Independent study tried at B righam Young
Cut-rate college credits for self-starters
By PATRICIA McCORMACK
UPI Education Editor
Self-starters at Brigham Young
University in Provo, Utah, can pick
up $35 college credits for $10
apiece.
It’s not done by jamming into a
clearance or more-than-halfoff sale
run by the nation’s largest private
university.
Rather, it’s done by independent
study — a path to knowledge that
requires huge lots of self-discipline.
Students cashing in on this bar
gain in college courses learn alone
and do not sit in class and absorb
from a lecture.
Once they have mastered a body
of knowledge they go to an evalua
tion center on campus and prove
they have grasped the subject. They
take a test or make a speech or write
a report or even put on a demonstra
tion for a testing panel.
When they pass the evaluation,
they get the $35 credit for $10.
The savings is possible due to
many factors. But, simply, when the
school doesn’t pay a faculty member
to instruct a student, the school
saves.
Marion J. Bentley, Director of
General Education at BYU, talked
about the bargain in higher educa
tion. He also focused on the school’s
general education program aimed at
putting more structure into secon
dary education.
It is ihe drumbeat along the
academic trail these days, attracting
to campus a rebirth of the basics in
higher education.
Harvard is getting ready to march
to the beat. Ditto for Yale and lots of
schools.
At BYU, according to Bentley,
general education was reborn in a
big way back in 76.
The trend to general education
springs from dissatisfaction over
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what students were picking from
college catalogs for their four years’
worth of higher education.
Without requiring certain courses
of all students, be they pre-law or
pre-computer major, some strange
things were happening on college
campuses.
A student, given a smorgasbord of
courses, might select four years of
the education equivalent of pate or
stuffed olives or corned beef and
cabbage.
In education, that would mean
Bill would give
teachers power
United Press International
AUSTIN — A Grand Prairie lawmaker believes it’s time teachers
had the right to remove problem students from their classrooms.
“We have a real problem in our schools — a problem that every
body acknowledges but one that no one has done anything about,”
said Rep. Carlyle Smith, D-Grand Prairie.
He said the top problem in education this past decade has been
incorrigible students. Smith told the House Public Education Com
mittee his bill would give teachers authority to remove problem stu
dents and recommend suspension.
“The teachers need this right in order to permit learning to take
place in the school house, and to provide for their own personal safety
and that of their students,” said June L. Karp.
She said the bill would not correct the problem of incorrigible
students, but would allow school districts to begin seeking alternative
methods and design policies to deal with the problem.
four years of increasingly advanced
courses in a certain era of history or
music or art or even going very
deeply for four years into one or two
languages.
The person, as a result, came out
of college with a degree and depth
of knowledge in a certain subject or
subject area.
What was wrong with that: not
knowing much about anything else.
The general education move
ment, according to Bentley, at
tempts to give all students, regard
less of their major or career goal, a
significant range of mankind’s most
valuable knowledge and achieve
ments.
“In the process, general educa
tion improves student abilities to
think accurately, communicate
clearly, respond esthetically, and
act wisely,” Bentley said.
Why general education?
“It provides students with many
important lifelong benefits,’’
Bentley said.
“For one, general education can
help in a person’s lifework. Five
years after graduation, a majority ol
college graduates are in jobs outside
their major
“And even if one remains in his or
her chosen field, that field can
progress so swiftly that knowledge
gained in college quickly becomes
outdated.
“A solid general education can
help students develop the breadth
and flexibility needed to adjust to a
new job or adapt to a rapidly chang
ing job.
“General education also teaches j
student skills to keep on learning,
The general education programai
BYU requires students to.
—Analyze written material in |
critical and logical manner and tj
write clearly and correctly.
—Show competence in elemen.
tary math, including basic algeln
and geometry.
—Show a good grasp of know],
edge of good health practices, in.
eluding nutrition, disease and aca.
dent prevention.
—Demonstrate a skill outside j
student’s major. Subject areas in.
elude but are not limited to foreigi
languages, ecosystems, mathemat
ics and historical method.
Text tells
survival i
in
MSC Recreation and All Nile Fair
Committees Features>
THE LOCO-MOTION CIRCUS
Friday, Feb.23 9,10,ll>00pni
MSC Main Lotmge
Oo
real world
United Press International
A new high school textbookhas!
do with survival. But it’s not
foraging for edible berries oreatik
ing fish with shoestrings and a
perclip when stranded in
wilderness.
This schoolbook tells howtosar
vive in the paper jungle in
civilized world after graduation !
few examples of skills taught: howb
read roadmaps, bus, planeandte
schedules; apply for licenses oi
copy of a birth certificate; registeiii
vote; run a checkbook.
Also: how to read the dassifiedsd
a newspaper to find a job, a
live, a good used car ora
cat; fill out a job application, incoit
tax forms — plus many other pradi
cal but seldomtaught matters,»
eluding how to use a mail
catalog.
The “survival” book — actual)
series since there will be adifim!
one for each state — was descrM
in a report at the annual meeting]
the National Council for the Soci
Studies in Houston.
Books for 26 states are readyhk
Editions for remaining states wil
ready by summer’s end, accordi
to Betty L. Hall, the main autki
and course designer.
The Texas and California versioi
may be republished in Spanisk
serve the heavy concentrations
Mexican-American populations
those states.
M rs. Hall, a veteran high schA
teacher from Naselle, Wash., siil
each book has its state name in
title. For example, the one for
Indiana is called “Indiana SurvivJ
(Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Pd
Ushers).
Mrs. Hall, mother of six rangii|
in age from 9 to 31, said more
half of the contents of all the bool
are the the same but the rest lei
about the individual state’s
regulations and “paper” require
ments for surviving everything^
leases to loans and auto regie
trations.
A “glossary” in the survival
ranges from A — for absentee U
lot, to W — for W-4 Form.
It lists definitions for words
must know to survive in the pap'
world. For example:
— annual percentage rate,
rower.
— character references, collates
compensation, contract, credit
— prime rate, principal, prindi 1
balace, promissory note, proratd
secured loan, spouse, state incoJ
tax, tenant or lessee, 20-10 rule
The 20-10 rule?
“Never borrow more thai^Op'
cent of your yearly take-home p?
and never have your payments
than 10 percent of your
take-home pay.”
2.
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