Title: Note Cards Under the Pillow

General Information about item:

• Customary Folklore, Superstition
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: LB
• Date Collected: 10-26-21

Informant Data:

LB is a (’24) sophomore at Dartmouth College. She is majoring in economics and is a member of the Dartmouth Investment and Philanthropy Program. She is from San Diego, California and has lived there her whole life. She attended The Bishops School for high school.  

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: LB’s family is very academically motivated, and both her parents have studied at amazing institutions. Her mother attended Stanford University for undergraduate school and later Georgetown Law School. Her father attended Yale University for undergraduate school and later Harvard Law School. Growing up her parents always expected very good grades and therefore LB studied very hard just like her parents had done.     

• Social Context: LB first learned this superstition from her dad when she was younger. One night when she was struggling to study when she was around 8 years old, her dad told her to write out notecards with the material she needed to know and before going to bed that night to put them under her pillow. By putting the notecards under the pillow right before going to bed, it would allow her brain to absorb the information as she slept. Once LB’s younger brothers got old enough, her dad also shared this superstition with them, and they have since started to do it. LB explained that many of her friends also do it now after she told them about the superstition. This superstition was collected in an in-person interview.

Item:

Prior to tests, LB would sleep with her notecards under her pillow so that her brain would “absorb the information in her sleep”. 

Transcript:

“My pre-test superstition is that the night before a test, I sleep with my notecards under my pillow so that my brain will absorb the information as I sleep. By doing this, I hope that I will know all the material on my notecards so that I can get a good grade on the test. My dad told me that he and all his siblings did this when they were going through school, so my siblings and I started doing it when we were younger, and we still continue to do it. Even some of my closest friends started putting their notecards under their pillows before tests after I told them about the superstition”.

Informant’s Comments:

• “Despite there being other more efficient ways to study, I still write out notecards so that I can put them under my pillow. I plan on doing this the rest of college and to pass it on to my children”.

Collector’s Comments:

• I found it interesting that LB continues to do this despite there being easier and more time efficient ways to study. It is evident that LB feels this superstition is important in her success in school because she continues to do it and plans on passing it to her children.

Collector’s Name: Caroline Carr

Tags/Keywords: 

• Superstition
• American
• Female
• Dartmouth
• Note Cards