Word: plebe
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Plebe must always be ready to answer any question that comes his way. And some of the questions that are asked. The common ones are: "Where are you from?" "What is your P. C. S.?" (Previous condition of servitude), and several others concerning his past history and present status. However the majority are usually dumb or startling, tending to make the Plebe give a dumber answer...
...recognition system" is what governs plebe life. From the day he enters until immediately after Graduation Parade, the Plebe acts as a pledge to a fraternity would during initiation week. He is not known by, nor does he know the upper classes. That is, as a whole. He is called "Mr.----" and refers to individuals of the upper three classes as "Mr.----" also. However; he may be "recognized" by any men who desire to know him. When he is recognized, the Plebe is placed on a social equality basis with the man whom he now knows and no longer sprinkles...
This is a great boon to Plebe life, this individual recognition, for it usually means that the Plebe is taken under the wing of some upperclassman who helps him out of difficulties and gives him advice. When the Plebe "goes deficient"--is below average--in academics, he usually goes to his predecessor, a man from the same town or district, and gets coaching or council on what...
...academics of the Fourth Class Year do not sound difficult. They consist of advanced algebra, plane and solid geometry, trigonometry, plane analytic geometry, French and English. The Plebe has two subjects a day, Math and French or English, alternating. He also has physical training each day, but this does not require outside preparation. However, even if these subjects do not seem hard to those on the outside, they are, and this is what makes them so. Before the Plebe entered here, in other schools he spent most of the time in classes, being instructed...
Here, the instructors hand out a long lesson and the Plebe must teach himself, for when he gets to class he is expected more to recite and less to be instructed. More than three-fourths of classroom work is recitation. This requires a new method of study. That is what makes Plebe year so hard, not the number of subjects but the acquiring of the new way of learning. The main cause of men failing in a course is because they have not learned how to study...