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To accomplish its mission of developing a corps of decisive, informed, and committed leaders within the settine of an educational institution, the program at each of the federal military service academies employs an explicit resocialization process. This process, one geared to significantly influence the value system of each cadet,(1) begins during summer orientation, is akin to enlisted bootcamp, and is essentially the same at all of the academies. While the military demands of cadet life are relaxed somewhat during the academic year, some aspects, such as the highly regimented and tightly scheduled daily routines, strict enforcement of innumerable regulations, and restriction to institutional grounds during the week, are pervasive throughout the four year program.
The development of particular leadership traits, attitudes, and values may require a complicated balancing act, in which certain aspects of the leadership role must be reinforced in one set of circumstances, and other aspects in different situations. The socialization of apprentice leaders demands, for example, a certain degree of behavioral conformity, while encouraging independent judgment and decision-making. This challenge is not unique to military academies, as Szasz has noted; the goals of any educational institution provide similar discontinuities in basic values.
In the end, the aim of critical teaching can only be to provide conditions favorable for the development of the autonomous personality; whereas the aim of socialization can only be the opposite--to provide conditions favorable for the development of the heteronomous personality.(2)
While Szasz and others have described "socialization" in negative terms, a broader definition of the concept, more common when the term is applied to adults, points to the personality stability that results from commitment to social roles, any one of which may prescribe behavior and attitudes that are incompatible with other roles. The most influential social role in this society is job-related.(3)
Self-selection of occupational choice is influenced by values, interests, and other psychological attributes that develop within the family and peer groups, and result from contact with role models.(4) To the degree that a man or woman identifies with an occupational reference group, the socialization process "changes" the value system in accordance with occupational role definitions. The decision to attend a military academy involves a concomitant commitment to a particular occupational role, that of military officer, and...