Teaching the Code

When you are a member of the Civil Air Patrol, you have "memory work," an oath, honor code, value of drill and ceremonies, the definition of leadership, the definition of military disciple and chain of command from Commander and Chief Obama all the way down to me! That's the hardest part of memory work because there are so many of them!

I know my memory work so well that any time they ask me - during inspection, during my Review Board, etc., I'm able to repeat the whole thing perfectly. I think they are a little doubtful that I'll be able to do it, but I always get it right.

I guess I made an impression on them because the other night they asked me to teach the CAP Honor Code to the new recruits in Charlie Flight. I thought about how I would learn it and took them through these steps:

1. I recited the whole Honor Code to them
2. I broke it down into sections and explained the importance of each part
3. I had them recite each of the smaller sections several times
4. We worked about putting the whole thing together

By the time we were done, they were really starting to learn the Honor Code. I was proud of how I worked with them. I really like developing the skills I need to be a good teacher and a good leader. I'm just glad they didn't ask me to teach them the chain of command or the meeting would have had to run really long that night!