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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 11, 1996)
Mark ALBRACHT It’s time to seal the coffin on 1996 With the number of days left in 1996 now countable on one’s fingers and toes, it is time for me to do what many a columnist does this time of year, and that is to recount the past 365 days in a single-minded and pointed way so as to make the majority of the population think I’ve been living in somebody else’s 1996. As lam not Shirley MacLaine, reliving the past is a somewhat daunting task. It’s difficult to discern one mundane Monday from another. Entire weeks of this past year are completely muddled together. And I’ve never been able to discover what makes April different from May of any year, let alone this one. So I’ve decided to pick the top 10 events of 1996 and here they are: 10. Scandal. This year saw many a scandal pinned to the clothes line of media consumption. All articles hung out to dry bore the skid marks of smeared names and reputations — Whitewater continued, the FBI witch-hunted an innocent Atlanta security guard during the Olympics. But no scandal was as wrought with laughs and personal satisfaction as the one that faced Kathy Lee Gifford after the exposure of her child powered sweat shops. I had always suspected a dark side to this termi nally chipper woman and, at last, it’s been found. That early spring morning will forever shine as a bright spot in morning show history. There’s never been a more glorious sight at 7 a.m. than the one of a bag eyed and bed-headed Gifford demeaning herself on the TV sets of a million households nationwide. God bless America. 9. Pestilence. Britain was gripped in the terror of mad cow disease — which afflicted, of all things, cows, and made them, of all dispositions, mad, which is British for insane. This global headline-getter was of particular significance to UNL as the marching band was in Great Britain at the time of the outbreak. The peculiar disorder may have been the cause of a castrato-ish effect on tuba player Ryan Olsen who, afterward, sounded like a French horn, and the flute section, which subsequently carried the pitch of dog whistles. It was nice to see them weather the threat of bovine lunacy and return to normal, proving once again that our university has the most indestructible band in the universe. Kudos. 8. Obituaries. 1996 saw the passage of some very popular human mainstay^ George Bums died at age 100. By now it is likely that he has experienced the ultimate in perfor mance reviews — that coming from God on Bums’ portrayal of the omniscient, omnipotent being’s wacky adventures with the likes of John Denver and other goofy casting choices. No doubt God liked what he saw as two of the “Oh God” movies brought good box office returns. Spiro Agnew also died, which I wasn’t aware of until after I started writing this column. Frankly, I’m appalled by the general indifference toward his passing. He was a fine, upstanding American, a terrific bicyclist, a competent Scrabble piayer, ana ... wen nevermina. Timothy Leary dropped hitriast terrestrial acid this past year. He was a pioneer in life and in death. Although his cyberspace suicide and his final wish to have his head cryogenicly frozen never came about, he will receive his last rites in a very spectacular way. His ashes will be launched into space where they will eventually drift back toward Earth and bum up in the atmosphere. That’ll be one hell of a turn-on, tune in, drop-out trip, man. 7. Legalized ganja. 1996 proved the existence of true irony — wonderful, full-fledged irony apart from the kind that is rain on a wedding day. In the same year that Timothy Leary kicked the bucket, marijuana was legalized in two states. Or maybe this isn’t irony and is, in fact, proof of an afterlife, celestial schmoozing and consequent divine intervention. You never know. Since pot has only been legalized for medical uses, here are my only predictions for the new year: Trend setting California will start the first ever hypochondriac-related fad. THC levels in the smog will send Nabisco and Old Home stocks flying past Berkshire Hathaway as 35 million people are consumed by the munchies. And you’ll see more MDs sporting dreadlocks than ever before. 6. The Sex Pistols reunited for a world tour. I haven’t stopped giggling since. 5. KISS wore the makeup again. They played Omaha twice. I didn’f go. Damn it. 4. Montana recluse, Harvard grad and former Stanford professor Ted Kaczynski was captured and accused of being the Unabomber. But I don’t mink ne am it. l tnink it was Ace Freely from KISS and now that he has found his scapegoat, he can return to his normal life as a glam rock guitar god. So far, I’m pretty alone in this theory. 3. Disasters. ValuJet and TWA 800 water landings; fender-benders don’t kill people, airbags kill people; both presidential party conventions; the Macarena. The list goes far too harrowingly long. 2. It appears that I have run out of space for my top 10 events of 1996, so number 2 will have to suffice as the top event of the past 365 days. Here it is, the number one occurrence of this year is my discovery that there exists in this world masturbating iguanas. Sure, it’s nothing landmark like the discovery of Martian fossils or the first re-election of a Demo cratic president since the Pleistocene, but when I read in the December issue of Discover Magazine about these wee lizards spanking them selves, I said to myself, that’s the kind of information that’ll give me an edge in life. I’m glad to go into 1997 this much smarter. Let me retract that last event as the number one event of 1996 and instead declare Dec. 31 as the best day of the year — the day when ’96 gets 86ed and we can get to 1997, the year of the theatrical re-release of the “Star Wars” trilogy. That, my friends, is reason enough to already include ’97 in the annals of the greatest years of all time. So let’s all pucker up and kiss 1996’s sweet ass goodbye. Albracht is a junior philosophy major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist. Jessica KENNEDY It’s your education — fight for it Lecture classes are dangerous to your well-being. They could leave you helpless. Let me show you why: First, isn’t it a great feeling when you’ve worked really hard to accomplish something? You develop a feeling of responsibility, have pride in your accomplishment and rarely forget what you went through to get there. If you make a half-ass attempt at working your way through a project, there’s little connection between it and you. In essence, you “write-it oflf.” As a result, how many times have you said, “I don’t remember anything from that class”? Sure, that’s usually your own fault, but not always. Secondly, why are there those few classes in which you really invest yourself? The few lessons you will take to your grave? What makes them different? The difference is either that the subject matter of those classes interests you, or the professors pull you in. You are challenged and made to think. During my tenure as a profes sional student, I’ve discovered that I learn and remember the most from classes that foster discussions, challenge my preconceptions and push me harder than any others. Third, I’ll wager that the classes you blow off are lecture classes— full of busy work. Or they are run by professors who seem perpetually disinterested in being there. . * - > '• • . - U Our time is too valuable, our money too scarce and our freedom too precious to not demand a responsible and responsive education from our educators ” Classes that promote self discovery, encourage exploration and make you learn from others are the ultimate modes of learning. Unfortunately, most educators practice a method called the banking theory. In general terms, this theory describes die classroom situation in which students passively receive the information the professor has determined as important for their “education,” i.e. lecture classes. So here’s why lecture classes can kill you. Educational psychologist Paulo. Freire describes the banking theory as a control method. Those with the power control the knowledge. They (teachers, administrators, govern ment) ultimately control what we learn and think. Check this out: “In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gill bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing... by considering their [students] ignorance absolute, he [teacher] justifies his own existence.” What does this mean to you and me? It means the majority of our classes create an environment in which the students’ only value is as a justification for the professor’s job. _ V Education js also a method of control, of socialization. It tells students what they should know, how they should use that information and how they should act. That’s a lot of power. I don’t believe there’s a great government plan to lull the people into complacency while it has its way with us, but you’ve been in those classes where the prof cares more about research than the students. These are the busy-work classes, the sleep-through-it-if-you-go, the “don’t get so-and-so” classes. Or the classes where you’re told “that’s just the way it is” or “you have to learn this.” It’s time for some change. Our time is too valuable, our money too scarce and our freedom too precious to not demand a responsible and responsive education from our educators. In Freire’s plan, education would consist solely of absolute self discovery and self-motivation; teaching positions would be arbitrary. I wouldn’t go that far. There is no need to call for a complete oblitera tion of the educational system as we know it. But I do believe that certain elements of “lecture” classes are needed in the classroom—just not at the level that exists now. The memorization and regurgita tion aspects of the university must Jt)e eliminated. This is the responsibility of professors. They ought to strive to create interactive and challenging environments. They must provide us with the tools and access to the resources that can help us discover the information and knowledge we are looking for. They should let us discuss topics so that we might challenge one another’s beliefs and ideas. They need to let us grow. Students are not without responsi bility either. If professors and lecturers won’t change, force them to. Ask questions, promote discus sions, talk to the people around you. Your disinterest or apathy could cost you. Freire writes, “The more com pletely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.” A university education is theoreti cally designed to eliminate such passive reception of information and truth. Yet semester after semester < finds us in the same place—the powerful telling the powerless what they should know. . Lecture classes create an unques tioning “yes” citizenry. To borrow a cliche: Question > «, authority. It can’t hurt you, but it most certainly can help you. Kennedy is a senior advertising t and broadcasting major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
