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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 19, 1985)
Page 4/The Battalion/Friday 19, 1985 STATE AND LOCAL Slouch By Jim Earle ‘Can you beat that? My chili unstopped our sink!” School districts offering, incentives Prof: Shortage of teachers exists By D’ANNA HEIDEMAN Reporter Promises of clean erasers and a good supply of chalk are teaching in centives of the past. School districts now will have to offer bigger and better incentives to attract top edu cators. Dr. William Peters, head of the educational curriculum and instruc tion department at Texas A&M, says that while a teacher shortage has al ways existed in the Southwest, the problem now is nationwide. Peters attributes the shortage to better career opportunities for women and low teaching salaries. A shortage in special teaching areas also has become a concern, Peters says. “There always has been a shortage of math and science teachers, but we now are seeing a severe shortage of "There always bus been a shortage of math and science teachers, hat we now are seeing a severe shortage of En glish, bilingual education, special education and eh enientary-level teachers, " — Dr. William Peters, head of the Texas A&M educational curriculum and instruction department. English, bilingual education, special education and elementary-level tea chers,” he says. “This is a good time for the teach ing profession. The decline in public school enrollment now is reversing itself because we’re experiencing a small baby boom.” A&M is one of the few universities that has seen an enrollment increase in its curriculum and instruction de partment, Peters says. “We expect one of the largest en rollments this fall and as a result, we will be reviewing our entrance poli cies,” he says. Recent legislation has increased teacher salaries, but Peters says he still thinks teachers are underpaid, and salaries will have to increase to attract prospective teachers. However, he adds, it is possible for teachers to earn salaries in the mid-$20,000 range. Some school dis tricts even offer bonuses to teachers for never being absent and for tea ching in certain high-need areas. One attractive incentive for future educators is for school administra tions to invite teachers to help make decisions involving curriculum changes. “Administrators have recognized the need for classroom managemem and discipline, which has improved the teaching environment,” Peters says. “Also, principals are operating more as instructional leaders and paying more attention to the teach ing-learning process.” Teaching has recently become recognized as a true profession, he says, and this is helping entice those interested in becoming educators. “Teachers are getting more sup port from parents, who now are see mg them as vital,” Peters says. Governor’s race creating split in GOP Associated Press Miniature machine saves infanfs life Associated Press SAN ANTONIO — A new minia ture children’s heart-lung machine developed in San Antonio saved the life of newborn Derrick Barlow, the first infant ever placed on the de vice. “Everything’s come out all right,” said Debra Barlow, 28, the child’s mother. “And he’s going to be fine.” The Killeen baby was put on the machine after he suffered chemical pneumonia at birth at Fort Hood on June 29. Doctors said the baby swal lowed fecal material in the womb, a common birth accident. The device, called an extracorpo real membrane oxygenation unit, is the first one made small enough for treating a baby during emergency air transport, officials at Wilford Hall Air Force Medical Center said. It was developed by the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Re search and Wilford Hall. “This baby would not have sur vived without ECMO,” said Col Rob ert F. DeLemos, head of maternal and child care at the hospital. The Barlow baby was moved by air ambulance to Wilford Hall July 4 and was connected July 7 to the ma chine. The device takes blood from the body through major neck blood vessels, infuses it with oxygen and then pumps it back into the body. WASHINGTON — Texas Re publicans in Congress put down sug gestions Thursday that they are split over a possible primary fight for governor between a stalwart of the party and a recent, high-profile con vert. “My actions should not be con strued as anti-Kent Hance, but pro- Tommy Loeffler,” said Houston Rep. Jack Fields. “I’m glad that Kent has switched over, and if he is in the gubernatorial race, I’m glad that it’s going to be a contested primary. I think it brings excitement.” Hance, a former Lubbock con gressman who narrowly missed gain ing the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate last year, switched par ties in May at the behest of the Re publican Senate winner, Phil Gramm. Gramm switched parties in 1983 when He was Hance’s colleague in the House. Gramm “would feel some obliga tion to help (Hance) out” if he runs for governor against incumbent Democrat Mark White next year, said Gramm’s press secretary, Larry Neal. “I think there is an understanding that I am not always going to agree with the senator, he is not always going to agree with me,” Fields said. “I feel the same respect from him on this decision.” Loeffler, a four-term congress man from Hunt, has been a loyal sol dier in the Republican army in Washington and is considered by his GOP colleagues to be an able legis lative and political technician and definite leadership material. But colleagues say he is weary of the long wait for power in Congress and wants to return to Texas and spend more time with his young family. Neither Loeffler nor Hance has announced and Republicans hast been careful to praise all possiblt contenders for the top statehmw job. The difference of opinion cameto light when Fields and fellow Houst members Bill Archer of Houston and Tom DeLay of Sugar Land signed a fund-raising letter on be half of Loeffler. On the day that Hance switched parties, standing side-by-side with Gramm in the Capitol, Loeffler was on the road in Texas, raising money for a potential governor’s race. “The overall purpose of thelettet was to make people aware thatheis in the race and that he is someone who should be considered, because his name identification across the state is not what it should be at thit particular point,” Fields said. 91 N toug divis leagi Detr “C beati ager All-S in th .500 West back T1 intra — at team edly Detr At gers sevet a sp< gers Leag ries. Tl place ironi who last y Sit the o At forni The infant was taken off the de vice Friday and was reported in “sat isfactory and improving condition” Thursday. Similar instruments are in opera tion at a handful of medical centers, but none are portable, a problem for Wilford Hall, which receives patients from all over the world. The ECMO was transported on the airlift from Fort Hood to Wil ford Hall, but was not necessary dur ing the flight for the Barlow infant. Texas muscians write songs Police beat to protest nuclear dump site Hi fic Hi The following incidents wert reported to the University Police Department through July 18: Cc ou Associated Press ww 1- IRUII 9 'U|«# MSC.8:$Q p.m, in The Grove, ': > MSC GROIZB. -SSr presents a John Wayne festival at The : Grove, “Stagecbachf: and “lUo Lobo M will be featured at :: 8:30 p.m. Items for Whmi&iffjp shoaM he submitted to The Battalion, 210 Ueed McDonald, no less than three days prior to de- LUBBOCK — Disgust with the possibility of a high-level nuclear waste dump site in the Texas Pan handle has prompted two song writers to lash out with lyrics. “They wanta dig a hole for you, and they wanta dig a hole for me; we’re gonna live high off the hog, let’s thank the DOE,” the song goes. “They wanta dig a hole for you, on the edge of eternity; I wanta know where I’m gonna go, let’s ask the DOE.” Frank Ford said Wednesday he and songwriter Ken Precure wrote “They Wanta Dig A Hole For You” to protest what Ford calls a plan by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to disrupt the number one agricultural county in Texas. The two are residents of the Pan handle city of Hereford in Deaf Smith County, about 100 miles northwest of Lubbock. Deaf Smith County was named last December as one of three top preliminary sites for the nation’s first high-level waste storage area. Sites near Yucca Mountain, Nev., and Hanford, Wash., also were pro posed. “They came here in 1982 and said they were going to dig a hole (for nuclear waste) no matter what we wanted,” Ford told the Lubbock Av alanche-Journal. “That didn’t sit well with us. It would seem to me that we just don’t have room in the federal budget for this kind of insan ity.” In “They Wanta Dig A Hole For You,” written under the pseudonym Ben Hadd, Precure mocks informa tion supplied by the DOE that the nuclear waste site will provide bene fits for the area. by Texas revolutionary hero Erast us “Deaf’ Smith. “Ol Deaf Smith is ready for you; you can plot and shout ’til your face turns blue,” Ford writes in the song. “Texas ain’t your garbage can; you can’t dump on Deaf Smith land.” The songs are becoming a hit both in Hereford and throughout the state, Ford said. ’It’s been sent to Austin, Washing ton and throughout the Panhandle, and its getting some play,” he said. “The reaction so far has been uni versally rave reviews.” The battle cry released last week is accompanied by the flipside song, “The Ballad of ’Ol Deaf Smith” writ ten by Ford under the pseudonym Hayseed “Tex” Miller. The lyrics, sung by Precure, la ment the loss of the agricultural tra dition of Deaf Smith farmers started Residents in Deaf Smith County and around the Panhandle voiced opposition to the proposed site dur ing public hearings in January and February. Most argued the site would pose danger to the local agri cultural economy and the Ogallala and Santa Rosa aquifers. If built in Deaf Smith County, the site eventually would hold 70,000 tons of high-level waste, which would not reach safe levels for at least 10,000 years, the DOE said. MISDEMEANOR THEFT: • Ten bicycles were stolen from various locations on cam pus. • Four wallets were stolen from various locations on cam pus. • A man was caught stealing five,flag poles and nine tee mark ets from the 'Texas A&M Coif Course. THEFT: • T wo sets of keys were stolen from Kyle Field, CRIMINAL TRESPASS: • Two |>eople were caught swimming in tne Wofford Cain Pool. CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: • Someone painted pictures on various walls m Kyle Field. • The tail light lenses of a 1983 Chevrolet Camero in Park ing Annex 24 were broken. ’ HARASSMENT: • Two women in Briggs Hall reported receiving harassing tele phone calls. HOI ! Houstt I Ford , [ the st 1 invest i{ l signing t star Tit “We |cations [ity if th niitted, A&M lecturer enjoys teaching children’s literature course By RHONDA RUBIN Reporter Dorothy Van Riper opens a picture book and begins to read to a fascinated audience. She is not a nursery school teacher reading to five-year-old children. She is a Texas A&M English tea cher reading to 21-and 22-year- old students. Van Riper has been teaching English 360, Literature for Chil dren, at A&M for eight years. She got her master’s degree from Duke University, taught En glish at the high school level and then came to A&M to teach fresh man-level courses. She admitted she knew noth- Dorothy Van Riper ing about children’s literature when she first was asked to teach the class. “When I was told the course was in the offing, I immediately began to teach myself children’s literature and sat in on the class that was then being taught,” she says. “I also read avidly, made my self an authority, and fell in love with children’s literature.” Van Riper says she tries to use the same techniques when read ing to her class as when reading to a child. “I try to use the same tech niques, because teachers will teach as I teach,” she says. However, some students have told Van Riper they didn’t like her teaching style. She says she thinks one reason is that a few students would rather take notes. “I run a classroom the most dangerous way that can be done . . . through discussion,” she says. Van Riper says the class is not for education majors only and tries to get as many students to take it as she can. “During the week of pre-regis tration, I wear a T-shirt that says, ‘English 360 Children’s Literatu re,”’ she says. Choosing which books will be read for this class is no different than for any other English class because, she says, she keeps up with new titles and subscribes to several magazines which contain critical reviews. Van Riper says she is riot happy with the way children are being introduced to literature. “There are teachers who don’t give the child time to read a book,” she says. Children often are assigned to read anthologies that contain only a few chapters of each book. “They (anthologies) don’t give the child a chance to read an en tire book,” Van Riper says. and serves no other purpose, Van Riper says. She says she feels a little artifi cial teaching children’s literature because she’s never actually taught children. She says she also is opposed As. to the “Dick and Jane” bool “Kids five and six years old don’t talk that way; why should they read that way,” she says. However, she has been asked by a local day care center to come and read to the children. She says she’s looking forward to doing that after the summer semester. In choosing a book for a child, a parent or teacher should find something the child will enjoy, not a book that teaches a lesson Van Riper says she enjoys tea ching children’s literature to col lege students and couldn’t think of anything she’d rather teach. “I’d rather teach children’s lit erature more than anything I know,” she says. “I love it.” 32 Fool Tables ... 4 Shuffleboards ... Video Arcade ... Foosball Tables : happy ■ SATvll® SUN. !i;fSu/i MON. ttm ^ • f«-8' -: . 4-8 • : 702 University #110B College Station 846-0085 casual iFuminny^ Bryan/College Station^* 1623 Culpepper Plaza (409) 696-4489 Sales & Rental Battalion Classified 845-2611 w w w i