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Page 2 University Daily Kansan Monday, April 22, 1857
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One Man's Opinion
A Poor Grading System
Is the American college system of tests and letter grades a good system? Many students will answer in the negative.
Tests are given to determine the student's knowledge of the subject over which he is tested. By the question asked, the instructor supposedly is able to determine how much the student has grasped of the subject. But in many cases tests don't accomplish this end.
A student, by cramming two or three days before the test, is able to memorize the material over which he is to be tested. A week or so later, if he were to be tested over this same material, he would fail miserably. This cannot conceivably be accomplishing the purpose of gaining a practical knowledge of the subject.
Yet the results of these tests, the grades, are used by employers as an indication of the qualification of a job applicant. A student with a three point average will naturally, in most cases, obtain a better job than a student with lower grades. Yet he may not be better qualified for the job, but only have a better memory.
The emphasis put on grades places the student at another disadvantage. Frequently a student will have several tests over a period of a week
or less. If this is the case, he cannot study properly for all of the tests and must sacrifice one subject in order to do well in another. In this way, the too highly regarded GPA is lowered. He is also, by virtue of his lower average, lowered in the estimation of a prospective employer. This is grossly unfair to the student, and in many cases, to the employer.
A person who gets a three-point average, unless of superior intelligence, must sacrifice other important aspects of college life to spend all of his time studying. A person who shuns people and social functions is in many ways not well qualified for jobs where he is in constant contact with people.
Grades given as passing or failing would indicate, to as high a degree as the present system, whether or not the student had a working knowledge of the subject. Weekly tests should be given along a more practical line, and less emphasis should be put on finals.
These measures would give the student a chance to get a decent education while being able to enjoy college to some degree. It would also put him to less of a disadvantage in obtaining a job.
A Kansan's Work Displayed
—Del Haley
Recently, a group of John Steuart Curry's paintings was placed on exhibit in the Museum of Art. It is the last major exhibit for this year.
Mr. Curry was Kansas' most famous painter and during the 1930's he was one of the most popular American painters. His works have been purchased by leading American museums and are located throughout the U.S. today. Many of these works have been lent to the Museum for this exhibition.
From comments heard on the Hill, and from
There are a great number of paintings and oil sketches on display, many depicting Kansas farm life.
my own personal opinion, this is one of the best exhibits the museum has had this year.
Exhibits like this one are an important part of life at the University. It gives us a chance to get a little cultural background which we can't get elsewhere.
This exhibit should be of particular interest to Kansans and University students in general.
—Leroy Zimmerman
. Letters To The Editor
Name Juveniles?
Mr. Haley's comments (Daily Kansan, April 18) concerning the naming of juvenile first-offenders who have appeared before the juvenile court are interesting, but show a lack of understanding of the problem at hand.
The juvenile court is not a little criminal court for children. This is mainly due to the fact that it is not too generally known and seems to be difficult for some people to realize: children who have violated the law react quite differently from most adults.
An adult charged with crime is expected to deny his guilt. Consequently, elaborate machinery has been set up to ascertain the fact of his guilt.
On the other hand, a child brought to court for a violation of law, when asked about it, in 99 cases out of 100 will confess freely and fully, and like as not will throw in a few extra confessions of other offenses not even suspected by parents, pedagogues, or police. Consequently there is no need for the elaborate machinery of indictments, arraignments, pleas, prosecuting and defense attorneys, juries, trials verdicts, penalties that are the characteristic feature of an adult criminal trial.
It might be said that the juvenile court is more like a confessional than a court. Perhaps this confessional aspect had something to do with bringing about the holding of hearings in private and the preservation of the confidence embodied in the family records.
And it must account in part tor the fact that the press of the country has so long and so gallantly of its own volition, refrained from making public the private peccadillos and family foibles of the hapless clients of the court.
I contend that this policy should be continued.
Herb Horowitz,
Kansas City, Mo.
Third-year law student
The deep sea diving record of 600 feet is held by a British Royal Navy seaman.
Not So Dusty Now
What was it like to live in the dust bowl? Not so bad as you'd imagine, unless you got caught in a black blizzard. Yet, it wasn't the most pleasant of places. Even when the dust wasn't blowing, you would realize that some of it was hanging in the air. You'd smell it. It affected your sinuses. You'd taste it and nothing would quite wash it from your mouth.
The landscape was drab with a brownish cast, when it ought to have been green with sprouting wheat and fresh pasture. The occasional stretch of green seemed a sickly stand. Little "dust devils" would skip across the silt-laden fields. They were like tiny tornadoes and mostly blew themselves out in a few feet. Natives called them a sign of dry weather.
But for the most part, people were surprisingly cheerful. Farmers still
Then the hoped-ior moisture came which helped to break the drought. Snow piled up mountainous drifts, leveled windmills and fences, ripped up loose crops and killed cattle. But the blowing dust was gone.
Into the powdery trough of the plains came sporadic showers and snows. To the dry-skinned farmers and ranchers who had been sitting out a searing drought for as long as eight years, the moisture on the dry land stirred a flicker of hope.
. . .
worked their fields. Stores still did business. But the dust left a constant haze in the sky.
Even as they totaled their losses many of the weather-beaten farmers in the drought stricken area could take a hopeful view...spring was starting off beautifully.
Marilyn Mermis
Well!
Editor:
I am sorry to read that Russ Branden doesn't care for the column "Ad Booki". For if he doesn't embrace Dawson's humor - Max Shulman and "Pogo" must be distressingly deep for him also.
What a shame Russ didn't include his "intellectual" reasons for not liking the column. Is it that he dislikes Dawson for thinking or does he merely find his prose too much like homework?
Art Harkins
Ottawa freshman
Argentina declared its independence from Spain in 1816.
Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, trilweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone VIking 3-2700 Extension 251, news room Extention 251, news room
Extension 376, business office
Memorial Island Daily Press Association.
Associated with National Advertising Service,
420 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y.
service; United Press. Mall 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 holiday
weekends may be as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at
Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of
March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Kent Thomas ... Managing Editor
John Battin, Felicia Ann Fenberg, Bob Lyle, Betty Jean Stanford, Assistant Managing Editor; Jim Banman, City Editor; Nancy Harmon, LeBoy Zimmerman; Chris Wilson, Shiionozaki, Telegraph Editor; Mary Beth Noyes, Delbert Haley, Assistant Telegraph Editor; Dick Brown, Sports Editor; George Anthan, Assistant Sports Editor; Marilyn Mermis, Sports Editor; Pat Swanson, Assistant Society Editor; John Eaton, Picture Editor
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Jerry Dawson ... Editorial Editor
Jerry Thomas, Jim Tice, Associate Editors.
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Dale Bowers Business Manager
Dave Dickey, Advertising Manager; John
Harold Metz, Classified Activating
Manager; Conboy Brown, Circulation
Manager.
SNOOKER and CALL SHOT Tournament
Register today at the Jay-Bowl in the Student Union
Use the Kansar Classified Want Ad Section to Get Best Results.
Sale Starts
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Tuesday
After Easter
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