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Tuesday. February 9, 1960
Pagft 2
The Doily Nebroskon
Let'i put our ex-Presidents in the Sen-
Former Postmaster General James Far
ley has recommended this as a way to
utilise our country's best leadership.
When Congress convenes irt 1961 we'll
have three ex-Presidents Herbert Hoo
ver, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisen
hower. Their wisdom and experience as
Chief Executives of this country should
put them In the position of being invalu
able resources even though they are out of
office.
Farley comments that this supremely
necessary resource is being wasted unless
we "pass a statutory law making all form
er Presidents lifetime, non-voting Sena-tors-at-large.
"A former President would find the Sen
ate an excellent forum in which to speak
out on major policy questions. This would
be especially important in foreign and mil
itary affairs, areas where a retired Chief
Executive would have substantial know
ledge. Since he would not represent any
state r section and would not have to
worry about re-election, he could speak
with exceptional force and freedom," the
shrewd politician suggests.
This seems to be a justified proposal,
and especially would have merit if Presi
dential trends continue as they are in this
coming election. Most of the leading candi
dates for nomination are relatively young
men.
Vice-President Richard Nixon is 47, Sen.
John Kennedy is 42, Sen. Hubert Hum
phrey, is 48, Sen. Stuart Symington, 58
and Gov. Pat Brown, 54. Regardless of
which one is elected he will not serve
more than eight years because of the two
term limitation on the Presidency, Farley
points out.
"There have been cases of an incum
bent President using the services of a
predecessor on a special assignment.
"During the Truman administration,
former President Hoover directed the
Hoover Commission which helped reduce
government inefficiency. And in 1942 Pres
ident Teddy Roosevelt made Grover
Cleveland chairman of an effective body
which investigated the anthracite coal
strike.
"But these cases are rare," Farley be
lieves. What happened to Theodore Roose
velt after he left office is a good examjle
of wasted energy.
"During the 10 years after he left the
White House, restless Teddy Roosevelt
dissipated his energies in so many direc
tions that in 1919 he died an unhappy, em
bittered man. What a pity that this ex
President wasn't given a dignified, con
structive job in the U.S. Senate where his
versatile and inexhaustible vitality would
have aided the country," he says.
Farley refers to the British system of
utilizing their ex-Prime Ministers as one
which should be employed here.
"In England, a Prime Minister may lose
his position in a national election but the
chances of his losing his seat in the House
of Commons are small. Thus Winston
Chruchill went on serving his country after
he ceased to be Prime Minister. And some
former Prime Ministers, like Clement At
lee, takes seats in the House of Lords.
"It's high time we adapted the British
system to our needs and stopped treating
our ex-Presidents as unemployed has
beens," he asserts. "Wasting their exper
ience and ability always has been wrong.
Today, when we need their wise counsels
as never before, the problem is urgent.
Let's put them in the Senate where they
belong."
Dropping of P.E. Requirement Eyed
The College of Arts and Sciences has
been looking into the possibilities of modi
fying roup requirements for its students,
according to Dean Walter Wright, assist
ant dean of the College. One of these is
physical education for women.
Presently, four semesters of P.E. are
required for all University women, includ
ing one eight-week session of body me
chanics, one session of swimming and one
of a field sport or dance. The balance of
required credits can be spent in any speci
fied course of the young ladies' choosing.
The decision to drop or at least modify
the requirement from the College's list of
'musts" would be lauded by many, since
those girls taking Arts and Sciences cur
ricula have no real need for physical edu
cation. If the College felt the requirement defi
nitely beneficial to its female element, it
might consider giving credit for the
courses but no grade as is done in Chorus
91-92. Credit in that course is given on the
basis of attendance.
Dispensing with the requirement would
not bar Arts and "Sciences coeds from tak
ing P.E. as elective courses.
In this way the physical education de
partment would gain. It would be teach
ing Arts and Sciences girls taking the
courses because they were genuinely in
terested in them, not because they "had"
to take them.
Abolishment of the requirement also
would eliminate students who sluff at the
beginning of the semester and suddenly
improve by the advent of skill tests, which
often account for a large per cent of the
final grade.
Teachers College might even consider
such a move, retaining those courses
which concern children's games and group
participation for elementary education
majors.
Staff Comment
Probsscn
Not all Nebraskans have a reputation for
being "stupid fanners."
In fact, Secretary of the Interior Fred
Seaton of Hastings stands a better than
even chance of being the next Vice Presi
dent of the united States.
His biggest hurdle ap-
pears to he the nomina
ting convention in Chi
cago next July. As far as
the general election in
November is concerned,
judging from the strength
his would-be running
mate Vice President Nix
en has shown, the compe
tition won't press too
hard.
Seston's chances were brought out by
Robert Gray, secretary of the Cabinet,
who is also from Hastings. Gray spoke to
a group of Republicans in Lincoln recent
ly on his way back to Washington. He al
s was asked what the chances are of Sea
ton returning to Nebraska to run for Gov
ernor fills year. "Although Fred has great
respect for Nebraskans and the party In
the state,' Gray said, he probably won't
make a hid In his home sUte.
Gray told of Nixon's admiration for Sea
ton, which is a big factor in favor of any
candidate for the second 'spot on the Re
publican ticket. President Eisenhower has
been a big supporter of Seaton, also, an
other factor in his favor.
To speculate further, if Nixon wins, the
Balm and Sage
By Herb Probasco
prospects are better than average that he
will occupy the White House for eight
years, providing he can show the public
that he is sincere. This is the biggest ques
tion mark against him this year. If Seaton
is Vice President through two terms he
will be 56 years old and in much the same
position as Nixon is now. Which all boils
down to minus about 15 ifs the possibil
ity of a President from Nebraska.
William Jennings Bryan was the clos
est Nebraskant to the White House. He ran
three times at the turn of the century on
the Democratic ticket and was defeated
each time. The only Vice President from
Nebraska was Charles G. Dawes who
served under Calvin Coolidge.
Most Nebraskans tend to discount the
chances of a native of their state making
any big strides to the top because of the
fact that most of our political figures are
not nationally known.
However, Gray pointed out, communi
cation advancements have made up for
this ignorance, since a candidate can go
all over the country via television.
A word about my column name. It was
submitted by Bob Hans, who says he
"likes dollar bills." Several entries were
submitted, most of them plays on my
name. Balm is an herb, also defined as
an "aromatic odor." Hans pointed out
that this "is quite fitting for the Rag."
Sage, he said, is also an herb and in an
other sense defined as "wise, grave, sol
emn man. Well, almost fitting," he said.
Daily Nebraskan
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EDITORIAL STAFF
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Gerald lam hereon
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STAFF
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Managing Edltar
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BUSINESS
ftmfiiMH 'Mftits.jrcir
AM-stant BtilneH Manftgen
ClrculfttifNi Mumsw ,
Editorial Comment:
Ex-Presidents 9 Value Lost
Education Problem Probed
By Heck!
Editor"! Votet The writer of the
fallewlnf . noted for hit eeatrf batten
to the Letterip eolnmn In semester
past, hat derided to relinatilsh his hold
on the letter to tht editor eolama
and to submit weekly eolnma af
hit
Hit first, oa adoration, h rather
tear, bat tha eother promise shorter
work in the fntaro.
Some time ago. an Arts
and Sciences professor, who
has had the privilege of
teaching and observing the
educational process both
here and abroad offered
his idea of the major error
in American education.
E-k'fly, he said that a
la; portion of the Ameri
can educational problem
could be solved by requiring
more work from the stu
dent at an earlier age. He
said that after observing
foreign students, most
American educators would
be amazed at the ability of
children to learn at very
young ages and at the
amount of work, hard work,
that they were able to ac
complish. Some foreign systems
start children learning at
age four or five, and not
in kindergarten. The begin
ning courses are not finger
painting, bead stringing, or
lessons on how-to-love-thy-neighbor.
Foreign students
start learning language and
mathematics at a very
young age, are In algebra
by the sixth or seventh
grade (comparatively), and
know more about mathe
matics by the time they
enter a university than an
American engineering stu
dent at the time he is a
junior.
In essence, this profes
sor's idea, and mine, is that
the primary problem in
American education is "tak
ing too long to teach too lit
tle". It appears that, in try
ing to find the magic for
mula for education, the
American educator has
overlooked the basic ability
of children to work and to
learn.
To give an example, dur
ing the previous spring se
mester a coed asked a
friend what to do with two
really "stupid" little mon
sters in her class. She was
advised to try teaching
them twice as much as the
rest of the class.
To the amazement of the
coed, the two little mons
ters turned out to be her
brightest students. It just
happened that their class
work was so pathetically
easy and unchallenging that
they couldn't arouse any
interest in it.
Another example is that
of a Lincoln elementary
school pupil who, after
leading his class for sev
eral years, suddenly
plunged to the bottom. An
adviser recommended to
his family that he be given
special guidance and pos
sibly held back a yeaf in
school. A family friend sug
gested advancing the boy a
grade instead.
Although the Lincoln
school refused, the school
In their new home of Seat
tle advanced him provision
ally. By the end of the se
mester the boy was again
an "A" student.
A Few Words .
. . . Of a
Kind
by e. e. Hinei
If the maxim "There's a
little bit of good in the best
of us" has any validity,
there probably is something
to say in favor of student
t r i b u-
nals, Stu
dent coun
cils, IFCs,
Young
G 0 P s,
Young
Demos and
s t u dent
n e w s
paper col
umnists. A good
i atjtw,
e.e.
number of people are prone
to question the maxim it
self. Almost everyone must
question its appropriateness
when applied to the above
groups. v
Student tribunals are duly
elected sub rosa groups.
Student councils have no
authority to make things
better for the student body,
so they work overtime to
make things worse.
IFCs are dedicated to
eternal apology and hypo
crisy. Young GOPs have noth
ing to get adult about, and
Young Demos seem to be
so involved -in intra-group
political maneuvering that
they don't always have
time to think about adult
politics.
Student newspaper colum
ists get their start by writ
ing an explanation of why
they named the column
what they did, and then
spend the rest of the year
proving that the time and
trouble they consumed in
this endeavor was wasted.
But "to err is human"
and to exist is to give
someone else something to
feel superior about, so let's
all shake hands, smile, and
promise to say only good
things about each other In
public.
Our private lives, how
ever, are our own. Drop
around for a private con
ference. There are still a
few things I haven't said
about tribunals, councils,
IFCs, t aL
a a a
After finger cramping my
way through finals I man
aged to sneak through the
pages of Dr. Zhivago and
Tom Jones, two novels I
had wanted to read for
sometime.
I recommend both, real
izing that my pronounce-,
menu are not likely to seri
ously alter the future of
either book. They both
seem to have received a
good deal of previous en
dorsement. Dr. Zhivago presents a
forceful argument for indi
vidualism, free of the tyran
nies of materialism as well
as communism and other
forms of power state. His
tor, Pasternak writes, be
gan with Christ, the pro
phet of the value cf the in
dividual He expresses re
gret that the Jews, the race
which gave the world this
prophet, have failed to heed
his message and continue
to strive for a national or
group identity.
The Russian power state
receives a less sympathetic
treatment as Pasternak
shows each idealistic gov
ernment that arises during
the revolution and post-revolution
period degenerate
into one more cruel and
dictatorial than its prede
cessor. The book should be and
can be read as something
more than a philosophical
tract.
Tom Jones is, of course,
the story of an attractive
rogue whose saucy adven
tures stop pleasing the
reader when the book ends,
but not before. William
Somerset Maugham, I be
lieve it was he, said that
every young girl should
read this book if she wants
to understand men. This
may or may not be true.
It is true that the adven
tures of Tom Jones are ad
ventures which a good num
ber of young men (and old)
would like to experience.
This could almost lead to
the thought that although
American educators devise
and give all manner of tests
to measure IQ, etc, they
have failed in putting intel
ligence to work after they
find it.
It may be that American
educators think too much
on abstract principals of ed
ucation, and not enough on
practical experimentation,
i.e., finding out the maxi
mum learning ability of the
average student at a given
age.
A Problem on the oppo
site side of the learning
process is the Inability of
the American teacher to
teach. I think that even
many of our professional
educators in the nation's
teachers colleges are pain
fully aware of this.
First off, the nation, bee
cause of its peculiar mass
education system, needs an
impossible number of teach
ers. To supply them, our
colleges have had to turn
out every type of mediocre
in the profession.
Part of these are the
great number of teachers
who are not interested in
teaching, have a little abil
ity, but who want the rea
sonably good salary and
lazy security that the teach
ing shortage makes avail
able to them.
Included in this group is
that great mass of women
who enter a university, as
one of the local professors
has pointed out, not to
teach but to find a hus
band; who either fail to do
so and go out to listlessly
teach until they succeed or
who find a husband and
have to work at something
the first few years to put
the family on its economic
feet.
W'hat ever they may do
for themselves, they make
American education a
mockery. (Let me interject
here that I am not refer
ring to that fortunately
large number of really ca
pable and dedicated men
and women in teachers col
leges who choose the teach
ing profession from a sin
cere desire to teach.
Because of a somewhat
easier curriculum, it seems
that elementary education
draws the most of this in
tellectual rif-raf. As one na
tional educator pointed out
some time back, it -seems
an unwholesome paradox
that America's least capa
ble and inexperienced
teachers are responsible for
the education of children at
their earliest school years
where experience and ca
pability are most needed to
set lifetime learning pat
terns. Across the nation great
claims have been made for
the increased standards de
m a n d e d for teachers.
Where previously a high
school diploma could launch
a teacher on her career,
the standards have raised to
one or two years on a uni
versity, then to a bachelors
degree, and finally in many
Instances to at least a pros
pective masters degree.
This would all be well and
good if we had any assur
ance that at the same time
the standards at any level
had not fallen so much
that more and more yean
of training were necessary
to provide a set level of
competence.
Next to absurdly lax work
loads for students, and in
competence in teaching
staffs, is the problem of
course substance.
American students are
not tanght to think critically
until they reach the nniver
sity level, and by that time
they are so imbued with
naive concepts tanght in
the elementary and sec
ondary systems that it takes
the first two years of uni
versity instruction to reor
ientate them before they
can begin to use their
minds.
The prime examples of
this are in instruction ia
civics, American govern
ment, history, and other
social studies where the
student is propagandized on
the idealistic nonsense of
American history, govern
ment, etc., and is never
taught to critically examine
his own country, and its
culture, institutions and
"heroes."
He consequently comes
from high school prepared
only to be further drilled
full of "facts," etc., that he
does not have to examine,
just store.
He has little ability to
think about the Information
that is given him and loses
sight of the fact that here,
as he should have been be
fore, he is taught more to
think for himself than to
be spooT-fed large doses of
somebody else's intellec
tualism. As a result of the same
propagandizing, the Ameri
can high school student is
forced into ego-centric-ism
to the same extent as a
student in an ultra-nationalistic
system such as pre
war Japan or Germany. He
could scarcely get a more
biased view of history and
society if he took bis social
studies classes at the local
American Legion Post
He comes forth into adult
society totally unable to un
derstand a foreign culture,
let alone to be a "world"
leader. Small wonder that
the "Ugly American" is far
more truth than fiction.
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ECROSSWORD
No. 4
ACROSS
1. The main event
S. Death and
taiat, period!
S. Suhoptl'jaj
lugfafc
It. Kind of woU
18. Oner
of "Camilla"
15. Marilyn's
mouth is
always
16. Gal who was
meant (or you
17. What kid
bTotttcn tfo
U. What Simple
Simon hadn't
SO. Article
tl. Abbreviated
16. Sister
87. Hlfh point at
a moral
18. Daquiri insredi
antreraraed St. Start over afsin
SO. "Bell 8oa"
opera
St. Quit
S8. Odd baD
.Kltonbora
6. Little George
87. Wajr out
0. What white
aide walls era
44. Vocal
4e. Hirb raatfa
. Italian wtne
47. Sis natulan
4k. gajall child
4. Paw
DOWN
1. Chinese thestri
eal -property
item?
t. It sen keep
you hancinf
I. A third af tba
wny out
(2 words)
4. Kooli' secret
ingredient
(Z words)
5. Kind of eraty
. Ash receptacle
7. Pro's last nsroe
S. Kind af money
. Kind af tuy ta
W externa
10. Coaauraod
II. Pity the Add
14. Where you
appreciate
Koala (8 words)
15. H of bear
2. It's obvioasty
by amateur
poets (2 words)
28. Hula hoops,
yoyos, ate.
C4. Here's where
the money roes
ta. Kind af ish
M. Tentmaker
SL Make a inaka-
shift living
(2 words)
Knots
have 4 Dowa
7. 1 left Elsie
8. Satisfy
19. GaryCoapsr let)
40. Between Sept.
and Nov.
41. Doodle
equipsnent
42. Trade Lasts
(abbr.)
48. Willie tha
Penguins
wain
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When vbur throat tell? )
you its time -for a changed
-r vdu need
a real change..
YOU NEED THE
OF
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CItTTI!
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