Word: often
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...mistake to pretend that students are left entirely free from proselytizing and indoctrination in the classroom, but are only presented the issues and allowed to decide for themselves. We are persuaded in many areas: the scientific method is urged upon us, as is logic and rationality; democracy is often preached, and totalitarianism almost universally inveighed against; and in the humanities, standards of taste are handed down in a fashion that sometimes approaches coercion. Outside the classroom, some teachers feel even freer in pontificating on these and related questions, but there is almost no moral guidance or consideration of conduct, character...
...prizes his independence, and who scoffs at other Ivy Leaguers and more distant colleagues who are still spoon-fed by a bevy of counselors, advisors, and deans. At Harvard, freedom is an almost sacred word, with individualism only slightly less exalted. But freedom implies responsibility, which is not so often thought of. During the college years, new freedoms appear at a bewildering rate, and inevitably some cannot be immediately coped with. There is freedom of time and of action in great quantities. The student usually makes his final post-adolescent break with parental authority and many of the values...
Although the University is often referred to as a community of scholars, the force of the word community goes largely unnoticed. There is little sense of community outside the intellectual sphere at Harvard, even in the matter of generosity toward one's fellow students...
...idea of community service receives little mention: for most people Phillips Brooks House remains an activity to be squeezed in if there is time left over, and motives often involve personal interests, such as pre-medical work, rather than altruism. Outdated and offensive. the attitude of noblesse oblige is no longer tenable, but at the same time no other incentive has replaced the feeling of obligation which this for merly produced. The four years at college can easily become an artificial vacation from responsibility toward others as well as toward oneself...
...considering a career, "duty" and "service" are suspect terms, usually quickly discarded. And yet, how often do security, prestige, or income affect our decisions? Many times our youthful ideas and ambitions fail to materialize because they involve risks, or appear socially dubious, or, time and again, not lucrative enough...