Quote:
Originally posted by dznat187
the term rush came from the activity known as flag rush at many schools. it began in the 1880s and continued into the 1960's. At those times, the freshman were required to wear beanies and were hazed pretty well for just being 1st year students. Then at a point in the year, they would have the flag rush where a very small flag was securely nailed to the top of a well-greased pole with the blood-thirsty and abusive sophomores at the base of the pole. The freshman would try to get the flag by climbing the pole, while having rotten fruit, manure and other gross things thrown at them. If, as almost always happened, the freshmen failed to capture the flag, they were required to wear their freshman beanies until the end of the semester and had other restrictions placed on them, like they were not permitted out after a certain etc.
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Actually, it comes from the fraternities and sororities "rushing" to the incoming trains to grab the best freshmen. Freshman hazing at schools isn't really the same thing as hazing within Greek orgs.
The new terms are ridiculous, IMO - mainly because very little has changed. Formal rush is not recruitment. You can put as negative of a connotation on new member or pearl or Phi or candidate or any other term as "pledge." We would be better off if we focused on what we actually do instead of getting so up in arms about what we say.
Beatz, there is nothing wrong with what you did. If anyone's at fault, it's the people who scolded you. Coercion does not make people happy about doing anything.