A Structured Program Based on Equality
A military-style school offers a more structured program with clearly communicated expectations and routines, consistency in the application of rules, and provides students with a predictable framework for success. The certainty created by the environment produces a stable landscape for student development and allows students to flourish.
Conscientiousness, responsibility, and accountability are paramount to the philosophy of military schools. Meeting timings, completing tasks, and organizing belongings are basic, integral aspects of the culture and lifestyle on campus, helping students improve their executive functioning.
Inherent in the military model is the theme of equality by providing uniform standards, dress codes, and rules. Rather than focusing on the superficial aspects of teenage life (i.e. clothing, material goods, etc.), students learn the value of their actions, behaviours, and beliefs to realize the content of their character is the most significant factor in shaping their interactions with others.
A Holistic Approach
Adopting a military model permits schools to use a holistic approach to student development. By educating the whole person, a military school education reaches students’ minds, bodies, and souls, allowing them to reach their academic, physical, and moral potential.
Focus on Academics
By removing obstacles and distractions that limit success, students receiving a military school education often achieve improved grades. Class sizes are small. Mandatory study halls are supervised. Teachers offer tutorials to support student achievement. The classrooms are engaging, collaborative, and inclusive instructive environments.
Creating that kind of learning environment emphasizes the importance of communication and critical thinking skills. Connecting ideas, asking questions, formulating cogent arguments, identifying relevance, testing theories, and synthesizing all you know and as much as you can learn from others creates a mind that is prepared for the unpredictability of life.
Military-inspired schools prioritize the construction of a distraction-free environment, which means that students focus in the classroom and outside of it and find positive, healthy outlets such as sports, extracurricular clubs, and the adventure activities offered in the program.
Healthy, Active Living
A military lifestyle also prioritizes healthy physical activity. The daily routine offers students a disciplined template for wellness, self-care, and hygiene. At the Academy, students are nourished with healthy, unprocessed, fresh foods and maintain healthy sleep patterns.
Extracurricular activities are plentiful, including various clubs, sports teams, and outdoor activities. Every cadet at the Academy engages in a regimented fitness training and testing program to assess, monitor, and improve physical well-being.
The goal is to create lifelong habits emphasizing wellness, physical activity, and a healthy lifestyle.
A Character-Building Experience
Finally, student citizenship is emphasized at military academies as students are challenged to develop their moral character. A central, ever-present theme in a military atmosphere is teamwork. Students live and eat together in units, achieving goals together and supporting one another through the challenges of everyday life.
Through the experience, students develop resilience, strength of character, and a strong work ethic. Incentives built into the military model reinforce student success, and leadership opportunities exist for highly-motivated students.
Preparation for the Future
Most students who attend military-style schools do not pursue a career in the armed forces. Instead, the education they receive provides them with lifelong transferable values such as self-discipline, accountability, responsibility, citizenship, and commitment.
