It is interesting to read your article about student stress at the Institute (“Tech Is—And Always Has Been—Hell,” Vol, 117, No. 4, July-August 2014). As the argument opens, this complaint harks back to the end of the Nineteenth Century. In particular, Boston Herald claimed in 1890 that MIT’s standards were too high, and called for a committee of physicians to evaluate whether it was putting too much strain on the students. And the argument closes by prophesying that the problem of student stress at MIT is unlikely to abate anytime soon. In short, there is quite a bit of pride in the article. Which reminds me of my own years at the Institute—first as a student, and then as a teacher. That was in the Seventies and Eighties. The harshest measure of student stress back then was the student suicide rate. Nobody would joke about it, it goes without saying, but there was quite some pride in the fact that there were more suicides among MIT students than among Harvard students. The standards were higher, and that was all there was to it. What I miss in the article, though, is a word or two about the old measuring rod I remember so clearly from the end of the Twentieth Century.

Addendum (November 10, 2014)

I sent this letter to the editor of the Institute’s portion of the review as soon as I wrote it, and by electronic mail, but I got no reply. Not a word. That struck me as a bit odd, but I still hoped that it would appear in the next issue. That issue just arrived by snail mail, and the letter is not in it. Which explains the editor’s silence so many months ago, as well. My letter is not fit for print, to put it bluntly. The Institute’s measuring rod is not to be bantered about at will even so many years after I left it for good. So be it. But my letter will remain on the World Wide Web for everyone to see. My lame revenge, as ever.