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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 3, 1974)
Page 6 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 1974 State association began here in ’66 TAMU’s role in formation of the Texas Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association has been sketched in an historical ar ticle and Dr. Leslie V. Hawkins of TAMU’s Industrial Education Department is prominently fea tured. The department’s driver edu cation coordinator appears on the cover of the June, 1974, TDTSEA journal with Dr. Jack Rhodes, University of Houston, and Dr. James Standifer, TCU. Standifer wrote the article. He credits the inauguration of the association with a 1966 driver education workshop at TAMU. It was sponsored by the Texas Education Association and under direction of Hawkins and Lewis Spears, then state consul tant for TEA driver education. Para professionals lighten ‘drivers ed’ loa Yearly, 200,000 Texas youngsters reach the driving age and 65 percent of them look to drivers education courses for instruction and gui dance. Driver education, however, re quires a one student to one teacher ratio which is a far cry from the aver age teacher in the public schools who can instruct 30 or more stu dents at once. Aid has come to the hard-pressed drivers education in structor in the form of a TAMU program for para-professional driv ers education instructors. The Texas Education Agency has funded a program for high school graduates to be trained to act as aids in teaching drivers education. One supervisor can have up to four of these para-professionals working for him performing tasks such as run ning a driving simulator, operating the driving range, teaching behind the wheel and assisting regular in struction in the classroom. Originator of the program. Dr. Leslie V. Hawkins of the College of Education at TAMU, noted, “With one instructor, drivers education was very expensive to teach. With more students coming, we had to develop new ways to teach them fas ter and better. The state requires 30 hours of classroom instruction and six hours at the wheel for the stu dent. “Now we’ve supplied over 300 of these para-professionals to lighten the load and improve the instruc tion,” Hawkins pointed out. “On the driving range, one assistant can instruct up to 16 students at once while another can teach 12 more in a multi-media facility which incorpo rates slides, movies and tapes. “The requirements are a high school education and a recommen- dation from the school system or an educational service center,” he noted. “Then we put the candidate through a five-week course here at A&M. This will be our program be ginning in July which is funded to the tune of $68,000 by the agency.” The course consists of 46 hours of basic drivers education, eight hours of a multi-media student response system, 45 hours of teaching in struction, 41 hours of driving simulator instruction, 13 hours operating the multi-car driving range and a final 31 hours of in-car instruction. Hawkins cited the extn 'efc sion of the pa ra-profession! -■ truck drivers, cablsPs*'*"®"® are servicemen beginning careers and school bus, many of them women. ! FOR BEST RESULTS TRY \NDY F wo pern , eight r< ned tech iis fcente d to ham BATTALION CLMSiSa, July 4 deaths forecast Col. Wilson E. Speir, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, estimated 42 lives would be lost in July 4 holiday traffic acci dents. Speir, who declined to make Christmas-New Year period fore casts because of changing traffic conditions tied to the energy crisis, said the situation has become more stable. He said gasoline is available in most areas, and guessed this will bring additional auto movement on the highways during the mid summer holiday. Thirteen died in July 4 traffic last year, but the holiday period was only 30 hours long then, compared to an 102-hour period this year (with the fourth falling on Thursday). Eighty died in 1972 holiday traffic over a similar 102-hour period. All available DPS troopers and department facilities will be used to curb unsafe and reckless drivers, Speir said. TTI fights rainy day accidents A “War on Wet Weather Acci dents” has been declared by the Texas Transportation Institute. That also is the title of a film prc>- duced by the institute. It is the pro duct of five years work and the re sults of five research projects. .The.20 minute*film describes the research activities‘ of the Highway Planning and Research Program studies on wet weather driving under way at Texas A&M Univer sity. Dr. Don L. Ivey, head of TTI’s Safety Division, stated the “film is pointed at both highway engineers and the general driving public to give information on what factors are important to maintain safety while driving in wet weather. “The projects resulted in definite recommendations for wet weather driving which are in the film,” Ivey noted. “These are grouped in three areas—driver, vehicle and roadway—in that order. “For the driver it is important to be alert, ” he pointed out. “He must recognize that he cannot compen sate for wet conditions if the car is driven at dry condition speeds. Stopping distances are doubled while visibility is cut by as much as a factor of ten. “Cars are a factor, ” Ivey went on. “Maintenance of wipers promotes visibility. Motorists must also rec ognize they can defog the windows with their air conditioners. Addi tionally they should increase tire pressure on the car which decreases the chance of hydroplaning.” Church sells land, relocates A five acre tract owned by the First Baptist Church of College Sta tion was recommended for a zone change at the Monday night meet ing of the College Station Planning and Zoning Commission. The land is currently zoned single family re sidential and is to be changed to apartment building. When first purchased by the church, the site at Highway 30 and Munson Avenue was to be in a resi dential neighborhood. It is now in the middle of a growing apartment concentration. The church plans to sell the land and relocate. The commission urged the City Council to consider a proposed amendment to the zoning ordi nance. The amendment deals with the establishment of a Flood Hazard Zone. The commission agreed to have a session at their next meeting to con sider changes in the zoning ordi nances. One item to be discussed is the creation of conditional use per mits for construction. QaJ SKAGGS ^ ^ALBERTSONS Ak DRUGS & FOODS ilth ”'"of JULY SPECIALS GOOD WED., THURS., FRI., SAT. JULY 3, 4, 5, 6,1974 4TH OF JULY £ SKAGGS ALBERTSONS HOURS 9 AM TO cording ile Earl ting gro CENTER CUT USDA CHOICE BEEF LB. SLICED BACON *79' SLICED LUNCH MEAT.^r::....« 75 c PURE PORK SAUSAGE “ • 69 c RIB STEAK — ,. $ r RIB EYE STEAK “T. , $ 2 44 CANNED HAMS a $ 3 49 BONELESS ENGLISH ROAST SLICED CHEESE J63 c GROUND BEEF FRESH GROUND HOURLY 3 LB. PKG. OR MORE *... 69 BOILED HAM "HALVES OR WHOLE » P BBO CHICKEN PRODUCED FROM USDA GRADE "A" FRYERS $139 POTATO SALAD "FRESH MADE „48 c BBQ BEANS "FRESH DAILY" ..«»55 c CANNED POP PEPSI COLA PICKLES «*«■«.. •; 47 c PORK & BEANS " 23 c CHUNK TUNA “ Ci 44 c KEEBLER COOKIES -- 63 c I V LIQUID DETERGENT ETfC I MW UP g% | 22 02. BOTTLE J /