4
University Daily Kansar
Opinion
Friday, Feb. 28, 1986.
Communication gap
Speaking ability is one of the most crucial qualities a teacher must have.
Any student who has struggled through a difficult course knows that a teacher's ability to communicate information is vital. When the teacher has only adequate English-speaking skills, a tough course becomes a nightmare.
Although non-native English speakers already must pass a spoken English test to work as a GTA, some with poor speaking ability still are found at the front of classrooms.
The current test, which is a general speaking proficiency exam available to all KU applicants, has been criticized as being too short and not adequately testing the ability to lecture.
A petition recently passed by Student Senate may dispel some of the nightmares. The plan calls for stricter language testing of graduate teaching assistants who speak English as a second language.
Under the Student Senate
proposal, GTAs would present a mock lecture to a group of faculty and students. This would allow them to be evaluated on precisely the language skills they would be using.
Many foreign graduate students teach in departments that have difficult courses in the first place, and their speech may be an easy target for students seeking scapegoats.
Such a test would be an improvement in weeding out teachers who truly cannot be understood in the classroom, but it probably would not eliminate student complaints.
Even the best native English speaker may not be able to clearly communicate material to a class, but some students may unfairly blame their foreign GTAs when they fail to grasp tough concepts.
Stricter requirements could ease some legitimate frustrations, but a panacea should not be expected.
The Legislature is considering a bill that is a good step in the right direction and could stand to be copied by several other institutions throughout the state and country.
Good first step
A bill sitting in the House Committee on Education would provide Kansas State Scholars in five-year programs with continued financial assistance through their final year of college.
Kansas State Scholars are now given four-year scholarships of $1,000 annually to attend Regents schools.
The proposed change was requested by the Associated Students of Kansas to help students in education, engineering and architectural programs at the University of Kansas and Kansas State University.
The chairman of the program said he didn't expect much opposition to the bill. That probably is because most of his committee members realize the change is a good idea.
The trend toward students taking five years or more to earn their degrees has been well documented, and most scholarships and grants run out after four years.
ASK correctly saw a need for an alteration in the State Scholars program and has made a move to achieve it.
The bill should be held as an example and other organizations that provide grants and loans to students also would do well to make amends for five-year programs.
Confusing policy
President Reagan's proposed U.S. aid to Angolan rebels is plagued with ironies.
The U.S. policy toward Angola is confusing and riddled with contradictions.
That company, which helps pump Angola's oil, employs 700 people, 150 of whom are Americans.
The aid simply would finance a group that in the past has attacked U.S. companies operating in Angola and has promised to continue to do so in the future.
Most of that aid would be used by the rebels against the largest oil company operating in Angola, the Cabinda Gulf Oil Company, a subsidiary of Chevron.
Recently, the Reagan administration announced that it had decided to provide covert aid in the form of anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles to UNITA, a group of Angolan freedom fighters led by Jonas Savimbi. The amount of the covert aid is about $15 million.
In the last five years, the U.S. Export-Import Bank approved three loans for Angolan oil and gas projects. Those loans were approved by the National Security Council, which judged the loans to be consistent with U.S. national interests.
Although the government of Angola is Marxist and is heavily supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba, the United States is Angola's largest trading partner.
Almost 95 percent of Angola's oil productions are sold to Western countries, and half of Gulf's productions are sent to U.S. refineries.
Amid calls for U.S. companies to get out of Angola, the Congressional Research Service in November recommended that U.S. companies not withdraw from Angola because it might pave the way for heavier penetration from the Soviets.
Just exactly what is the U.S. policy toward Angola?
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A STUNNING BLOW FOR FREEDOM WHICH ECHOED LIKE A KHAPSODY THROUGHOUT THE GARIBEAN BASIN.
THOSE CUBAN
CEMENT HAULERS
NEVER KNEW
WHAT HIT THEM!
Most not interested in Reggie's sex life
So I thought it was a bit presumptuous of the publicity man to use the words "speaks out" in the context of how a baseball player says he does it.
From time to time, I make note of the alarming tendency of many well known public figures to babble about their private lives. I call this the People Magazine Syndrome, for which there is no known medical cure except tearing their tongues out, which is illegal, although it shouldn't be.
You'll see headlines that say "Governor Speaks Out On Tax Hike," or "President Speaks Out On Philippine Vote," or "Medical Chief Speaks Out On Malpractice Suits."
The most recent example of this affliction is Reggie Jackson, the wealthy baseball player and hot dog.
A publicity man for a magazine sent me a news release announcing that in the current issue of the magazine "Reggie Jackson Speaks Out On His Sex Life."
What first caught my eye were the words "speaks out."
This term is not uncommon in the writing of news. But usually it's reserved for when someone of importance takes a stand on a grave issue in which there is assumed to be considerable public interest.
Mike Royko
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The key phrase there is "people think." Obviously, Jackson believes that a considerable segment of the American people has given thought to his sex life.
And that widespread curiosity is probably what persuaded him that the time finally had come for him to speak out.
The magazine's publicity man went on to quote Jackson as saying, "I'm active sexually, but not as much as people think."
when he does it, and with whom he does it.
It's true that some men do discuss their sex lives, although not as entertainingly as their golf scores. But you'll seldom hear someone in a bar or locker room say, "Hey, guys, listen, because I'm going to speak on what happened Friday night after I hit on this good-looking . . ."
Such disclosures could be more accurately described as bragging, lying, fantasizing or BSing; but not "speaking out."
The human brain is an incredible organ. In any given day, even the dumbest of us will have thousands of thoughts, impressions, images, memories.
A young woman said, "I am afraid not. I've always been a Cubs fan. Do
But as hard as I racked my brain, I couldn't recall even once thinking about Reggie Jackson's sexual activities.
Another's indignant reply was, "Of course not. Why should I bother? Does that palooka ever think about my sex life? I have my needs, too, you know."
Out of curiosity, I asked the first 30 people I spoke to if they had ever thought of Jackson's sex life, and if so, what they had thought of it.
A man of the Yuppie persuasion said, "No, is there something unusual about it? I mean, does he wear his uniform and fielder's mitt?"
The responses to my informal survey might have a depressing effect on Jackson's ego.
A middle-aged man said, "To be honest, no, I have never given it any thought. But then, I don't watch much TV."
you want to ask me about Ryne Sandberg?"
A middle-aged woman said, "I'm sorry, but I haven't paid attention. I really try to keep up with current events, but there are only so many hours in the day."
Not even one of 30 people surveyed could remember ever having even a fragment of a thought about Jackson's sex life.
Of course, this survey was taken in Chicago. So I suppose it's possible that in Southern California, where Jackson has been playing baseball for several years, people might have been thinking about his sex life.
But knowing Southern California that's unlikely, unless Jackson's been doing it while surfing or hang gliding.
So, it appears that if Jackson's motive for speaking out was to correct "what people think" about his sex life, there was no need. He might as well have zipped his lip, or his trousers, or whatever.
And if his sex life has gone the way of his hitting, then he shouldn't have been wasting his time talking to a magazine writer anyway.
Maybe a therapist.
Computerized gadgets taken too far
Will the car of the future have a mini-microwave oven so you can have a piping-hot breakfast on the way to work? How about a computerized psychoanalyst programmed to probe your inner motivations as you tool along the freeways of life?
Ridiculous? Absurd, you say?
Nothing is ridiculous anymore at the junction where automobile meets computer. They have come this far already. The coded "keyless entry unit" will preset each driver's comfort and convenience settings.
Can a mini-microwave be far behind?
The right question to ask about all
In ordinary English, that means if two or more people drive the same car, neither has to fiddle with the seats or the mirror anymore. The instant you unlock the door with your coded non-key, more like a credit card, the computer goes into action. The seat adjusts to your preference, ditto the mirrors and the steering wheel. To top it off, the radio goes immediately to your favorite station.
Robert C.
Maynard
Oakland Tribune
this is why. The answer is simple, say automotive engineers on both sides of the Pacific. And it's the same answer the mountaineer gave to the question of why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. Because it's there.
The automotive industry thinks people will want fancy gadgets because the computer makes it possible to have them. As one engineer put it, since we have computers in cars anyway, why not make them do more and more things? Even things we are perfectly able to do for ourselves are possible for a computer.
Every time I hear about computer flash and dazzie, I think how much preferable things are plain and simple. My favorite example is something close to me, my personal computer. Two of the reasons I love
my computer are its simplicity and, generally speaking, its reliability.
Those are not accidental qualities. Compaq, the company that makes my favorite machine, set out to be, if I may invent a word, undazzling. Compaq wanted the company and its products to be as exciting as a bowl of tapioca pudding.
In an era when the charismatic leader was the rage of Silicon Valley, Compaq started with the notion of the low-key team approach. It didn't pretend to an iota of originality. It made a copy of the IBM personal computer. But what a copy
The first year, they sold $111 million worth of them and a half billion dollars worth just last year. After just four years in business, Compaq is "the hottest start-up in American history," according to Inc. magazine.
magazine.
All that by being basically dull.
There's no mini-microwave in my PC. I would be surprised if Compaq adds a bell or a whistle to its line of merchandise.
Compap has added a new line of smaller and lighter machines, but Wall Street analysts surprised no one in the most common adjective they used to describe the development. You guessed it: Simple. The next most common? Solid.
The automakers have something to learn from the Compaq story. In fact, I think there is a lesson here for business in general. New technology tempts us to make the ordinarily simple complicated because the microchip can perform so many functions simultaneously.
Often the result is products that can do so many things they wind up doing nothing particularly well. When I sit down at my computer, I know exactly what it's going to do—most of the time. Similarly, when I get into a car, I don't need a solid-state seat adjustment. I want reliable, efficient, safe performance.
That goal would attract more respect and customer loyalty than all sorts of gadgets, including a mini-microwave oven.
TV a quieting influence in Philippines
Never before in the relatively short history of television news has a revolution been waged almost entirely before the cameras.
And if there is a lesson in the hour-by-hour coverage of the Philippine election, the military mutiny and the White House maneuvering to persuade Ferdinand Marcos to resign, perhaps it is that when events are open to the world, violence can be held to a minimum.
In the past, fraud and oppression, calumny and violence were played out in private, with television getting only a glimpse of the action.
In recent weeks, the relatively bloodless upheaval was not only covered live from the Philippines but, even more significantly, from network television studios in Washington and New York, where Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Chairman Richard Lugar of the Senate Foreign
Ira R. Allen
United Press International
relations Committee and just about everybody but the Chattanooga shoeshine boy was interviewed. They were not only giving opinions, but sending: messages, and, in some cases, announcing policy.
It is no wonder, then, that the only real violence in the revolution came during battles for Philippine television stations.
Domestically, the White House image-makers choose which announcements and which news briefings should be televised. The ones that would send Marcos a message were available for coverage, the ones on other important subjects were not
Deputy press secretary Larry
Television's performance in the Philippine crisis also humbled President Reagan in a way.
Speakes, who is often locked behind his office door and unavailable to reporters, called wire services and networks from his home at 5:36 a.m. Monday and then showed up at work in time to be interviewed live on all three network morning news shows to say that Marcos should step down.
Reagan has had a long affinity for right-wing dictators and has always said he prefers "quiet diplomacy" in moving autocrats toward reform. But with pictures of the vote fraud and reporting from the scene, U.S. popular opinion mobilized so quickly that members of Congress marched into the Oval Office and told the president that Marcos had to go.
Then the "Great Communicator" miscommunication during his Feb. 11 news conference, stunning observers of the election by declaring that
fraud and violence may have occurred on both sides. It took four days for him to correct the statement, but his original remarks had been seen immediately as contradicting the television pictures from the Philippines.
Only weeks before, Reagan had succumbed to diplomatic and political pressure to help ease Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier out as president-for-life of Haiti — again due in no small part to television coverage of rioting.
Last year, television pictures created a whirlwind of public and political opinion that forced Reagan to modify his support of the South African government.
But South Africa has faded from public consciousness at least partly because the government there had the sense to ban foreign television cameras from the scenes of most of the turmoll.