Published December 14, 2008

Military schools seem to go in and out of favor with the general public. Perhaps that has to do withsome rather common misconceptions about what military schools are and how they operate. Let's take a look.

 

1. They are retirement outposts for retired officers.
Hollywood loves to portray military schools as retirement outposts for disgruntled officers with enormous grudges against just about everything and egos to match. (Think Taps with Timothy Hutton and George C. Scott.) The truth is that most military schools have a headmaster who is styled a commandant or superintendent according to military nomenclature. Becoming an administrator in a military school is a perfectly logical next career step for an officer who has retired from active service usually in his '40's or '50's. Their egos? Most of the them are pretty average. Their job is to run the school, hire the best faculty they can find and manage the finances. That's what any headmaster does.

2. All military schools teach is military stuff.
The truth is that military schools are simply private schools with a particular emphasis. They are no more off the beaten educational path than, say, Christian or Muslim schools are. Put another way, they combine academics with military training. Most parents expect their son or daughter to graduate from a private school and matriculate to college. So, whether you send your daughter to a military school or a prep school for high school, the objective is the same. Only the enrichment focus of the schools will be different. Instead of having 10 hours a week of religious education as you'd find in a parochial school, you will have 10 hours of military history and related subjects.

3. Military school graduates only go into military service.
Some do. Some don't. Many students and their parents see a military high school as a logical first step down the path to military service at some point. But it is just the first step. Going to college is the second step. Military service is step three.

4. Military schools are for students who are troubled.
Military schools are most definitely not alternative schools. Alternative schools are specialized schools catering to children with emotional and other difficulties. Military schools provide a military style structure to every day life. Many parents and students find that appealing and therefore choose to attend a military school.

5. Going to a military school guarantees you a place in one of the service academies.
Going to a military school and doing extraordinarily well in every aspect of your life and work there will help. But the key to getting into one of the service academies is getting nominated by your congressman in addition to meeting the academy's admission requirements.