In Defense of the Pipe

No worth-while educational institution has ever been subjected to the intensity of sneering criticism that self-righteous circles bestow upon the Snap Course. However the intellectual snobs who glorify work for the sake of work have failed to observe the indispensable role which the Snap plays in American arts and sciences; were it not for this role, it would hardly have withstood the test of time so well.

In the first place, many of the nation's leading anthropologists (full professors from sea to shining sea) were first interested in the field because Anthy 1 happened to be a snap at their respective alma maters. And then there are the four prominent industrialists who, as worldly Harvard under-grads, enrolled in a notorious Cultural History of the Moslem Empire in Spain with sincere intentions of passing with the gentlemanly grade of C minus. But the enthusiasm which the professor held for this fascinating field inspired them to such feats of scholarship that they not only got A's but agree today that the delightful classes were the most enjoyable part of the four years.

An earlier generation remembers a music professor who herded hundreds into his course by the simple expedient of giving A's. Of course the Overseers didn't like him, because he said "to the very dickens with them" whenever asked to tighten up. But he achieved his purpose, which was to see that none left Cambridge without having developed a taste for music.

Snaps exist because, deep in their hearts, the Faculty know that no liberal education is complete without a touch of the obscure. No one would take Arabic fairy tales or Etruscan technology if it were a History 1, but a taste of a scholarly field outside of the tritc, traditional subjects broadens a student as well as a university. And finally, at least one half-course out of thirty-two should be taken leisurely enough to be enjoyed.