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I never considered military schools as "places to train future officers" but rather "last-ditch solution for rich parents to dump slacking-off/expelled from everywhere else kids" until they were old enough to either try to get them into some university for another four years out of the parents' hair or do the traditional "pay them an allowance to stay away from home" (the remittance man).
So yeah, I'm not surprised to hear that the students are mostly 'lumps' - they don't want to be there, they failed out of/got kicked out of everywhere else, they aren't quite delinquent enough for jail/their parents paid off court cases by getting them into military school, and they're just passing the time till they can leave and get on with being lumps.
Yes I'm pretty sure this entire post is based off a misunderstanding of what military schools are. @Eetan can you confirm you understand that military schools are not service academies and have nothing to do with the military? They are closer to the troubled teen industry though likely trying to be a bit more respectable. Though there ARE no shortage of camps in Utah that will use corporal punishment on your children if that's what you want.
Though speaking of neoliberalism I can't think of anything more neoliberal then upper middle class parents who have failed trying to outsource the discipline of your children to paid goons doing god knows what. It's just throwing money at the problem to hire "services" for an issue that should be solved by family and community and is likely cause by a lack of character formation and the parents throwing money to "fix" everything is likely what led to their kids being a spoiled brat in the first place.
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