Monday, March 17, 1986
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
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tcuuona
Vicki Ruhga, Editor, 4721766
Thorn Gabrukiewicz, Managing Editor
Ad Hudlcr, Editorial Page Editor
James Rogers, Editorial Associate
Chris Welsch, Copy Desk Chief
Nebra&an
Univtrsity of NebfiK-Lincoln
ITUURJSME 1MELDA
MlUiNGS THEY'RE
5MN3 TOJTH0W WE
GOT OUR MONEY
TeafsEieir tests
Evaluation ensures quality
ome teachers in Texas are
sitting scared this week.
About 200,000 of the
state's teachers and principals
took tests to determine whether
they know enough to keep their
jobs. About 5 percent are expect
ed to fail the test.
Unfortunately, that 5 percent
probably can be matched in every
state. There's too many teachers
who could be replaced by some
one better. Everyone remembers
those bad junior high or high
school teachers who never
changed their tedious lesson
plans, who never bothered to
spend the extra time in their
offices after school to answer
questions.
The Texas test, it first seemed,
would be the start of a movement
to weed out some of the sour
apples.
Not so.
The Sunday New York Times
had an article, that included
some questions patterned after
the Texas test. The questions
were ludicrous, easy enough for a
14-or 15-year-old to answer.
An example: Where could an
educator find the page on which
the foreword in a book begins.
The choices for answers included
the table of contents, library
card catalog, a bibliography or
an encyclopedia.
The Texas exam, it seems,
doesn't pass the test itself. But
it's more than Nebraska has
done.
Monies!! coach?
Iba not best coaching example
The search officially has
begun for a new basketball
coach, but some people
question the coaching qualities
UNL officials are looking for.
NU Athletic Director Bob Dev
aney was quoted in Saturday's,
Lincoln Journal as saying, "We
want to get a coach who's as
honest as Moe (Iba)."
Apparently Devaney is looking
for a coach honest enough to
conduct illegal practices, then
deny it.
No, Iba never was discovered
offering money to players or re
cruiting illegally, but his slate
was far from clean:
O Oct. 8: "I just walked in,
stayed there for a few minutes
and (then) ran them. When they
play their games and things, I'm
not supposed to be there."
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials represent
official policy of the spring 1986
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the
Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its
members are Vicki Ruhga, editor;
Ad Hudler, editorial page editor;
Thorn Gabrukiewicz, managing edi
tor; James Rogers, editorial asso
ciate and Chris Welsch, copy desk
chief.
Teaching students at UNL have
to take a basic skills test when
they begin their education and
another when they graduate.
Out in the field, teachers must
get extra college credit hours
about every three to five years.
But that isn't enough.
Nebraska should take what
Texas has done, build on it and
set up a teacher-screening test
that's effective. Besides check
ing teacher's knowledge of writ
ing, reading comprehension and
math, the test also should include
problems directly related to their
particular field. History teachers
should be tested not only on his
tory itself, but also on new re
search and findings about their
particular fields of interest.
Society and educational theories
change. So should teachers.
To complement the test, stu
dents also should have input. A
student's knowledge of a partic
ular subject is a fairly accurate
mirror of the teacher's ability to
motivate students into learning
the subject.
Students base their attitudes
about school and learning in
their early years. It's important
that we have good, competent
teachers to make students want
to learn.
True, other professionals don't
have to take periodical tests. But
then again, other professionals
don't have as large a stake in
building people's attitudes and
stereotypes.
Iba (Daily Nebraskan)
O Oct. 9: "Everything we're
doing is strictly legal in our
minds we feel that we have not
done anything wrong."
Iba (Associated Press)
Oct. 10: "I just have no
comment or reaction to that
(reports of the illegal practice)."
Iba (Lincoln Star)
O Oct. 18: "I made a mistake.
It was poor judgment on my part.
I apologize to the University of
Nebraska community and to our
supporters, and now I hope we
can put this behind us and all
get together in support of our
basketbll team this year."
Iba (UNL press release)
One wonders what Devaney's
definition of honesty is.
NU fans deserve a coach who
sets a good example for players,
on and off the court.
The Daily Nebraskan's publish
ers are the regents, who established
the UNL Publications Board to super
vise the daily production of the
paper.
According to policy set by the
regents, responsibility for the edi
torial content of the newspaper lies
solely in the hands of its student
editors.
V
6WEMIWCK
MY WALLtlJ
The blame, and
Newsweek reports an unprece
dented boom in cocaine abuse,
among teen-agers; Bill Moyers
broadcasts the disintegration of the
black family; and columnists every
where are alarmed about children hav
ing children.
A breakdown in society. The disinte
gration of values may not have the tang
ible, empirical impact of a Great De
pression, but the effects may be all the
more damaging for their subtlety.
America's crisis in values runs through
the nation like a giant fault line. We
knt)w it's there, but we don't know
whether it will continue to slowly grow
or one day explode.
Conservatives blithely claim liberal
ist reforms and the carefree mores of
the '60s are coming home to roost. It's a
big, ugly bird, but liberals alone did not
hatch it.
I don't underestimate the importance
and danger of America's value crisis,
but there is also great danger in over
simplifying the problem by explaining
it away as a backlash to the activism
and leniency of the '60s.
Undoubtedly, the "sexual revolution"
contributed to today's crisis of child
ren having children. It's also true that
welfare programs may have made some
of its recipients too dependent. And
our drug crisis is in part a result of the
psychedelic era.
1969, however, is 17 years gone. It is
1986. Republicans control a majority of
the Senate, and President Reagan has
been in office for six years. Across the
country, conservatism has grown, and
America's raiue cnsis
When the U.S. stopped sending aid,
Mrs. Marcos sent the 'salesman' home
Biff! Listen, Biff. You're my son and
I know what you think of me. I
know I'm a washed-up salesman,
going off in the world on a smile and a
shoe shine, polishing the apples of cus
tomers, groveling for sales and alas
and alack getting none. But once, Biff,
once I was a terrific success. Yesiree,
Biff. I sold shoes to Imelda Marcos.
Oh, boy, those were the days. The
Philippines were my territory. Hot.
Muggy. Those fans turning slowly over
head. Everyone smoking Camels. All
the women wearing slit skirts. I was
alone, afraid and not doing particularly
well, but I thought, what the hell, I'll
try the palace. I asked for Imelda Mar
cos. What are you selling? she asked.
Shoes, I said. She said she'd take 400.
Biff! Biff! I couldn't believe my ears. I
whipped out the old order book, made
sure I had my carbons in the right
place, took out the old pencil, wetted
the end of it and wrote it all up.
Yesiree 400 pairs of number 72 black
pumps, size 6 12. Would the lady like
anything else? Yes, she said. She order
c?w& miasma
responsibility,
the values crisis has not gone away. To
the contrary, it has gotten worse.
The crisis pervades every class, but
the heart of the problem is among the
poor, a steadily growing sector of Amer
ica A sector conservatives often choose
to ignore.
Therein lies the greatest danger in
the values crisis: ignoring it or trying to
hide from it. Taking the poor off welfare
will not get them into jobs, or tape
families back together, or keep kids
from having sex. It will make the prob
lem worse.
Chris
Welsch
Many conservatives suggest a return
to the ethics of the '50s. President Rea
gan certainly believes that although
Americans seem a little troubled, under
neath we're all like Ward and June
Cleaver. Conservatives forget that the
activism of the '60s was a backlash to
an ignorant, ethnocentric, Beaver Cleaver
dreamland a reaction to Commie
bashing, to segregation, to senseless
war. The liberal movement brought
civil rights laws, the end of the Vietnam
war and a new social conscience.
If middle-class America chooses a
return to those "ethical" days of 1956,
it will be turning its back on a crisis
that won't go away. Crawling into con
servative shells and pretending this is
ed 400 insoles, 400 shoe trees, 400 little
plastic bags for the shoes and $813 in
Dr. Scholl's footpowder, which was
another of my lines.
Xj Richard
Lohen
I could hardly write fast enough. My
hand was shaking. I flipped the order
pages on my book, smearing carbon on
my fingers and later on my face. Imelda
just smiled at me. I tried to calculate
the commission. Oh, the days we could
spend together at Ebbets Field, Biff. I
would take you and your brother, Happy,
and your mother out of that house near
the El where Arthur Miller had put us. I
was going to buy a condominium with a
fancy British name the Buckingham or
something. Imagine me, Willie Loman,
in a condominium!
I could not believe my good luck. Of
course,' I told nobody about Mrs. Mar-
VMYS)0ULD!?OU
NEVER WE PC
HAHKBUHB)
BACK ID HIM!
must be shared
a white, Christian nation with two cars
in every garage and a chicken in the
boiler won't change things.
Americans badly need something to
believe in. And they badly need help.
Neither Reagan's call to arms, nor a
mass return to the ethics of the '50s
will fulfill those needs. .
We are beyond the point where we
can go back. The nation has to face its
ills and go forward with social compas
sion and restraint.
The time for blame is passed. Blame
must be shared, for just as surely as
liberalism contributed to our ethics
crisis, conservatism has ruled over its
alarming growth.
As a society, we must rebuild our
values. We've got to get our kids off
drugs, out of each others' pants and
back in the home. But it's going to take
action and reform.
The way will not be easy. In our
pluralistic society, pat religious or pol
itical answers are out of the question.
And we must be willing to pay
with our money and our time. Govern
ment can give the poor jobs; it can
provide drug and sex counseling, but
America must be willing to pay. If we
listen to conservatives, we will spum
the opportunity for social reform for
more personal wealth and a bigger war
machine.
Unfortunately for all of us, the threat
from within is growing faster than the
threat from without.
Welsch is a UNL senior English and
journalism major and a Daily Nebraskan
copy desk chief.
cos and the way she was spending
money. When a Philippine's aid bill
came up before Congress, I just looked
the other way. I was not alone, of
course. Real-estate agents all over the
world knew. The fanciest jewelers
called on the Marcos family. Mstislav
Rostropovich played his little cello for
them.
Biff, you remember that toast Vice
President George Bush made to Ferdi
nand Marcos? I was in the palace at the
time. I used to stay in the salesmen's
quarters. All of us were there. Gus from
Cartier's, Phil for Tiffany's, Ernie from
Rolls Royce, Jay from Gucci, Sal from
Kron chocolates and Irv from Sotheby
Park Bernet. Most of the time we used
to play poker, but that night we went to
see Bush. What atoast! That stuff about
admiring Ferdinand's democratic ways.
I thought Ernie would die laughing.
Only Jay didn't laugh. Those creeps
from Gucci. No sense of humor. He kept
saying it was a disgrace.
See COHEN on 5
