Opinion
Page 4
University Daily Kansan, October 6, 1982
Overhauling education
All three third-party candidates in this year's Kansas gubernatorial race advocate proposals that would drastically overhaul the state's public education system.
The plans, drafted as a means of easing the state's budget problems, range from American Party candidate Frank Shelton wanting to "weed out" students who really don't need to be in college, to Libertarian Party candidate James Ward wanting to make the job of educating the state's youth solely that of private institutions.
Prohibitionist Party candidate Warren Martin, falling somewhere in between, supports broadening the state's tax base to generate more money for public education, at the same time restructuring the system to improve what he sees as a lack of administrative skills in public schools.
Both Ward's and Shelton's plans are based on the contention that colleges pressure students into, as Shelton calls it, the "executive complex," putting
emphasis on getting the diploma and not education.
And despite the best efforts of many educators, such an attitude exists, although it's hard to pinpoint the origin of it. Too many students choose to go to college because they want to sit behind the mahogany desk that Shelton says is the symbol of the executive complex.
None of these candidates may win the chance to implement their ideas, but that does not mean that they should be ignored. Shelton's plan to tighten entrance requirements and to cut financial aid especially could be adapted to this situation.
All too often, education takes a back seat to success.
The candidates' proposals should point out one way to solve the problem. Their specific plans are too harsh. But a restructuring of the educational system could ease the money problems and work to put the education back in the education system.
Sometimes the college pace can make you a little crazy
My friend Bert calls me the other day.
He mumbles something unintelligible about notes for a class, then screams. "Help me!"
I race over to his apartment. In the parking lot are Coke cans leading up to Bert's apartment. I open the door and Bert is standing beside his stereo, headphones on, coffee cup in the right hand, a textbook in the left hand. His eyeballs are as big as saucers.
"What's the matter, Bert? You call me up, I can't even understand you, you start screaming,
TOM GRESS
now I get here and you look like you've taken me for a football team. What the hell is等着 go?
"Bert, what's happened to you? Last week we were just a happy kid, drinking water and waiting to graduate so you could move into your father's bank. What happened?"
"Tests. Four. Three. Days. Mind. Blank." Bert starts to slobber down the front of his shirt. Then he falls forward. I grab him and set him on the sofa. This isn't the same person as you were when he instituted because it was the thing to do. Now he believes he really needs a rehabilitation institute.
Bert buries his head in his hands, then begins to speak.
"Papers. Typewriter. Broken."
"Bert, please. Try to talk to me in sentences.
You know, throw in some verbs here and there."
"Bert, they haven't broken you have they? You're not taking school seriously. You're not private."
Then I look at the dark circles under his eyes, his sunken cheeks and his unkempt hair. His clothes look as though they haven't been washed in a week, and he hasn't shaved for at least three months.
Bert draws in a deep breath, then speaks, this time in sentences.
"Oh, it's been terrible. Four midterms in three days. Two papers in one day, I don't sleep anymore. My life is just one big caffeine buzz. The other night I get two hours of sleep and I have a nightmare that Robert Young keeps telling me to relax."
"Maybe you should relax." I tell him. "Try to get some more sleep, take it easy."
"Relax? Sleep? Take it easy! Hell, you know what those job recruiters expect? A 4.0 membership in every organization that's ever been on campus and a good social life. I'm on Mortar Board and College Republicans and I am here to teach you all about them. There are only 24 hours to a day. Hey, I don't even know what day it is. And everything has gone wrong.
"I stay up half the night before my accounting test, writing formulas on my tennis shoes. Then it rains and I must've stepped in a paddle or something, because I start on the test, look down at the tennis shoes and there's nothing but a mass of blue ink.
"Well, that's not too bad because I've got the formulaes set in my calculator, too. I'm not taking any chances. It's a cruel world, and I'm not going to be the one who gets a 36 on his test. Light starts blinking, thing starts smoking then it just goes blank. Won't do a thing."
"I to decide it swing it, but the girl next to me, she's got one of those calculators. Hell, it's got everything -- sines/cosines/tangents/scientific notations/pi/square roots/means/e-coefficients-- shoot, press one button you get a print out of the New York Times in your mail two days later. I tell her to compute? She whips through the test in half an hour, then says she's going out for a beer."
Bert screams into his pillow, then starts talking again.
"I finally get through the test, and I go home to study for my computer science test. I stay up till 2 a.m., but I've got to get up at 5 a.m. to sign up for a job interview. I set my alarm, but I sleep through it, don't wake up until 9 a.m. All the times are filled by the time I get there. My future, it's shot. I might as well get a job sweeping up Allen Field House."
"Bert, don't you think you are being a bit hard on yourself. College is supposed to be a place where you can learn at leisure. It isn't supposed to be a place that you're going to corporate boardroom at United Technologies."
"Hah! You scum!! You fool! Sure, tell that to some job interviewer. Tell him you spent your college years taking English and history classes. He'll laugh at you, then kick you out the door."
"It's savage out there. Why do you think I pump myself up with caffeeine every night? Why do you think I bought a dark pinstripe suit for interviews? Why? Why?"
Bert starts to scream into his pillow again.
Laws can't cure the alcoholic driver
The facts are grim and the statistics incredible. Drunken drivers need to be taken off the road.
Many groups, often comprising victims or the families of victims of drunken drivers, are winning the nationwide fight to get drinkers to drink less and for the most part, that is commendable.
The problem is that these groups are looking at the problem too narrowly. They assume that drunken drivers are social drinkers, but many are not.
Alcoholism is a widespread and ever-growing disease in America. One of the most deadly symptoms of the disease is that many of those suffering from alcohol abuse are to see that they are suffering from a disease.
Many drunken people get into a car and think they can control it. Unfortunately, this is not usually the case. Most people who drive a car after a few, or many drinks assume they will get home safely and without injuring anyone, including themselves. But consider these facts:
—Drunken drivers cause more deaths, injuries and destruction than murderers, muggers, robbers, rapists and thieves. In the past 10 years, 250,000 Americans have died because of drivers who were under the influence of alcohol — but only 30 percent of those times the number of combat deaths in Vietnam
—More than half of America's traffic deaths result from drunken driving.
- On a typical Friday or Saturday night, one of every 10 drivers on the road is drunk.
—About 44 percent of fatal alcohol-related crashes are caused by drivers in 16 to 24 years old.
—Drunk-driving accidents are the leading cause of death of 16 to 24-year-olds.
Kansas is one of the states that has passed stiffer drunken-driving laws to help curb these problems. The new law went into effect July 1, is not too hard to wear, Lawrence city prosecutor, is not too hard to wear,
Glover says that the law discriminates against Kansas, because previous drunken-driving convictions in other states cannot be used against a person if he is prosecuted in Kansas,
and he would consequently receive only the mandatory first offence sentence of 48 hours in prison.
Glover said the law, as written, also not allow a prosecution to plea bargain if there were charges.
He cited the case of one woman who was at a bar drinking and decided that she should not drive. She asked her ex-boyfriend to drive her home, but he took her to his apartment instead. The woman ran out of the apartment and took her car and was pulled over for drunken driving.
Her sentence was diverted, no did not have to go to jail, but she did have to give 100 hours of work.
public service and go to Alcohol Rehabilitation School.
About 40 percent of the cases prosecuted in municipal court since the law went into effect are still not in执行.
Mike Maleon, district court judge, however,
has said that the law would make fewer people dead.
*When he sentences a first offender for drunk driving, he warns them that the penalty for a second offense is six months in jail, a $200 to $500 fine and a ban on their driver's licenses for three months to a year.
This last part of the law, a common denominator in most states' drunken-driving laws, looks to be very logical on the surface. If you drink and fail your license, then he cannot get drunk and drive.
Unfortunately, the law is not as logical as it appears. People can still drive without a license, but they are not allowed to drive on roads.
And many states now realize that a driver's license is necessary for many people to get to work.
is difficult to keep a job — giving some a reason to drink.
also mount drummers and those who overestimate their ability to drive while drunk, the threat of losing their licenses might conceivably keep them from driving while drunk.
And Alcohol Rehabilitation School, according to those who have been to the school, can scare first offenders into refraining from driving after drinking.
The social drinker would likely be horrified at the thought of marming or killing another person and might think, "If I had not been drunk, I would not have killed that person."
The alcoholic, however horrified he also would be, might be more likely to think, "I killed a person and therefore I am a horrible, worthless person" — again, giving him another reason to
The Alcohol Rehabilitation School sends convicted drunken drivers for tests to see whether he is an alcoholic. These tests may easily detect alcoholism, but unless the alcoholic recognizes the disease in himself, he will be unable to accept help.
These laws are good for social drinkers, and evaluations to pick out problem drinkers are a good idea. But chances are that someone who comes back many times for drunken driving is a problem drinker. And the laws themselves will only hurt the alcoholic.
Revoking driver's licenses is a sound idea for the rest of us, but how does the alcoholic react? He cannot get to his job, but can walk to the neighborhood pub or liquor store? The law does protect innocent victims, but it does not help the problem drinker.
Those writing, signing and lobbying for these laws should try to think about remedies for the alcoholic driver. Determining whether a person is an alcoholic is one thing; helping him stop drinking is another problem entirely. Alcohol Rehabilitation School probaby won't do it.
Do not misunderstand me, I strongly support any law that saves the lives of innocent victims. But I think that there must be some way to help prevent them from being drunk, those that are often drunken — the alcoholics.
Letters to the Editor
Spirit squad like any other athletic team
To the Editor:
During the past two weeks, several articles have appeared in the Kansan criticizing the process used to select the junior varsity spirit squad. By no means is it necessary for me to justify the method of selection used, or the competency of the judges. It should go without saying that all members of the 1982-83 JV squad are very talented individuals who deserve a place on that squad. I would, however, like to mention that many of the students involved in the operation of our KU spirit squad and to clear up the misinformation that has resulted from the story-swapping.
First of all, I believe the basic fact that everyone seems to be neglecting is that the spirit squid is a variety, non-revenue sport, and as the coach of this particular athletic team, I have the same responsibility to the University of Kansas as the head baseball coach, the track coach, swimming and golf coaches and the like; and that responsibility is to ensure that I am providing the best team possible to represent our University.
In order to meet this responsibility, I recruit athletes, offer athletic scholarships, bench squad members who do not meet the prescribed expectations, remove and replace members of either squad and any other administrative duty that will ensure a non-quality team.
This is not a biased selection process as it has recently been referred to; it is the standard procedure followed in order to maintain a successful athletic team. Our people must be very dedicated and must give 110 percent, beginning at tryouts and continuing throughout the entire season. These people deserve a lot of credit and thanks for their superior talent, dedication and hard work, instead of all the criticism they are now receiving.
The majority of that criticism has been based on the Greek affiliations of many of the squid members. I am not concerned with where they live or what they do on their own time. As long as they are able to meet the squid obligations and do not let their fraternal affiliations interfere with cheerleading, I do not object to their involvement in these organizations, or in any other campus group. They are our own best judgess of how thin they can spread themselves.
It should also be taken into account that the people who make the best cheerleaders have outgoing personalities. They are usually involved in extracurricular activities during high school, and once they reach college, they seek out other students most like themselves, in order to become involved. This is the main reason there seems to be an overabundance of Greeks in our spirit squad, Student Senate and other campus organizations. Being involved is just one of their personality traits and should not be a discriminating factor.
Spirit Squad coordinator
Selections not biased
To the Editor:
As I tried up, I realized there were no secrecy girls pushing for me. Seeing as I'm a non-Greek, I would seem, according to Clark, to have a deficit in my scoring points. My roommate was a
I read a letter to the editor in the Sept. 29 Kansan concerning KUF Spirit Quad selection and found myself torn between laughter and anger. Like Barbara Clark, I tried out for the spirit squad. Like Clark, I suffered the disappointment of defeat. Unlike Clark, I accepted my defeat, choosing not to blame matters on a scapegawt — the Greek system.
cheerleader, though, and I knew quite a few squad members and a few of the judges. I've danced for 11 years, and I can kick as high as anyone else, but despite this, my "connections" are all too good. In fact, I've never been coldly ignored like that before. Are connections that helpful?
As for biased judging, the judging panel was composed of members of the athletic department and two ex-chieleaders who were Greek alumni. See the minority of Sigma Nu and Tri-Delt members who tried out, why fly into a turvy?
Get your facts straight, Clark. One and only one person was invited to rejoin the squad even though he didn't originally try out. Rejoin, not join. Due to his previous two-year affiliation, the fact that he was a darned good yell leader, and the lack of quality at the trouts, Cathy Queen made a pretty smart move in the interests of KU's哨声 suit. Therese Mertes
Prairie Village junior
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Day Kannan (USP $89-500) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Flint Hall, Lawrence, KAN. Students may attend Monday and Tuesday during the summer sessions and on Wednesday, holidays and final periods. Second class postage Sunday, holidays and final periods. Second class postage for six months or £2 a year in Douglas County and £18 for six months or £8 a year outside the county. Student activity fee. POSTMARKET: Send address changes to the University Day Kannan, 118 Flint Hall, Lawrence, KAN.
Katie
George
General Manager and News Advisor
General Manager and News Advisor
Paul Jean
Steve Rudolph