Word: extracurricular
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...true that the spirit of exhibitionism which affected the activities, as well as every other phase of college life, is disappearing. The rattling Ford, the ukelole, the spirit of extravagant devotion to the college, all these are passing or have departed, and with them has passed the idea of extracurricular activities as the main aim in college life, a welcome sign of the appearance of a more balanced sense of proportion among the students. The extra-curricular activities themselves, however, now that they have resumed their proper place, serve too useful a purpose to disappear. They offer some testing ground...
...contrast to German universities is no indication of a lack of intellectual interest among American students. In Germany the universities have had a tradition for interest in national and international affairs since the reorganization of Prussia under Baron Stein in 1808. Extracurricular activities, unknown in the Fatherland, absorb a large percentage of the undergraduate's time in this country, which might be devoted to discussion. Notwithstanding, the attitude of unconcern adopted by college men toward politics and foreign affairs is surprising to those familiar with the more mature outlook of European Universities. This unconcern is exemplified by the meagre interest...
...would seem that the pendulum has completed its arch and is on the back swing. The day is gone when a man's worth is judged by the amount of extracurricular work with which he has tampered. The proper ratio between these two elements of undergraduate life pertains solely to the individual, and in seeking it it would do no harm to bear in mind the remark of Woodrow Wilson to the effect that the side shows should not be allowed to overshadow the big tent...
What, then, are the effects of the house plan not upon the submerged and minuscule minority, but upon the normal undergraduate, upon his social habits, his method of physical existence, his extracurricular activities in the college itself, his eating and drinking, his relations with Mayfair and with Bohemia, his contacts and his clubs--in general, upon the things that really occupy every portion of his day and night save the begrudged or casual hour or two he may spend at lectures or in the library as insurance against the ever-present menace of examinations...
Since the academic overtones of the house plan are of such an apparently faint and fugitive nature, it is with the social and extracurricular future of the college that Harvard men will, as a group, be concerned. That the "democratic" principles on which the present grouping was designed are destined to an early oblivion if they ever existed at all, would seem to be the consensus of responsible opinion about Harvard Yard, and it seems inevitable that when all the seven units into which the undergraduate portion of the university will be subdivided are completed, certain of these colleges will...