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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 1969)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1969 RAGE 4 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN 'i J it" P. p I I :2 I) i: a vies: Tri- U to add humanity B by Mike Barret Nebraskan Staff Writer The gravest failure of the current school system is the failure to be concerned with 'goals of education beyond those of the limited cognitive skills. Dr. Melvin T u m i n , Princeton University an thropologist, also believes "other goals must be named. They include the acquisition of a satisfying self-image, a capacity to live with dif ferences, a vital interest in participation as citizens, sound emotional development and a continuing refinement of tastes and sensibilities." In order to help realize those goals, the T r i -University project is searching for ways to "humanize" teachers and teaching. "Humanizing education liiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Editors Note: This story is the second in a three part series on the University of Nebraska's teaching experi ment, the Tri-l'niversity. llllllllllltKIIIIIIIKiilillllllllllllllljlllllllllllllllllllllll means to begin to treat children-students . as human beings, says Don Davies, associate commissioner of the U.S. Office of Eduation. "It means to treat them as subjects rather than objects, treat them as people with strength and weaknesses and problems and personality and potential, people with faces, identity. Humanizing education means that schools should devote themselves primarily to developing human poten tial rather than to degrading and sorting and weeding out, adds Davies. 'Teacher talk" predominates "Mass instruction and 'teacher talk' are still the predominant characteristics of , the system," he says. "Our concept of education continues to be 25 to 50 young people in a room with a teacher in the front of the room, the youngsters listen ing and writing and the teacher talking for a good deal of the time. "The concept of the self contained teacher still prevails along with the very strange notion that its possi ble to have a million and a .half elementary school teachers who are omni capable and omni virtuous." Speaking at the Fifth Na tional Tri-University con. ference, Davies. dealt with the tendency to make education dull, lifeless, routine, without joy. He argued that a teacher centered concept of educa tion tends to repress the creative powers of young people rather than encourage them. Dr. Larry York of Chico State College (California) 1 i s ' I'Wi U .-' IS 8 V :y: ( if- : ' - . ., . r A fourth grade student . Chess ana otner games explained "dehumanized" schools. "The national average of expenditures on school time was 53 cents per child per hour last year, less than most of us pay for babysit ters," he said. "The rewards in school for time-serving, mediocrity and anti-intellec tualism are many, but there are few rewards for ex cellence and achievement. We delude ourselves "Our public pronoun cements about schools our hopes, ideals and dreams for education are not matched by national support: by the giving of significant status to teachers.the meaningful in volvement of the community in the school job or the securing of quality ad ministrative personnel. "We delude ourselves if we think that our schools have taught the things which we think we value highly; honor, justice, law and morality." According to Project Director Paul Olson, authoritarianism is one of the chief causes of these pro blems. He said, "The abuse of power in the schools has to do with the importation into them at their earlier levels, of a silly competitive system inimical in the long run to study." "The emphasis of the school is on control, and rarely does anyone discuss what it would be like really to educate," according to York. "Hence, the schools have failed on an epic scale in the ghetto where kids who are incapable of playing the school game the way their suburban counterparts do: where a great many kids do not wish to play the game at all and drop out." Need to discover Most educators in the na tion will state that there is a need for freedom in schools to explore, discover and ex periment, according to Richard Farson of the Western Institute for Behavioral Sciences. "However," he said, "We still act as if students must be driven to learn by disci pline, punishment, competition and reward." Schools have so long used ETV sets smog talk V e t e ran California Democratic leader Jesse Unruh, minority leader in the state assembly, will be the key man in the controversial issue, "Smog Versus The Automobile," when "The Advocates" makes its debut on national public television Sunday, October 5, at 9 p.m. on the Nebraska Educational Television Network. The live, hour-long col orcast a new approach to the presentation of public issues will be carried over B t 1 " N; 7! at Lincoln's Elliot Elementary School ponders his first i , i i i . li it i: i are avauaoie io siuucnu punitive methods in teaching, viewing pain and suffering as an avenue of learning that it may now be impossible to accept the idea that learning can be enjoyable; that it should not entail frustration or boredom, punishment or failure, dread, shame or panic, he said. The Tri-University's pro grams are designed to pro vide that sort of education as a replacement for the typical classroom situation. In that situation, according to York, the supposed purpose is to teach, "but what kids sec in school is primarily an exercise in the use of adult power and authority." Hair, skirt worries "Should teachers and principals really worry about i X1 1 J ' " 1 V Mrs. Fran Reinehr leads fourth and fifth grade students in a discussion of Hopi In dian religion as com pared to other reli gion. the length of boys' hair and girls' skirts?", he asks. "Should they-spend endless hours measuring, checking and policing so that the 'recalcitrant' student may be isolated, adjusted, punished or spit out? We tell dropouts how much more they might earn if they stayed in school, but not what they might learn." Schools assume that once most of the nation's 180 non commercial stations. It is a weekly National Educational Television series of 39 pro grams under grants from the Ford Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The specific issue on the first program concerns a bill in the legislature at Sacramento. Calif., which would ban the sale of "in ternal combustion machines" in the state after 1975. S io icacn uit m niauiemaucai A discipline is established, teaching can really begin, but what the kids sec, as the real substance of school life, is primarily the repression and force, not the reason," according to York. Dr. Gene Hardy, of NU's Project staff, pointed out that children learn about authority, rather than literature or science; about how to be a good middle class citizen, not math or history. Throughout the Salt Lake City, Utah, educational con ference report, it is stressed that, though there are now more schools, more teachers, more books and money spent on education, there is less real education. Children don't learn to accept and understand differences, they learn to value white, middle class culture, according to the report. Individualism Activism, emotional maturity and pride aren't taught, but children learn that individualism carries a high price, York said. According to the latest Tri U National Conference report this anti-education is as much a problem of attitude as of authority. The children are beautiful. The little ones love everybody. They especially love their teachers, and they enter school bursting with eagerness to learn. But, alas, the prophets of cognitive doom tell us that the children have come to school Irreparably damaged, never to recover from the absence of standard English, magazines and books and trips to the museum. The schools and teachers behave as if it were so, the children's excitement is extinguished, and the light goes out. Because many of the children who come from black, Hispanic and other communities designated as "disadvantaged," either do not know how or do not choose to play the "schoil game," they are presumed to be incapable of learning. The learnings and skill the children do bring with them are unrecognized by teachers who have never known or have forgotten the lessons of growing up on the street. Models for youth York said, "Youth's models are none to edifying. They are confronted by violence, murder, disaffec tion and war. When they ask about 'peace' and 'love,' they are told to 'be practical.' " School attitudes and struc tures act to halt and prevent education, according t o Hardy. He added that this situation cannot be allowed to continue. To correct these problems a new teaching format has been designed. It Is called non-structural teaching, and the emphasis is on the stu dent and learning, rather than on the teacher and move in a chess game. l 1 "l : : t- anu luitai piuiupaia. teaching, he said. He added that special classrooms in two Lincoln elementary schools, Elliot and Randolph, have been converted to student-centered education. Students in these r i 4- . In the second and third grade room a student watches a classmate type a story she has written. Typewriters and tape recorders are available to encourage students to make up stories. Graduate The University of Nebraska's Graduate Studies is still without an executive dean after more than a year since James C. Olson resigned to become chan cellor of the University of Missouri at Kansas City. The Graduate College will probably go without a permanent dean until a new chancellor is named, ac cording to Acting Chancellor Mert Hobson. Hobson said, "The new chancellor ought to make this appointment. This is one of his officials In the implanta tion of academic leadership." Hobson felt the permanent chancellor should appoint the new executive dean because the two will work closely with one another In planning and Implementing pro- Oct. films at Sheldon The University of Nebraska will present a series of films In the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery" auditorium on weekdays ut 7:30 p.m., Saturduys at 10:30 a.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets will be sold only at the door. The film schedule for October Is as follows: Tuesday, Oct. 7 Glauber Rocha"a "Black Art library opens Tuesday The Nebraska Union Con temporary Arts Committee will present the annual Stu dent Art Lending Library Tuesday, Oct. 7, from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Union North and South Conference rooms. Pictures are loaned fre of charge for the entire school year to University of Ne braska students. Film discussion is Numed topic The Numeds will hold their first meeting Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. la the Ne braska Cnlon. A firm discus sion Kill be led by Dr. Jerry Reed and Dr. John McGreer Membership Is open to the University of Nebraska, Ne braska Wesleyan, and Union College. All students in pre mod or a medical related field are welcome. classes are free to develop and progress at individual rates and the stress is placed on acceptance on the student's ideas. Monday: The new classroom methods. A ) : . n ... s -H- school is grams. Hobson added, "I don't think you can recruit the person to the office unless they know who their boss will be." According to Hobson there Is no current acting ex ecutive dean of Graduate Studies, but there are two assistant deans who are car rying out the duties of the dean. James Rut ledge and Benjamin McCashland are currently assistant deans. Francis L. S c h m e h 1 , research administrator, is also currently assuming some of the duties of the dean. Hobson said tho delay In the selection- of a permanent dean resulted when Chancellor Clifford M. Hardin resigned. Before God, White Devil '03" Friday, Oct. 10 Films by Teenagers Suturduy. Oct. 11 "Adventures of Robin Hood" Sunday, Oct. 12 Eric von Strohclm's "Greed "n" Sunduy, Oct. 19 Art Films Tuesday, Oct. 21 Glauber Rocha's "Land of Anguish '67" Sunduy, Oct 26 Howard Hawks' "Ball of Fire 41" Thursday, Oct. 30 "No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger" co-sponsored with the Nebraska Union. gDDODDDDDDDDDDODDDDDDnDnnCQj EZ3 jr v IV I33MJ sCieii emery Stem & OfSvndey10AJ..7rX Op WteteVyi 10 AJ. fe 10 fX J HODCIDnnnnDDDDDDDOnODDDDDDS n N Vf , minus dean Hardin's resignation the Ad ministration was In the pro cess of selecting a new dean. Chancellor Hardin had put Hobson In charge of the selection of the dean. "We established a recom mendation committee of faculty," according to Hobson, "and they submitted names to me and it was my job to recruit one." However, after Hardin's resignation Hobson and the Board of Regents felt the new chancellor should choose the executive dean of Graduate Studies. Hobson feels the Graduate College Is not operating as well as it might be if It had a permanent dean. However, Hobson said of the assistant deans: "I think they are ICosmct IClub Travelers Acts TeTyOUTS Contact Pat McNair 423-2874 Fred Stair 10 Discount on All BEER LIQUOR PARTY SUPPLIES At A-Go-Go Drivo In Drive fan bcN 27tH & VlllO Fl Friday, October 3, 1969 Nebraska Union 12:30 p.m. Placement 1:30 p.m. A.Ph.A. 3:30 p.m. Jazz and Java "John Walker" 5 p.m. Student Activities 7 p.m. MOVIE: "Shane" 7:30 p.m. Botany Dept. Reception Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship 8 p.m. Turkish Student Associa tion 9 p.m. MOVIE: "Shane" Views differ on coed lounges Continued from Page 1 to insure privacy of the residents. "It's a good idea, and would ba more beneficial for studying together," said Mike James, a freshman. He would like to see after noon hours set up, muoh like the present open house arrangement. Brent Sellhorn, also a freshman, is "all for it." He hopes Cather will be included in the experiment. "We're responsible enough to have girls on the floor every night for a couple of hours," said freshman Steve Stamp. Several Sandoz girls wondered if the freedom of coed lounges is worth the loss of privacy on the floor. Rosalie Pirruccello, a sophomore whose room is directly across from the lounge, said she "wouldn't want guys in there every night." The biggest problem would be ad. Justing to the loss of privacy, ac cording to Lark Vogel, a sophomore. Cindy Bruckner, also a sophomore, doesn't favor the proposal, but she "wouldn't mind it if the hours were not too late." Sophomore Mary Langdon is absolutely in favor of the coed dorms as the first step toward coed visita. tion. She said that the coed lounge experiment, while not progressive enough, is "better than nothing." Student Assistant Rosemary Mankin, a senior, Is also for the ex. periment. "I'm in favor of it for cer tain times. It would make a friendlier atmosphere." She added that visita tion rules would probably keep things from getting out of hand. doing a fine job In the in terim period." Administrative realignment The Graduate College has undergone an administrative realignment since the af. filiation of the University ot Nebraska at Omaha. The newly-titled executive dean for Graduate Studies will be the presiding officer for the total University graduate faculty and will have supervision of all doctoral programs in the graduate college. The executive dean will report directly to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Af fairs and will be the chief adviser to the campus presidents on subjects per talnlng to graduate pro grams. or 435-2957 EZ3 EZZ3