. . . Summer 1997

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More 'Grinds' about Dewey "Grinds" were satirical comments or articles written by U-M students. One of them in the 1889 Oracle began: "Last night I spent a horrible three hours. I was doomed to take the place of several delinquent professors. First, I must be Dewey in Logic. Did you ever try to be utterly impersonal? to be entirely petrified except as to the eyes? to hold every muscle still, take all expression from the face, every shadow of a yes or a no, never to show by a twitch when a fellow is making a fool of himself or look surprised when he makes a good recitation? Well, it's work, I can assure you, since my experience last night." From a November 1888 Argonaut * -- "O what is the matter with yon, lank girl, A pale and wild and haggard she? Oh, don't you know, the old man said, She's taking Dewey's Psychology. Once she was fair to look upon, Fair as a morning in June was she, And now the wreck you see to-day Is caused by Dewey's Psychology. A year had passed, again I strayed By the Medic's hall; what did I see But some whitened bones of a girl who died Taking Dewey's Psychology. * Source: Dykhuizen, George, The Life and Mind of John Dewey, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1973;

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