The Process Called "Cramming"

When Thomas Carlyle delivered his inaugural address to the students of Edinburgh University, there came from him a free flowing of practical soundness and sense that applies very much to the present:

“There is,” he said, “a process call cramming…that is, getting-up on such points…as the examiner is likely to put questions about. Avoid all that, as entirely unworthy of an honorable mind.”¹

We see it in schools; we see it in life. We see people, neglecting and postponing what should be done each day—skimming over the surface of life lightly, seemingly assuming that it will somehow be easier later to study, to work, to prepare—an easier time later to learn and to dig deeper. But for the moment let’s avoid the effort of study; postpone facing facts; postpone the effort of thinking through.

But of course there comes a time for examination, a time for finding out whether or not we really know—whether or not we have inside us what we should. And when the testing time approaches, by the “process called cramming,” we try to absorb quickly some lessons which should long before have been learned. And sometimes we may seem to get by the hour of examination. But it is a shallow way of learning; and 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 advices, 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 mostly intensely 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 today…If you will believe me, you who are young, yours is the golden season of life…if you do not sow, or if you sow stares instead of wheat, you cannot expect to reap well afterwards, and you will arrive a little. And in the course of years when you come to look back,…you will bitterly repent when it is too late.”¹

What Carlyle said a century ago could be applied to the present. It is essential to be diligent. It is essential to study, to prepare, to work, to develop, and to be honorable among men. It is essential to be diligent in doing what should be done “now, while it is called today.”