Meanwhile the instructors are in the section rooms awaiting the arrival of their classes. Here and there in the windows of the rooms facing the area is an instructor gazing upon this class formation that is the same today as it was years ago, and that awakens in him a flood of memories of his own cadet days when he too set out to recite to an instructor who never seemed quite human. As he looks at the cadets forming, he realizes how distinctly the institution creates its types, and he is able to pick out certain individuals and say to himself:
“There goes so and so of my class!”
The great charm of West Point is that so many things never change. Some of the cadets, sons of graduates, are doing exactly as their fathers did at their age, and again a few cadets are reacting the youth of their grandfathers.
While the instructor is watching the cadets in the area, the section marcher reports to the officer of the day all absentees in his section which he then marches off to the Academic Building. On the sections come in military formation straight to the classroom door. The halls of the building resound to the tramping of many feet as the cadets march along with muffled tread, thanks to O’Sullivan rubber heels that are fitted to every pair of shoes. When opposite the classroom door the section marcher commands:
“Section halt! Fall out!”
The cadets hang up their caps in the hall, file into the room, and stand rigidly at attention behind their desks. The section marcher enters, closes the door, takes his position in the center of the room facing the instructor, salutes, and reports:
“Sir, all are present,” or “Cadet Ducrot is absent.”
Mr. Ducrot now makes his acquaintance with Mathematics, the study that determines more than any other his standing at West Point. From the day that he commences his studies he feels that he must devote the greater amount of time to this subject, and with reason. A perusal of the tables of instruction shows that the greater proportion of time and weight is allotted to the mathematical studies. The total amount of time provided for in the course of instruction, including riding and gymnasium, is 192,900 minutes. If gymnasium and riding are deducted (11,205 and 10,860 minutes, respectively) there are left 170,835 minutes devoted to Academic work. Of this amount the pure mathematical subjects are allotted 76,555 minutes, and the non-mathematical subjects, 94,280 minutes.
These figures represent the time that is actually spent in the recitation work. To give an accurate idea of the draught of these subjects upon the cadet’s time, however, we should estimate the amount of time required for preparation plus the time spent in the section room. The lessons are so assigned that these preparations take the average cadet twice the time allotted to the recitation. Thus, in subjects having an hour and twenty-five minute recitations, the average cadet is expected to spend two hours and fifty minutes in preparation; and in subjects having one hour periods, two hours of preparation. Practical Surveying and Drawing are subjects for which no preparation is required.
Adding the preparation time to the recitation time we find the total relative amounts of time as follows: