OF ARMS AND THE BOY: A HISTORY OF CULVER MILITARY ACADEMY, 1894-1945 (INDIANA)

Culver Military Academy was founded in 1894 by a wealthy St. Louis businessman; it was one of the many military schools and colleges founded in the nineteenth century. This dissertation begins by tracing the rise of the American military school movement from its origins with the foundation of the United States Military Academy at West Point early in that century to the foundation of Culver in 1894. The remainder of the study deals with the development of Culver from its "essentially military school framework" in 1894 to its emergency by 1945 as a college preparatory school operating with a military framework. During the early period of its existence the main focus at Culver was on the use of the military to uplift the character of adolescent boys; by 1945 emphasis had shifted to the academic preparation of the adolescent for college. This study highlights as well the efforts Culver schoolmen made to keep abreast of the latest methods and techniques of the "Schools of Education" in the 1920s and 1930s--particularly of various testing procedures for both intelligence and character. It also shows that the reaction to "progressive education" (in all of its manifestations in the 1930s) began at Culver significantly before it spread to other sectors of American secondary education.