page_title: Recruit training
section_title: Control and conformity
hierarchical_section_title: Recruit training / Major characteristics / Control and conformity
caption_attribution_description: English: recruits of Polish army standing at attention after their military oathPolski: rekruci Wojska Polskiego stojący w postawie zasadniczej po przysiędze wojskowej w Wyższej Szkole Oficerskiej Wojsk Lądowych
context_page_description: Recruit training, more commonly known as basic training or regularly boot camp, refers to the initial instruction of new military personnel. Recruit training is a physically and psychologically intensive process, which resocializes its subjects for the demands of military employment.
context_section_description: Recruits' daily routine is highly controlled, in the manner of the 'total institution' described by the Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman. For example, the training regime determines how recruits must make their beds, polish boots, and stack their clothes; mistakes are punished.
  Throughout their training, recruits are conditioned to conform to military norms and to work as a team. In particular, recruits are repeatedly instructed to stand, march, and respond to orders in a ritual known as foot drill, which is derived from 18th-century military practices and trains recruits to obey orders without hesitation or question. According to Finnish Army regulations, for example, foot drill is essential for the esprit de corps and cohesion, accustoms recruits to instinctive obedience, enables large units to be marched and moved in an orderly manner, and creates the basis for action in the battlefield.
caption: Polish army recruits on foot drill, 2007
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