Courses and Methods are Rigid

The academics of the Fourth Class Year do not sound difficult. They consist of advanced algebra, plane and solid geometry, trigonometry, plane analytic geometry, French and English. The Plebe has two subjects a day, Math and French or English, alternating. He also has physical training each day, but this does not require outside preparation. However, even if these subjects do not seem hard to those on the outside, they are, and this is what makes them so. Before the Plebe entered here, in other schools he spent most of the time in classes, being instructed.

Here, the instructors hand out a long lesson and the Plebe must teach himself, for when he gets to class he is expected more to recite and less to be instructed. More than three-fourths of classroom work is recitation. This requires a new method of study. That is what makes Plebe year so hard, not the number of subjects but the acquiring of the new way of learning. The main cause of men failing in a course is because they have not learned how to study.

However, that is the hard side of Plebe life. There are many diversions open to the Plebe. He can find time to read, to visit the library. There are always athletic event to see and there is a plebe team in every sport. He is not allowed to go to the Saturday evening hops, but there are always moving pictures on these nights. And over the week end, he can escort his visitors around the Post, and dine with them at the Hotel. There are many pleasant things to do during his spare time. And the Plebe has more time of his own than any man of the upper three classes.

Vacations are an Oasis

The big time of the Plebe year is Christmas. While the other classes are on their ten day leave, the Plebe is "at ease." His class runs the Academy during that time. They furnish the acting cadet officers, have hops of their own and are free to wander around the Post. The Plebe always meets young ladies at the Christmas hops, and the social activities of the week are always looked forward to.

I remember the hops, the big holiday dinners, the eating "at ease", the carefree feeling that creeps over one, the heavy boxes from home, the Christmas tree in the mess hall, and other things. But, I certainly cannot forget the terrible silence at the first meal to which the other three classes returned. That ominous silence meant that there were five more months till Graduation.

June Week Not for Plebes

Those five months go more rapidly than would seem. The Plebe has new things to do and learn, and by this time he has his individual method of doing the old thing, and a good system of study. And so, the year moves on until that grand time, June Week, comes. This means practically confinement to the Plebe. He is to be seen and heard at meals and formations only. But he knows that when Graduation Parade comes at the end of the week he has passed successfully through a year, meant to test the best and worst in a man, a year of the most strenuous mental and physical building given in any school of the country