U.S. Army West Point
The full name of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is the "U.S. Army Military Academy". It is a school for the U.S. Army to train junior Army officers because the school is located in Hudson, a northern suburb of New York City. On the "elbow-shaped" triangular rock slope on the Canyon River, this point is called "West Point" by the locals, so it is also customarily called "West Point Military Academy".
West Point campus and affiliated teaching areas are located in the mountains on the upper reaches of the Hudson River, surrounded by mountains and rivers, with beautiful scenery, and a total area of ??16,000 hectares. A series of Gothic-style buildings are surrounded by rolling hills from the inside out. The inner circle is the main campus area, consisting of teaching buildings, student areas, sports fields and activity centers; the outer circle includes winter ski resorts, golf courses, training and camping areas, etc. The entire building complex is centered around the school's large sports ground, and the principal's dormitory is located next to the large sports ground, symbolizing the close relationship between the principal and the students. The principal is usually a three-star lieutenant general.
In the 200-year history of West Point Military Academy, it has trained many American military talents, 3,700 of whom have become generals. Famous ones include Grant, the commander-in-chief of the Union Army in the American Civil War, General Lee, the commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army, Pershing, the commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, and MacArthur, the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Allied Forces in World War II. Eisenhower, Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces in the European Theater, Bradley, Commander of the 12th Army Group, Patton, Commander of the 3rd Army, Stilwell, Commander of the China-India-Burma Theater, Weisbrandt, Commander of the US Invasion of Vietnam, Schwartz, Commander of the Gulf War Central Headquarters Kopf, General Clark, the commander of the US military in the Kosovo War, and others. In addition, while West Point has trained a large number of military strategists, it has also trained and created many politicians, entrepreneurs, educators and scientists for the United States. Among the famous ones are: Grant, the 18th President of the United States, Eisenhower, the 24th President, Haig, the 59th Secretary of State, Olmsted, Chairman of the International Bank, DuPont, the arms king, Goethals, the chief engineer of the Panama Canal, the first White, an astronaut who walked in space, and current Secretary of State Powell, etc.
All young people applying for the West Point Military Academy must be U.S. citizens (except for allied cadets), aged 17-22 years old, and 1.68-1.98 meters tall, regardless of race, color, religious belief and gender. Applicants must be at the top of their class in their local high school academic performance, be in good health, and have certain organizational leadership skills. They must also be elected by the President, Vice President, Senators, Representatives, Governors, and Recommendation from mayor or troop director. Even with such strict application conditions, there are still about 10,000 people who register for the exam every year, and about 6,000 people can be recommended and take the exam. Young people who have obtained formal qualifications must also take and pass the university entrance examination organized by the state. After rounds of examinations and tests, more than 2,000 people remain. Then, the admission qualification evaluation committee of each military service cadet comprehensively evaluated the moral, intellectual, physical and other aspects and selected the best. In the end, only 1,400 people were lucky enough to be admitted. From early July 1976, in accordance with the presidential decree, West Point Military Academy began to recruit female students for the first time. The first batch was 119. In the 1990s, the number increased to more than 800, accounting for 1/6 of the total number of students.
After admission, it does not mean that "everything is fine". Every student must be mentally prepared to be eliminated and make corresponding guarantees before entering West Point. Their parents should also fully ensure that they do a good job and avoid future troubles. From the day they enter the school, West Point Military Academy cadets must undergo strict inspection and screening, and implement an optimization and elimination system. The elimination rate for freshmen in the first academic year is 23%. Students who will eventually graduate after four years of study account for about 70% of the total enrollment. The elimination rate for girls is even higher. After graduating from four years of study, students receive a bachelor's degree in science and are awarded the rank of second lieutenant. After graduation, cadets should serve in the military continuously for at least 5 years. While in school, expenses are mainly paid by congressional appropriations, and you can receive a monthly stipend. It’s $70 per month for first-year students, and up to about $200 per month for fourth-year students.
There are ***40 courses for four-year undergraduate students at West Point Military Academy, 30 of which are required courses, mainly mathematics, engineering, English, history, social sciences, psychology and national security topics. The 10 elective courses include basic science, applied science, engineering, humanities, national security affairs and public affairs. Each subject is also divided into details.
In teaching, West Point attaches great importance to the use of new technologies to assist teaching, so that the military academy's classroom teaching has reached an excellent level, especially in the aspect of teaching technology, it has achieved the integration of audio-visual teaching.
There are two points worth mentioning about the teaching of West Point, which are of great significance for us to understand and learn from its successful experience. One is "Beast Camp". West Point's fourth president, Sylvanus Thayer, created a complete education and training system for West Point during his 15 years in office. He spread West Point's principles, West Point's temperament, and West Point's beliefs throughout the country. The most famous one is that West Point has established a strict and monotonous life system based on the teaching goals of morality, intelligence, military and physical education. The "Beast Camp" has become a filter for freshmen's entrance education, and the elimination rate at this stage is as high as 15%. In the "Beast Camp", the energetic middle and senior students regard teasing the new students as the best way to vent their anger. The middle and senior students can punish the new students physically, mentally torture and humiliate their personality at will. Many people were left with severe mental and physical trauma. This situation did not change until MacArthur became principal. However, by this time, "Beast Camp" had become a strict training tradition for the U.S. military - not only at West Point, but also throughout the U.S. military, so all MacArthur could do was to make "Beast Camp" a little gentler! The second is to simulate a hostile state. At West Point, there is also a simulated hostility between students and tactical instructors, which is conducive to maintaining the tension of American soldiers on the battlefield. It is said that one year, West Point students kept hamsters as pets in the school. This was of course not tolerated by the West Point instructors. However, with the students' clever disguise and tacit cooperation, the patrolling instructors could only find the fur of the hamsters. Paw prints! The last instructor, nicknamed "Owl", conducted a thorough search. Although nothing was found, his professionalism and the wisdom he displayed during the search were recognized by the students. When he returned to the office, he saw Here comes a little hamster wrapped in a flag of truce!
West Point’s school motto is “Country, Honor, and Responsibility.” West Point trains not only soldiers, but elites in American society. This is the most eye-catching aspect of its schooling process. place. One of the fundamental reasons why West Point is full of vitality, eternally youthful, enduring, and always attracts the attention of the world is that it insists on reforming its internal mechanisms. On the battlefield, the "decisive" motivation is "belief in one's own power to win." Therefore, MacArthur, the 30th president, believed that military school education “should focus on the changing world, the complex future, and the continuous modernization of military technology.” When later generations evaluated his reforms, they said: It was he who brought the traditional West Point Military Academy into the modern 20th century. Most of the modern and talented students he trained became the leadership group of the US military in World War II. But no matter how West Point develops, West Point people will always remember their school motto: Country, Honor, and Responsibility. This is actually the spirit of West Point and the national motto of the United States. Because the students at West Point know very well that in the beast camp, you can only persevere if you keep an alert mind and quick reactions. This has actually become the "core" driving force for the reform of the U.S. military. In today's US military, most generals and officers came from West Point, and their spiritual strength also came from West Point. This spirit means that while they have the most powerful military power, they still maintain a sense of spiritual crisis and struggle. The famous saying of that American celebrity is: Struggle, struggle, and struggle again, and the development of the U.S. military today is exactly that: stronger, stronger, stronger.
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