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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1954)
1 t 4 ' j r r , l"-f. ' 1: it: ,7 Page 2 THE NEBRASKAN Wednesday, February 10, 1954 EDITORIAL PAGE ilf fif ef i cs And Scholarship A problem which has disturbed The Ne braskan, conscientious students and Nebraska educators generally has been called to the attention of the general public by screaming headlines in The Lincoln Journal. The problem is inadequate high school preparation for college-level work and the high percentage of students who drop out of school. The reason this situation suddenly became ef vital interest, a topic covered by two, banner headlines, is football. Football the most discussed word in the Buried Capabilities The greatest inhibition facing our genera tion is the fear of expressing what be believe. Because we are constantly told that we are too young to know what we believe, that we have cot had experience of our elders, that we do not have the ears of study behind us, we are a silent feneration in the face of an ever increasing necessity to cry out. An ideology of one foe or another takes " the controversial spotlight in each genera tion. In the first half of the twentieth cen tury, the attention of most people was fo cused on German nationalism and Nazism. This focus was maintained through two world wars. Now, in the second half of the same century another ideology has taken the spot lightCommunism. Our socfety once condoned Communism, In the 1930's, the Communist party was a recognized minority political group. A person could register and vote as a communist without legal or social disapproval. We were children then, and our parents were ner vously looking toward Germany not Russia. Today, the evils of Communism are whipped into our heads by newspaper head lines, radio broadcasts, church sermons, and our parents the persons who, at one time, ignored and accepted Communism, who failed to recognise it as a potential threat. And because of their pains, talking and belated efforts to makuse realize that Com munism is evil, they discredit our ability to recognize Communistic teachings when we are exposed to them. They send us to a university to receive a higher education so that we may be informed of life, yet they fear that an unwatchful university may be the breeding grounds for Communist teach ings and red-tinted instructors. Therefore they doubt the universities They condemn knowledge which may help us to understand our danger better. In short they adhere to a policy o sup pression ef the bad in hope ignorance will protect ns. And because they prefer Ignorance for ns they refuse to believe we are intelli gent adults. It is our generation which has had to recog nize the evils of Communism and to fight them. And it is we who will have to con tinue the battle, for the ultimate control and victory over Communism lies in the products of our generation. We cannot hope to devise ways to cope with Communism if we are afraid of what we think, if we are constantly told we are in capable of thinking. We must express our selves in order to know the thoughts of others. Only through combined efforts and a recognized common goal can we ever hope to combat and eventually liquidate Com munism, i To our elders we say: We are capable of recognizing the evils of Communism. We fought against them in Korea. We are cap able of grasping, the significance of Com munist doctrines. We are capable of thinking for ourselves; we have the best educational chances in the, world. We are capable of saying "No" to so great a violation of our American principles as Communism; we do not want another war for it is we who will fight it. Oar capabilities are equal to the task of combating Communism. But these capabilities can come into play only if we are not kept ignorant by "save the " young folks" move ments by our elders. J.IL 4 Two Views Much ado over eggs! The hens in Britain are working in vain. British farmers have started a campaign to induce Britons to eat more eggs, now a glut on the market The reason Britons got out of the habit of eating eggs during war-time and post-war rationing. The situation seems to be the reverse in Russia. Because of the shortage of eggs on the market, farmers are required to report the number of hens that they have, and turn in all their produce. Those who wish to con serve eggs for their families hedge a little on the number of hens they report. The MVD gets around this, too. Russian children are taught to count practically. As homework, they are asked to count the num ber of hens in the chickenhouse. Woe be to the farmer whose children report 16 hens to his IS. G.H. state in recent weeks. Football the non academic topic which probably enters more classrooms than any other. Football the rea son for which scholastic standing of Univer sity students becomes important. One basis, and a primary one, for the two copyrighted stories in the Journal (a total of 75 inches) was a study conducted by Henry M, Cox, director of the Bureau of Instruc tional Research a study which The Ne braskan reported early in January. , This study was based on experiences of 1,184 students who were graduated from high school in the spring of 1952 and entered the University the following fall. Its results in cluded the' following points: 1. Only about half of entering students are graduated. 2. The highest rate of drop-outs comes dur ing the first two years in the University. S. An estimated 31 per eent of the drop outs occur during the first year. According to the University Bulletin Board, source of this information, these findings show that the attrition rate now remains about the same as it was in 1947 when the Bureau made a similar study. Thus, it may be seen, loss of students from the University, and particularly loss of fresh men, is not a recent phenonmenon. . Another basis which could have been used was a controversy started last semester by Col. C. J. Frankforter. The discussion soon became labeled "What's the Trouble With Our Freshmen?" This subject was the topic of a Union semi nar i held early in December at which Dr. J. P. Colbert, dean of student affairs; Dr. J. M. Relnhardt, professor of sociology; Wil bert O. Gaffney, assistant professor of Eng lish; Miss Katherine Parks, head resident of Women's Residence Halls, and others entered the discussion. A point brought out at that time by Dr. Reinhardt was lack of "motivation for schol arship" when students enter the University. lie cited the example of high schools dur ing weeks preceding the state basketball tournament when "school boards, principals, teachers and students" abandon all "pretense of scholarship." , The only motivation concerned, he believed, was to "win the basketball tournament." The point is obvious and need be labored no more. More public emphasis is given to athletics than to scholarship both in high school and in college. The Nebraskan believes the sudden front page attention given the dual problem of faulty college preparation and of high stu dent attrition is based on this premise: Ne braska education is at a stage in which a football or basketball team is no longer just an attractive appendage of a school, but the entire school, in the public eye. The Lincoln editors recognized this situa tion and the dual problem suddenly became front page news. If Nebraska education, or lack of it, be comes front-page news copy only when detri mental effects are felt by the Department of Athletics, the time has come for some serious re-evaluation. S.H. Moter Murder It's not a pretty picture. Last year 38,300 Americans lost their lives in traffic accidents. That is almost one and a half times as great as the battle death toll of Americans in the Korean war. ..And the grim figures dont end there, for not all the motor vehicle victims died. Some were more fortunate only maimed or in jured. 1,350,000 people were included in this group. Secondary in importance but nevertheless a factor to be considered is the monetary loss entailed in such a vast motor holocaust. Ac cording to the National Safety Council, this sum was estimated at $1,600,000,000. That's a lot of television sets down the drain! The 1953 accident toll is due principally to carelessness behind the wheel. Human na ture being what it is, there will probably never be a time when there are no auto mis haps. There will always be the sad fellows who believe crashes only happen to some body else; and they will always be care less, angry, speedy, unskilled or drunken drivers on the nation's highways. It's becoming more and more apparent," however, that whether individuals like it or not something must be done to save their lives. Americans don't like restrictions, and stricter traffic laws would undoubtedly be unpopular. And yet most people seem inca pable of realizing the importance of improv ing their driving habits on their own. Therefore, if these two conventional solu tions won't work and they haven't so far only two alternatives remain. The first, to abolish said vehicles, would meet with im mediate protest "from the anti-pedestrian league which has become a part of our mechanized culture. i The other seems the perfect answer. It would abolish the parking problem, too. Take to the air! M.H. UTTlt MAN ON CAMPUS JIvl Tl&bha&fam FIFTY-THIRD YEAR Member: Associated Collegiate Preaa Advertising representative: National Advertising Service, Inc. 420 Madison Ave, New York 17, New York The Ksbraasaa It paMlsked ay the stndiuls tt tha . EDITORIAL, STAFF fMrtijr ef Nebraska ae aa expreasloa of Meats' .... ewws aad optntoaa only. Aeoorilni to Article of taw ' " Sally Hall t-iU votniBg stadent publtratlons aa admlniitmd Editorial Fan Editor Tom Woodward k the Boar of rnMteatfcwa, "It to tha declared potle Manadnc Editor Jaa Harrtooa of tiM Board that puMieattoaa ander 11 JorladleUoa afcaJI -- N fro tram editorial esasorsatp oa tha part of too tor V V J5kr - H'lMi, or oa Um part of any atenber of too facaity of CopJr Editors Janey Carmea, Dltk reltnaa, ttm Catwalte, bvit tko nemben of tka staff of Tha Mariaaao Bnm, Gram Barrey 0Tir tn,W " " A Marx Peterson ukertp ratee ara a semester, t.0 malted, o hporU ,Ut' Cmrr "raada $3 tat tha eoiiirra year, S4 mailed. Slncla copy la flvo REPORTERS xxitn. l'atSi!fcd oa TneMtay, Wodaeaday and Friday dwinif Uto octtooi imr, oxetvt vacation aad axamlnattaa Beroty Dem, Harriet Rnrrt, Laelrraea SwHtor, Jaek awlod. Oao hwaa published durto tit maatk of Aa- Frandaea, WUUametto Dmh, Barbara Eicke, Mareta w euek roar ky Um Unlmnlty of Nebraska andar two Mlcketiea, Sam Jensen, Barbara Clark. tIMiriristoa of tiw Committee of fttntient PvbllraMene. raivrmi stiii rcmnd aa seeond elats matter at U Post OfO la BtsiJiBSS siui (,team, Nebraska, under Art of Connwas, fttamk S, BmliMM Haaacer ...Staa Slpple li,. and at special ra'o of . postate provided for la Ass't BbhIbcss Maaafers Chet rXnger, Doran Jaenhs, fc.k liM. Aet of Congrew J Crt. 1011. aulWUed ' . mJcH 8 yt. It liil. High New Editor daaey carmaa by Dickjibur - Student Forum 'Boy you should have seen her clobber that guy yesterday. On The Light Side So What? By JERRY SHARPNACK While rummaging through a stack of old English themes Sat urday, I ran across the follow ing, which, since it is so fabu lously insignificant, must be re produced. It is about modern art, a subject which has never ceased to confuse, thrill, and amuse me. Here it is in its two-year old entirety a This classification of art, in re gard to paintings, will be some what different, at least, from a classification by one who may write with a knowledge of what he is writing about. Art consists of small paintings, medium-sized paintings, and large paintings. The paintings I shall refer to (were) to be found at the Sixty Second Annual Art Exhibition at the University of Nebraska's Morrill Hall. Under the classification of small paintings (no larger than 8 inches by 12 inches) is to be found a wide variety of style, color, and subject A typical ex ample of this group is a painting by Corrado di Marca-Relli en titled Cavallo which is a mis spelling of "horse" in Spanish. I should think, however, a more fitting title would be Detrasde Cavallo meaning, translated freely, "Horses Fanny." This painting quite colorfully situates an out-proportion horse in a pos-teriol-accentuating pose. The medium-sised group of paintings consists, to a great ex tent, of the infamous modern art. The other medium-sized pic tures merely are of landscapes, portraits, and the like, all of which are found to be disgust ingly naturalistic, having the quickly fading and now question- able quality of having a meaning. Something, I am afraid, should be said of the splashing of our contemporary artists. The pur pose of their works is, I imagine to impress. I must admit, I was impressed. Paintings such as Emerson Woelffert's "Hour Past Two" im pressed me as being a reasonable facsimile of what the mind of a man might contrive immediately prior to, or more likely, after being smashed by the local mail express. As far as I could dis cern, the intention of the title of this colorful framed blob was to be as confusing to the viewer as the painting itself, and thus keep within the general theme of the maze. The large paintings are few, but startingly noticeable. "Woman of the Crucifixion" is a huge eerie painting by Rico Lebrun. It features a standing figure which fills the canvas, thus elim inating the bothersome need of a background. The figure's facial expression is that of horror, which is the same expression as that of the viewers of the paint ing. I expect the purpose of the large paintings to be that of cov ering unseemly and embarras sing smudgey walls. oao The exhibition (then) showing ft the University ... is an ac umulation of colorful canvasses painted by many notorious mod ern artists. I must not neglect to mention, however, the numer ous contorted welded and bronzed figures, and the bent pottery which are also a part of the ag gregation. These works of art are gath ered together to mystify, amuse, confuse, horrify, and in a few cases, by those educated to the deep secrets of art, to convey pleasure. t But, then, I am a layman. From Detroit U. Inter-Collegiate Football Pnni ilnrit fTtarlinmriO I 0 ! W B VI 1 J Bmr WSiBI III a fRonriiatrd from fke letterf-lo-ttie-dilor strttoa of Hie "Yaretr Nr-i" of the I si enlty of lerolf stadeat aewaair.) ' To the Editor: "What possi ble connection is there between inter-collegiate football and aca demic endeavor?" This is a sub stantially correct quotation, not of a disaffected undergraduate QhkklsitL. . POME: She used to sit upon his lap, As happy as can be. i But now it makes her seasick, He has water on the knee! A man ambled into a tennis tournament and sat down on the bench. "Whose game' he asked. A shy young thing answered, "Not me." A bunch of germs were hitting it up In the bronchial saloon; Two bugs in the edge of the larnyx Were jazzing a rag-time tune. Back in the teeth, in a solo game, Sat dangerous Ack-Kerchoo; And watching his pulse was his light of love The lady that's known as Flu. "Swear that you love me." "All right, dammit, I love you." a a ,A divorce case was being held In court. The aggrieved husband told the judge: "I came home and there was my wife in the arms of a strange man." "And what did she say when you surprised her?'.' Asked the Judge. "That's what hurt me the most." , said the indignant hus band. . "Sfce turns and says, "Well, look who's here. Old Blabber mouth! Now the whole neighbor hood will know!" .U Frosh: "I just brought home a skunk." Roomie: "Where ya gonna keep him?" Frosh: "I'm gonna tie him un der the bed." Roomie: "What about the smell?" Frosh: "He'll have to get used to it like I did." or of a discouraged faculty mem ber, but of a second-generation sports writer, John Lardner. a If there has been one con sistent theme running through' the masterful essays appearing on the sports page of the VARSITY NEWS lately, it is to the effect that student support fif the teams is not what it might be. It might be time to look into the possibility that the elimina tion of this phase of campus life would not be attended with too many ill results, and perhaps seem even to be called for. No doubt the question has bean considered by all the faculty members, a majority of whom, it would appear, could suffer the absence of athletics quite stoi cally. e o a The silent majority of the students who are yet a ma jority by staying away from the games cast their votes against athletics. If faculty and students agree, why cannot appropriate action be taken? oao What happens to a school when it loses its national ranking or when it abandons intercollegiate competition altogether?. We still, occasionally, hear about Chicago (Seems they had something to do with atomic de velopment.), and Wayne, even at this distance. As long as the Notre Dame spirit is impossible to obtain on a streetcar campus, why con tinue to tax students and fac ulty in a futile pursuit for a poor substitute? University Bulletin Board WEDNESDAY Pershing Rifles Pledge Smok er, S p.m.. Military and Naval Science Lounge. AWS Mass Meeting 5 p.m. Un ion, Room 316. Ag Union Workers Mass Meet ing, 5:30 p.m. Ag Union. Joint YM-YW Public Affairs Discussion, 3 p.m. Ellen Smith Hall. Mass Farmers Fair Rodeo Meeting, 7:30 Ag Union. THURSDAY Faculty Recital,' 7:30 Union Ballroom. Phi Sigma Iota, 7:30 Union Faculty Lounge. BABW Interviews, Ellen Smith Hall. Where ke We? By BERT BISHOP To paraphrase T. S. Eliott, the dominant attitude of the admin istration has been: we decided that if the giggling in the cor ners could be stopped, some fragments of the four-year pe riod might be salvaged, and we set ourselves subtly to that end. And it is not their fault; for the inherent silliness of the univer sity student is appalling to any one who knows that his job is educating. The two prime groups of out standing foolishness are the "so ciety crowd" and the so-called "avant-garde." Each one holds the other in utter contempt; each one is guilty of a kind of mis direction which is defeating to the idea of, seriousness at a uni versity. THE RATIONALIZATIONS of these two groups are extensive and belong to the group itself, not necessarily to all individuals within the group. Hence there are the speech students, but no typical speech student, the fra ternity system, but no typical fraternity man. With the avant garde, individuality is the key note, with every action designed to advertise "I won't conform." With the society crowd, "all work and no play" justifies plaid belts and "cool" maneuvers in the back seat. The individualists sit with crossed legs, sipping from a martini and chanting James Joyce to the background of Alben Berg's twelve-tone nonsense. The social set finds a wicker chair, a pitcher of beer, and a background of "Ricochet" more soothing and probably just as enlightening In the long run. A moon-faced, not yet mas-cara-ed freshman coed is a worker for YWCA, when she probably has not yet discovered whether she is a Christian or not. Coming from high school into the social whirl of rush par ties, dates, pinnings, and Mor- tar Board as a misty, ethereal absolute, she soons picks up the jargon of the system and its af fectations before she can real-x ize Just what an institution of learning is and why it exists. Within a semester she has reached the ideal of performance, having been schooled well by her sorority in social-matters, and cannot be confronted with a situ ation for which there is no pat answer. On the other hand, for instance, an intelligent, sensitive person arrives and is filled with disgust at the shallow determinism of ac tivitles and fun. . He seeks out those who are ob viously different and vociferously intellectual, and escapes into Bo hemianism before he comes to know that learning first of all re- quires compromise with culture. At the end of his first semester, he has either come to terms with self-disgust or has attained a new high of "transcendental knowl edge" in a vacuum, where there is a divine (or rational) ringing in the ears nd "beauty in the abstract." Meanwhile, the dowdy old men, who must first of all break down the superficialities of students in their late adolescence before they can begin to teach, sigh thoughtfully and wonder how far they can go in lowering stand ards to make their job consci entiously possible. It is no won der that professors welcomed the influx of veterans; after all, ideas of "dear old Rho Rho Rho," "Da- -da-ism" and a bloody foxhole are incompatible, and the blood was recent in the veteran's memory. The Challenge The Hidden Side By DR. W. I. BRILL, M. D. dir. Brill b the eklef of the VelYtnltr de partment of awalal krteae. He was appelated to Ihe potlltoa approximately a rear aae to act la co-opeiaiioa wtia the Valverdty Sta deat Heailk ceatar.l College education, in itself, is a gauarantee of exactly" nothing. It is no guarantee against the many unpleasant and bothersome feelings that any human is likely to experience. It is no guarantee against disappointment, inferior ity feelings, inadequacy feelings, feelings of emptiness, depression, futility, guilt, anxiety, tension, restlessness, excessive worry, loneliness, estrangement, lack of sustained interest in anything or anybody, or feelings of our own rejectability to name only a few. It is no guarantee that we will live an enjoyable, emotion ally rich life. College education is occupied primarily with teach ing us about things but very lit tle about people and their very human feelings and problems. To get some satisfaction from life we must feel some relationship to people around us, or life will be sterile and impoverished. The problem, then, is our emo tions emotional health, adjust ment or whatever terminology you nse makes little difference. Emotions are with all people at all timea and in all situations, awake or asleep. They exert a profound influence on our life. Consider a few of these in fluences. To some extent they determine: 1. Our choice of work or study; 2. Our ambitions; 3. Our ability to concentrate n studies; 4. Absurd mistakes on examinations; 5. Our manner of walking and talking; - 6. Our choice of a marital partner; 7. The way the reader reacts to and understands this article. Emo tions may actually contribute to physical illness and they exert an influence on everything we do or want to do. a a The usual tendency is to avoid or hide the emotions or the feel ing side of the individual. There are several reasons for this, but if we recognize feelings in others then we must recognize them in ourselves. This may not be plea sant to the individual, even though his emotions" might be quite normal. One of the few times emotions are acknowledged is when they cause mainfest and recognizable illness. Emotions then, are not something added to the individual. They are there and exert a profound influence very often an unhappy one. The problem, then, is first an awareness of emotions; an awareness that an Individual Is not purely a surface phenomenon but has within himself a very complex feeling life which may be pleasant or unpleasant. Fur thermore, that the Individual is not what yon see of him at the moment, but a continum of many life experiences. One reason we are not aware of the problems In others Is that we are largely occupied with our own strug gle. Next we must appreciate the significant force of emotions and make a concerted effort to help and be interested in every in dividual by a deeper understand ing of him. When this comes about there will be a different rea c t i o n between individuals with more sensitivity to each others feelings.. a a This will create an atmosphere or a soil for emotional growth. Such emotional growth, we would hope, would better en able the student to enjoy and become more interested in the educational process. It might in crease receptivity to the subject matter taught, and lessen the aspect of drudgery involved. Per haps the student could then leave college having gotten something out of it and achieved a matur ity in his relationships that will m help him substantially for the remainder of his life. - This of course, is an Ideal, bat to be healthy one needs to be emotionally as well as physically and mentally healthy. Too often we hear the statement that the Physical sciences and technology have outstripped the understand ing of the individual to that we are threatened with atomic de struction. The methods of bringing about the goals set out here are some what more difficult and require time for achievement A Mental Hygiene Program, integrated with the Student Health Service because of the close relationship of physical and emotional health, is in operation. Our program is many sided, ranging from atten tion and help to the individual to research in basic emotional prob lems. oao We are particularly aware of the special difficulties that may bother the college student. Be cause of age, relationship to home and studies, he is in a very sped -clal situation. College time is a crucial period in which to con sider the emotional well being of . the Individual. Our goals represent an ideal. Inch by inch we hope to come closer to them. 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