-Lee Sheppeard
Grading System Raises Question
The problem of cheating on examinations is still a hot subject among educators, after the publicity it received from the West Point scandal this summer.
And when cheating is discussed, someone usually suggests that our grading system is at fault, that the struggle for grades encourages students to cheat when they don't have the material learned.
Faculty members are not infallible, certainly, and until they are, good grades will continue to guarantee only that the student has gone through a process of mental regurgitation of the professor's information, and bad grades will not prove absolutely any conclusion except that the student, in his teacher's opinion, didn't learn everything the teacher thought he should.
This is not to imply that there isn't a correlation between good grades and learning—only that the correlation is not absolute.
There are points favoring both sides of the grade question. Undoubtedly our system of awarding grade points tends to make the students lose perspective; to a degree they are led to feel that the grades (and the diploma) are the important objective, not education itself, and the two don't always coincide.
Nevertheless, grades are necessary. As long as more students want to go to college than colleges can admit, there has to be some system of classifying students by ability. Otherwise, obviously, classes would have too many students who couldn't handle the work.
Everyone is familiar with the too-scholarly character who is so intent on making grades he misses important elements in his education. But even worse is the mediocre student who has realized the grading system isn't perfect, and concludes from that that the whole system of learning is a waste of time and that it is enough just to squeeze by the flunk list.
And, unfortunately, there has to be some way of evaluating students' ability after graduation when they are being considered by employers.
Grades do offer a goal, too, to some students who wouldn't work as hard for the sake of learning alone, but the benefit of that effect is dubious.
Anyway we have them, and it doesn't look as if we can do away with them, whether they contribute to cheating and poor perspective, or not.
Joe Taylor
taylor made
The big football news from Soonerland is that Oklahoma's ace back, Billy Vessels, will miss the Kansas game. In the interests of good sportsmanship, we hope that his team won't miss him—any more, that is, than Nebraska has missed Bobby Reynolds!
Our correspondent at Kansas State writes that the school is working for a rules change that will make possible a new football formation. After watching the success of teams playing off the "T" or the new Notre Dame "I," the Wildcats would like to go a step farther and spell out their school name. They figure that this set up would require at least two dozen men in the backfield and with that many even they might be able to score.
Daily Kansan
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EDITORIAL STAFF
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"Thanks for th' two muffins Freda, I'll eat 'em with my dinner tonite."
More Music Conscious?
Letters:
To the Kansan:
It really comes as a kind of a shock to a European to read in a United Press article in Monday's Daily Kansan that Americans are more music conscious than Europeans.
The man who made that statement, H. Arthur Brown, head of the Tulsa Philharmonic, traveled in Europe this summer to make recordings with a Vienna orchestra which is not commonly known in Europe. Mr. Brown apparently did not get a chance to play with the Wiener Philharmonikern or the Berliner Philharmonikern or the Sudwestfunkorchester, which are better known, as are many other orchestras in Central Europe.
Mr. Brown, after his experience with the hardly-known Vienna Ton-Kunstler, comes to the conclusion that American orchestras are the best in the world. No doubt some of them are famous, but who made them famous?
The great conductors of the United States are Arturo Toscanini, Bruno
Walter, Fritz Reiner, Stokowsky, Muench, Ormandi, Metripolous—all Europeans.
The famous violinists were and are Kreisler, Heifetz, Menuhin, Thibaud, Szigeti, Elman. None of them is of truly American origin. In the field of piano the picture is not very different. The great composers are Stravinsky, Bartok, Hindemith, Prokofieff, Honegger, Hilhaud—all Europeans again.
If you want to find out yourself whether Americans are so music conscious, please pay a visit to the Browsing room in the Union. Nearly every American student who goes there to listen to classical music thinks he can do that better when reading a book at the same time. And if you happen to come across some authentic listeners that really concentrate on the music, they are likely to be exchange students from Europe.
Isn't that strange?
Kurt Sontheimer Exchange student
Kurt Sontheimer
News From Other Campuses
Raises Money At Nebraska
A new money raising scheme tried at Nebraska university included mock trials before a kangaroo court. Eleven campus leaders were charged such offenses as throwing football games, embezzling club funds, and spiking the tea at the chancellor's reception. The bail put up by their organizations to free them went into the All University Fund.
St. Johns To Enforce Hazing
The freshman hazing at St. John's university, Brooklyn, N.Y., will end with the annual Soph-Frosh hop. Until that time, the Vigilance Committee will enforce the wearing of the traditional "dinks," or red caps, together with red ties, white sox and ankle length trousers.
KCU Moves Truman Inside
A statue of President Truman on the campus of the University of Kansas City has been moved inside to the safety of the moot court room of the law school. The statue has been painted three times and whitewashed it was presented to the school by President Miguel Aleman of Mexico.
Freshmen at Duquesne university were commended by the school weekly, the Duquesne Duke, for "having the common sense to ignore the ridiculous list of hazing rules issued by the student council." The paper said that since the purpose of the program was to acquaint the new students and not to humiliate them, the student council was way off base
Hope For Spring Vacation
Students at the University of Alabama are hoping for a spring semester vacation for the first time. A request was made to the president last year but it was too late to be put into effect. This fall the proposal was resubmitted and the president has indicated that he may act favorably on it.
Frosh Ignore Hazing Rules
Fraternities Outlaw Hazing
Fraternities at the University of Maryland have outlawed hazing, and suggest that fraternity energy be turned toward finding useful tasks for pledges. One suggestion is that pledges be assigned to jobs which will benefit the school.
News Roundup
Egyptians Attack British Convoy
Cairo, Egypt—(U.P.)A British Army truck of voy was attacked with automatic weapons in the Suez Canal zone today.
The attack on the convoy was the second outbreak within 24 hours, following Wednesday's clash between British and Egyptian soldiers. The clash, raised the death toll in the Egyptian crisis to 17.
Britain rushed her Middle Eastern commander, General Sir Brian Robertson, to Suez from London with orders to defend British positions and prepared to evacuate 10,000 British women and children from the area.
Truman Assails MacArthur
Washington—(U.P.)—President Truman said today that Gen. Douglas MacArthur's statement that this government planned at one time to let Formosa fall to the Communists was not based on fact. He told a news conference that the deported Far Eastern commander knew this when he made the statement Wednesday in a speech to the American Legion convention in Miami.
The president declined to discuss the exchange of views between U.S. Ambassador A. G. Kirk and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky. He said he had not read Vishinsky's statement to the effect that Russian-American relations could not be in worse shape. Reminded of prior statements that Russian agreements are worthless, Truman said he stood by those statements.
The PBY flying boat struck the timbered slopes at the 2,000-foot level Wednesday night. The crash was the second worst civilian air disaster in Canada's history.
Page 8 University Daily Kansan Thursday, October 18, 1951
Nanaimo, B.C.—(U.P.)A search party reported back today that all 23 persons aboard a twin-engined Queen Charlotte airlines flying boat were killed when it crashed and exploded on fog-enshroured Mount Benson.
Construction of all facilities for the tests has been completed at Camp Desert Rock, on the rim of the proving ground. But atomic scientists have stated that weather conditions must be ideal for a nuclear detonation to insure maximum safety and enable experts to study the blast. Meanwhile some 5,000 troops and more than 1,000 AEC personnel are standing by.
Says Gabrielson To Quit
Los Angeles—(U.P.)-Sen. Homer Capehart, (Rep., Ind.). was scheduled to deliver an extemporaneous and "plenty political" speech tonight after predicting that Guy Gabrielson will resign as Republican party chairman to "clear the air."
Gabrielson, under fire from both his own party and the Democrats for his dealings with the Reconstruction Finance corporation, has stated repeatedly that he does not plan to resign.
23 Killed In Plane Crash
Strike Halts War Cargo
Washington — (UP) — Ambassador-At-Large Philip C. Jessup has rejected a senator's request that he withdraw his nomination to be a United Nations delegate, it was learned today.
The disclosure came as a senate foreign relations subcommittee prepared to hear another nominee to the UN general assembly—Dr. Channing Tobias, Negro religious leader. Chairman John J. Sparkman (Demo-Ala.) said Tobias has been accused of membership in "several" Communist or Communist front organizations.
Las Vegas, Nev.—(U.P.)The atomic energy commission's Frenchman's Flat proving ground is ready for the opening of the nation's first atomic combat maneuvers any time scientists want to unleash the power of the atom, it was learned today.
Jessup Spurns Request
New York—(U.P.)A longshoremen's wildcat strike along the New York waterfront, in its third day today, tied up civilian shipping and five Army cargo ships partly loaded with "vital" cargo for Korea and other military installations.
Atom Test Grounds Ready
Some 3,000 to 5,000 men demanded re-opening of a new contract negotiated by union president Joseph Ryan,and ratified last week by a majority of the union's 65,000 each coast membership.