The first academy

The first academy was a grove of trees, used as a public park, in the city of Athens in ancient Greece. It was named more than 2,300 years ago for a great Greek warrior, Academus, one of the athletes who used the park. The Greek philosopher Plato, the wis- est man of his time, used to stroll in this grove with his pupils, teaching them. Because of this, they called Plato and his followers "the Academy," and ever since that time the word has been used to mean a school or other institu- tion of learning, or a group of learned men who form an association for study. When a boy goes away to school, he is likely to go to a military academy, and in this case "academy" means "high school." Officers of the United States Army are trained at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and officers of the United States Navy are trained at the United States Naval Acad- emy at Annapolis, and here "academy" means "college."