As a retired teacher with 34 years' experience at middle, high school and college, colleagues would ask an innocent question: Did military service make you a better teacher? The intent of the probe was for me to reveal the unpleasantness of it.
At the high school level, few teachers spent time in the service. They were all aware of the exemption rule that was applied unconditionally. Getting married, having a child, medical, political connection, Canada - however, staying in college was probably the universal choice.
The rise in college attendance in the mid-1960s is often attributed to draft avoidance behavior. College became the easiest way to dodge the draft, and college enrollment went up about about 10 times from 1960-1980. Male teachers after staying in college and collecting advanced degrees were not automatically exempt from the Vietnam draft, but they could secure occupational deferments (Class II-A) if their local draft board deemed them essential, especially early in the war.
Some of the "professional students," eventually attained employment at the university level. Observing the recent demonstrations on college campuses, the liberal perspective has become the oxygen for publicity, protests, editorials, social media, all contributing volumes not spoon-fed with objective reasoning but spade-fed with ideology instruction naive students will rarely challenge.
There are four areas where the Army contributed teacher training never found in graduate school: Appearance, discipline, leadership and mission. Appearance: look right at all times; as a professional, you have parents discreetly inspecting you.
To be quite honest, the attire of colleagues left much to be desired. There would be days called dress down day, I suggested dress up day; that went nowhere.
Discipline: Show up on time, stay late and be available. Assignments were given back using the Army term ASAP. Only one rule - do what I ask - and students understood the fairness and reason for any reprimand.
Leadership: Not all students liked me, but the respect was there. They were told there is a chain of command in school just like the Army.
Mission: The Army mission always comes first. In school the mission was to educate and make productive citizens. The Army never allowed anything to impede the mission. Schools have multitudes of shackles to hinder the mission, i.e. parents, state guidelines, administrators, various interruptions, normal or unintended.