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Editorials Haskell diploma — ticket to unknown!
The American Indian population is increasing at a rapid rate. Between 1500 and 1900 the Indian population decreased from about 850,000 to 250,000. The 1960 census reported 523,591 Indians in the United States. In addition there were 28,637 Eskimos and Alutes in the state of Alaska.
After placing them on reservations, the government is in the process of disrupting their homes and attempting to move them back into the general society.
MOST OF THE reservations are immersed in extreme poverty and Haskell does provide an excellent opportunity for training the young Indian.
But can the school prepare a student adequately when the school remains segregated? Should it really
Last in a series.
cost $3,000 to train a student during an 18-month period. Couldn't the training, when it is largely of a vocational nature, be given over a much shorter period of time?
DOES A STUDENT really benefit from eating in a Rose room five times,from living in a pseudoapartment type dwelling and preparing a paper budget? Does he learn how to cope with the problems of city living when he isn't allowed in Lawrence and punished when he takes a drink?
When an Indian leaves his reservation he becomes a displaced person. His cultural pattern is destroyed. At Haskell it is not developed or recalled. He must learn a trade. But what kind of trade — painter, plumber, welder.
What happens when he leaves Haskell? How well is he prepared to cope with such problems as closed shops and unionism? Students leave Haskell unaware of many of these problems. And what will happen when the union strikes? How will they support themselves? Would it be worse on a reservation?
HASKELL OFFICIALS ARE proud of a new program which was instituted this month—a licensed practical nursing program for girls. There is a shortage of practical nurses. Undoubtedly all of the graduates will be placed without difficulty. But the average monthly salary for licensed practical nurses is about $275 a month.
One might ask, why be poor on a reservation with your friends and relatives when you can go to the city alone and be poor?
Haskell has almost 100 per cent placement each year of its graduates and many have jobs long before graduation. Haskell follows up on its graduates for a brief period, but what happens after a year or two years after the student has left Haskell?
HOW MANY FAIL and return to the reservation or wander aimlessly, lost in big cities?
Will the Haskell Institute of the future serve as a symbol of opportunity for the bronze-skinned man and woman? It is debatable—for two reasons.
They are displeased with the methods used by the school to achieve its goals. They are not properly prepared to deal with the problems of city living.
A third reason might be that they prefer their family and tribal customs and will eventually return to them.
HASKELL IS NOT accredited. It is a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association. No training received there would transfer as college credit. Because of the poverty of most students and because Haskell is one of the few boarding schools for Indians, the school will continue to receive numerous applicants each year. But how many of those students might be college material? Several current students had no conception of how they might attend college, or the nature of the requirements. They were simply attending Haskell because of the free training.
Is it better that the young Indian comes to Haskell to escape the reservation? It is better that, after two years of living in a vacuum at Haskell, he goes into the "major culture" as an "assimilated" person and begins drinking because of his socio-economic level and continues to drink to escape reality.
Robert J. Rollins
Cooperate for peace
A Topeca radio station recently conducted a survey to see what listeners thought of an idea to send an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut into space in the same capsule. The results were disappointing.
The pros and cons were split just about evenly. Those who opposed the idea gave irrational answers that have become characteristic of too many people and have had adverse effects on the judging of the general will of the nation. The word "Russians" is a dirty one to many Americans, and anything connected with it is bad.
EXAMPLES OF THE answers show this. Some just flatly said they did not want a "stinking" Russian in the same satellite with an American. Some felt it would be giving information to the Russians that should be secret. Others thought it would work like the U.N. and that the U.S. would pay the way. There may be bona fide objections to such an idea, but none of the listeners gave any.
Worrying about the "stinking" Russian is totally irrational. As for giving information to the Russians, we could both gain by the cooperative effort. If this were a major threat, the satellite sent up could be elementary and not really do advanced research. What if the U.S. did have to pay the entire bill? Would not a few million dollars be worth it to gain cooperation,
peace in the cold war, peaceful co-existence, or better understanding?
SUCH A PROGRAM could become a symbol of the need for peace, the advantage of cooperation, and the desire for better understanding. Such a move could become a rallying point for both nations. If our governments could perform such a feat, the peoples of both nations would begin to dispose of prejudices that have hampered relations.
Many historians and political philosophers feel that the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. will be on the same side if another major world war should occur. If there is this possibility then we should get to know our future ally better. If there is this chance, and it may be a most beneficial one, we are foolish to ignore or reject a positive plan to better relations.
FIGHTING A WAR is a high price to pay for security and freedom, although it is sometimes necessary. The price of friendship could be practically nothing.
It is time for Americans to review their prejudices and ideas. Reason and planning could change the world's atmosphere. The Russians may reject ideas like this at first and the planning be wasted. But if we are persistent and present many such plans, they may realize our desire for world stability.
Jim King
Light reading for study breaks
A novel study break for students bending under the weight of too many books already sample one of the many light entertainments now available in paperback.
MURDER AND THE WANTON BRIDE, by Brett Halliday (Dell, 45 cents); SHOOT THEWORKS, by Brett Halliday (Dell, 45 cents); MURDER AFTER HOURS, by Agatha Christie (Dell, 45 cents)—Three more-or-less standards of mystery story writing. Hercule Poirot, not too surprisingly, is our hero in the third of these, which originally was called "The Hellew," and involves murder and marriage. The others are more in the tough-guy school, starring Mike Shayne, and not a thought will need to trouble your mind as you relax with them.
MOSQUITOES, by William Faulkner, (Dell, 60 cents)—Faulkner in light and ribald vein, being awfully Evelyn Waughish (or "South Wind"ish) back in the twenties, before he achieved his reputation. This has appeared in previous paperback editions, and the new cover is about all to distinguish it from earlier volumes. The great man was performing in the Bohemian world of New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, and the book, let's face it, was a lesser effort.
THE HORIZON BOOK OF THE AGE OF NAPOLEON, by J. Christopher Herold (Dell, 95 cents) — The magnificently illustrated-printed edition reduced to paperback. The text is an extremely solid matter, but if you know the big book this can only be a comedown.
Heold, who has written extensively of Napoleon, fills us in on the French Revolution and then treats the entire age, not confining himself to conventional biography. Even without the illustrations this one deserves a recommendation.
THE LAUREL CLASSICAL DRAMA—GREEK COMEDY, edited by Robert W. Corrigan (Dell, 75 cents)—Five plays in a worthwhile collection. Four are famous works by Aristophanes — "Lysistrata," "The B., 's," "Peace" and "The Plutus. The fifth is Menander's "The Grouch." Translations are modern.
2 Daily Kansan Monday, January 17, 1966
"—AN' NOW WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU'D LIKE TO ENROLL IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY?"
The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunities.
We were thinking...
Great economic and social forces flow with a tidal sweep over communities that are only half conscious of that which is befalling them. Wise statesmen are those who foresee what time is thus bringing, and endeavor to shape institutions and to mold men's thought and purpose in accordance with the change that is silently surrounding them.
— Ernest Hemingway
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- Viscount Morley
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