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Daily Nebraska n
Monday, February 14, 1933
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!
American students may be behind their Japanese
counterparts in some ways, but we may not be as badly
off as in oilier respects. Granted, the United States is
lagging behind Japan in its technological pace. But as
students, we should be thankful that our government
provides a chance for nearly all willing and able students
to attend high school and college.
In Japan, students are under a great deal more pres
sure if they aspire to attend a public university. An As
sociated Press article said 4 million people make a pil
grimage to the Dazaifu Tenman-gu Shrine near Fukuo
ka for "divine guidance" between January and March.
This is the period before "exam hell," when those who
hope to be accepted to high schools, colleges and uni
versities take extensive standardized tests.
The Japanese shrine, dedicated to a ninth-century
scholar, attracts people from as far as Tokyo, more than
500 miles away. Its worshippers buy amulets, good luck
charms and wooden prayer plaques in the hope that it
will give them the extra help they need.
Japanese students must take both a two-day unified
test and a test given by each individual school before
being accepted by a top public university. Unlike those in
the United States, the public universities in Japan are
far more prestigious than the private. Graduates can count
on good jobs if they study at one of the 127 public uni
versities. These universities only have room for a fourth of
the 350.000 applicants this year. Of these applicants,
100,000 were retaking the exams.
It's facts like these that should make us feel fortu
nate. The government sets minimum entrance require
ments for its colleges and universities, but generally every
one is granted admission.
Taking an SAT or ACT exam is a far cry from Japan's
high-pressured tests. Few people here are denied the
chance to attend college, even though they might not be
accepted at their first choice school. And no one in the
United States is denied the chance of a high school edu
cation. VS. citizens often take these opportunities for
granted, but the system is one we should take pride in
and continue to support and develop.
While Japan should be praised for maintaining such a
lugh degree of technological excellence , we should also
consider that its educational system provides for only a
minority of eager students. Seventy-five percent of those
in universities are forced to attend private institutions
which are more costly and of lower quality.
It appears that our country is a step ahead of Japan
in its educational equity, and with our government's
commitment to advancing the sciences, we should con
tinue to be even more successful and competitive in all
disciplines.
Letters
""IP A
ISRAELI cKtiurr
Humor a mater of individual taste
This is in response to the letter written by Carl Sjulin
(Daily Nebraskan. Feb. 9). Obviously you read Bill Allen's
column (Daily Nebraskan, Feb. 7). Carl; if you dislike it
so. simply stop. There. Wasn't that easy?
Seriously, the viewpoint expressed in Mr. Sjulin's letter
is quite common and disturbing at UNL. I will agree that
many Daily Nebraskan columnists tend to espouse liberal
views. This is neither good nor bad, it simply is. I feel that
the Daily Nebraskan does a reasonable job of balancing its
selection of syndicated columnists, however, and the most
obvious reason for a dearth of student conservatives is
that no qualified students who fit this mold have applied.
Whether or not Allen or any of the other humorists is
funnv is a matter of individual taste. However, it should
be noted that nobody is funny all of the time or tc all
readers. Furthermore, if any subject that anyone takes
seriously was "protected" from satire, there would be no
humor at all!
Finally, it is distressing to realize that (evidently) stu
dents at UNL wish to isolate themselves from any
opinions which differ from their own. I came to college to
learn and to grow; these goals are impossible to attain
without exposure to new and different people and views.
Even if you don't agree with someone, it is good to listen
to him - nothing is accomplished by hiding behind labels
such as "crazed radicals" or "liht years to die left of
liberal."
Kelly Downing
senior, mechanized agriculture, soil science
SmiTOgafte motlhemg ejipamdlDSTig by ft daongeirowis
Admittedly, the economy is in bad shape, but some
how I never expected to see a new breed of entrepreneurs
arrive on the scene hanging out shingles that offer
"Wombs for Rent."
Remember when the real estate moguls of the 1970s
dealt in houses? It appears that their 1980s counterparts
are dealing with uteri. While they aren't doing a land-
c i
Ellen
Goodman
office business quite yet, surrogate motherhood is an ex
panding market.
At the moment the star of the surrogates is Judy Stiver
of Lansing, Mich., who was set up by a lawyer in her own
cottage industry. According to Judy's testimony, surrog
ate motherhood, pregnancy and delivery were a little bit
like taking in a boarder. She was promised 510,000 to give
womb and board to a fetus for nine months and then
deliver the baby to its reputed biological father, Alex
ander Malahoff of Queens, N.Y.
When asked why she decided to take this moonlighting
job, Judy explained that she and her husband wanted
some money to take a vacation and maybe fix up the
house a bit . . . that sort of thing.
But that was just the beginning, or the conception, of
this tale. The baby was born last month with micro
cephaly, a head smaller than normal, which usually means
he will be retarded. Suddenly, this most wanted child was
a pariah. Baby Doe was put in a foster home. The Stivers
claimed he wasn't theirs. Malahoff claimed he wasn't his.
Pretty soon there were blood tests and law suits all
around and a climactic scene on a Phil Donahue Show
that looked like a parody of a Phil Donahue Show. Live
and in color from Chicago - Whose baby is Baby Doe?
Will the real father stand up please? - we learned the re
sults of the blood test. Hang onto your seats: Malahoff
was not the father, Judy's husband Ray Stiver was.
By any standards, this was a thriller with more identity
crises than H.M.S. Pinafore. The fate of the baby was re
solved right there on camera as the Stivers promised to
bring him up just as if he were one of their own. So much
for their vacation.
I don't know a soul who can't sympathize with the
feelings and desires of an infertile couple. Over the past
several years we have grown used to reading about
dramatic help for couples. By now artificial insemination
seems routine and in vitro fertilizations have been eased
off the front page. We applaud their births as happy end
ings. We have Been, I think, numbed into regarding mother-hood-for-hire
as just another option. There are now at
least eight and perhaps as many as 20 surrogate parenting
services in the country. Anywhere from 40 to 100 child
ren have been born by surrogate mothers paid between
$5,000 and $15,000 in states where payment is legal. At
least one entrepreneur aims to become "the Coca-Cola 0
of the surrogate-parenting industry."
The tale out of Michigan was a jarring reminder that
surrogate mothering is something qualitatively different,
with hazards that we are just beginning to imagine.
Continued on Page 5
9
9 n n
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i snocce
Are happiness or wisdom, truth or
beauty to be found in a dull blue suit? For
John T. Molloy, author of "Dress for Suc
cess," this question just doesn't apply.
"Blue, gray and dull are the people who
run America," he told a large crowd last
Eric
Peterson
week at a speech sponsored by the College
of Business Administration's B-Week.
"If you don't listen to me, you've had
it," he said. What was more interesting in
the press clippings about his speech was the
pushiness, the tone of a hectoring Babbitt.
He not only defends the wearing of pin
stripe prison uniforms, but preaches it as a
moral duty. And many of the crowd who
listened to him drank in his evangelism of
insolence, and laughed at his jokes at the
poor.
Molloy labels himself as a researcher -with
the implication that he doesn't make
the rules, but only writes them down. It's
just the way the business world is. "You al
ways want to stay upper middle class. . .If
you don't look like a winner, you'll prob
ably never be one." Clothes, he said, have
"a socio-economic value that attaches to a
person," and anyone who ignores them is
like a sheep ready for slaughter.
If you wear a striped shirt with a
patterned tie, Molloy said, "people will
walk on you."
Actually, the timid ones, the sheep, are
those who will only venture to buy a light
colored suit after two full years in a firm,
as Molloy recommends.
What is surprising in all this is the grim
seriousness of it all, the kind of insistent,
protective gesture with which those who
dress for success will tug at their tweed
coat. According to Molloy's research, eight
out of 10 men hate wearing what they
wear; "they do it because they have to "
For Molloy's readers, clothes aren't
something you want to find comfortable
or beautiful, or perhaps something you
want to say about yourself individually -they
are something to keep the job inter
viewer from crossing your name off the
list.
Loud plaids label you as an unemployed
plumber, string ties as a cowboy, and bow
ties as one of those egghead professors of
whom Joe McCarthy had such distrust.
There are no unemployed plumbers or
cowboys or professors in Molloy's world;
his is the world of the stab-in-the-back and
late hours at the office, hidden alcoholism
and heart attacks at 45. David Bowie sings
about it in a song called "Fashion" -
It's big and it's bland
Full of tension and fear. . .
Fashion - turn to the left
Fashion - turn to the right
We are the goon squad
And we 're coming to town
Beep beep beep beep
In all fairness to Molloy, clothes can
make a difference. When Bella Abzug got
tired of being mistaken for a secretary at
lawyers' conventions, she started wearing
those big, wonderful floppy hats.
