The Process Called "Cramming"

In 1866 Carlyle delivered his inaugural address to the students of Edinburgh University, out of his heart and experience, and without a formal talk before him. And from this occasion there came a free flowing of informal utterance, moving in its practical soundness and sense:

“There is,” he said, “a process called cramming… that is, getting-up such points of things as the examiner is likely to put questions about. Avoid all that, a entirely unworthy of an honorable mind.”

As to the “process called cramming”: We see it in schools; we see it in life. We see people, as we see students, neglecting and postponing what should be done each day—skimming over the surface of life lightly, seemingly assuming that the indefinite future will bring better opportunity to study, to work, to prepare—a better time to learn and to dig deeper. But for the moment let us avoid wrinkling our brows; let us avoid the effort of earnest study; let us postpone facing facts, for the moment let us avoid the effort of thinking things through.

But of course there comes a time of examination, a time for finding out whether or not we really know—whether or not we really have inside us what the label says we should. And if the testing time comes without earnest preparation, then sometimes, by the “process called cramming,” we try to absorb quickly some lessons, which should long have been learned. And sometimes superficially we may seem to get by the hour of examination. But it is a shallow way of learning; it is a hazardous way of living.

Now again, quoting Carlyle: “… there is one advice I must give you,” he said. “In fact, it is the summary of all advises, and doubtless you have heard it a thousand times; but I must nevertheless let you hear it the thousand-and-first time, for it is most intensively true, whether you will believe it at present or not:–namely, That above all things the interest of your whole life depends upon your being diligent, now while it is called to-day…. If you believe me, you who are young, yours is the golden season of life…. If you do not sow, or if you sow tares instead of wheat, you cannot expect to reap well afterwards, and you will arrive at little. And in the course of years when you come to look back, … you will bitterly repent when it is too late.”

What Carlyle said concerning young men in universities could be applied widely to life. It is essential to be diligent. It is essential to study, to prepare, to work, to develop, to give service, and to be honorable among men. It is essential to be diligent in doing what should be done “now, while at is called today.”