Simon Bronner S Campus Traditions
Book Assessment – Campus Traditions
Essay In Simon Bronner’s Campus Traditions, the folkloric contributions of the primal scream, school rivalries, and graduation traditions are detailed as means for students to cope with a specific anxiety or stress to keep them sane in the world of college life.
The primal scream is one example of a major contribution to folkloric activity as it addresses the stress of final exams and academics. During final exams students are put under heavy workloads accompanied by stress and in order to release this stress they let out “a ‘primal scream’ at midnight…soon was supported by any student within chanting distance” (48). These primal screams help keep students sanity by releasing all the stress built up from nights of studying. Many campuses have taken their own creative approach to primal screams such as Harvard where students will streak in the Old Yard after giving their primal screams at midnight. Also, students at Stephens College will slam doors in masse as their form of primal screaming. All of these creative forms of primal screams take on the same approach of releasing stress in a non-dangerous manner. Without primal screams students would likely bottle up their stress or try to release it in other risky manners such as drugs. Overall, primal screams help address the stress of academics during final exam times through creative non-dangerous methods such as Harvard’s Old Yard scream and Stephens College’s door slams.
Another major folkloric contribution to keep students sane is the traditions of college rivalry through pranks and jokes. Campus rivalries help students cope with the anxiety of trying to belong within their college or university of thousands. Without a sense of belonging many students will feel they are a number and not a part of a larger community. For example, at Indiana University a rivalry joke claiming that Purdue fans say they are number one but do not know how many fingers to hold up is passed around.
Essay In Simon Bronner’s Campus Traditions, the folkloric contributions of the primal scream, school rivalries, and graduation traditions are detailed as means for students to cope with a specific anxiety or stress to keep them sane in the world of college life.
The primal scream is one example of a major contribution to folkloric activity as it addresses the stress of final exams and academics. During final exams students are put under heavy workloads accompanied by stress and in order to release this stress they let out “a ‘primal scream’ at midnight…soon was supported by any student within chanting distance” (48). These primal screams help keep students sanity by releasing all the stress built up from nights of studying. Many campuses have taken their own creative approach to primal screams such as Harvard where students will streak in the Old Yard after giving their primal screams at midnight. Also, students at Stephens College will slam doors in masse as their form of primal screaming. All of these creative forms of primal screams take on the same approach of releasing stress in a non-dangerous manner. Without primal screams students would likely bottle up their stress or try to release it in other risky manners such as drugs. Overall, primal screams help address the stress of academics during final exam times through creative non-dangerous methods such as Harvard’s Old Yard scream and Stephens College’s door slams.
Another major folkloric contribution to keep students sane is the traditions of college rivalry through pranks and jokes. Campus rivalries help students cope with the anxiety of trying to belong within their college or university of thousands. Without a sense of belonging many students will feel they are a number and not a part of a larger community. For example, at Indiana University a rivalry joke claiming that Purdue fans say they are number one but do not know how many fingers to hold up is passed around.