They're probably reading it under the module "know your enemy."
Unusual as it may seem but West Point has always been at the forefront
of military education, way beyond Sandhurst or Saint-Cyr. The Civil
War generals measured each other by their graduation number, they had
to take exams to enter at a time when most 1st world armies still sold
commissions. Officers graduate from West Point with a BSc; knowing
your sums probably makes for a better class of killer.
Roger
On 9/29/07, TheOldMole <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> http://web.ncf.ca/ek867/ball.howl.jpg
>
> Jon Corelis wrote:
> > A long time ago I read somewhere the following story, told by someone
> > who had taught English at West Point.
> >
> > In the time of this story (I'm not sure if it's still the same,) the
> > method of instruction at West Point classes was that the professor
> > would call students in turn in class. The student when called would
> > stand at attention and the professor would ask the student a question.
> > When the question had been answered and discussed, that student would
> > sit down, and the professor would call on another.
> >
> > Well, it seems that at one point the class were studying Keats's "The
> > Eve of St. Agnes," and the professor, wanting to be sure that all the
> > students at least understood the narrative, was calling on each of the
> > students in turn, asking each of them to describe in their own words
> > what was happening in the poem.
> >
> > About halfway through the class, the professor called on one student
> > who stood to attention and said, "Sir!" The professor asked him to
> > please tell the class, in his own words, what was going on in the
> > poem's 23rd stanza. The student said, "Sir! As the woman entered the
> > room, simultaneously a large South American mammal exited through the
> > door, Sir!"
> >
> > The professor, unable to credit his hearing, asked the student to
> > repeat his answer, and it was the same. "And how," asked the
> > professor, "did you arrive at that interpretation?"
> >
> > "Sir!" answered the student, "I verified the animal's name in a
> > reference book, Sir!"
> >
> > The first line of stanza 23 of Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes" is:
> >
> > "Out went the taper as she hurried in ..."
> >
> >
>
> --
> Tad Richards
> http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
> http://opusforty.blogspot.com/
>
--
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"In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."
Roman Proverb
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