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Wednesday, September 18, 1985/The Battalion/Page 13
Etc....
California rejects texts,
weeds out mediocrity
Associated Press
California’s decision to reject
nearly 30 biology textbooks for wa
tering down the theory of evolution
has opened a crucial new front in the
three-year battle to weed out medi
ocrity in America’s schools.
California’s school board, led by
schools superintendent Bill Honig,
voted last week to reject the junior
high school texts printed by about a
dozen publishers. On Monday, seve
ral publishers agreed to revise their
texts to put more emphasis on the
theory of evolution, which holds that
mankind evolved from lower forms
of life.
But this wasn’t just a replay of the
old debate over Darwin and apes.
For the first time, the spotlight of
school reform shifted to where some
educators have argued it has be
longed all along — on educational
materials like textbooks and com
puter software that many have crit
icized as so dull and intellectually
bankrupt that they represent a
roadblock to school excellence.
California’s use of its texthook
buying power to force publishers to
make changes in biology texts
showed that in at least some respects,
educational excellence and the laws
of the marketplace are inseparable.
Honig, a maverick not easily cat
egorized as a liberal or conservative,
has taken on two formidable foes.
On one hand are religious funda
mentalists like Kelly Segraves who
operates the Science Creation Re
search Center in San Diego and who
have had considerable success in get
ting biology texts to give less space to
the theory of evolution. On the
other hand are textbook publishers
who have seen school reform
movements come and go, and who
have openly doubted that educatio
nal excellence sells in the long run.
States like California and Texas
have tremendous influence over
textbook content across the country.
Both are among the largest of the 24
states that havA statewide textbook
review process. Equally important,
the textbook selection process in
those states includes open hearings
at which religious fundamentalists
can argue their views before a broad
audience.
Last March, Texas’s attorney gen
eral ruled unconstitutional a state
board of education guideline requir
ing texts to present evolution as
“only one of several explanations of
the origins of humankind.”
But it’s the struggle with the pub
lishers, not the fundamentalists, that
could have lasting significance in de
termining the future direction of
school reform.
Honig is by no means the first to
criticize “dumbed down” texts.
Last February, former U.S. Edu
cation Secretary T.H. Bell criticized
the quality of texts. A month later,
Honig and other state education
chiefs tried unsuccessfully to form
an interstate textbook-purchasing
consortium.
New York City in 1982 removed
high school biology texts by three
publishers from that school district’s
“approved” book list because they
de-emphasized — or eliminated any
mention of — the theory of evolu
tion.
But until now, the quality of
school texts has received remarkably
little attention in the dozens of re
form reports that have made head
lines in the last several years — espe
cially considering that researchers
estimate that some 90 percent of
classroom activity is governed by
texts.
Greta Garbo
celebrates
80th birthday
Associated Press
It has been 63 years since Greta
Garbo made her first film; 53 years
since she uttered the immortal line,
“I want to be alone”; 44 years since
she retired from Hollywood.
As she turns 80 today, Garbo’s
dazzling beauty has faded but her
mystique, kept alive by public fas
cination, has not.
She retired from the screen in
1941 after “Two-Faced Woman” was
a critical and box office failure.
While “Camille,” and “Ninotchka”
became film festival staples, the
woman born as Greta Lovisa Gustaf-
fson and known worldwide simply as
“Garbo” kept to herself.
She was photographed in August
in Klosters, a Swiss Alpine resort.
Unrecognized by most of her fellow
vacationers, the actress now walks
with the aid of a stick and looks, if
anything, older than her years.
After breakfast each day, she dons
a yellow straw hat which covers most
of her face and sets off on a 90-min-
ute walk along the banks of the
Landquart River. Along the way, she
pauses to rest on a bench and savor a
long black cigar.
Harvard freshmen
view ’new world'
Associated Press
BOSTON — One giggling
freshman was lowered into a
sewer tank Monday, while others
signed up for a tour of black his
tory landmarks in field trips
meant to give newcomers to Har
vard University a new view of a
new world.
“We want them to open their
eyes,” said Burriss Young, asso
ciate dean of freshmen at Har
vard. “I’ve talked to seniors who
have never even been on a sub
way.”
Young packed 500 freshmen
into boats Monday for a tour of
Georges Island, a Civil War fort
in Boston Harbor and one of sev
eral unusual stops on a weeklong
orientation jaunt.
The dean had said the tour was
meant to show students how im
migrants must have felt as they
approached Boston. “We want
them to land in the harbor the
way immigrants did,” Young said.
But that idea was dropped be
fore the tour, and no mention
was made of immigrants. “That
was just some smart comment I
made,” Young said.
Instead, students were lectured
on manhole covers as clues to the
progress of civilization and a
young woman wearing a Prince-
town sweatshirt was lowered into
a sewer to show her what it
looked like and calm her fears
about rats underground.
“If all we ever look at are beau
tiful facades, all we will see are fa
cades,” said John E. Stilgoe, a
Harvard landscape historian,
who preceded the freshman into
the sewer.
t
“In the end all this beauty here
depends upon the sewer system,”
he said.
The odd introduction to col
lege life was organized by Young
when he realized that because of
the Jewish holidays, he had a few
more days than usual to orient
freshman before classes started
today.
Hollywood gala to benefit AIDS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Haunted by
AIDS-spawned paranoia, fears of
new blacklisting and the illness of
Rock Hudson, the entertainment in
dustry is asking its stars and moguls
to open up their checkbooks this
week to combat the deadly disease.
A black-tie “Commitment to Life”
benefit Thursday night at the Bona-
venture Hotel will feature a galaxy
of celebrity appearances and perfor
mances in an effort to raise more
than $1 million.
Elizabeth Taylor will be a co-host
with Burt Reynolds, Sammy Davis
Jr., Shirley MacLaine, and Burt Lan
caster. \
There will be an auction of an
Andy Warhol artwork, an award for
former first lady Betty Ford, and
performances by Cyndi Lauper, Rod
Stewart, the Gay Men’s Chorus of
Los Angeles, Carol Burnett and
Sammy Davis Jr.
More than 2,500 people paid up
to $500 each to attend the benefit
and TV interviewer Phil Donahue
and his actress wife, Mario Thomas,
A black-tie “Commitment
to Life” AIDS benefit
Thursday night at the Bo-
nave n tore Hotel will fea
ture a galaxy of celebrity
appearances and perfor
mances in an effort to
raise more than $1 mil
lion.
will make a pitch for more contribu
tions.
“The money will be distributed to
programs emoracing research and
support projects for victims,” said
Scott Barton, one of the gala’s orga
nizers.
Celebrities have frequently rallied
for causes, from the anti-nuclear
protests of the 1970s to famine relief
in the 1980s, and the AIDS benefit
had been planned before Hudson’s
illness was disclosed.
But Hudson’s struggle has galva
nized support for fighting the dis
ease. Two years ago, when comedian
Joan Rivers headlined the commu
nity’s first AIDS benefit at the Studio
One Backlot, there was little celeb
rity support.
Hudson is donating proceeds
from his uncompleted biography
“My Story” to AIDS research
through his Rock Hudson Founda
tion. He discovered last year that he
had AIDS, and has been at his Bev
erly Hills home since his Aug. 24 re
lease from UCLA Medical Center.
Homosexual entertainers, their
friends and associates who have not
fallen prey to acquired immune defi
ciency syndrome now see it as a
threat lurking everywhere.
The Screen Actors Guild told
movie and television producers in a
letter this week they want to discuss
possible discrimination against ho
mosexual actors “to quell un
founded fears which may be affect
ing the employability of performers
who may be gay or even just sus
pected of being gay.”
Out c^nnouncinq ...
gJUKStf ^TFJE 1985 cS> US TIN P
The Tuture Of Texas
featuring a focus on the 1986 Qubernatorial election
c Date: h{gvember 7-8,1985
Cos t- $ 28.00 (includes hotel transporta tion)
due oil or before October* 17,5'00p.m.
cpor gMore cfnfo Call 845~1515 limib 25 people
sign up begins SEPT 19
sQzlTlernoriicd Student Cerdt
jpv'-r 0 ''*
iW " :
HU
Welcome
Entering
lies!
Let us help you carry your books
home from school.
All our booKpacks are guaranteed to last through
'"graduation (with normal use). Visit us
soon and look over our large selection of
book/bike packs, shoulder bags and
briefcases.
We're open 'til 9 pm Thursdays,
IO-6pm weekdays and Saturdays.
Just off University at A^M's North Gate
V/here Quality Makes the Difference
Whole Earth Provision Co.
105 Boyett
College Station 8^6-8794
VERA’S
HAIR DESIGNS
“BRYAN - COLLEGE STATION’S FIRST HAIR STYLING TEAM”
AN AGGIE SPECIAL
2 haircuts 4 the price of 1
Bring a friend and receive free Don Sullivan hair shampoo
and conditioner
1800 Greenfield Plaza 846-4150 APPT
All Recognized University
organizations please pick
up Aggieland ’86 Contracts
in Student Finance Center
boxes or in Rm Oil Reed Mc
Donald.
Contract deadline to reserve space
in the yearbook is October 8.
Sponsored by
G
9
STUDENT
ERNMENT
TEXAS A & M UNIVERSITY
The Big Event
Applications Available Now for the
following positions:
• Publicity Chairman
• Student Involvement Chairman
• Community Involvement
Chairman
• Big Event General Committee
Get your application NOW at
The Student Government Office
213 Pavilion
845-3051
Applications due by 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27