COLLEGE A SWEAT

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Could someone please tell me why college has to be such a sweat?

I don't intend to criticize Harvard; as long as college is hard work, it stands to reason that Harvard must be harder work than other colleges. What I want to know is, what is the reasoning behind a system that loads one with such a frightening amount of work that one rarely has time to do more than just the required amount of work in a subject? What is the sense in my roommate having seven papers to do this week when he is so pressed that he won't learn anything from doing them? Is there any sense in my staying up until 4 every night when I am so tired and sick of everything that I can't absorb what I am doing or learn by doing it? If the object of college is the cultivation of the intellect and the pursuit of knowledge, why can't I cultivate and pursue without the guilty thought of the report I should be writing? Why does the American system of college education spread so thin?

I wish someone would tell me the answers to these questions. I don't have time to figure them out--I have to go do my Latin. But it would be so much easier to stay awake if I felt I were ruining my health for some rational reason. Peter D. H. Hawking '68