Comment of the day: What he learned from 6 years of teaching at West Point

This one,
from "Catullus,"
caught my eye:

-- 

After six years teaching at West Point, I
came to the
same conclusion as Tom: What the hell are we wasting
our money for? The cadets are on average far less attentive than
normal college kids, and they are sequestered in an environment that imposes
the burden of their success upon their teachers in an alarmingly
disproportionate way. It was damn hard to fail a cadet. That was a sickening
experience for me personally as a teacher.  What mattered more at WP was
religion and, as an extension of religion, the creation of a weirdly
narrow perspective on the importance of the place and its denizens. It was flat-out perverse in the level of self-deception it fostered. Sorry, but the place
left a palpable bad taste in my mouth. The "character building"
aspect of its pretensions was the most appalling. How do you, on an individual
level, develop character when you have a safety-net strung below you and
the institution holds teachers responsible for your success or failure?
It's nonsense."