Recently, some Massasoit students encountered a West Point tradition and tried to make sense of it. Here is what they had to go on:
An interesting feature of the folk version of Wisdom is that it is often surprising and even paradoxical. I think this is an example.
Last year I was invited to attend the graduation of a friend's son from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. It was an impressive experience.
During the ceremony, the names are called and the cadets go up to get their diplomas. At one point, a name was called and the rest of the graduating officers broke into loud cheering and applauding. A great fuss was made over this person. Who was it? The "Class Goat," the student graduating with the poorest academic record.
I was assured by all who are familiar with The Point that the cheering is in no way ironic or sarcastic. This is not a "nya, nya..." but a heartfelt cheer for an esteemed fellow officer.
The cadets are expressing some of their tribal wisdom. Why do they cheer the student with the lowest grades?
Here are some responses. As you will see, they all show intelligence and tolerance.
1. I think they cheer for the student with the lowest GPA because they want to show support. Even though the student didnt do as well as the others that doesnt mean he or she didnt try. Its better to build up than to tear down cause you never know when you will be the one with the loweest GPA.
2. I think that they cheer for the classmate with the lowest GPA because you are only as strong as your weakest link. As a unit they cheer for "the goat" to show their support and encouragement for this person to continue what they are doing and to become better and more successful. A school like this is more about success as a group not really success for each individual.
3. I agree with Melissa about only being as strong as your weakest link. I also feel that it simply comes down to hazing, which is sometimes a serious problems in certain military institutes (my brother mentioned this when he was in military school). It was probably just a gentle way of poking fun of their weakest link.
4. This is just a guess but maybe they aren't cheering for the class goat but for everyone else. It may be a sarcastic celebration of not being last in the class.
These responses seem fully consonant with the values of our new "inclusive" institutional world-view. It is interesting to compare them with the "official" reason, the one given by the cadets themselves, who after all should know their own motives. The West Pointers claim that they cheer this student for his or her achievements and accomplishments. They cheer not for the trendy "who they are" but for the eternal "what they did." According to their classmates, getting through West Point (basically, an engineering college) is hard enough when you are good at academics. When you have to struggle, it requires perseverance, a virtue much valued by the military as "character" or "guts." It is this heroic quality shown by the class goat that they cheer. (I sometimes wonder if slower learners and students who struggle realize how much the faculty and other students may admire them precisely for their perseverance.)
Of course, since Freud et. al. we instinctively assume baser motives lurking in the unconscious. Maybe projection or reaction-formation is at work and what seems like a cheer is deep down a jeer. We cannot dismiss such possibilities as mere cynicism, but an application of Occam's Razor suggests that in the absence of evidence to the contrary, we should take the cadets at their word.