Word: cinching
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Dates: during 1910-1919
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...dropped to 25 per cent. The great change here, however, cannot be attributed to careful thought and discussion. The inauguration of a general oral examination for all students accounts for it largely. We have a reminder of a fault still extant. Men, as ever, are looking toward the "cinch", and as long as there is so great a disparity in the work required by different courses, they will continue to be influenced in their choice by other considerations than educational value...
...College courses should be planned with the training of the average man in mind. There is still a third argument silently voiced in the University's rule which allows only two elective Composition courses to count for a degree. It is based on the idea that Composition is a cinch, that it requires less work than ordinary courses and should, therefore, not be encouraged. In reply, we say that Composition is a cinch only when the instructors choose to make it so for their own ease. It is not hard to make Composition courses difficult, though it does require some...
...other hand, nearly every course has its own advocates who stoutly maintain that it requires very little work. In this fact is to be found the truth about "easy" courses. A man will find any course more or less a "cinch" if the subject matter interests him. Conversely, a course in which the subject is of no interest will prove difficult no matter how little work is required...
During the mid-year period there is always much discussion of courses for the second half-year. On every side one hears the old, old question: "Do you know of any 'cinch' courses?" The time, energy, and words that are employed in the search for easy courses amounts yearly to an enormous economic waste. Happily, such quests are more frequently made by members of the lower classes than upper-class men. This is because a year or two's experience usually suffices to show an undergraduate that to take a course merely because some friend has confided to him that...