Wednesday, august 29, 1979
pcge 4
dally nebraskan
n n n TVA' D n
Teacher requirements insufficient
In a state where many students attend small
rural schools, the concept of preparing prospec
tive teachers to teach in many areas of study is
admirable. However, the program recently deve
loped by the UNL Teachers' College falls short
of the desired objective.
In compliance with a rule passed by the Ne
braska Council on Teaching, the Teachers Col
lege this fall instituted a broad field language
arts teaching endorsement.
Rather than specializing in one or two sub
jects, persons in the broad language endorse
ments program will study and then teach a wide
range of related areas. The language arts endorse
ments would qualify persons to teach English,
speech, theater and journalism in grades seven
through 12.
In addition to a sizeable English requirement,
only 12 hours of speech, nine hours of theater,
six hours of journalism and nine hours of writing
(including beginning newswriting) are required
for the endorsement.
It is doubtful that a person could adequately
teach any of the subjects after such limited
training. The usual teaching endorsement with a
double major requires about 30 hours in each
area of study.
If, for example, to fulfill the journalism
requirements a person takes photography, a
journalism theory class and beginning newswrit
ing, that person is likely to be lacking knowledge
of production, editing, and communication law.
Even at a high school level, journalism students
face tough technical, ethical and legal probelms.
Despite doubts about the program's quality, it
has been defended as necessary in order to train
Versatile teachers for small schools where
instructors must teach a variety of subjects.
However the concept has several flaws. First,
it seems unfair that students in small schools
will get a lower quality education. In a time
when we are questioning why Johnny can't read,
it is even more absurd. Where instructors must
teach more subjects, they need to be more
qualified, not less.
The program also appears to be unwise for
the teachers themselves. Now When we are told
there is an abundance of teachers, requirements
such as these not only make it easier to get a
degree but seems to limit their opportunities.
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"HefCV, BOB.ZlG fRltt ... I'M BACK. UOW'D THItfSfc 60 Mm OUR MDEA&T RXICY?
'Understanding' both
awe-inspiring awful
BOSTON-I know an Understanding Woman. No, not
the sort of woman wholl jog along with you a while until
she gets tired. I mean a marathon understander.
The Understanding Woman is a good listener and a
good human historian. Over the years people have come
to her when they were really out of shape and she's paced
them over some pretty rough terrain.
She can put pieces together; she can figure out why
one person behaves this way and another person behaves
that way. She has empathy endurance. And she'll tell you
that once you really comprehend someone else's life, it's
tough to criticize them.
(&ili3n
I've watched the Understanding Woman over the long
distance. I've watched with, the awe I reserve for feats I
can't imagine performing. I am better for an intense short
sprint. I fade early.
But lately I've been wondering whether this capacity
for understanding is awesome or really kind of awful. If
understanding is a good thing, I wonder if she has too
much of a good thing. I wonder whether she does the hard
work and everyone around her stays flaccid. I wonder if
understanding why things happen one way can't become
a substitute for making them happen another way.
The last time I saw her I thought about the men in her
life. I remember the husband who said he needed space.
And she understood.
I remember the guy who was, from time to time, un
faithful. And she understood.
But I also suspect that a person can spend so much
energy analyzing someone else's needs and track record
that they analyze away their own. Psychiatrists always say
that understanding is the first step of change, but I guess
it can also be a substitute for change. A lot of women end
up running in place.
No, I'm not saying that this is exclusively a "woman's
problem." There are a lot of men who go the distance
everyday. But we're trained for it from the time we get
our first sneakers.
' Continued on Page 5
Bicycle rider discovering he is an automatic patriot
WASHINGTON - I don't think of myself as a patriot,
mainly because most of the current, self-proclaimed breed
links America's greatness with its power to push around
the rest of the world.
But President Carter has me thinking that perhaps I am
having a few patriotic movements that go beyond cheering
on Uncle Sam the Global Bully.
Several months ago, Carter called on citizens to avoid
using their cars for 15 miles a week. We're in a fix, he said,
and voluntary gas rationing would keep the nation secure
against the fuel shortage.
The President's do-your-bit message stirred me to begin
seeing my bicycle as a noble means of contributing to the
national good. Although I had been biking IS miles be
tween home and office for the past five years, weather and
legs permitting, I never had reason to think that national
interests were coming before my own interests. It was
enough that my daily 15 provided a trinity of personal
benefits: exercise, a slower pace and the pleasure of deny
ing the oil industry a few coins.
Perhaps I should be more of the sophisticate, but I
admit that in these past months behind the handlebars I
have enjoyed the feeling of patriotism. I am even some
thing of a super-patriot: the President asked for 15 miles a
week, and I'm donating 75.
TROUBLES HAVE come, though, like potholes on the
bike trail. The first of them is in the danger of admitting
to anyone that I took seriously Carter's call for getting
out of our cars. We have developed such a harsh funda
mentalism in our distrust of the government that even a
President's mild plea for personal involvement in volunt
ary conservation is greeted with jeers or snickers.
Let him first give up his limousine, we think, then well
leave our cars home and car pool, bike or take the bus to
work. And what about those secret gas pumps beneath the
Capitol for Tip O'Neill and the big shots in Congress?
Why no gas for them? Why should we do anything when
the government won't level with us about what is surely a
hoked-up fuel shortage?
The questions aren't asked in hope of securing answers.
They are blankets meant to provide covers for the -cynic,
the person for whom the sharpest pain is to be duped.
Amid America's immense wealth and power, the fear of
being snookered - whether by Big Oil or Big Brother - is
the new and uneasy sensation. Barnum said there is a
sucker born every minute, to which we fretfully add, yes,
and another one to fleece him.
TO GET OUT of cars for 15 miles a week would be
accepting the humiliation that some anonymous fleecer
has gotten the best of us. Worse, it would be an admission
that you aren't important. When J. William Middendorf, a
former secretary of the Navy, installed a 4,000-gallon gas
tank in his front yard in McLean, Va., he explained that
he was no commoner: "I find myself in a situation where
I have to get places. I'm in constant demand from a
business, social and political point of View.' With his
home tank filled, Mr. Constant Demand has seven year's
worth of gas to make his high-blown rounds.
Should I see Middendorf along the avenues of Washing
ton - him guzzling gas and me guzzling fumes- 111 likely
feel more like a chump than a patriot. There goes a real
American, I will think. No one is suckering him.
If it is bad form to do what the President asks, it is
worse to admit that you are willing to make a sacrifice for
the common good of the country. I have picked up beer
cans in the park, but only after looking around to be
certain that no one would see me. People might view me
as lowly. Trash men are paid to clear away, the litter.
IN THE PRODUCE section of the supermarket, I once
stooped over to gather up some apples that had fallen to
the floor. A fellow shopper berated me. ''Don't do that,"
she said. "Now I can't tell which are the bruised apples."
I've been waiting for another tall from the President
that asks citizens to sacrifice for die common good. Some
stirring speeches wouldn't be so bad. But he appears to
have dropped the idea, as though he himself has a tin ear
for any bugle call to patriotism.
Meanwhile, I've noticed traffic is back to its old
heaviness. Fewer patriots are on the bike lanes. But the
ones who are can still pump with purpose.
(c) 1979, Tht Washington Post Company
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ing materiaKor publication. .
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number. ' " ,
Mail or deliver letters and guest opinions to the
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Lincoln, Neb. 68588.
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