The instructor at West Point has one great advantage over his fellow instructors in the colleges. His time is not occupied with trifling on the part of the students. The cadets are so thoroughly disciplined by the Tactical Department that their deportment in class is irreproachable. It is very rare that the recitation is interrupted to make corrections other than academic. The cadets are held to a high standard of discipline all the time. In class they are not permitted to communicate with one another, but they talk freely with the instructor about points in the lesson.
So much for the actual recitation, the conduct of which seems so smooth and simple. In the background, however, there is an admirable organization that strives for a maximum of efficiency in the instruction.
Every department consists of the Professor or Head of the Department, an assistant professor, and the requisite number of instructors which varies with the size of the classes. In the Departments of Mathematics and Modern Languages, each of which instructs two classes, the Professor is aided by an associate professor, besides the assistants.
The Professor is in complete control of his entire department. He prepares the courses of instruction, recommends the adoption of new text-books, or abolition of those in use, apportions the work among his instructors, conducts and supervises the conferences of his instructors, prepares and supervises the examination of the classes pursuing his course, is responsible for all property belonging to his department, and is the channel through which must pass all reports and official communications relating to departmental affairs.
In nearly all of the departments the Professor is able to standardize the instruction of the cadets by means of conferences with his instructors. These meetings are informal, partaking more of the nature of a _conversazione_ in which the Professor outlines his wishes to his officers, emphasizing the points of the lesson that he wishes brought out. The conferences also offer to the instructors the opportunity to make suggestions to the Head of the Department in regard to the section-room work, pointing out the success or failure of certain features of the previous lesson.