DISCIPLINE IN THE FIRST JOB

A certain member of the Faculty has often warned his pupils that nearly every Harvard man loses his first job because it takes him considerable time to learn that he can no longer do on Friday what he should have done on Wednesday,--as he did in college. The undergraduate does not have to reflect long to appreciate the truth of this if he will consider his own attitude toward scholastic work. He has discovered that probably the only requirement of most courses which cannot be postponed is the final examination.

We all believe that one of Harvard's best claims to greatness lies in the fact that conditions here are more nearly like those found in the outside world than at any other institution. But in what part of the outside world--the active, competing part--can one procrastinate with anywhere near such success as here? Do business men generally accept delays and grant extensions?

At college we should not need the petty rules which are required of the school boy. For that very reason we should assume as a matter of course the strict and uniform enforcement of the few rules we have. It is hardly to be expected that habits of promptness and obedience will be a part of a Harvard education--and they certainly ought to be when there are courses in which a report may be handed in days after it was due. Such an attitude towards scholastic work is just the opposite of that adopted by men in college activities. There would be one thing only for a candidate to expect if he handed his manager a report a week late,--the same thing given the Harvard man in his first job. If the student can understand discipline in activities, why not in college work?