Monday, November 19, 1984AThe Battalion/Page 7 Port to stay behind bars until issue set for good United Press International | HOUSTON — Odette Port, jailed two months ago for refusing to tes tify before a grand jury that indicted her son, wants to remain behind bars until the issue of her confinement is settled for good, her attorney says. I Attorney Randy Schaffer said even if Port is granted bail, she will remain in jail. She does not want to Bturn if other courts rule against her, said Schaffer. 1 David Port, 17, remains free on $20,000 bail. He is charged with the slaving of Debora Sue Schatz, 23, a female mail carrier. Port’s husband, Bernard, was re leased from Harris County Jail a week ago after he spoke to the grand jury for several hours. Mrs. Port re fused to answer six questions that might implicate Davie, her stepson. Port could remain in jail until Jan. 31 if the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals does not rule in her favor. Port described his wife as an American hero. “She’s staying in there for the love of a husband,” Port said. “All I can find is beauty that there’s someone who has done something for me. My concern is my wife, and the sacrifice she made for me. She was a hero. I was the father. It was expected of me.” The Ports were jailed Sept. 12 af ter refusing to testify, but they asked that the grand jury be brought into session earlier this month and spent two days testifying before them. The Ports claimed they had a right not to testify against their son because of a parent-child privilege and on the grounds of religious be liefs. One-teacher schools exist in isolated, farming areas United Press International 1 LUBBOCK — Those one-teacher ■Tools that once dotted farming ■ommunities across the country have yet to be erased. ■ Although few and far between, there are still 837 public one-teacher ischools operating in isolated areas tco remote for busing or consolida tion, a Texas Tech University re- I searcher said. I Texas has four one-teacher ■Tools: Allamoore Common in Sierra Blana; Juno Common in Del I Rio; Divide Common in Kerrville Hnd Certa Valley Independent in Kerta Valley. • ■ Bruce Barker of Texas Tech’s Na- Bonal Center for Smaller Schools i|aid the nostalgic institutions pro- Ifide more than leadin’, writin’ and Bithmetic. He said he believes they Offer some teaching tips for smaller hools in general. “These small schools have some of e desired qualities that education Systems are working for today,” Bar ker said. “By studying America’s re aming one-teacher schools, we lopeto gain insights that will benefit iducation.” More than one-third of the re taining one-teacher schools exist in Nebraska, which has 385 of them, iccording to a recently completed study that excluded speciality, liurch and private schools. Of the 29 states reporting at least ne such school in 1984, there were |9 in Montana; 87 in South Dakota; 41 in California; 28 in Alaska; 21 in [daho; 15 in Oregon and eight in Washington. “Education in Nebraska from what I can gather is decentralized,” Barker said. “There’s a lot of local control and the people don’t want to give up their school. Nebraska is very rural and very spread out. “In Montana it’s chiefly because they’re so isolated.” Most of the one-teacher schools involved grades 1-8 or 1-6 with an average enrollment of 11 students. Alaska’s one-teacher schools were located by villages and provided an education for grades K-12, Barker said. “They’re opening and closing,” Barker said of the one-teacher schools. “When you have a family move there’s a drastic impact on a one-room school. It might close but would be opened again when an other farm family moved in,” he said. Texas Tech’s 5-year-old Center for Smaller Schools was created to provide educational research and also to improve the image and edu cation of the small school in general. “One of the most important fac tors in effective schooling is the way the teacher relates to the students,” Barker said. “The teacher in those one-room schools knew them inti mately.” He said a lower teacher-student ratio enhances specialized teaching programs for individual students. “No one’s saying that we go back to one-room schools,” Barker said. “But there’s an attitude that small schools are not good schools. There’s no research that proves that one way or another.” The United States had 200,000 one-teacher schools in 1900, but that number dropped to less than 75,000 by 1948 and to less than 24,000 by 1959. Barker said education records in dicated only 15,600 independent school districts existed in 1980 com pared to 127,000 school districts in 1932. He said many districts were con solidated following a 1959 book “The American High School Today” by James Conant in which Conant suggested any high school having fewer than 100 students should merge with another school. Students in a graduating class of 30 have a better chance of being known and liked than students in a graduating class of 350, Barker said. “Students generally have more pride in their community, their school and in themselves,” Barker said, adding they have greater op portunities to participate in extra curricular activites because there was less competition. Teachers in small schools told Barker they believe 35 percent of their students were high achievers, 51 percent were average achievers and 14 percent were below average. Barkers said he was considering keeping track of some of the stu dents to see how they perform in secondary schools and colleges. “Our nation’s few remaining one- teacher schools are a reminder of a public education system which has made education available to virtually any citizen who desires the opportu nity to learn,” Barker said. At Kyle Field Rudder Auditorium... You can have a close-up view, wherever you are. Stop by and see our bright, powerful bino culars with wide fields of view- Sizes range fro m the tiny Penta* mini - compact to the extra large Celestron observation bmoculan, complete with tripod adapter. Our large selection includes binoculars by Dushnell, Swift, Ziess, Pentax and Celestron. Earth Provision Co. I 105 Boyett College Station 84-£>-<9794 billy jacb’s 319 University in Northgate Home of the Tuesday Night Drink & Drown! of College Station jb'unki one.