All through her life, my dd has thumbed her nose at rules she deemed "stupid." We would punish her and she would accept her punishment, but honestly, if she thought the rule was stupid, she would break it again. Fortunately, she was agreeable to most rules, so she was able to stay out of trouble and do well in school.
She excelled in Beast where there was no room for her interpretation of the rules, but once they got a little bit of freedom she decided to test the rules of a 102 year old institution. It bit back, hard and in 6 months, West Point cured her of something we could not do in 18 years.
She always thought walking back and forth on concrete was a "ridiculous" punishment but now freely admits that the loss of freedom during her only free time makes her think twice before doing anything outside of the rules. (She wears the Century patch--but earned those hours in one fell swoop--like I said, it was a BIG infraction)
. In addition, West Point enrolled her in a program which made her evaluate her thoughts and actions and the thoughts and actions of others and she matured in her decision making ability. Fortunately, her TAC officer recognized her questioning authority as a positive trait that needed refining and he encouraged her to keep questioning, but not totally disregard.
Like most plebes, she questioned whether coming to West Point was the right decision for her, but when she was faced with possible separation, she realized how much she really wanted to be at West Point and has never looked back.
I am not sure that she would have had such a maturing experience in a civilian institution, but I am grateful that West Point was able to fix something that we have been trying 18 years to fix!
