FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1969
PAGP 2
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Mol
is H
sycho
sis for study, degrees
Behind the
corn curtain
The thought of a student on the Board of
Regents is enough to sour the precious body fluids
of many, more-conservative Nebraskans.
(And especially so for that majority of over
21ers who negated young peoples' right to participate
in public decisions by defeating the 19-vote.)
But the suggestions for student representatives
on the governing bodies of other schools will even
tually penetrate the corn curtain which enfolds
this state.
FOR SEVERAL YEARS, already, students have
been allowed and even encouraged to partake in
tome areas of University government Publica
tions Board, the housing committee and advisory
boards, for instance. Perhaps soon, when the concept
has been tried at coastal campuses, the University
of Nebraska will also make the progressive move
to expand student representation to the Board.
Since students are valuable on the various
committees that conduct the day-to-day operation
of the campus, then they would be all the more
valuable in formulating policy and philosophy of
education at the University of Nebraska. If nothing
else, a student Regent could present an important
point of view to the other Regents. And he could
represent 18,000 people who have the greatest stake
In eduction at this school.
OTHER SCHOOLS may institute such student
representation programs as last-minute
maneuvers to fend off campus riots; they may
do it to compromise violent confrontations with
students. But the University of Nebraska in this
particular moment of its evolution, could use a
. student Regent to work out a system of education
- which would make such undesirable future situa
'i tions impossible.
Youth should be given a voice. In state govern
Iment, to be sure. But a voice in the University
is of more importance not only to the students,
but to the future success of the school.
Perhaps a student Regent would sour some;
but that is better than allowing education at the
University to also sour, by reason of stagnation
and failure to communicate.
Ed Icenogle
DAILY NEBRASKAN
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By Martin L. Gross
To the supra-mother's classic admonition to
"eat eat" must now be added what is rapidly
becoming a contemporary Americanism: "study
study," and for as long as humanly possible.
We Americans are obviously not becoming in
fatuated with intellect, but we are developing a
mass neurosis about the quantity of our children's
and everyone else's educational achieve
ment. After touring America in 1850, Alexis de Toc
queville brilliantly summed up our educational
psyche: "I do not believe that there is a country
in the world where, in proportion to the population,
there are so few ignorant and at the same tims
so few learned individuals."
ONE HUNDRED and forty years later, the
frenetic drive to alter the last part of his observa
tion has created a national schooling anxiety rivaled
only by our self-conscious inferiority after the
surprise launching of Sputnik. Today, the horror
that surrounds the mere utterance of the word
"drop out" attests to the mob psychosis that pushes
for more, more and still more schooling for the
larger and larger number of apathetic non-scholars
who now inhabit our high schools, colleges and
graduate degree programs.
The "drop out conspiracy," as it must be called,
is a nefarious gambit that is being foisted on the
nation by an educational establishment and well
propagandized parents who now equate learning
solely with the number of school years completed.
Iu 1932, only 612 of every 1,000 school children
reachtd the 9th grade, and barely 30 oercent of
the original 1,000 completed high school. The need
for more educational achievement was obvious,
and by 1942 we had achieved excellent results:
803 of every l.OCO children finished grade school
and almost half 467 graduated from high
school.
BUT THESE RESULTS only stimulated the
true believer in total schooling for everyone. During
the post-war 1940's and 50's, those who refused
to gain a high school diploma infuriated the new
"neat society," and the mass media ground out
its litany of attack no diploma means no work,
no money, no life. The educational poker game
upped its ante to 12th grade for everyone, and
those seeking the possible life style of a Ben
Franklin, Edison, Lincoln, Mark Twain, Eric Hoffer
were cast in the role of the modern social pariah
the drop-outs. The massive propaganda cam
paign that followed created our present exag
gerated, if not insane, state of higher schooling.
This June 2.9 million of the 3.7 million children
who entered first grade 12 years ago will graduate
from high school, a 75 percent completion rate
that leaves only one in four youngsters shamed
by the "drop-out" epithet. In fact, bv 1977, the
will
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"Did you find what you were loking for...?'
The great genetics debate is finally starting
by Flora Lewis
New York The debate on genetics is begn
nlng in earnest, and not a moment too soon because
the key science of human life is on the very
threshold of the power to change all existence.
What the Atlantic Monthly named The
Biological Revolution is upon us, and there is yet
no clear guidance from religion, from philosophy,
from the whole of custom and intuition that Is
called common sense, to help confront it.
Already, the discoveries of the geneticists are
affecting ordinary American law and life.
IN MARYLAND RECENTLY, Carl R. Millard,
18, entered a plea of not guilty by reason of Insanity
to a charge of robbing a liquor store of $150.
His lawyer argued that he had an extra Y (male)
chromosome, which some scientists say makes a
man tend to criminality, and therefore wasn't
responsible for his act. The judge convicted htm
anyway, ruling that the link between genetic ab
normality and crime has not yet been fully pro
ven. But research is going on. The link seams likely.
If it is proven, will all the criminal laws have
to be reexamined? Should crime prevention then
Include tests of everybody's chromosomes to weed
out the criminally-prone, or steriize them, or treat
them when genetics reaches capacity?
In Chicago, Dr. Henry L. Nadler examined a
patient in his Northwestern University genetics
clinic. She was recently married, the only one
in her family of four sisters who was normal.
The others had been mongoloids and she wanted
to know wether she would have defective babies.
He studied her chromosomes and family history
and said the chance was 30 percent,
SHE DECIDED TO TAKE the chance and
returned for an examination when she was 3Vi
months pregnant. It showed that the baby would
be a boy, and a mongoloid. She had an abortion,
followed by another pregnancy and another ex
amination. 'it showed she would have a healthy,
normal girl, and she did.
In Dallas, Dr. Robert L. Sinsheimer of the
California Institute of Technology explained to an
audience of biologists a genetic technique which
might prevent diabetes,
Within a generation or two, genetics offers the
likelihood of wiping out diabetes, enormously
reducing and perhaps wiping out mental retardation
reducing crime to an unforseeable extent. It offers
control of the sex of future babies, probably the
elimination of some forms of insanity, the elimina
tion of many diseases.
TO SOME VISIONARY scientists, It offers the
key answer to problems which befall us because
of what we call human nature. One of thorn, Joshua
Lederberg, has even given a name to a future
science of "human engineering." lie calls it
"euphenlcs," by which a wide variety of heredity
traits would be changed by changing some
chromosomes in the human embryo.
The possibilities for good are evident,
overwhelming and tantalizingly near. So biologists
are arguing with growing intensity for the chance
to make these extraordinary break-throughs la
genetics.
The possibilities for evil are as obvious, and
as overwhelming.
The question is so pressing that it has become
a new department of philosophy. Princeton
theologian Paul Ramsey has been appointed pro
fessor of "genetic ethics ' at Georgetown University
Medical School. Harvard historian Donald Fleming
reports In an Atlantic Monthly article that Ramsey
apposes any genetic tampering as "a violation of
man." But Fleming goes on to point out that at
present, "many babies get born with catastrophic
genes that are not exactly an enhancement of
man."
FLEMING SAYS, "The will to cooperate in
being biologically perfect is likely to take the place
in the hierarchy of values that used to be occupied
by being humbly submissive to spiritual counsellors
chastising the sinner for his own salvation. The
new form of spiritual sloth will be not to want
to be bodily perfect and genetically improved. The
new avarice will be to cherish our miserable hoard
of genes and favor the children that resemble us."
Is it the noblest aspiration of all, to perfect
man, or the most outrageous hubris of all, doomed
to destroy man? For all the specific benefits In
terms of sickness and despair, it is terrifying
because the ultimate question must be who can,
who will, decide which changes are for good and
which for evil The scientists tend to shrug and
answer that in the meantime they can make people
healthier, the rest Is not up to them.
But there is not a great deal more time to
face that ultimate question before, in fact, the
ultimate power to remake man lies in someone's
hands.
Louie the Graffiti Man
. Louie the Graffiti Man is little known outside
hi own profession.
I Louie is hired by the local taverns to decorate
the walls of the city's restrooms. He lives in a
world of short quotations designed to lighten and
edify whoever comes across his handiwork.
BUT WAIT, one might say: aren't these
un grammatical, off-color scrawling actually the
work of Lincoln's college population? That's what
Louie and the proprietors would like you to
believe.
"You gotta be kidding!" Louie sputters. "You
mean to say you tlilnH college kkis really have
the mentality to think up this graffiti, these
masterpieces?"
The short, meticulously dressed man points out
that if lohn walls were left up to students, the
art would consist mostly of "John loves Mary"
and "Tri Slgs are best."
"THEY GOT no Imagination." lule says. ."And
their spelling is atrocious. And their idea of what
goes on in the world comes from the Nebruskmi
and Little Orphan Annie."
Armed with pocketknlves and pencils, Louie
begins work in the early hours of the morning.
As he deftly retraces somo of his golden greats
and deeply etches new nuggets, periodically refer
ring to a notebook overflowing with newspaper clip
oings. "What hurts is the lack of recognition," Louie
moans "but 1 got a public that Sheldon Art Gallery
couldn't touch.
LOUIE DEMANDS of the Incredulous reporter.
"You still don't believe I'm responsible tor all
these places? Look at It this way. In all the times
you've been in these places, how often have you
seen someone writing these things on tho walls,
huh?"
Hi adds an underline to his newest creation,
"God is alive and posing as Secretary of
Agriculture." "They gotta look siontaneoiis," Louie
says.
Occasionally, he sprinkles In telephone numbers
to break the monotony. When dialed, they usually
turn out to be the Lincoln police department or
Abel Hall.
e e
HE ANGRILY crosses out a "support your
local police." "Amateurs," he scorns, "spoil the
effect." He pencils in, "Support underprivileged
militants."
"You also gotta be abreast of the times," Louie
adds. The Graffiti Man then scrawls, "Prime with
the Pill."
"my satisfaction in this line of work comes
when a drunk walks out of the can with a smile
on his face."
Not content with the domain of the bathroom
bowl, Louie branches into related fields. His
workers are resonsible for chalking the sidewalks
before major campus events. Cohorts add finishing
touches to Union posters. (Surreptitious comments
on homecoming candidates are their specialty.)
LOUIE ALSO contributes to literary fields, but
he is not yet satisfied. "Today, Cliffs Notes;
tomorrow, the Cornhusker," he cries with a gleam
in his eye.
"In my own little way, I am helping to maintain
college traditions without leaving them to the in
competency of college students," Louie says.
Even so, Louie seems to lead a somewhat
normal life. He has no difficulty in Crib conversa
tions, being always ready wiih a cryptic com
ment. And as for datos, all the Graffiti Man has
to say is. "Why don't you come downtown with
nie for a beer and I'll show you my etchings."
rt o rt rjt TTriiipntion advises me, we
graduate 86 percent of alUur youngsters.
IS THE DROP-OUT conspirator whose very
fiMh rrawta at the thought of an unclaimed diploma
satisfTed with this incredible performance?
Hardlv The miracle of diplomarized mass non
education has merely stimulated his ingenuity.
WitSolt man" high KS
about, why not just escalate educationally? ihey
have and the result is a searing new definition
Sf a 'sSl failure, one that adds eyes more stag
to momma's prophetic admonition. It is the modern
"college drop-out!" t a pvnlninil1!,
This strange new wuvw ,
Anyone who does not proceed continuously from
nursery school through 19 years of school
culminating In a baccalaureate degree b a i drop
out" from life, a misfit who doesn t realize that
total formal education - regardless of intellect
or personal persuasion - is the only permissible,
parental and societal-approved status goal.
America's swollen and sweating 2,530 college
campuses testify to this myopic critena. From
a student college population of 1,365,000 in the
fall of 1939, college attendance rose only moderately
by 1954 to 2,469,000.
BUT TnE BABY BOOM and the inordinate
success of the conspiracy of "study study has
brought today's college enrollment to a gargantuan
6,758,000. New figures given to me lrom
forthcoming Office of Education Paction de fy
even the motherly imagination -MWMmawto
under-matured college students flooding the cam
puses by the fall of 1977. .
What a field day for the pristine finger pointers
who are convinced that everyone can be shamed
by societal conformity. The day is not far off
when the non-college graduate will hapiessly babble
psychological excuses for his "obvious life and
mind failure. The new figures already show who
will be the victims of the new shame: the present
fifth grade class of 4.2 million youngsters. It is
expected that at least half of them will attend
college in the first 10 million campus crunch and
fight their way, not toward the enlightenment of
a B.A. or M.A., but to keep from being scurrilously
defamed as "drop outs."
"College drop out" has already become an
easy euphemism for social abnormality, a fact
attested to by its psychiatric recognition. With the
help of a National Institute of Mental Health grant,
the William Alanson White Institute in New York
has opened a psychiatric "College Drop Out Clinic"
to diagnose and treat such "cases. 'J
AMERICA'S MAGNIFICENT egalitarianism
Insists that we must all be superior and gifted.
To do what our spirit insists, it is obvious that
we will eventually graduate everyone from college.
The new burden of educational quantity will then
quickly shift to the graduate school, which is
already being nosily viewed by nervous over
achieving mothers (and fathers). The 160,000 M.A.'s
produced last year attest to the encroaching "ab
normality" of not being a Master of Something.
Would you believe a Ph.D. "drop-out"? I must
modestly state that in that arena of future shame,
I am ahead of my time. 1 have already committed
that sin of non-conformitv.
(C) ktwtday. Inc.
Campus opinion...
Solution: children
shouldn't read at all
Dear editor:
My first reaction to the proposed ban of
Huckleberry Finn in the Nebraska school system
was an assumption that it was presented with
the same legislative sense of humor as the bill
to make the grasshopper the State insect.
However, after a more careful study, I
discovered that it was a sincere effort on the
part of Senator Danncr to protect the school age
youth of this progressive state from a knowledge
of certain unpleasant situations that existed in the
past and to a degree yet today.
There is a fine line between art and everything
else produced under the auspices of literature. One
of the books that has come under fire from Senator
Danner, Huckleberry Finn, is a work of art. Ernest
Hemingway said it much more profoundly.
This bill and the 2,000 other bills introduced
Indicate to me a desire of our legislature to build
a Nebraska-style 1984. There can only be two other
explanations:
(1) the senators feel they must justify their pay
Increase (one of the 2,000 bills); or
2i mv own opinion (though had William Jenn-
!hBJyan s?ld "', the iro"y woud have been
much greater) is that it is not yet proven, my
fellow Nebraskans, that the fine people of Tennessee
have a corner on ignorance. For those senators
unable to connect Mr. Bryan and Tennessee the
secret word for the day Is "monkey " nnessee' ine
nokeJf "ff" k wriUnS this ls t
senator, Thlv T ln,telligce of the state
senators. They do that well enough without my
help. Any satire I could try to construct from
this sad state could never be as funny as the?
original material, the legislative bills. y
What I should like to propose is that thev
eSWmw0Utd0 each other ta Audng fl
SSeHvTw rtftr mSt PrePstenus bill and try
constructively to conserve this state's richest
the state. leamn8 t0 read at u will benefit
cWldSn SKr Tb4 is that the
Finn but S rh SU d not read Huckleberry
at all. y Sh0uld not be allowed "ad
wMon'ef K
ess? visssA
srrtiiEyh8iwe;
intcnigcnKnS
n?nJSilZTm never ralsed and
wltl the de Ji Mth moJ"al ""sciences burning
Nebraska noiS ihSA rLKht the Rood PeoPle of
a. eJm!. P,J .i lr hrc-eanied tax money into
an educational system they aren't readv L let
lone desirous of, receiving TrtSSH return'
v.-aleuat" Is d0 we wanl to try to
to remafnln NoS iy educVve sodety t induce
Fred Sturrett
