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Tuesday, November 10, 1970
University Daily Kansan
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KANSAN comment Don't Get Mad, Get Smart
By GALEN BLAND
Kansan News Editor
Spring had come. The breeze was soft and warm along Jayhawk Boulevard. I meandered down the sidewalk, thinking of April and Abbie Hoffman, who was coming the next night. And I was thinking of Velvet and Lito, whose names were heavy in the headlines of the Kansas.
My meanderings stopped in front of Watson Library. There on the stone-walled bulletin board, along with the announcements of contests and plays, was a yellow sheet of legal paper. Scribbed on it were these words: "One riot and Reynolds Shultz will be governor. Keep it cool."
April. April and Abbie. April and fire and the Kansas Union. Curfew, confrontation, sniper fire and April.
May. May and Kent. Four dead in Ohio. Protest march and protest convocation to vote to end the year early 'cause you don't have to take the final.
November. Whoever wrote that scribbled note was wrong—but not by much.
Second in command isn't so bad and, as Shultz sees it, it might be a stepping stone to the big time. Governor Schultz, anyone?
Last spring was quite a fling and we can only reap the reward that belongs to self-made scapegoats. The attorney general will be landing here with both feet. The governor must be bolstered by his re-election and, even more, by the reaffirmation of the policies that got him elected.
In the blurry hours of the morning, when the networks were giving their election wrapups, Frank Reynolds said, "and in Kansas, where Robert Docking was losing favor because of riots at Kansas State University (everyone makes mistakes) he took a stronger
stand on law and order and came out the winner."
The voters have voted the will of the country and Kansas is not atypical. Agnew's tactics of smearing the issues and screaming law and order, as if the Democrats were all members of the Weathermen, were rewarded in some places by the vote of the blue-collar workers. In 1964, that vote was called the white backlash, but now it must be called the fear backlash. So what we have elected, both in Kansas and across the nation are some law-and-order men who will strike hard to keep down riots and protect the trembling masses that voted for them.
And what will the result be? Will the law-and-order men stomp out with a Gestapo boot the rumblings of dissent on the campuses and in the ghetto's? No, any stomping will only increase the number of radicals. The split in this country will not be healed by a wedge.
It seems that when Vern lands here with both feet, the reaction of KU will be similar to the reaction to last April's curfew.
More law and order from Shultz, Miller and the like will lead to more unlaw and unorder, and this will bring a penalty at the polls; more Shultz and more Miller.
The circle is vicious. But it had better stop soon or this country will be none too pretty.
If the circle is to be broken it will take moderation from one or the other side. But who believes that Miller and Shultz and Agnew will quit stomping, especially when they see what benefits it gains them at the polls?
Maybe it's time for us at the universities to decide not to be scapegoats for the politicians anymore.
Maybe it's time we listened to wise words from—an Uncle Tom, if you will—William L. Dawson, black Chicago politician: "Don't get mad, get smart."
Grading and Regurgitation Stifle Original Thought
By FRANK SLOVER Kansan Staff Writer
The grading system used in American universities is irrelevant to learning. There is no denying it.
When a student must worry about a letter that will compare him to his peers, original thought and spontaneous learning go out the window. To get a grade, memory is the stuff, along with a judicious regurgitation of the professor's own opinions, come examination time.
The grading system encourages the recording of some facts, for a time, but does nothing to further an understanding of the dynamics behind those facts.
Most professors will say that the current system is not conducive to the process of education. Some courses in the university are already run on a credit-necredit basis; why shouldn't the entire system not be handled that way?
There is the fact that not all students abhor grades. Many individuals want a university education for the superior positions it will give them after they graduate. A recruiter from a business firm wants to see the numerical rating of a job candidate. Of course, he should be able to make his decision from an interview and letters of recommendation, but he is a busy man and these latter techniques have their failings.
The interview is not particularly beneficial to a qualified candidate who is inarticulate or nervous when he talks to someone for the first time. A person like this may fare better over an extended period, when his work can be judged on a day-to-day basis.
A letter of recommendation is nice if one happens to be in a class small enough that he can get to know his professor. Teaching assistants are not really good for this. Their appraisals are not overly respected by employers, graduate schools or scholarship committees.
Even if one has a small class, it pays to be on good terms with the professor. Yet the desire to elicit a good recommendation can lead to more educational irrelevances than the current grading system.
Still, the grading system is not good.
Who gives the grade? On what does he base his opinion? What about his own
personal biases and imperfections? Is there any way to test for wisdom acquired or for development of the capacity for original thought? Should the grade be given for a level of excellence or for improvement over the semester?
There are students who do not care about grades and they should be allowed to attend classes and learn with their minds uncluttered by competition.
Perhaps one professor suggested the most logical model of the non-grade oriented program. He outlined a scheme in which a student could attend classes as long as he wanted and register for a course after he passed it. In that way, the professor could still act as judge and the student would have simply a record of completions. A certificate of completion could be conferred after 40 courses had been completed and a minor certificate after 30.
That can already be done to a certain extent, because anyone can walk into most classes and not be ejected.
That is not enough. The basic educational goals should be recognized and legitimized. Why force someone to take a course for grades if he does not care about the grade?
As the situation stands, some professors believe in grades and some do not. Those who do not tend to score the competition that is inherent in the grading system and often pass everyone. This is fine and these men may be well-intentioned, conscientious scholars.
Perhaps competition is natural to man. It seems that we rate every phenomenon—human or otherwise—with which we come in contact. It may not be a numerical rating but it is somewhat analogous.
Yet it would be a shame if some of the students in a course that a professor had liberated from grades were there because they saw the professor as an easy mark.
Whatever the outcome, a move should be made to provide at least the alternative to grades as a basis for a degree to see the alternative's impact on institutions of education and on those whom they serve.
Learning vs. 'An Education'
MAKING OUR CASE
Perhaps the atmosphere of competition will endure in another form under a system of non-grading.
By FRAN FERMAN
Student Senate Executive
Committee
Granted, movements are begun and perpetuated by frustrated persons who need to achieve their desires. They are begin by a few who emotionalize an issue and proceed to gather force, as a common enemy and generalized cause by slogans and emotionalism.
The recent cries for academic freedom, student involvement and free expression have been a major force in the debate as more rhetorical exigencies that utilize catchy phrases and emotionalism to spur radical thinking have become students. Many see the issue as another movement by a few fanatics who preach "The Test of Nigger" or "5149 or fight."
What then is the basis for the pleas of academic freedom? First, the difference between a formal learning process and an informal one is that you must be minimum, uniform standards to entitle a student to
become proficient in his chosen field. It would be absurd to give a medical degree to an individual who does not care on his own, what he needs, or background he needs to have to become a doctor. Certain individuals will be set to ensure both the individual and society that he is qualified. However, that should be the case, as imposed by a formal learning process.
A student's education is his own. He pays money for it and educates it. He should be free to determine not only the means of his education (i.e., types of programs, but also under what he is being taught (i.e., for personal improvement, requirements, for personal improvement).
In other words, if a student is a student because he can purchase his ticket to life by going to college, then he should recognize the truth of education from those who seek knowledge for its own end.
Requirements, rules, policies codes and doctrines are
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necessary, but only in their place.
They can ensure the status quo its adequate amount of mass-produced members of society,
limits, and in fact, destroy any other purpose for education.
Of course the question now remains: Who has the authority to determine what "education" is? Obviously each of us is at KU for a variety of reasons. I ask how we think about his reason for being here. Then we can determine who should, in fact, set the limits.
NEWS STAFF
News Adviser Del Brinkman
If we are paying for our education and if we are here for education then we have the right ultimate duty, at least to ourselves, to say how that education should be determined. Students in the underlying decision-making affects them. Not because we have a hurtfulrb, but because we have little things seeking individual goals.
News Advisor ... Del Blankman
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BUSINESS STAFF
Business Advisor ___ Mr. Adams
If the majority of KU students honestly live up to their reputation of apathy, then perhaps their education will remain in the stagnated position with no new opportunities in policy and rhetorical garbage for only grades and degrees. But, if they can reflect and examine their own needs and goals, then at least have the potential to confront this issue honestly and effectively in susceptibility: the ability to respond to their own heads and what they are now being filled with.
Management Adviser Méladan
Business Manager Asset Management Mikel Adams
Assistant Business Manager John Lagos
Assistant Business Manager Harun Jhaqi
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So, I will include this in all the rhetoric that is being passed around campus in hopes that it can help us to prompt a little thought from each student in terms of his own goals. I'm saying yes to academic freedom, to student involvement, and yet to free expression—not because of the number or numbers of movements or because of a movement for unity in校园的 faculty.
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or the administration, or even the regents. I'm saying yes to our individuality and the personal experience we have to accept it and to follow it.
'This is your captain speaking. We are experiencing some minor difficulty. Would everyone stick his arm out the window and flap vigorously.'
Mary Makepeace ZPG Political Action Committee
For a further exchange or ideas, please visit our next ZPG meeting—they're crowded, but interesting. It is 7:30 November in therium. Perhaps we could discuss the dangers of verbal pollution.
ZPG Answers Winn's Charge
To the Editor;
Mr. Bill Brier, Executive Assistant to Rep. Larry Wing:
You stated in a letter to me published in last Tuesday's Kansan, "Because of the late date of receipt of your authorization, Winn's attitudes on population issues) . . . I therefore conclude that Zoro Population Growth is further attempting to justify your favoritism of our opponent (DeCoursey) by being able to claim that you had indeed sought help and that that he had failed to respond."
You also stated that Bond proposed several dates on which Winn could talk to our group, and he was able to find him. This is totally incorrect.
I compliment you on your fertile imagination. Unfortunately, your letter is unfortunate with untruths. Several other letters received the questionnaire no sooner than you, including the governor and lieutenant governor candidates (interestingly, no necessary to respond in the fashion of your office). We did not expect those sent out late to be returned before the election, yet it was told that the information contained in the mail was valuable whenever returned. Let me make one point perfectly clear. In our summary of the various responses to the call, we was told that we had sought advice on the use and he had failed to respond; the 400 members of ZPG who received the summary could verify that fact. We would never have received such an act, and I vigorously protested founded, curious accusation. Fortunately we had a very illuminating source of information on Winn's attitudes—in the "Congressional Record."
KANSAN reviews
Kansan Reviewer
Holbrook's Image of Twain Perfect
BY STEVE SHERMAN Kansan Reviewer
if the performance of Hal Holbrook in "Mark Twain Tonight" could be described in a book title, it would be "the Complete Mark Twain."
Adding his excellent acting ability to the indisputable genius of America's greatest philosopher-humorist, Holbrook presented a program Friday night at the Music Hall in Kansas City that showed him humorous numerous stories of Mark Twain as well as some of the most profound.
During the program Holrokow mesmerized his audience with the same wry wit and acerbic tongue that Twain himself used many years
The form of the program was a reconstruction of what Twain might have said and done during one of the many lectures that he gave.
Attired in a white suit, Twain, an old man of 70 with his hair disheveled in boyish innocence, shuffled onto the darkened platform. The white suit contrasted brilliantly with the black background. The stage was almost bare, furnished only with a high-backed chair, a
MinnesotaOrchestra To Perform at KU
One of the top ten orchestras in the United States will appear here *on*
Thursday, Nov. 12. The Minnesota Orchestra, under the direction of
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, will perform at 8:20 p.m. in Hoch
Auditorium.
Skrowczewski has conducted most of the major orchestras in Europe, the United States, Canada, Israel and South America. These include the Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and New York Symphonies as well as the London Philharmonic, the Paris National Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Munich Philharmonic. He also made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera during its 1969-1970 season.
During his seven years with the Minnesota Orchestra, Siroczewski has affixed his own stamp on its sound. His emphasis on contemporary music has enhanced its reputation as one of the country's top orchestras.
The orchestra is also known for its former conductors, Eugene Ormandy and Annal Dorat.
The orchestra itself is noted as one of the nation's most widely travelled orchestras. It plays annually to an estimated 420,900 persons at 135 concerts on tour and during its regular concert season in Minneapolis.
Last season, the orchestra performed the New York premiere of krzysztof Penderecki's oratorio, "The Passion and Death of Jesus" at Carnegie Hall.
It also premiered Christian Haller's "Yes Speak Out" at the United Nations in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Human
In the summer of 1957 the orchestra, under the direction of Antal Dorati, went on a State Department tour of the Middle East. The orchestra played before audiences in Athens, Baghdad, Karachi Bombay, Balkan, Istanbul and Belgrade.
On its KU concert, the orchestra will perform "Overture Leonce
and Symphony No. 2 in D Major for Orchestra" by Sir William Walton
 and "Symphony No. 2 in B Minor for Orchestra" by
"Glad to see that you could make it to the services," he said.
could make it to the services, we are not with the first sight of him. We are a patient that Hollowock was all Twinan. He was just the one who picture him, an old man with a hooded nose, bushy eyebrows and a twinkle in his eye. The man with a hat was a hit wicker on his feet—just right for a man of 70.
table and a podium, all antique and all resting on a multi-colored oriental rug.
This is exactly what Holkrook wanted. He has spent much of his time in 1953 playing the role of Twinan and researching it thoroughly.
During those many years he has cultivated a near-perfect image of the man. It is so complete that actor Holbrook in word or deed never leaves him. The Twain character. He subordinates himself to the character, allows the child to star in the film. Not once does he ad-lib so much as a word of his own.
Holbrook is like the wise musician who allows the music of one of the masters to play him rather than playing or interpreting the music for him. He played the music did play him, sometimes bringing out the sweetest and the best; it “was as happy as a martyr when the fire wouldn’t burn.”
"The truth isn't hard to kill but a lie well told is immortal."
"Congress!" That grand and benevolent national asylum for the helpless. One time I visited the innates there . . ."
However, at times during the second half, he had a music critic biting and almost bitter. As he told the story of Huck Finn on his radio show, "The Mice of Madness," he said:
It came forth again when he spoke of our country: "Some people say, 'Our country, right or wrong. We have to do what the Government thinks best.' But say, who is the Government anyway? Isn't it the people?'
"Only when the Republic is in danger should a man support his permanent company. Otherwise man has sold his boner for a coward."
Then, all of a sudden, he is back jumping on his potium or slouching in his high-backed chair with his legs stretched out in front of him. His feet stepped one on top of another revealing the hole in the bottom of his裤子. He falls to the floor to all the trouble to do right when it ain't no trouble to do wrong"
That is one of the keys to Holbrook's performance, the ability to tie into the side of Twaen with the humorous side in an even and well planned manner.
Hollowook uses other techniques to enhance his performance. He has used both with just the right movement or punctuate a point with an innimitable rhythm.
Another trick that he employs to the tallest in the pause. By drawing out each phrase, Holbrok milks it for every laugh that it is worth and perhaps a few more. The technique adds a bit of audience anticipation so you can ask as well as giving emphasis to the points that he wishes to make.
H轧福用 all of these techniques to bring across in a subtle way
that encourages and helps the audience to see a bit of our ourselves in what he beats.
"I have received many letters over the years from men, women and children. They have contained compliments, praise and affection. The message is that I am a person of great importance."
At the end of the performance, two things could be said. First, the man, Mark Twain, through his words and thoughts had gained the education of another audience. Second, actor Holbrook was Mark Twain no more and certainly no less. For him that is the highest praise.