We Rise to Remark

We need snap courses. They are a necessary and desirable part of the curriculum of all good colleges, and are regularly taken by conscientious students, simply because they fill a definitive need. The label of "snap" in our course surely did not connote that we considered it unworthy, undesirable or even unessential. Spectator does not use it as a term of reproach, most certainly does not advocate that snaps be tightened or their teachers be jacked up.

We need snap courses. Good students take them in order to have time to concentrate on other subjects that happen to interest them more--and that in itself justifies them, if ever they needed justification; poor students take them because they are easy, and not infrequently interesting; and why not? As long as one hundred and twenty-four points are required for a sheepskin, as long as the time of both kinds of students is so completely taken up, just so long will snap courses fill a defendable want in the curricular mart.

We need snap courses. And particularly for Juniors and Seniors: After three or four years here, one should have developed the initiative to study for himself, without external stimuli. The amount of outside work that a student does in the course should be a matter left for him to decide for himself, depending on his interest in the subject. He should theoretically be able to absorb enough from the lectures to pass. His should gradually approach the graduate student's attitude. Until then --we need snap courses. Columbia Spectator.