Kris Kristofferson was in ROTC, then a Rhodes Scholar studying English literature, then a helicopter pilot, and finally an instructor in English at West Point before resigning his commission to pursue a career in country music.
I understand that a large percentage of the instructors are officers. I suppose they want the students to learn from those with combat experience, rather than just nerdy PhDs. I went to a university where all the professors had PhDs and great research credentials. However, sometimes they were not that interested in teaching undergraduates and were into academic pursuits a little removed from reality.
How well does the system of officers as instructors work? Do they have the intellectual qualifications? Are they more practical than typical college professors?
I went to West Point in the early 1980s. Today there more civilian instructors but it is primarily still young captains and majors fresh out of combat and grad school. I guess s simple way to put it would be that less instructors have PHDs than at other top schools but west point instructors are 110 percent focused on undergraduate education and abailable day or night with permanent professors in each department to cover anything too complex for a freshly minted masters degree. The system works as evidenced by all the college ranking schemes. West Point basically takes good students with leadership potential and athletic abilities and it produces competent future leaders. Are they more practical? Not sure but instead of picking up the paper on the way home they survived dodging IED devices in Afghanistan