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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, May 5.1959
Faults for Failures
Last week the English department announced that two of every five students who took the English Proficiency test this spring failed.
A cry went up last fall when 31.9 per cent of the students taking it failed. But the cries seem to have been meaningless and certainly were ignored since no constructive solution has yet been offered.
David Dykstra, one of the examination's supervisors, explained that the increased percentage of failures was because many of the students who took the test recently are those who failed it in the fall. He also attributes the high failure percentage to the fact that, as of last fall, any student who passed English I and/or II with an A, or English IH or 2H with an A or B became exempt from taking the test.
True, these may be reasons, but the important question still remains—if students could not pass the English Proficiency test, how did they pass their required English courses in the first place?
Also, why are the deficiencies not required to take another English composition course when they fail the test?
Students poor in English may go to the writing clinic but few do. They laugh their failures off or blame them on the English department. Only a handful try to learn anything new before the next test. Many will pass it the second time around but they never really know any more about writing than when they went through the first time.
There are always reasons for these failures, but they are not reasons for letting the deplorable situation continue unchanged.
This year has proved that there is a definite need to re-examine the basic English courses. If students do not learn how to write in high school, the English department must teach them while they are here. If the department can not teach the student, the failure ratio will always be high.
-Martha Crosier
Editor:
In a letter written by Denis Kennedy on April 29, he claims the map of the Arab countries marked Israel as a member of the Arab League. Apparently Mr. Kennedy cannot read, at least maps, for this map does not show this in any fashion.
As to his resentment of the Arab consideration of Israel as "occupied territory," different people hold different opinions about this matter.
The United Nations report that Israel occupied 33 per cent more territory than specified by the partition of Palestine. Several resolutions were passed by the United Nations ordering Israel to withdraw, but unfortunately those resolutions were ignored. It is obvious that the United Nations uses the term "occupied."
If for one reason or another, the state of Kansas were given by the United Nations to the refugees from Hungry or from any other part of the world and the poor Kansans had to leave their homes by force to move to other places, and those who were left in Kansas were considered by the new settlers as "second class citizens" who could not travel from one town to another without military permit, and who had to learn their own language as a secondary one, I am sure that the people from Texas or Missouri would insist on calling the state of Kansas "occupied territory"...
I am sure that the Kansans together with the Texans would sacrifice their lives to save their lost territory.
Mr. Kennedy, you felt qualified to classify Russian Communism as our real enemy in the Middle East, perhaps so, but I feel differently, knowing more of the facts.
By your standard, I feel well qualified to judge the real enemy in Ireland through the many years. Your people's sense of humor played upon by the evil forces of Communism have caused your loss of freedom.
Mr. Kennedy, I would not give Ireland to the poor of England. Please think twice before condemning my people who resent others for forcing them from their homes
Mohammed Y. Shana'a Lawrence junior
Editor:
Before you get that long deserved diversion period between June and September I would like to put in a word for your side.
Several months ago a person in a high office in our fair state of Kansas took the students at the state universities as a whole to task for being interested in today's politics.
This showed not only a lack of maturity that is needed for such an office, but was an effort to force Dockingism, the same way that McCarthyism once reigned and how today Morsism controls dip-
omatic appointments, not only in the Kansas Legislature but in the enlightened minds of university students.
I was at the time this happened very happy to see the University students reject actively such a move and hope that in the future they will act in such a way that it can not happen again.
The voice of university students should always ring out loud and clear, through the press, and active mature partisan activities at election time; for it is this age group that has to give so much in time of peril, yet are given so little chance to determine their own destiny.
Henry P. Cleaver Jr.
a citizen of Kansas
Editor:
I gather from the letter by Kenneth King (Friday's Kansan) that he supports the idea that the two students who did not turn their friends over to the police for raiding an apartment were indeed guilty of neglecting their moral responsibilities to society.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS BY BIBLER
King exemplified this by saying that if there were more "brother's-keepers" around, the kidnappers of the southern Negro would have been caught by now.
But why not try to go a little further into the problem? If people would accept everyone as individuals in their own right, would this kidnapping have ever occurred in the first place? Would there be a racial problem in the South at all?
King says a society that will not commit itself leads to a psychotic nation. "A man that won't take a stand is hardly a man." he said.
IN ADDITION TO REGULAR TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS - ALL FACULTY MEMBERS ARE EXPECTED TO SUPPORT A CLUB.
I say every man is an island! When the world is suddenly divested of illusions and appearances, man feels alien—an out-sider. He sees himself as being *totally alone*—denied the soothing remedies of falseness, bad reasons and hope.
This may be true, but is it not conceivable that people may take just as firm a stand in minding their own business? Will you let me be a 'man' by taking this stand? This might be a much simpler life.
Man is an individual; his freedom lies in making his own decisions. Herein dwells the two students' innocence.
Stewart Nowlin Holton sophomore
UNIVERSITY
Dailu Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904,
triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone VIking 3-2700 Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association.
Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y.
Assigned to national Mail.subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays,
and second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
Allen - Lettz
By Gilbert M. Cuthbertson
COMMON SENSE AND NUCLEAR WARFARE, Bertrand Russell,
Simon and Schuster, New York. $2.50.
Lord Russell's "The Future of Mankind" from Unpopular Essays envisioned three possible alternatives for the future of the world: the extinction of the human race, a reversion to barbarism, or the establishment of a universal slave state.
The philosophy of Russell is one of dynamic change and readjustments to changing circumstances. In this vein, the author of "Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare" sees "new hopes for a changing world." Russell feels that "we are not doomed to persist in the race towards disaster." His solution calls for the creation of an international, federative authority, supported by an armed force.
The over-all objectives of such an organization would be world peace and human survival. Common fear would serve as the mutual cohesive force, common fear of nuclear war—"this insane march toward death ... increasing fear and increasing armaments."
Lord Russell's program would treat nuclear warfare as an epidemic and expose the fallacy that "perhaps this pestilence would do more harm to the enemies than to us." There must be an abolition of nuclear testing, an abolition of war declaration, and eventual disarmament—above all, "a genuine desire . . . a genuine readiness on both sides" for peace.
From a conciliatory committee controlling these early phases would come a powerful international federation, perhaps an outgrowth of the United Nations. Lord Russell suggests a reunification of Germany, a type of neutralization for Central Europe, and U.N. membership for Communist China as initial steps.
The appeal of Lord Russell's powerful new book is not to "isms" but to "common sense." Common sense, however, recalls a League of Nations, the Washington Disarmament Conference, a Munich. Mutual fear leads to mutual friction; fear of an external power leads to cohesion.
Common sense raises serious questions not to the necessity but to the possibility of Russell's thesis. Is fear of nuclear war strong enough to prevent the international domination attempts, prophesied by Marx, promised by Lenin? Is the probable destruction of millions of individuals a sufficient preventive where the concept of the individual is meaningless? Is such a Hobbesian state, whose first principle is fear, desirable for the free world?
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
(Answer on page 8)
ACROSS
1 Former Greek Premier.
8 Charles' title.
14 Eisenhower's home town.
15 War between Russia and England.
16 Choral composition.
17 Most optimistic.
18 Established: Abbr.
19 Grooved a board, in carpentry.
21 Brogan.
23 Dodger star.
24 Gacile.
28 Lawyer's customers.
30 Fixes.
31 Sounds of sorrow: Colloq.
34 Streets: Abbr.
36 Persian.
37 Strictness.
38 Depart.
40 Familiar.
41 District attorney: Abbr.
44 Illegal occupant of a throne.
46 Maintain.
40 Food tish.
51 Novelist Ferber.
51 West German state.
59 Drive off: Colloq.
60 It indicates the north: 2 words.
59 Ginder.
60 A condiment.
60 Disconcert.
65 Japan.
65 Venerator.
67 Verb inflections.
68 Templers.
DOWN
1 Ambles.
2 Disconcert.
3 Steed for a cowboy.
4 High, in music.
5 Apparatus.
6 Smallest of the Great Lakes.
7 Construction men of the Navy.
8 Remonstrance.
9 Singer Stevens.
10 Ammonia compounds.
11 Born: French.
12 En tuit —
13 Adjectival suffix.
15 Helmet plumes.
16 Golfer Hogan.
22 Resound.
24 A quick summary; Colloq.
26 Barrel part.
27 Chemical compound.
29 Nobleman.
31 Exceeded, as a record.
32 Removed the squeak.
35 Utah city.
35 A great number; Colloq.
35 Transgresses.
32 Squared blocks of building stone.
34 Curls the lip.
34 Parvenu.
34 Orator.
34 Daily publications.
34 Burro.
35 Capital city in Africa.
36 Michaelmas daisy.
35 Namesakes of Norse god.
37 Double curve.
38 Split.
39 Liquid container.
41 Fresh-water fish.
42 Sine qua ___
43 Slight clearing of the throat.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14
16
18
21
31 32 33
37
40
46
50
56 57 63 64 65 66 67