Academic Laziness

Joe Sabia says things have gotten a whole lot easier at Cornell:

Consider this: According to Dr. L. Pearce Williams, a 1949 graduate of Cornell University, between June 29, 1944 and June 29, 1945, students had one day off — Christmas Day. There was no summer break. The average student got four hours of sleep per night and took nearly 21 credits per semester.

When Dr. Williams became a professor of history at Cornell, he employed this teaching philosophy:
"I have never taught a section, where in the first week of the term in the fall, 80-85% of the class did not flunk the first paper. I graded every one of them. I put aside all of my research and my own work just to grade these papers until the kids took me seriously.”

How times change.