History Companion. The Oxford Companion to Military History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
US Military History Companion. The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Copyright © 2000 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
US Military Dictionary. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
US History Encyclopedia. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Education Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of Education. Copyright © 2002 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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