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A bit before "the flowers that bloom in the spring" comes the examination in Hygiene, of great menage to the Freshmen with have slept through the lecturer, in the course. Fortunately, their term have no substance, for the examination is the epitome of all that is useless; those wise lads who know their way about realize that no one is ever flunked when there is the slightest chance of passing him. Ten minutes hard preparation would probably assure one of an A or a B. It is, in short, the most complete and perfunctory fiasco in Harvard College.
The actual value of the Hygiene course as it is now run is slight indeed. Most of the health advice dispensed is too well known to need any elucidation from the lecture platform, and the sex information is of the sketchy type that is given to the more impressionable members of the Y.M.C.A. It seems designed mainly to keep the boys away from "fast women"; a rather futile attempt one is tempted to think, considering the type of female company generally preferred by the Freshman just released from parental discipline and ready to find out about Life at the "Tent."
The only possible solution is to reorganize the course. This might be accomplished easily by limiting the lectures to plain discourses on elemental health problems and entirely eliminating the examination. Moreover, they should be given by Dr. Worcester, who because of his charm and lecturing ability is probably the only man who could make them worth hearing. As a sop to University Hall they could be made compulsory. The problem of sex hygiene could be handled far more adequately by a series of small conferences which might be very well held in each entry during the course of the year; or the present system of voluntary meetings might be continued. Such a reorganization would solve the problems which now beset Hygiene and remove the inanities which have made both the course and the examination a laughing-stock.
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