thursday, august 31, 1978
daily nebraskan
page 5
oped
Motivated students are not challenged by public schools
Washington-CBS Television took an
open-eyed unblinking look last week at one
aspect of the crisis of public education: the
fact that so many children aren't learning
and don't seem to be really interested in
learning.
The children who were the focus of the
TV special happened to attend school in
Denver. But they could have been from
anywhere in America. Their numbers are
disturbingly large. Their parents are
worried sick. I hear from them all the time.
But I also here from another group of
parents whose children don't get paid
much attention.
I refer to those parents whose children,
to look only at test scores, appear to be
doing quite all right. They read, they com
prehend, they compute and they handle
the language at least at grade level, and
William raspberry
frequently above the national norm for
their age and grade.
Play school
But they are learning far less than they
could be learning, these parents believe.
And they believe it with good reason.
Union task force is chosen
By Kathy McAuliffe
Richard Armstrong, UNL vice
chancellor for student affairs, has se
lected seven of the eight members of the
Nebraska Unions Services and Facilities
Task Force.
The task force, which consists of
two faculty members, two staff mem
bers and six students, will recommend
ways to evaluate and study the unions.
The seven persons who have accepted
Armstrong's invitation are Ira Dolich,
chairman of the College of Business
Administration marketing department;
Glen Schumann, assistant director of
the Office of University Housing; Jane
Baack, assistant to the dean of student
development; Bob Moody, ASUN first
vice president; Mike Gibson, former
Residence Hall Association president;
Hubert Brown, vice president of the
Afro-American Collegiate Society;
Nancy Eicher, president of East Union
Program Council Bob Simonson,
graduate student in economics and
Vance Colling, vice chairman of the
Nebraska Union Board.
The task force, which will report to
Armstrong, will meet in a couple of
weeks, he said. At the first meeting,
Gibson will act as chairman until a
chairperson is selected by the task force,
Armstrong said.
Armstrong reported that he was
pleased with the response from the se
lected task force members.
"Out of all those asked , there was
only one who was unabfo to participate
because of scheduling," he said. "I
think this indicates that these people
feel that the issue to be addressed is an
important one."
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CAMPUS BAmi
These children make good grades-above-average
grades-while playing their way
through school.
"You reporters are forever writing
about the children who aren't motivated,
who are discipline problems, who finish
high school as a functional illiterates,"
one father told me recently. "Well, I guess
you could say my son is motivated. He
certainly can read and do math. He's
getting good grades, but he's not doing a
damned thing. He's just sliding through."
This man is thinking of putting his
son in private school.
I get the same sort of complaints from
parents who write to me from across
the country. I heard them from several
parents during a recent visit to Indianapo
lis. I hear them with disturbing frequency
from parents at the school my own
children attend.
,Easy grades
The complaint is not that the children
are bombing out, or that they will have
trouble finding decent jobs or getting into
college. The complaint is that they are not
being "stretched." They are perfectly
willing to work hard at school, but they
don't have to. Their grades come too
easily.
I know the complaints well, having
made them with some frequency myself. It
may be that in some cases we overestimate
our children's ability. In some cases we
may expect too much of overworked,
under-appreciated teachers. In some cases,
we are asking schools to furnish the disci
pline and initiative and drive that our child
ren should be getting at home.
Even when the complaints are justified,
we must drive the teachers to distraction
with the confusion of remedies we pro
pose. Sometimes we want more: acceler
ated courses, options to pique our child
ren's interest, special curricula for the
"gifted and talented."
Teachers confused
At other times we insist on less: Back
to basics.
It's hardly fair to ask the schools or the
individual teachers to know what we want
when we're not that sure ourselves.
For my own elementary school young
sters, I'd settle for a couple of things. In
math, give them a solid grounding in the
mechanics of computation (with lots
of drill) and somewhat less emphasis on
the theory of numbers, which too few
teachers understand in the first place.
For the non-math courses, make them
write. Not "Creative" writing, just writing.
Writing not learned
If there is any single thing I would
ask the schools to do for my children,
it is to teach them to write, to make them
fluent in the English language. I don't
mean just word-calling, spelling and pen
manship. I mean practice at reading,
comprehending, analyzing, assimilating,
and reaching and justifying conclusions.
Writing in the sense I mean ft is the
same thing as thinking. Is that too much
for the schools to teach?
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