Your Take: The Frenetic Pace of College Life

I wish I had more time to say more….whether the world of education, business or life in general we are allowing ourselves to miss essential components of wellness…cortisol and stimulation have become the norm…and produce very real negative consequences. We fill up all our time with busyness, work or other forms of distraction—leaving little time for genuine connection, inspiration, contemplation, soul development and other quiet “activities”. As the Italians say il dolce far niente —it is sweet to do nothing. Education remains focused on too few forms of learning and knowing.

Sounds similar to my years from ’79 to ’83 but amped up. The one distinction I remember is that by late in freshman year, most of us had figured out to schedule some downtime in the week. Mine was 5pm on Friday (start of the weekly Masters’ party at Leverett — reminder to my friend Tom Dingman [tutor at Leverett at the time] that a little Harvard-provided social life helps) until noon Saturday or 9am Sunday depending on workload.

Also the long reading period (3 weeks, including Xmas break in fall and a bit over 2 weeks in spring) were essential.

As an ’09 bachelor’s degree recipient I would like to chime in to make mention of the silent minority on campus. We are an endangered bunch. I somehow managed to avoid joining a litany of clubs and teams prefering to spend time enjoying studying (both in and outside of the curriculum), socializing, leisure reading and quiet contemplation. I think I’m the better for it. While resume building, packing in as much activity as possible and piling up ‘experiences’ seems to be the raison d’etre of the modern young American; not all of us are buying it. In an age of constant opportunity for participation in interesting and engaging activities it even takes some discipline to say ‘no’. One must remind himself that things are more easily begun than finished. For the few of us that prefer quiet leisure, watching our peers run around endlessly, like the wind, is more a source of amusement than a cause for admiration.

Tempus fugit: Take the time to enjoy what you are and what you will be. Vita nostra brevis est.

Nos morituri te salutamus.

H.E. Butler III M.D., FACS
1963 Leverett House

I may be off the mark here, but I think that this is a most brilliant April Fool’s piece—just enough facts to be credible and just enough over-the-top to nudge the reader into saying, “I knew it.” Bravo.

Being from another planet that existed in the early 50’s, I find it passing strange that a very bright 24/7 undergrad’s career objective is to make money at Goldman Sachs. Harry Lewis described the phenomenon in his book “Excellence Without a Soul.” What good is a Harvard liberal arts (joke) education if it doesn’t stress thinking deeply about subjects you study? How else will you learn the discipline of logical thought? Frenetic activity produces something but it surely is not the ability to think. The aim of education should be, in one word, Why? That requires contemplative time, the opposite of 24/7 activity.

It all sounds kind of nightmarish. And, what can I say, very privileged. My wife is Israeli. She double-majored in literature and philosophy at Hebrew U. She also had a crazy schedule, largely because, like most of her classmates she was working (in her case, cleaning houses and mopping stairwells) to pay her way through college, which she began in her early 20s, once she had finished her years of compulsory military duty.
I don’t mean to sound churlish, but I often wonder if those of us who have been given the opportunity to experience Ivy League educations really grasp just how insanely privileged we are, relative not only to the vasy majority of humanity, but the vast majority of university students around the world. I ask myself that all the time, and then ask myself what good I can do today to make good use of that privilege.

Things have not changed. Many of us were just as driven, but with less productive opportunities in the 1960s and ’70s. I find that unlike many peers my age I make use of my time far more productively; taking classes, acquiring new skills, doing volunteer work. Funny, their comments are the same to me now as they were 40 years ago, which is exactly what you have written about. I think some are just a bit jealous - they did not have the drive then and now they do not have the energy!

The booklets we distributed to students on the first day of Music 1 classes (before 1972) said it all: “Amat alta silentia musa.”