#6: The Law of The Slacker: Show Them You're Not a Tiger

There are two sorts of people in the world--those who strive to achieve a B+, and those who are just too cool.

Among the coolest is Lilja "I'm Too Sexy for a B+" Gretarsdottir '96, a history concentrator. "I find the B+ extremely annoying because of course I'd rather get an A- or even a B, because then I can say, well, I really didn't do any work," Gretarsdottir claims. "I can get a B without doing anything. But if you get a B+, then you've tried...to do well but haven't succeeded. It's just more of a bummer to be close."

According to Kunde, "A B+ says, 'You tried, but it wasn't good enough," whereas if you got a C it means you just blew it off. When you blow it off, somehow you're less responsible [for your grade]," she explains. "If you don't even try, it's like, 'You could have tried, and [you might have] been good enough." Kunde, an English concentrator, attributes this attitude to the Harvard ego-cult of excellence. "I think it kind of ties in to the whole Harvard fear of mediocrity," she speculates. "I think the worst thing you can say to someone at Harvard is, 'You're just average."

Apathy is preferable to failure--it's the rallying cry of Generation X, the burned-out, twentysomething, Bart Simpson-loving, B+- hating under achievers. But is this attitude unique to the current crop of undergrads? Or is it a vestige of the '60s, a '90s version of "tune in, turn on and drop out"?

It's neither. According to alums, "The Slackers B" i the grandchild of a long forgotten Harvard institution, "The Gentleman's C." Before World War II, remembers Russell H. Peck '43, "there were lots of nice, pleasant, capable, wellborn folks who didn't think it was good to work too hard." These were the "gentlemen," wealthy young men for whom Harvard was simply a pleasant interlude between prep school and prominence. According to Edward M. Tuckerman '43, they were the "party boys." Mentally transported into the world of his youth, Tuckerman slips into the present tense. "They don't work hard, they just go to deb parties," he says wistfully. (Deb parties?)

Recalls Peck, "People who did [work hard] were called grinds, or 'greasy grinds." But gentlemen didn't have to work at all. They got C's and "those who were well-born went on to do well in life and have distinguished careers."

Alumni who graduated in the '40s say that the average grade then was "around a C+." "I never did get a B+," says Tuckerman ruefully. "I was generally in the C department." But by 1966, the mean grade was halfway between a B- and a B. And by 1991, the average grade was slightly above a B+.

Which brings us to the present day. The "greasy grinds" have been replaced by pre-meds. The debutantes are old and gray. Communism is dead. But the mentality associated with the "Gentleman's C" persists. As Mansfield puts it, "We've somehow replaced the 'Gentleman's C' with the ungentlemanly B+."