2
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, February 23 1968
mini-toriais
POPP, profs, police ...
"Pssst! Seen-yor!" whispered the dirty little old man from the alley near the campus. "You want to buy some feelty buttons?" He opened his feelthy coat and showed me the POPP buttons that he had pinned on the inside. "You want to buy maybe?" he asked, with an evil grin, "never been used..."
\* \* \*
The editorial essay featured below concerning pompous, insecure instructors makes a point well taken. The only other kind of instructor that earns even less student respect is one whose teaching manner is so dull, insipid, or ineffective that even the instructor is aware of it, yet he continues, as though oblivious to the 50 minute vacuum he perpetuates.
- * *
With February bringing us both Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays, we again quietly marvel at the coincidence that most of our famous men were born on holidays.
Since somebody keeps driving through the Chancellor's driveway as a shortcut to class, a campus policeman and official vehicle have been stationed on the driveway, waiting, all day, for weeks now. It would seem that there would be more important uses for this manpower and equipment.
- * *
It's too bad the hero from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," isn't enrolled at KU. After all the "Fistful of Dollars" publicity, it would make great copy, . .
"Coming soon to your local university! The Man With No Student Number! Watch him go through the Union cafeteria line, trying to decide between the good, the bad, and the ugly. See him pay out-of-state tuition for a few dollars more.
For the Man with No Student Number, enrollment wasn't hell—it was practice."
By John 11nn Assistant Editorial Editor
By John Hill
"In These Times Of Crises, How Could I Let The Nation Try To Get Along Without Me?"
Paperbacks
Much excitement and adventure in some new books. John Masters, the old India hand, has a new one called THE BREAKING STRAIN (Dell, 75 cents). This one is about a white hunter and a European lady and excitement of the hunt (for women and for wild animals). There's a new 87th Precinct mystery by Ed McBain, called 'TIL DEATH (Dell, 50 cents). This is one of the best of all detective lines. For western fans there's Lewis B. Patten's GUNS AT GRAY BUTTE (Dell, 45 cents). It's about guns at Gray Butte. And two Gothic mysteries, as the trade calls them — Theresa Charles' DARK LEGACY (Dell, 75 cents) and Anne Eliot's RETURN TO AYLEFORTH (Dell, 60 cents). Beautiful heroines, mysterious old mansions, terror, romance, mist and fog and all that Rebecca-Frankenstein-Wuthering Heights lazz.
* *
THE COLOR OF MURDER, by Julian Symons (Dell, 60 cents); 13 CLUES FOR MISS MARPLE, by Agatha Christie (Dell, 50 cents)—Two out of the past, the Symons book dealing with amnesia and murder, the Christie with Miss Marple and a series of mysteries she must solve.
A DANDY IN ASPIIC, by Derek Marlove (Dell, 75 cents)—Another spy yarn, this one about, if you can accept the premise, a gentleman sent to assassinate himself. The settings are London and Berlin.
THE PAPER DRAGON, by Evan Hunter (Dell, 95 cents)—A big and exciting courtroom tale, dealing with a young novelist who writes a bestseller and is accused of plagiarism. Hunter is a busy one these days, and he's got what seems a winner this time.
IN THE COMPANY OF EAGLES, by Ernest K. Gann (Dell, 75 cents) — An adventure story of World War I, by a veteran flier and author of flying tales. This one is about young aces on both German and French sides and the assault on the Hindenburg line.
*****
J. P. Donleave is back in paperback with MEET MY MAKER THE MAD MOLECULE (Dell, 75 cents). The author of "The Ginger Man" wrote here a collection of short stories, and the comedy is as black as ever.
Kansan editorial essay
'Tough' teachers are sick
By Hamilton Salsich English instructor
Outstanding among the educational curiosities of the first few weeks of classes is the so-called "tough" teacher, the one who introduces his course by informing his students that "I have many rules that must be obeyed and I also check attendance so respect me and toe the mark and maybe you'll pass." I call this man a curiosity simply because I believe he is mentally and emotionally sick.
He is sick, first of all, because he is insecure, and his insecurity shows through from the first day to the last. It is the insecurity of the typical dictator, the man who finds meaning in life only by manipulating the lives of others. Watching such a teacher, one has the feeling that he chose the teaching profession not because he believed in the value of education, but because his position as a teacher would allow him to feel that sense of power and confidence that was so lacking in his own private life. This type of teacher attempts to control his students' lives because his own life is out-of-control and empty. By pushing his students around, he reasserts his masculinity, shores up his ruins, and tries to convince people that he is strong. But his students, of course, always know better.
He is sick, too, because he is afraid. He is afraid of his colleagues, who will laugh at him if he "loses control" of his classes. He is afraid of his supervisors, who have always taught him that a teacher must have the "respect" of his students. He is afraid of himself, afraid of the possibility that he is hollow, afraid that he really has nothing of value to teach his students. But most important of all, he is afraid of his
students, because he knows they hate his class, and he knows they would walk out in a minute if he eliminated the attendance rule. He is afraid of nearly everything, and when a man is afraid, he sets up defenses—and becomes a dictator—in order to hide his fear. But, again, his students are not fooled. They see his fear, and they hate it.
This type of teacher is a curiosity, but the tragedy is that he forms the rule, not the exception. Probably a good majority of our professors and instructors use a rod of one sort or another to hide their own fear and insecurity. They are not teachers. They were never meant to be teachers. They are a danger to their students and to their school. And until we root them out, and replace them, our institution will continue to be more like a ridiculous army camp than a decent school.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan
Newsroom—UN 4-3646 — Business Office—UN 4-3198
Published at the University of Kansas daily during the academic year except holidays and examination periods. Mail subscription rates: $6 a moister, $10 a year. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan. 66044. Acess to all services and employment advertised offered to all students without regard to color, creed or national origin. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of Kansas or the State Board of Regents.
Managing Editor—Gary Murrell Business Manager—Robert Nordyke
Assistant Managing Editors ... Will Hardesty, Tim Jones,
Rich Lovett, Monte Mace, John Marshall
City Editor ... Robert Entrigan Jr.
Assistant City Editors ... Janet Snyder, Ralph Wilson
Editorial Editor ... Diane Wenger
Assistant Historical Editors ... John Hill, Swaebou Conatech
Sports Editor ... Steve Morgan
Assistant Sports Editor
Vire Editor ... Pamela Peek
Photo Editor ... Judy Dague
Mohamed Behavesh
Feature and Society Editor ... Beth Gaedert
Assistant Feature and Society Editor
Conv Desk Chiefs ... Chip Rouse, Charla Jenkins, S. Allen Winchester
Advertising Manager Roger Myers
National Advertising Manager Lorrie Boring
Classified Advertising Manager David Clutter
Promotion Manager Michael Pretzer
Production Manager Joel Khaassen
Circulation Manager Charles Goodsell
Member Associated Collegiate Press
REPRESENTED FOR NATIONAL ADVERTISING BY National Educational Advertising Services A DIVISION OF READER'S DIGEST SALES & SERVICES, INC. '860 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017
movie review
'Millie' is great!
By Scott Nunley
To get to the point: go see "Thoroughly Modern Millie," you'll have a very enjoyable evening.
Here is a picture that allows Julie Andrews at least a considerable amount of the freedom she can use so well. The stifling sugar of "Sound of Music," the Disney cuteness of "Mary Poppins" is thankgodfully absent!
Julie Andrews has more faces to her acting personality than musical comedy, of course. We saw one brief serious success in James Garner's satiric "The Americanization of Emily" and one long dismal failure in that soap opera mistitled "Hawaii."
But if "Thoroughly Modern Millie" is really JULIE AS YOU LOVE HER, it's because she does the musical stage with an easy, light-footed gaiety that no one else can approach.
And if the little old ladies sit behind you and giggle that this is "more like it" and something they can "follow," don't believe it. Unless they are up on the serious strivings of the Twenties' woman,
you're going to have all the beautiful parody to yourself.
The movie slows down only when that nearly-constant sense of parody hesitates in a few early dance numbers that are apparently played straight. The pathetic mass choreography of the early musical film is certainly well known to the late show buff: on the spur of a drumbeat, our heroine toetaps a (choose one) ( ) backstage crew, ( ) slum streetcrowd, or ( ) Marine battalion into geometric intricacies. Unfortunately, "Millie" misses the grand chance to kick the whole set scene in its artificial pants.
On balance, however, "Thoroughly Modern Millie" is a rich musical, blessed with songs, book, and performances of equally memorable success. It's not another "My Fair Lady," but it's more fun.
And who nominates those damned Academy Rewards? How could they recognize Carol Channing's genius (the spitting image of my Aunt Dorothy!) and overlook the delightfully-hissable supporting role of gorgeous Beatrice Lillie?