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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 2, 1982)
1 opinion Slouch By Jim Earle “At this point, there’s no need for you to write your name in the concrete. Since you’re stuck there, you can just tell people your name on a one-to-one basis. ” Schools lose monopoly on higher education by Patricia McCormack United Press International The monopoly on education held for years by schools and colleges has crum-. bled, says Dr. Ernest L. Boyer, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Adv ancement of Teaching. The unheralded teacher includes cor porations, for one. And television, and videocassettes, and, perhaps, the greatest teachers of all, peers of students. Consider what’s happening at the cor porate level, Boyer said in a report at the 87th annual meeting of the North Cen tral Association of Colleges and Schools in Chicago Monday: 1. The nation’s corporations spent $30 billion last year on training and educa tion for workers — about equivalent to what was spent by all public colleges and universities in that academic year. 2. Some insurance companies such as Prudential run minicolleges for workers — both new and those brushing up — year after year. The same for oil com panies, banks, accounting and engineer ing firms, steel companies, those in elec tronics, aerospace and all the rest. 3. These are not two-penny opera tions. AT&T spent $1 billion for training and runs one of the biggest schools away from the traditional school setting in the nation. 4.1’he job-based training served up by the corporations isn’t the wet noodle sort. More than 2,000 courses offered by 138 corporations have been identified by the American Council on Educa tion as worthy of academic credit. Boyer, former U.S. Commissioner of « Education and past Chancellor of the State University of New York, said the many non-traditional sources of educa- ^ tion are a mighty force on the contem- - porary scene. < “I’m convinced that for both schools and colleges the developments in non- - traditional education cannot be ignored,” Boyer said at the 87th annual meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. “The schools’ monopoly on education has crumbled.” Boyer’s report, in a benign way, took to task those who run schools and colleges as though such sources are the only ones. His report was titled: “What Consti tutes a High School? What Constitutes a ^ College?” His answer was that more than a tradi tional school constitutes a school or a col- > lege. And the non-traditional teachers he v numbered included more than those “ working on the job-based education scene. “Satellites, computers, calculators, cable television and videocassettes are the compelling new teachers of our time,” he said. “Some day soon, through new technol ogy, almost any subject may be studied conveniently at home and newspaper subscribers may routinely be able to ‘call up’ on their home consoles stories from their favorite publications.” Here’s some more evidence Boyer put down to show schools have lost their monopoly on education: — Peers have become the most in fluential teachers of the young. — Young people spend about 20,000 hours in front of television and only ab out 11,000 hours in the classroom. The electronic teachers are here to stay and the potential for better education is enor mous. “A student who has gone with Jac ques Cousteau to the bottom of the sea, or has traveled with an astronaut to outer space, or met Leonard Bernstein with the Vienna Philharmonic or listened to the creationism debate on MacNeil-Lehrer — such a student has seen and heard far more than classroom can provide.” For the educators, traditional and non-traditional, there’s also the “changed student” to add to the mix on the education scene, Boyer said. “Student have become more sophisti cated, more adult, more skeptical and much less innocent — or so it seems,” he said, making these points: — Today, one-third have sexual inter course by their 15th birthday. — Forty percent of the girls who are 14 today will be pregnant at least once dur ing the next five years. — Forty percent of the high school students say they have had five or more drinks in a row during the past two weeks. — Every hour, 57 teenagers try to kill themselves. “These darker trends suggest a youth culture that is trapped in a youth ghetto, a kind of thought zone of uncertainty and ambiguity during which childhood innocence is lost and adult responsibility is chemically denied. “The current folklore says that young people are largely undisciplined and self- indulgent. “The larger truth appears to be that we have forced this life upon them. “Young people are denied the respon- siblity of growing up. “Since the 1900s, they are biologically more mature and more worldly wise and yet the rigid lockstep (of education and entry to society as responsible members) has not changed.” the small society by Brickman IN AN AlJPIT- IN^ A<^A IN - ©1980 King Features Syndicate. Inc. World rights reserved Battalion/Page 2 April 2, 1982 Tension in the Democratic camp by David S. Broder WASHINGTON — The Democratic Party wound up one important piece of business last week and started another. The Democratic National Committee gave final approval to rules which will set aside about 550 seats in the 1984 conven tion — one of every seven — for elected and party officials uncommitted to any presidential candidate. At the same time the party was giving this preferred status to its officeholders, another party commission was beginning the ticklish task of exploring how to hold those same elected officials accountable for the promises in the party platform. The work of the new commission is unlikely to produce any result as clear- cut or dramatic in its political effects as the rule creating the bi^ bloc of uncom mitted delegates. But it illustrates the continuing tension within the party. It is a tension between its politicians, who prefer a flexible, accommodating style of operations as the surest path back to power, and its more idealogical in terest-group supporters, who see the party primarily as a vehicle for promot ing their own causes. The officeholders tend to blame the issue-activists for pushing the party in the 1970s into support of policies that were outside the mainstream — and saddling it with presidential candidates who were rejected by most voters. That is why they demanded — and got — a bigger role for themselves in the next convention hall. But the issue activists have not dis appeared. Their energy, money and advocacy are still very important to the party, and their demands on its officehol ders will not cease. The resolution creating a “platform accountability” commission was pushed through the 1980 convention (with the acquiescence of Jimmy Carter) by the so- called Progressive Alliance, an amalgam of labor unions, civil rights organizations, feminist groups and other mass- membership organizations with their own, mostly liberal legislative and politic al agendas. Representatives of these groups dominate the commission, chaired by Yvonne Brathwaite Burke of California. Burke illustrates the kind of private agendas that flourish among commission members. Although she is a former member of Congress, she went to Dallas a couple months ago to endorse another black woman who was running for the House against the Democratic incum bent. Burke makes no apologies for her ac tion, saying explicitly that she wants to see more women and blacks in Congress. But the incumbent, Rep. Martin Frost, is part of the House leadership who has fought the Boll-Weevil defectors in his state, while Burke’s endorsee had so little regard for party labels that she has subse quently decided to run as a Republican. That fact puts Burke in an awkward posi tion when it comes to preaching party loyalty. But the clearest example of the ten sions in this territory comes from the commission’s co-chairman, Terry Hern don, the executive secretary of the Na tional Education Assn. Herndon is an aggressive, outspoken liberal who has tried to turn the 1.7 million member teachers’ organization into a political machine for promoting a wide range of progressive programs. Under Herndon, NEA elected 302 de legates to the 1980 Democratic conven- tion and in many states so dominate delegate-selection procedure that trolled other votes as well. NEA has a very explicit ageni win NEA endorsement, a legislator not only support large-scale federal to education, he or she mustalsoopi any form of aid to private or pan schools. Thus, in his NEA role, Herndon he cannot, at this point, supportsoi like Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (IM. whose record is marred (in NEA’s by his advocacy of tuition-tax crei Yet the same Herndon, as a Deoi tic Party activist, is trying to instillwlJ calls “idealogical substance” into! organization and persuade the cians they should not automatically port just anyone who manages I nomination as a Democrat. Thata eclecticism, lie says, “won’t do.” The tension between the idealoJ and the office holders, the purists# the pragmatists, is not new. Butt; particularly acute in today’s Democii Party, which has grown increasl ependent on independent orgai tions, like NEA and the unions, wi have their own agendas. It is important that these tensiod examined now, while the Democratj out of power, because they will bet# more critical if and when the Derm regain control of government If the Democrats are to function governing party, they need someim of dealing with those legislators (likti presentation Boll Weevils) who defect on criticalisi of budget and economic policy equally, they need a method than assure that their agenda foractionis party’s agenda — and not just a comp dium of interest-group wish lists. Sonia Walsl future mns by Beverly Battalion ] Professional ( feshmen classes ent of Engin raphics each st ide students nderstanding < nd its applicatic The professio Texas companie; es twice a semest er, 42 engineers anies will part orogram. The design gi reduces student K lication, comm roblem-solving. During theii •WHKS XWUK VertSgcn Letters: Reagan has tough questioij Editor: In listening to President Reagan’s news conference Wednesday night I couldn’t help noticing the parody in his words. In one breath he wishes for a un ilateral reduction in nuclear armament between the U.S. and the Soviets to bring long-lasting peace. In a following state ment he claims the only way the U.S. can achieve this is if it speeds up nuclear armament. the student body of Texas A&M Univer- task that is too formidable for one® sity to offer their comments and sugges- handle. tions to this volatile situation. This is a Richard J. Gosse On the surface this would seem to be quite a paradox, but it may also very well be the solution to the current dilemma. It is quite obvious that the Soviet Union is definitely superior to the U.S. with re spect to nuclear arms. With this in mind, what advantage would it be to the Soviets to make a nuclear arms reduction agree ment? It seems the only way they would succumb to this is if they were intimi dated. The only way they will become intimidated is if the U.S. appears threatening to them. The question is this: Do we build up our nuclear arsenal and then go to the bargaining table or do we bargain with what we have now? That is a tough ques tion for which I unfortunately have no answer. However, someone will have to come up with an answer, and that someone will be President Reagan. With this, I invite The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference Texas A&M University administrators or hcultjV > bers, or of the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory nmff for students in repot ting, editing and photographffr ses within the Department of Communications. Questions or comments concerning any (ditP matter should be directed to the editor. Editor Angelique Copeland City Editor Denise Richter Assistant City Editor Diana Sultenfuss Sports Editor Frank L. Christlieb Focus Editor Cathy Saathoff Assistant Focus Editor Nancy Floeck News Editors Gary Barker, Phyllis Henderson, Mary Jo Rummel, Nancy Weatherley Staff Writers Jennifer Carr, Cyndy Davis, Gaye Denley, Sandra Gary, Colette Hutchings, Johna Jo Maurer, Hope E. Paasch Daniel Puckett, Bill Robinson, Denise Sechelski, John Wagner, Laura Williams, Rebeca Zimmermann Cartoonist Scott McCullar Graphic Artist Richard DeLeon Jr. Photographers Sumanesh Agrawal, David Fisher, Eileen Manton, Eric Mitchell, Peter Rocha, John Ryan, Colin Valentine Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting news paper operated as a community service to Texas A&M University and Bryan-College Station. 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