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Johnny, Get Your Gun

THE PRESS

In the interests of consistency, the "Princetonian" has just declined to run advertisements of the Hun School tutoring sessions for next week's Freshman Uniforms: We are not under the delusion that this action, which deprives our already poverty-stricken daily of sorely-needed shekels, will prevent the Hun School from acquainting its disciples, with the schedule of cramming hours; but we do believe that wholesale, last-minute tutoring exerts a vicious influence on the intellectual life of the University.

No personal disappointments or bitter memories prompt this attack, but rather four compelling reasons: (1) Cramming is a slipshod, superficial method of review, deadens undergraduate initiative, and places a premium on merely getting by. (2) In view of the fact that only certain types of exam questions can be asked and that these can easily be spotted by experienced tutors, cramming by Hun puts University examiners under the temptation of trapping the trapper and giving tests that will beat Hun and fail everybody. (3) Shallow tutoring is foreign to the purpose of all worth-while study, encourages habits of mental laziness, and is worse than useless in preparing for comprehensive examinations of upperclass years. (4) It is partially responsible for the failure of men who relied, in Freshman, and Sophomore years, on intellectual dope and found it unavailing later. (This last charge is based upon records of men dropped for scholastic deficiency.)

In certain quarters the notion is abroad that going to Johnny Hun's is as integral a part of Princeton's educational program as eating, sleeping, and going to the movies. It is not. Or if it is, the University's underclass curriculum is so unreasonably exacting that it must be changed quickly, and the sooner this truth is known the better. Obviously, this circumstance can never be recognized so long as hordes of men continue to limp through Freshman and Sophomore tests on the crutches of highly paid, eleventh-hour tutors. --Daily Princetonian.

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