Slouch
by Jim Earle
“Okay, If you want to make an issue of it, where does it
say that two wins in a row is not a winning streak?”
Opinion
Television tricks
aren’t for kids
Glued to the tube, many of us grew up with little first
hand knowledge of life.
Oh sure, we watched Beaver play with friends on TV,
and Captain Kangaroo told us how healthy it was to run and
read books.
But few of us believed him — it was easier to watch the
magic.
Now a group of parents in an affluent Detroit suburb
have realized the danger.
They set out 18 months ago to wean their children from
television — by coaxing rather than dragging them away
from the tube.
They say their efforts are working.
The program encourages reading, sports, hobbies and
other activities that children can enjoy alone or with their
families. The program was prompted by national studies
indicating the average child was watching 40 hours of TV a
week.
Those two full-time jobs leave few hours for anything
else.
The goal is cutting by half the time youngsters spent
watching the tube.
While not reaching the goal, informal surveys indicate an
average 25 to 30 percent drop 4n TV viewing in some
households.
But it’s still a success.
One organizer explained, “Our intention was really to
inform parents that they do have a right to say no or yes to
what their children watch and that there were many alter
natives many people seem to have forgotten about.”
We just wish our parents hadn’t forgotten about the al
ternatives.
the
small society
by Brickman
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The Battalion
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MEMBER
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Congress
Editor Liz Newlin
Managing Editor Andy Williams
Asst. Managing Editor . Dillard
Stone
News Editors . .Karen Cornelison and
Michelle Burrowes
Sports Editor . .Sean Petty
City Editor Roy Bragg
Campus Editor Keith Taylor
Focus Editors Beth Calhoun and
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Staff Writers Meril Edwards,
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Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Tuesday
October 2, 1979
can
Analysis
Britain’s Open University employs
varied curriculum, lofty standards
By BRYAN SILCOCK
International Writer’s Service
LONDON — A good deal of skepticism
originally greeted the new educational in
stitution when it began. But now, as it
narks its 10th year in operation, Britain’s
3pen University is considered a unique
success, even by academic professionals.
The concept, which is functioning as
planned, has been to provide those who
lever earned degrees with the chance to
ret their college diplomas. More than
33,000 men and women have graduated
since the project started, and some 70,000
are currently enrolled.
The students, most of them adults with
full-time jobs, must fulfill stiff require
ments. Typically, they devote about eight
hours a week over an eight-year period to
completing the courses, studying mainly
at home. But the Open University is more
than a glorified correspondence school.
Central to its operation is a close link
with the national television and radio net
works of the British Broadcasting Corpora
tion. At the planning stage, in fact, its
suggested title was the University of the
Air.
In the early morning and late at night,
before or after their regular working
hours, students can tune into lectures or
televised laboraivets that supplement the
written material they use. The BBC also
broadcasts longer Open University pro
grams on weekends.
The Open University is primarily fi
nanced by the government, with students
paying only modest tuition fees. It actually
has a campus, but it is primarily an admin
istrative set-up in which its academic staff
does its own research, packages new
courses and updates old ones.
Just as the Open University’s degrees
are widely reeved, so its materials are con
sidered to be exceptionally good. About 30
other countries around the world now im
itate its approach, and many buy its taped
and published courses.
The high quality of th curriculum is due
to the fact that, from the beginning, the
Open University recruited a faculty of
first-rate professors who have taken a keen
interest in their mission.
In their view, the curriculum had to be
broad in scope, covering subjects ranging
from literature and foreign languages to
science and technology. Above all, they
sought to impose lofty standards, so that
the experiment would not be regarded as
one of those diploma mills advertised on
match-books.
In addition to reading, writing, viewing
and listening, students can purchase low-
cost equipment for their courses. For
example, an inexpensive microscope has
been developed for their use at home.
Open University specialists also furnished
advice to a manufacturer to produce a tele
scope at reasonable prices.
Arrangements have been made as well
with 260 univerisities and colleges around
Britain, which cooperate by allowing Open
University students with access to their
libraries and computers.
This not only represents an endorse
ment of the project by the nation’s tra
ditional institutions of high learning. In a
practical sense, it also offers dispersed
students an opportunity to mingle with
each other in different areas.
Some 5,200 part-time tutors around the
country maintain more or less personal
contact with the studnts, grading their
exams, commenting on their progress and
giving them advice.
Each student is assigned a tutor who
lives in his or her neighborhood, and they
meet periodically. Tutorial sessions are
conducted by telephone, too. And every
year, during the summer, students must
spend a week of residence in a designated
study center.
Applications for enrollment in the Open
Univeristy are currently running about
80,000 per year, of which one-fburth are
accepted on a first-come-first-serve basis.
No prerequisites are demanded, since, as
its name implies, it is truly open to all.
The students must be strongly
By RHC
Bal
A Texas At
las found a p
ting a rare
those in a
iseases.
Dr. James
motivated, since they pursue their com
after long hours of regular work, ofteni ist who dis
noisy children within earshot. Norii iat the find
easy to awaken early or go tobedlak irmation for
order to catch the television or radioi ich as Tay
tures.
But the drop-out rate is surprisi rome.
small — much lower, in fact, than in:
ventional British universities that have snerative a
tremely competitive entry tests.
With all this, though, the Open t mses malfu
veristy has failed to live up to expectali
in one respect. Despite the ideali iat part of
nzymes is t<
hopes of its founders, who
would attract many unskilled workers, nd becorm
no experience in higher education,!
principally appealed to schoolteaei;
technicians and other white-collan H
ployees who consider an Open Univen
degree a a way of advancing their c®
Another sizeable category of its st«l(
are housewives who may be seeking
turn to the jobs after their childrent
up or are merely seeking some
tellectual stimulation.
On the whole, however, the Openl
versity has achieved its aim, andl j oar( j
pioneering effort, after a decade,
come a part of the educational estakli Monday n ig
ment here.
Silcock writes on science and tecU assengers,
for the London Sunday Times, thehi nr special e
weekly paper.
CUSTOMER
COMPLAI NTS
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The oth
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DICK WE ST
‘May beets grow in your navel’
would work better than ‘denounce
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — One frequently
hears the lament that name-calling isn’t
what it used to be.
Connoisseurs of castigation claim the art
of billingsgate is dying — that our flair for
vituperation has degenerated into a bland,
cliche-ridden obloquy that barely qualifies
as insulting.
To some extent, these plaints may sim
ply be wistful manifestations of the na
tional nostalgia binge. Yet they cannot be
dismissed out of hand.
We have within the past month seen
hard evidence of a deprecation breakdown
in high places. I refer to the Senate Ethics
Committee’s resolution of disapproval di
rected at Sen. Herman Talmadge, D-Ga.
As the whole world knows, committee
members groped desperately for the
proper words with which to convey their
criticism. They examined such terms as
“censure’ and “condemn” in the manner
of an old dog worrying a bone — sniffing at
them, turning them over with their paws
and walking stiff-legged around them.
The verb they finally settled on was
“denounce,” a compromise, pedestrian
choice that some members felt was too
highly pejorative but that Talmadge
seemed to view as almost a compliment.
At some point, probably later this
month, the resolution will come before the
full Senate for action. It will be subject to
amendment on the floor. Which means
the Senate will have an opportunity to ex
press itself in a more eloquent way than
the committee recommended.
Before getting involved in these delib
erations, senators might do well to borrow
my copy of the latest edition of
“Maledicta, the International Journal of
Verbal Aggression.”
Issued twice yearly by the Maledicta
Society of Waukesha, Wis., this learned
publication provides scholarly compila
tions of invectives from all over the world,
and explains all the nuances.
As the publisher, Reinhold Aman, a
former medieval languages and literature
professor, put it:
“Our main areas of interest are the
meaning, origin, history, etymology, use,
spread and influence of verbal aggression
and verbal abuse of any kind — swear
words, insults, terms of abuse, curses.
UNIVERSIT
IBM
damnations, threats, nicknames, and
cial, religious, ethnic and sexual slurs
stereotypes. ”
Surely, out of all that, senators canfii
language that articulately sums up
sentiments on the Talmadge case.
Most of the more forceful phraseswosl
be a mite too coarse for senatorial p
poses. I did, however, come across»
that is a good deal more imaginativetls
“denounce.”
Imagine how chastened Talmadf
would feel if the Senate adopted a resolt
tion that said: “May beets growing
navel. ”
Let the Senate go on record a timei
two with that type of malediction and®
can bet all lawgivers will start walking®
narrow line.
Tj
Letters
Every ticket book-holding student
should be given a seat in Kyle Field
Editor:
During the last Student Senate meeting
(Sept. 26), the seating problem for the U.
of H. game was discussed. The problem is
the anticipated seats, sold over a month
ago, versus the actual number of seats
ready for the game.
Originally the stadium was to be com
pleted by the U. of H. game. After the
usual construction set-backs, it was finally
determined that, for the Houston game,
the seating will be as follows:
1. Former Students — the entire west
side.
2. High School Career day —- the west
side of and end zone in the horseshoe.
3. U. of H. — from the 50 yard line
north to the middle of the horseshoe.
4. Aggies — 50 yard line south,
bleachers, the second deck, and most of
the third deck.
Due to weather and construction prob
lems, there are less seats than anticipated.
The solution dictated to the Student Se
nate is as follows:
1. Former Student — the entire west
side.
2. High School Career day — standing
room on the track with their seats being
given to the faculty or Former Students.
3. U. of H. — unchanged.
4. Aggies — 50 yard line south,
bleachers, the second deck, that part of
the third deck finished, standing room on
the track, and G. Rollie White.
When I questioned this distribution of
tickets I was quickly told that, this is how
it is and there is nothing that can be done
about it.
It may well be too late for the Houston
game, but I hope this letter will prevent
A&M students (namely freshman) from
getting the shaft later. I do not know if we
can recall the as yet unsold tickets from U.
of H. If we can buy back the tickets before
they are sold, then we can give tickets to
the pre-sold seats (i.e.ticket books)of Aggie
freshman. In the event there are more un-
forseen setbacks, and a ticket shortage,
more consideration should be given to
Aggie students.
To do this several options are open:
1. Finish the stadium.
2. Do not send tickets to our opponents
until it is known for certain how many
seats are available.
3. Regretfully reimburse some Former
Students for their seats. (Former Students
had their four years, and while they
bought a ticket, so did the freshman.)
4. Squeeze Army and fit everybody®
Maybe nothing can be done;
these solutions are unrealistic;
there will not be a shortage. Whateverb
case I think it is only fair that every st
dent with a ticket book be given a SET
IN KYLE FIELD!
— Lee Maverick, ’S
Editor’s note: This letter was aci
panied by six other signatures.
THOTZ
by Doug Graham