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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 12, 1995)
Opinion Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jeff Zeleny..Editor, 472-1766 Jeff Robb.Managing Editor Matt Woody.Opinion Page Editor DeDra Janssen.Associate News Editor Rainbow Rowell.Arts & Entertainment Editor James Mehsling."i..Cartoonist Chris Hain..Senior Reporter Time to test Home schooling needs progress check Almost 4,000 schoolchildren in Nebraska are missing out on something every day. The kids can’t be in the safety patrol. They can’t be line leaders. And they can’t be in school plays. As the kids grow older, they can’t easily be taught specializations in art or music. They can’t learn to interact with their diverse classmates. And they can’t go to the prom. And the saddest circum stance behind most of the 4,000 home-schooled children in the state is they have no choice. Home schooling has be come a buzz word in Nebraska and across the country. As parents be come increasingly frustrated with the quality of education in the pub lic school system, they begin to take matters into their own hands. The problem is some of these hands aren’t qualified. When Nebraska home schooling was legalized in 1984, few regulations accompanied the BretGottschall/DN law. The Daily Nebraskan believes that students now are suffering from this ruling. Certainly students can — and some probably do — receive a quality education at the hand of the ir mother or father. But the problem lies in irresponsibility of the state. There is little or no regulation required of home schools. Students aren’t required to be given regular tests on their proficiency—or lack thereof. A law is needed to monitor home-schooled student progress in Nebraska. Since there isn’t one on the books, it is difficult to measure the success of home-schooled students. As it now stands, it is far too easy for a parent to pull a child out of school and then not take their education seriously. It would not be offensive to parents to make their students pass achievement tests. In fact, such tests would help parents set and work toward realistic goals. Nebraska should follow Iowa’s example. Since 1991, home schoolers in the Hawkeye state have been required to take an annual test. If the students score well enough, they can continue theirschooling at home. Parents who choose to school their kids in any state should realize that it is a massive commitment. Children need structure and guidance. At the same time, parents need a break. Jumping on the home schooling bandwagon can be disastrous for parents who don’t realize what they are taking on, and for their children who have no choice in what they are getting. Most parents who home school are Christian, and do so for religious reasons. They view public schools as dangerous, corrupt places. But Christianity shouldn’t mean isolation. After all, aparent who can teach values and the difference between right and wrong, can not necessarily teach calculus. Editorial policy Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Spring 1995. Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editori als do not necessarily reflect the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Board of Regents. Editorial columns represent the opin ion ofthe author. The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan. They establish the UNL Publications Board to su pervise the daily production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the edito rial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students. Letter policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Letters will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity, originality, timeliness andspace available. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all mate rial submitted. Readers also are welcome to submit material as guest opinions. The editor decides whether material should run as a guest opinion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be re turned. Anonymous submissions will not be pub lished. Letters should included the author’s name, year in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St, Lincoln, Nth. 68388-0448. NEW GOCfc„W 'dte c You've Bern HftHftlORfc. MKT Wffyfiom TO yjw ON SOCIAL stilus. mOMZNTS FOR HOMF SVtmiNCr J Nebraskan readers say: Send your brief letters to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb. 68588. Or fax to: (402) 472-1761. Letters must be signed and include a phone number for yerification«ij ii&ow Slanted news Why slander the homeless? “Disturbances by vagrants up in union” (April 11) is an interesting slant on the news. How did the Daily Nebraskan recently miss a great headline, “Theft by administrator’s children up in union”? If a person would look at dollar values, administrators’ children as a group are ahead of vagrants in union crime this school year. “Disturbances by vagrants up” implies a constant disturbance level exists, and vagrants are to blame. “Vagrant” is an ill-defined term. Would the Daily Nebraskan be so quick to associate other groups with such bad activities? Blacks? No. Gays? No. Skinheads? Yes. Republicans? Yes. Christians? No. If a homeless, black, gay person committed a crime, which category of crime — vagrant, black or gay — would be up? Mark McGoveran sophomore engineering ASUN fools’ On Wednesday, March 29, a friend and I decided to go to one of the classiest bars in Lincoln, Barrymore’s. This establishment’s relaxed and laid-back atmosphere gives me the chance to unwind after another long day. Such was not the case when the newly elected and outgoing ASUN members showed up. I have never seen that place the way it was that night. I was informed that the student government was having its celebration after being sworn in. And celebrating they were! The only waitress and bartender on duty were worked to the bone without being appropriately tipped for their services. The floor was covered with popcorn, spilled beer and whatever else (spit?). As for there being only 20 ASUN people BretGottschall/DN IN the bar, there were more like 20 people AT the bar and another 50 roaming around drunk and rowdy. It was not a pretty sight. I and the handful of people not with the ASUN “party,” felt as though we were given no respect for quietness and privacy by the ASUN people. My friend and I left soon after we came. I know many of the employees of Barrymore’s, and they are not the type of people who get upset very easily. I absolutely cannot blame them for being frustrated with this, as I surely was. This incident will not stop me from going to Barrymore’s but it will stop me from respecting the actions of many of the current and outgoing ASUN members who made fools of themselves. If their actions are any indica tion of how they are going to run the student government at the University of Nebraska, then I fear for the future. Matt Bornschlegl junior pre-physical therapy ‘Not a choice’ I would like to make two comments on recent material I have seen in the Daily Nebraskan, namely the Human Life Alliance supplement that was in the Daily Nebraskan on April 6. The supple ment had an interview with Carol Everett, who is an ex-abortion clinic manager. I found it interesting that she admitted that the abortion industry is “selling abortions to women at a time when they are most vulnerable to buy it. This is done at the crisis time in the woman’s life, when she is uncertain that she wants a child in her life.” Everett also commented that “... we didn’t do any real counseling. We answered the questions the woman asked and tried not to ‘rock the boat.’ We did not discuss alternatives to abortion unless the woman forced us to.” Many pro-abortion advocates will try to say that this is not true and that if it is, it has to be an isolated case. Well, the statistics say they are wrong. During last November’s election campaigns, the issue was brought up that the city of Lincoln was encouraging abortion by including Planned Parenthood on the city’s budget for “sex education.” The pro-abortion candidates stopped arguing the issue when the statistics were released that 98 percent of the women who went to Planned Parenthood for “counsel ing” ended up getting an abortion. This was more than part of the reason why Planned Parenthood is not on the budget any longer. Carol Everett’s comment and those campaign statistics convinced me that it is not a “choice,” but is just “bad business.” Roger Johansen junior pre-dentistry
