Could Folding Your Socks Be A Panacea For Disaffected Youth?

[Khandro]

Major Nanson thinks it might, he says try this Royal Military Academy Sandhurst morning routine for size. Wake up around 5am, make your bed in crisp hospital corners, iron and fold all clothing to the dimensions of an A4 piece of paper and double over your socks to form a “smile”. Toiletries must all rest, equidistant, on a solitary washing flannel.

Then muster at 5.55am outside your door in crisply polished shoes to sing the national anthem, before an exacting room inspection. Anything out of place, and you do it all over again. This, explains Major General Paul Nanson, is the Sandhurst way – helping to impose self-discipline and a sense of pride, and the first vital steps in learning how to lead.

“Only once you have your own house in order,” he writes in his new book, Stand Up Straight, “can you help the men and women under your leadership do the same.”

[Theland]

Dad always said in his early days on active service, he was more fearful of the R.S.M. than the Japs.

[Khandro]

sevenOP // "sock folding" seems to me more about blind obedience than an ability to follow (Lawful) orders.//

It isn't about blind obedience; having everything in the right place & in the right order can save your & others lives, that is why for example, every rope on every deck is coiled clockwise.

If you learn to put your shaving tackle in exactly the right order & distance apart you will do the same with ammunition & other equipment & then be able to find it in the dark if necessary.
It all makes complete sense.

[Theland]

Khandro - That makes sense to me.

[New Judge]

This, I think, is probably the article that kicked this off:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7850025/Army-General-runs-Sandhurst-military-academy-claims-regime-teach-succeed.html

There are two issues here which seem to have become entwined. The first is of military training. Maj-Gen Nanson is a senior military officer and knows probably a little more than most of us on here about military training, especially as he is the Commandant of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

But secondly is Khandro's question, "Could Folding Your Socks Be A Panacea For Disaffected Youth?" I don't think the M-J is suggesting that it could. What he is suggesting, from the DM article, is that certain military philosophies - such as tidiness, routine and punctuality - could certainly help those who find life a struggle because of their personal disorganisation. I was fortunate in that I had a very good education - especially from age 11 to 17. I went to a school that taught me the benefits of those philosophies and I joined organisations which did likewise. That education has stayed with me; I don't get stressed, I'm quite well organised I don't leave things until the last minute and I don't miss appointments or deadlines. It's all second nature to me. But many people today did not have those benefits and the M-J's suggestions should not be dismissed out of hand simply because they sound "bonkers".

[Theland]

I wish Mrs T could fold her socks, she is always late :-)

[Khandro]

NJ. The article I quoted from is in today's Telegraph.