4A
Tuesday, August 23.1994
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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HEATHER KIRKWOOD
Approach to learning makes the difference
Some people may finish college without ever knowing what education has to offer those who desire to learn.
Hopefully, this is not the point. The point is to learn to view the world in a different way than you did when you started. The point is to learn how to think about the things you might already know in a different way. Intimate details about Plato, Aristotle and Locke are only tools to do that.
A student also enrolls in classes, attends, does homework, reading, term papers, and maybe even makes an A. Students might know what they are supposed to do, say, or be, but they don't care. They also try to fulfill course requirements and sometimes hope to get a piece of paper at graduation that could allow them to make more money. The difference is they always receive more than that.
Can you remember every detail from every class you have ever taken?
If you can't, then why are you taking them? Is the point of taking Western Civilization, for example, that you can
Grades, tests and terrific notes don't make a good student. Instead, a good student is the person who perhaps doesn't earn any academic recognition, but goes away from a class changed by it. A great student is one who walks away from a class changed by it, and acts on what changed them.
know every intimate aspect of the teachings of Plato, Aristotle and Locke?
life, there is nothing wrong with being an enrollee. However, there is the other choice.
Please don't misinterpret me my assuming that I think I am a student and not an enrollee. I only wish I could become a student. It is much easier to memorize notes and answer questions in a manner you think the professor will like than it is to look beyond. It also involves less risk. As a result, I find myself being an enrollee even when I want to be a student.
That all sounds pretty lofty.
"Are you a student or are you an enrollee?"
This was the first question that was put to me during the first class of my freshman year. I had chosen to attend a small college, in part, because I thought professors would somehow be friendlier, yet there stood a short, stout, seventy-year-old Cuban. His voice bellowed and I think my tongue must have been dragging on the floor from shock.
This semester, when I am spending hours trying to memorize information that might seem totally useless, I will try to remember this to help me put it all into perspective.
Somehow, I think I mustered up the courage to answer, "I'm a student." I can't be sure because I spent the next three hours trying to devise a way to get out of his class. As a result, I really can't remember anything else he said. Luckily, there was no way out.
A person in college can be a student or an enrollee. An enrollee is a person who enrolls in classes, attends, does homework, reading, term papers, and maybe even makes an A. Enrollees always know what they are supposed to say, do or be. At the end of the class, they check it off their list of requirements and go on to the next class. Their goal in college is to graduate with a piece of paper that will help them earn more money than they might have otherwise.
He couldn't have asked me a better question to start out my college career. At the time I didn't realize it, but there are two ways to go to college.
Depending on what you want out of
Foreign and national news taking back seat to baseball's strike
VIEWPOINT
Heather Kirkwood is a Wichita junior majoring in magazine journalism.
Major league ballparks emptied nearly two ago and people
apparently are still coming to terms with the absence of professional baseball. Ironically, we've passed a lot of our
BASEBALL STRIKE
ple live in our streets, half of whom have chronic mental illnesses.
Can we justify our
The country mourns the potential end to a season full of promise.
time lamenting the loss of our pastime.
But in the grand scheme of life it is only a game.
agame.
It is truly unfortunate that a season with so much record-breaking potential has ground to a halt. However, the strike must be kept in the proper perspective.
We must ask ourselves whether a financial squabble between a bunch of athletes and a group of millionaires is more important than thousands of Rwandan refugees dying of famine and disease.
Even President Clinton became involved as he asked Labor Secretary Robert Reich to personally intervene and help bring the strike to an end.
Sadly, most Americans would have difficulty finding Rwanda on a map. Even fewer would have any clue why people there are fighting. Meanwhile, our own nation has forgotten thousands of peo-
justify our detailed knowledge of a baseball strike in light of such ignorance and indifference? Perhaps baseball links us to our past
It takes us back to the days of Ruth, Gehrig, and Mantle a time when we believed anything could be accomplished if our nation set its mind to do it.
We had faith in our country and in ourselves.
Baseball is a refuge. But sadly, so much has changed. Baseball is not what it was and neither are we.
ERIC MADDEN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD.
Fifty years ago, fathers taught their children how to throw a baseball in the backyard.
While baseball will always be a favorite past time, we must not let it become a distraction from seeing what we are.
Today, many children do not live with their fathers. Players once played simply because they loved the game, not because it would make them rich. Now, we would never let our children go to a game alone.
KANSAN STAFF
STEPHEN MARTINO Editor
CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS Managing editor
TOM EBLEN General manager, news adviser
JEN CARR Business manager
CATHERINE ELLSWORTH Systems coordinator
CAMERON DEATH Retail sales manager
News...Sara Bennett
Editorial...*Onella Hearne
Campus...Mark Martin
Sports...Brian James
Photo...Daron Bennett
Melissa Lacey
Features...Tracel Carl
Planning Editor...Susan White
Design...Noah Muusser
Assistant to the editor...Robbie Johnson
JEANNE HINES Sales and marketing adviser
Editors
Business Staff
Campus mgr...Todd Winters
Regional mgr...Laura Guth
National mgr...Mark Mastro
Coop mgr...Emily Gibson
Special Sections mgr...Jen Perrier
Production mgrs...Holly Boren
        Regan Overy
Marketing director...Alan Stiglic
Creative director...John Carton
Classified mgr...Heather Niehaus
Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. Writers affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin must have their surname clearly printed.
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Staffer-Flint Hall.
BEARING IN MIND OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO THE COMMUNITY, RESPONDING TO ACCUSATIONS THAT, WHILE THE AVERAGE AMERICAN IS IN HYSTERICS OVER THE BASEBALL STRIKE, MOST COULD NOT POINT OUT RWANDA ON ANAP, MASOR LEAGUE BASEBALL IS TAKING STEPS TO SEE THAT AMERICANS ARE BETTER INFORMED ABOUT RWANDA
Michael Paul / KANSAN
Careful observation leads to new theory
There is a place for us all.
I think there might be a chance, a very slight one, that I have finally figured it out. I have been contemplating this for quite some time now, and, through hours of research conducted during lunch breaks, at concerts, on campus and just basically anywhere, I have developed a theory. It is not exceptional, earth shattering, or even clever. I have decided that most humans, forgive me for the broad generalization, fall into two categories.
The first category is the one that I, and a significant portion of the population, have been nominated for by peers. I have chosen to entitle this classification as The Person Who Gets Attention. Not very creative, but, they, you would remember it if it were on a test.
The Person Who Gets Attention is a person we all know, love and frequently take advantage of. They are the person who always gets asked everything. If the following questions sound familiar, you belong to this category. (Keep in mind that the asking is being done by a perfect stranger.) Do you happen to know what time it is? Do you have change for a..? You got a lighter that I could use? Would you be able to tell me how to get to...?
COLUMNIST
KATHY KIPP
Another qualification for this category is that when walking down the street you acquire obscene amounts of flyers. Allow me to illustrate.
During the summer I worked downtown in the wonderful city of Chicago. Everyday on my lunch break I chose to hike about six blocks to Daley Center (there is a plaza there where all the hard-core business types like to eat). On an average day I would collect at least three flyers, get asked what time it was at least once, and, on more occasions than not, get asked for directions. Bad idea. One day I even had the pleasure of becoming an elderly man's sounding board about blood clots after he asked me
what time it was. This is the life that a Person Who Gets Attention lead
The other classification is, People Who Do Not Get Attention. There are not so many of these, but still enough to make a difference. These are the people who never get asked anything and rarely, if ever, get handed flyers. The friend who used to go to lunch with me is the perfect example.
I don't know what it is about him, maybe it's that he doesn't look particularly friendly, or maybe it's because he just doesn't want to be bothered. Whatever it is, it works. On our daily treks to Daley Center I never saw anyone try to hand him a flyer. The one day I forgot my watch and got asked what time it was, the lady doing the asking walked across the street instead of asking him. Whatever the reason, such is the life of a Person Who Does Not Get Attention.
So you see, my theory is not very exciting, anyone could have thought of it, it just so happens that I was the one. I still need to work out the bugs, but until I do so, this is how it stands. There are two types of people, and you're one of them.
Kathy Kipa is a Woodridge, ill., sophomore majoring in English.
COLUMNIST
ERIKA RASMUSSEN
Rock climbing challenges the body and mind
I took a break from the everyday drone of working as a waitress this summer and challenged myself to do something new and exciting. I wanted something that was not just physically tough but mentally challenging. The perfect opportunity was as close as a phone call to a friend and an hour's drive from my hometown to Taylors Falls, Minn.
My challenge: rock climbing.
In the past, my experience was limited to a few random sessions on indoor climbing walls, which is still challenging, but doesn't compare to the real thing. There is something about the great outdoors where no walls surround or protect you.
So, armed with borrowed gear and high hopes, my friend and I approached an intermediate-level route called "column-meister" and began our journey upwards. Not wanting to look like the novice I was, I began to climb confidently. I almost felt like I knew what I was doing.
I was about 40 feet up at a difficult part of the route when it hit me. I was scared. My breathing was heavy, and I wasn't sure what to do next. I felt so small, clinging to this great gray piece of rock.
This was the challenge I had been searching for. And despite my sudden fear, I was overcome with the thought of getting to the top of it if it was the last thing I did.
Sitting at the top, I realized that rock climbing is not just about being strong enough physically to pull yourself up the side of a cliff. It is also a head game, a mental challenge. Up on that rock, it's you vs. nature. Sure, you have a partner on belay and safety equipment, but getting to the top is your job. It is a challenge of your trust, your fear and your body.
But it is also a refreshing challenge. So many times in our lives our challenges come from other people: bosses, family members, coworkers, teammates and professors. We tend to work to please others rather than ourselves and put our own personal challenges on the back burner. But rock climbing is one challenge that is truly your own. It is a sport not made up of winners and losers but of goals
— those that have been achieved and those that haven't. From ground to peak, it is you and you alone. When fear hits, you must confront and overcome it. If you fall, you must decide to get back up and try again. But if you climb on and achieve your goal you will gain more than just the magnificent view below.
Erika Rassmussen is a Minnetonka, Minn.. senior majoring in magazine journalism.
HUBIE
By Greg Hardin