ZM/vNebraskan
Since 1901
Editor Sarah Baker
Opinion Page Editor Jake Giazeski
Managing Editor Bradley Davis
Get over it!
Grade scale's.effects on
Honors Program hardly sad
Honors students are used to getting lots of
breaks. A
That’s why some of them are smarting with
the news that with UNL’s adoption of a new
grading scale, they still have to maintain a 3.5
grade point average.
The new scale adds minus grades, which
means a 3.5 no longer is a B+, but is closer to
anA-.
Terrible, isn’t it, what honors students are
expected to achieve these days?
Certainly students in UNL’s Honors
Program sometimes must work harder in
classes specialized for them than regular stu
dents in regular classes.
But if this new scale forces honors students
to work a tad harder, what’s wrong with that?
The point of tinkering with the grading scale
was to make everyone work harder - even the
nonhonors students - to increase the value of
a University of Nebraska-Lincoln degree.
Without the change, UNL’s grades would
continue to suffer from inflation when com
pared with schools that had a plus and minus
grading system. (A B+ under UNL’s new sys
tem, which most schools use, corresponds to
a 3.33 grade point average as opposed to the
old 3.5.)
If honors requirements were loosened,
they, too would have suffered from the same
grade inflation the new scale was intended to
alleviate.
Besides, when honors students sign on the
honors application dotted line, they’ve
enrolled in a program that’s supposed to
expand their academic horizons- a program■
with high expectations.
And a program that has lots of perks - free
books that students, can sell back and pocket
the profits, special residence halls, special
computer labs and special, small classes.
If these requirements scare some prospec
tive honors students away, then so be it - per
haps they weren’t cut out for the program any
way.
For if this program is truly to be comprised
of UNL's “best and brightest,” then standards
certainly shouldn’t be loosened for its mem
bers.
Some professors and honors students have
questioned the fairness of keeping the GPA
requirement for the program at 3.5, even in
the light of the grade-scale change.
At least some discussions should have took
place, they said, so all involved could come to
an amicable solution or compromise.
But those discussions certainly would have
been mere smoke screens for what was
inevitable anyway.
What would have been unfair is to force
this change upon normal students without
their consent - in fact, student government
voted against supporting the new scale - and
allowing honors students to meet with
administrators to discuss their qualms with
the plan before its implementation.
Tliough students, through the Association
of Students of the University of Nebraska,
were against the grading change, it's set to
become policy in Fall 2001.
With all the talk of increasing UNL’s aca
demic standing, this newspaper believes the
new grading scale is a needed change.
Honors students: It's time for you to get
with the program- or get out.
But whatever you do, please stop your
whining.
Sarah Baker, Jeff Bloom, Bradley Davis, Jake Glazeski,
Matthew Hansen, Samuel McKewon, Kimbedy Sweet
The Daly Nebraskan wale omse brief larisritofreetteor and guest cdtirwia. but does not guaran
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mm
Thanks for all the squirrels
Just wanted to write and say thanks to Mark
Baldridge for writing a cool editorial on Neal
Obermeyer.
I know a lot of people don’t appreciate Neal’s
humor, but I say those are the people who take
themselves too damn serious. Those of us who
know how to laugh at ourselves don’t mind Neal’s
humor at aU.
As a matter of fact, at one point, I considered
Obermeyer’s View to be the lone bright spot of the
Opinion page. He’s provided some much-needed
comic relief in the post-Munson years.
Thanks, Neal. If I ever see you in a bar, the first
round's on me.
JonHieb
senior
finance
Hardest job you'll ever love
This column is dedicat
ed to the kids of the
Science Focus Program at
the Lincoln Zoo.
Among other things,
these kids taught me that
"Atomic Dog," is not sung
by Bill Clinton’s brother.
They taught me that
regardless of the grade,
they will write whatever
Yasmin
McEwen
story they choose. They
taught me to laugh and that making fun of your
self is so important in life. They taught me what
it was to believe once again in learning.
Cheers to you, you deserve to rule die world.
Uh, some of you that is.
#♦*
I am a student teacher. There are a lot of us.
Today is our career day, and we’re all looking for
jobs. But teaching is more than the short catch
phrases you tell a principal.
There will come a time when you may ask
yourself, “Just what are we supposed to be grad
ing these kids on?”
How well they sit in their chairs and pay
attention? Whether they look up and make eye
contact when you are speaking? C6mments to
be circled in No. 2 pencil on bubble sheets,
“Student pays attention in class?"
Here’s a question for you: What if they don’t
pay attention?
What about the guy who keeps his head
down over his paper, shielding it as you walk
over to his desk during a free-write? You wonder
what it is he is so focused on and you lean down
and look through his barricaded fortress con
sisting of bent arm, shoulders hunched over the
paper.
To your horror you see that he is drawing cir
cles - in black ink! And you ask him if he is OK
and he looks up with sunny smile and says, “I’m
fine.”
Dazed and confused you walk away, think
ing: Could there be some kind of hidden mean
ing hiding in the abyss of those black ink circles?
Slacker. Unmotivated. Learning disabled. All
laKols that may float in tha air
Fight those labels.
Later that evening you settle down to grade
your students’ futuristic stories. Stories you
assigned. Stories that had to be 6-8 pages long.
But you didn’t realize that - and for you, “that"
means reading, commenting on and grading at
least 200 pages, not including those who went
over me limit.
There are five of those.
So as you are fighting sleep, your eyes fall
upon an exciting story that jolts your senses to
the present. Suddenly, you are hanging on the
ledge of a tall skyscraper, suddenly you are
falling through the air and then you are saved by
a futuristic car that flies through the atmos
phere at hazardous speeds. Then you are riding
shotgun to one of the most exciting stories
you've read all year.
There are fiill-bodied characters, the dia
logue is engaging, sentence structure is
advanced and without grammatical error, and
Yes! Thank you God, there is a solid plot line.
Your pen is going crazy with markups, you
can’t get enough. You turn to the title page and
uncover the name as you circle your grade of C+,
which is really an A, and stands for Creative
Genius Plus so much more. This story belongs to
... black ink circle boy.
There may also come a day, a breaking-point
day, when you will lose it in front of your kids.
You may decide that the day is warm enough to
embark upon a journey. A silent observation
nature walk around the school yard. The sun is
shining, the snow is melting. Get the picture?
Of course this may be a day when three of
your 10th grade golden-hallowed girls are
i
deciding to rebel against any and all authority.
This may be a day when they decide they do not
want to take a silent walk, they want to shuffle
their feet and giggle loudly the entire time.
You will yell: “This is a silent walk, you MUST
be quiet’”
More shuffling, more giggling. Your limits are
being tested, but you don't know that; the only
thing you know is that these lads are disobeying
you. Someone decides to throw a snowball. You
catch it mid-air with your hiss, “This is not jun
ior high, you people are being immature and I
am sick of it!” Everyone stops, turns and stares
at you.
You are now the wicked witch.
The snowball loses its momentum, misses its
target and falls noiselessly to the ground.
Someone in a faint voice says, “But I thought
this was supposed to be a silent walk.”
Now that you have ruined the walk, your kids
decide to behave. You will go home to weep in
private tears of student-teacher frustration. And
on Monday, you will apologize. You will forgive.
You will be forgiven.
You witness challenges to your personal
code of ethics. You may not agree with the par
ents, the administration or other teachers. But
you will do the only thing a student teacher can
do.
You suck it up.
Last Friday, my kids didn’t feel like working
very hard. In fact, they didn’t feel like working at
all. This was the last day of our poetry unit. They
had been patient. They had listened to Sylvia
Plath and then courageously turned to me and
said, “Why is she so mad at her father?”
I, in sincere and newfound agreement had
concurred, “She truly does seem to be inordi
nately upset with her father.” Then together as a
class, we decided that there was truly something
wrong with Ms. Plath.
We had survived complex waves of Robinson
Jeffers, and made our way through badly trans
lated Spanish poems. Finally, we had returned
hungrily to the safe, the dependable, Robert
Frost. We had survived “The Poetry Unit.”
So, with an hour left in class, I turned them
1noe<>. an hnur’c wnrth of frpp wnrlr tim*»• *Vn»i
can read, you can write, just do something.”
Some began reading nonstop amid the
noise. Some moved to the computers. There was
some confusion over who wanted to hear
Radiohead or the “Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon" soundtrack with Yo Yo Ma.
Yo Yo Ma won. Different kind of school, isn’t
it?
Three of my best students pretended to work
on their new story assignment. These kids wrote
maybe four sentences and read maybe one
paragraph in the next hour, and that’s a stretch.
And finally, as I glanced around the room, I
saw these over-achieving go-getter's had finally
relaxed. The entire classroom was abuzz with
good-time fellowship chattering.
Oftentimes, we are teaching for output.
Oftentimes, we are teaching for expectations.
But the only time we will make a difference is
when we are teaching for the kids.
Student teachers, we need to go forth and
reward ourselves for making it through this
sometimes boot camp.
. Everyone of us were told in one form or
another that eventually we would have to eat
dirt to make it through- Most of us ate dirt at
some point during this experience. And none of
us did it for the pay. Some of us held on for the
kids, and some of us just held on.
This job takes courage, and if you’ve made it
this far, dirt-eater, the kids are waiting for you.
Just remember schools aren’t training camps
for eating dirt. Schools are training camps for
kids who can better themselves and society.
Schools are the one hope a lost child may have.
Be the hope. Be the courage. Be the schooL
Kicking the 1
crude habit
of using oil
California
sits in darkness
today. Rolling
blackouts have
become almost
routine, while
sales of backup
generators have
tripled in the
past season.
Seth
Fetton
hor most
residents, the periodic blackouts
have been more of a nuisance than
any sort of hardship. But as the sum
mer season looms and an army of
hungry air conditioners stands at the
ready, the situation may become
more severe.
Representatives of industries
relying directly on electricity for
their livelihood, such as those
involved in refrigeration, assembly
line production or computer output,
have suggested that if blackouts con
tinue, they may be forced to shut
down production. Already, some
California-based companies are seri
ously consider
ing relocation to
other states The
(CBS Evening ' *
News, March current
21)- problems
While the F "
trouble in are not
California due tO a
seems distant ehnrtnno
now, it’s certain- Snoriage
ly a prelude to of power
Plants....
energy crisis r f,
this country The
faces. Nebraska current
officials have , .
declared that problems
the state has send Q
enough power .
to meet clear
demands for the message.*
next year, but w
demand contin- rfC Mrc
ues to grow running
out of oil.
becoming *
increasingly 1 ".— "— .
finite.
Meanwhile, the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries is
scaling back production, leading to
an even tighter crunch. The Bush
Administration has been cautious so
far, except in its steadfast faith in the
free market. Bush has refused to con- •
sider price controls in California,
despite signs of price gouging by
power companies (at this time
unfounded, however).
So! The list of troubles goes on,
and we’re basically up excrement
creek without a paddle, boat, air
horn or even TP. What do we do?
First, we stop kidding ourselves.
The current problems are not due to
a shortage of power plants, the evils
of deregulation (though it sure didn't
help California) or the work of Satan.
The current problems send a clear
message: We are running out of oil.
Once we accept this, we’re on the
road to success. It’s like alcohol
addiction - you can’t get cured until
you admit you have a problem.
Unfortunately, too many people are
still in denial. They see a quick solu
tion in the Alaskan wilderness, or
untapped fields in Wyoming or
squeezing more crude out of Iraq.
Wrong! All red-herrings.
Distractions! We are running out of
oil, and thesooner we admit this, the
. better. Alaska holds enough oil to
meet our power demands, depend
ing on th*» MtimAtP. for 100-900 Havs
This is not a solution. It’s like a trans
fusion for a patient whose wounds
are still bleeding.
The cure lies in ending our
dependence on oil. Not just foreign
oil, but all oil. And we must do it
soon. We must have real alternatives
to oil. Our inaction now ensures a
more acute crisis later.
The answers lie in solar, wind and
hydroelectric power, and piles of
those hybrid Hondas that get 60
miles to the gallon. 60! I salivate just
at the thought of it.
And it doesn't stop there. We have
the capacity to design our cities more
efficiently. Buildings can be con
structed according to climate and
terrain, thus greatly enhancing their
energy efficiency. They could even be
designed to harness the wind (you
know that wind tunnel by Oldfather
Hall?), and there are solar panels now
available that generate power even
when it's cloudy out.
We can do this. We made the
atomic bomb, put dozens of satel
lites in orbit and mapped the human
genetic code. Solving our energy cri
sis should be a snap. I have great
faith in human ingenuity, but new
innovations are being curtailed by
continued dependence on oil prod
ucts.
The sooner we cut this bind
loose, the better.