Ethics by the Book for Now and Always

Cadets' character and ethical quality are crucial; they determine the kind of officers who will join the Air Force after they graduate. The texts relating to the ethical traditions aim at building the cadets' character and lay out all the values and principles that a future officer should uphold. In this context, this chapter seeks to investigate the extent to which ethical parameters are present in the Air Force Cadet Wing Honor Code. The authors then want to relate the ethical education provided to the cadets by the academy with their mission after graduation. To accomplish their duties, pilots seem to be influenced by their beliefs, their studies, and of course, the honor code; issues of ethics and the law also influence to a high degree the psychology of pilots and determine to a high extent their reactions and effectiveness. The final goal is to investigate to what extent ethics and the law influence pilots' decisions and are interpreted by fighter aircrafts' pilots of the Hellenic Air Force and attack helicopter pilots of the Hellenic Army.

Impactful Academic Supports for Students Enrolled at Military Colleges

Military colleges have historically been respected and viewed as results-driven institutions of higher learning. These colleges have strong reputations for producing both leaders and scholars. Though gaining admission to a military college is usually somewhat more formidable than the admission process at many civilian colleges, students are accepted with varying academic abilities, skills, and backgrounds. Most of these students, however, are retained, experience academic success, and graduate. The author describes distinct military college academic support initiatives that promote scholarly success among college students, from those who struggle to pass a course to those who want to turn a satisfactory grade into a better grade. Included in those initiatives are tutoring, advising, and mentoring. A case study of the establishment of the Academic Success Center at Marion Military Institute is included, along with data markers indicating the success of the center and its programs.

Exploring the Delphi Report's Critical Thinking Framework for Military School Educationists

This chapter advances the argument that military colleges and universities should infuse and implement critical thinking in learning experiences to explore and develop values, character traits, and leadership skills in students (cadets). The chapter first surveys the literature concerning critical thinking, drawing from historical, philosophical, psychological, and educational evidence. The chapter then elucidates the Delphi Report's findings about CT and contends that military school educationists use the report as a guide for instructional strategies and educational experiences with students (cadets). By embracing the fundamentals of critical thinking through several perspectives and leveraging the elements of CT identified in the Delphi Report, military colleges and universities can initiate a renewed interest in leveraging the advantages of CT in their courses, offering students opportunities to become capable officers, productive citizens, and moral people.

Change and the American Military School's Future

This chapter explores the relationship between change and the American military school. Its objective is to demonstrate that the military school is not only readily adaptable to change, but in the process is an important agent for change. However, reaching that conclusion requires the reader to first understand what is often misunderstood, the nature of a military school. Upon that knowledge of the purpose, organization, process, learning model, and most significantly, the vision and mission of the American military school come the realization that this learning institution can be an effective catalyst for change. It therefore is an important segment of the American educational system and can have a vital role in sustaining America's leadership in the world. Support for that proposition is offered by analyzing how one American military school, the New Mexico Military Institute, has changed in response to a series of challenges to its future such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter deals with leadership, learning, change, and the American military school.

Soft Skills and Leader Development at a Senior Military College

Hiring managers in organizations seek college graduates who possess certain “soft skills” that enable them to be of value immediately upon entering the workforce. In response, many institutions of higher education are using and expanding high impact educational practices to not only improve knowledge acquisition and retention, but also to develop the soft skills that help make students “employable” after college. In U.S. senior military college corps of cadets, soft skills development is nothing new: it has always been part and parcel of their intensive and highly effective leader development programs. Although these programs exist primarily to produce leaders for the military—a public good—graduates contribute to the public good in other sectors of American society as well. This chapter depicts how cadets are transformed into highly effective leaders for the military, and how they contribute in other ways to the good of American society.

Honorable Mismatch

The non-toleration requirement of military school honor codes requiring cadets to report their peers for honor violations is developmentally inappropriate for adolescents in terms of the state of their brain development and emotional maturity because it makes neurological and psychological demands on teens attending military prep schools—many not of their own choosing—that are beyond their developmental and emotional capabilities in several areas. This requirement extends beyond the ken of either the scope of the mission of military prep schools or the neurological and psychological developmental abilities of the adolescent students attending them. Research also shows that it is largely ineffective in reducing honor offenses. To enhance the effectiveness, schools can modify the self-policing aspect by replacing the non-toleration requirement with something more developmentally appropriate while still meaningful, adopt an honor continuum that allows for growth, and implement an honor development approach that contains positive reinforcement and encourages continuous development.

“Formation” in Formation Revisited

Identity and conscience formation and character development in adolescent boys depends upon acquiring human capital via inductive observation, imitation, and experience. Sociality and social interaction are the common denominators of male adolescent identity formation, conscience formation, and character development. Military schools create and sustain developmentally advantageous environments for adolescent boys, and military systems are remarkably effective at facilitating the ideal pairings of “best” educational principles with “best” educational practices and messages for adolescent boys. Military schools are thus exceptionally effective in the formation of the identity and conscience and development of character in adolescent boys because they provide young men with precisely the right types of atmospheres and experiences that are ideally suited to their learning styles. Military schools also enjoy significant educational advantages that allow for developmental agency, facilitate the development of “soft” skills, and help adolescent boys flourish.

Effects of Military Environment on Students' Emotional Intelligence Development

There are 65 military schools in the United States with many sharing the same goals and objectives, which are to develop and prepare students for leadership roles and for post-secondary academic success. Other than anecdotal claims by their alumni, these schools lack the evidence of how this is achieved. This study aims at providing such evidence by assessing the effects of a school's military environment on the students' development of emotional intelligence (IE) as measured by the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short-Form. EI has been associated with academic success and higher leadership effectiveness. This exploratory analysis finds a positive correlation between leadership education level and students' EI scores (r= .28, <; .05), and a regression analysis (F(1, 51)= 4.20, p&lt; .05) predicts and EI score increase of 17% for each year of exposure to the school's military environment. This study suggests that the school's military environment inherently fosters social emotional learning, which in turn positively influences the development of the students' EI.

Developing Leaders of Character at the Federal Service Academies

The chapter provides an overview of the practice of leadership development at the United States Military Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, and the United States Naval Academy. The service-specific mission and core values provide a foundation for a theoretical review of leader, leadership, and human development theories currently implemented at selected service academies. The practical application of these models is then illustrated in an overview of leader and leadership education and training throughout the 47-month academy experience. The chapter concludes with some final thoughts concerning the influence of the military model in traditional colleges, universities, and preparatory schools.

Socioemotional Learning in a Military School Environment

Military boarding schools are in a unique position in the academic field because they create their own ecosystem in which cadets will learn and live. By integrating concepts of Maslow's hierarchy of needs into their practices, military boarding schools are creating educational learning spaces where cadets' needs are being met. Additionally, military boarding schools incorporate character traits such as the Army's seven core values. These values are taught in and out of the classroom and are essential to military boarding school life. Because military schools adopt these values, they also inadvertently adopt the values of social and emotional learning. Because these sets of values are used in tandem with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, students within the military boarding school environment have a higher probability of becoming both academically socially successful.