Page 133 - 1921 VES Meteor

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<>r our doing a number of other things all together at certain
specified times. Obviously there is no special virtue in aris-
in" at seven instead of seven-thirty or six-thirty except so l:>
far as regularity in our habits may be good for us, and, more important still, except that the school would soon be a spec- tacular jumble if we all ate and slept to suit ourselves. In other words, regulations of this typo are highly necessary and really very convenient. Because they arc so, they are per- haps tho least violated. You can see for yourself tl1at a slight bit of inconvenience to you personally may be of great help to many other people, and if you really wish to serve the school, you accept such purely arbitrary rulings pretty m~ch as a matter of course.
But there is another type of rule. Let's see where it came from. Back in "those good old days," you had found lessons rather stupid, the counselor seemed to be dozing at his desk; and tho first thing you knew, you had sent }.filne's First Course sailing through the air, and you had also originated a rule, for it is necessary that study hall be a quiet place and
that books, as well, be treated carefully. The purely unnec- essary part of this transaction is to be found in your t11row- ing anything at all. Or again you became careless about the matter of bathing, and the first thing you know, there was a notice about three baths a week-another rule. Common sense would have made that unnecessary. Or again, you change clothes in a burry and you dispense with socks for the nonce, and then you disrespectfully cock your feet on the back of your neighbor's chair. The instructor "sticks" you,
and you protest that there is no rule; and he makes one. ~fore lack of sense, total lack of respect, and an unnecessary exer- cise of your jaws brought that rule into existence. Again, you decide (unconsciously probably) that studying is a bore, and you put your hypothesis into practice. The result-at Faculty meeting some two weeks later, some of your instruc-