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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 10, 1986)
Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, March 10, 1986 This is a test, this is only a test About 205,000 teachers and administrators are registered to take the Texas Examination of Current Administrators and Teachers (TECAT) today, according to the Texas Education Agency. Many say the test is unfair because entire careers hinge on one exam. Others say the test isn’t comprehensive enough, that the questions it asks are too basic. Actually, it is neither. The TECAT is being lauded as a competency test to raise the quality of teaching in the public school system, thereby rais ing the quality of education throughout the state. But the TE CAT has little to do with competency — at best, it is an assess ment of basic knowledge. TECAT measures such skills as an educator’s basic writing ability, use of an index or a table of contents and recognition sentence fragments and basic grammatical and spelling errors. But the test does not measure a teacher’s ability to perform in front of the classroom. It doesn’t determine how effectively an educator can relay information to students. It doesn’t ac count for an instructor’s ability to inspire students with enthu siasm and the desire to learn, yet these are important qualities for teachers. The TECAT examines the teacher’s basic knowledge, which is important. Teachers shouldn’t be allowed into the classroom if they don’t have a working knowledge of the subject matter. But teaching is more than just knowing the facts. Effective teaching is a skill, and like other skills, it can’t be accurately measured by a standardized test. This doesn’t mean the TECAT is useless. It represents a vital concern for education that has been absent from the public school system for too long. But we shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking the TECAT will give us more competent teachers. It will only weed out the weak ones, who, lacking the basic skills, shouldn’t have been allowed in the classroom in the First place. The Battalion Editorial Board •XCfS Oi T Asst JjUSTIN - achers will b of the des ire;iding and ine whether lbs. State officii ay fail the te be offered Pot pass w rtitkates — Commissiot Jirby said Sat 1 along that jr teachers fated and so ■teachers v “I’m convii ling is all sai Shis surnn AAkftSUUK W lT @ I486 HOAI0N POT 4 / 'U ©WWMOISWN United Feature Syndicate A new chapter for history book$ con the Laxalt Era of inflated rhetorid By JE I The la for unfill Queen Victoria so much rep- resented her time that it came to be called the Victo rian Era. For dif ferent reasons, the same was true of Napoleon and, in Russia, Stalin. Let me propose a man who better than anyone else rep- Richard Cohen tary of State George Shultz, for in stance, was quick to apply the lessons of Manila to the situation in Managua. He just couldn’t quite say what those lessons are. The opposition in the Philippines, led by the remarkable Corazon Aquino, was popularly based and — as anyone with a TV set could see — numerous. It was supported by elements of the mili tary, especially reformist-minded offi cers, and by tne all-important Catholic church. Mail Call Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must include the address and telephone number of the writer. Extension of American humanism EDITOR: I read your feature article in At Ease about the Peace Corps program with interest. I come from a foreign country (Niger) where Peace Corps programs are conducted. I personally met some of these brave young minds in search of new boundaries and broader experiences. It is really amazing to see how they can easily Fit in the social life and speak the local languages. It sets an example of Americans quite different from that perpetrated by the media. This example gives a human dimension to the American giant in the spectrum of nations. The Peace Corps program is an extension of American humanist hand to help those in need. It is a historical responsibility for America as a premier world power. At the same time, as several former volunteers pointed out, the Peace Corps experience gives young Americans a chance to open their eyes to other cul tures which have a lot to offer, to broaden their outlook, to understand and visualize international events and finally to discern betweerQhe false and the correct information broadcasts. Happy birthday to Peace Corps and many happy returns! Ibrahim Amadou resents our time: Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.). We live (if you can call it living) in the Laxalt Era. Only in an era of inflated rhetoric (freedom fighters, moral equals of the Founding Fathers), could Laxalt be praised as a great statesman for advising Ferdinand Marcos to step down. At the time, the Philippines’ army was in re volt, several hundred thousand people were in the streets, the world had just witnessed the stealing of an election and the Catholic church had asked its nuns to interpose themselves between muti nous army officers and Marcos’ tanks. The situation in Nicaragua is far dif ferent. By the testimony of the numer ous administration spokesmen, the so- called contra movement is going no where. Without American aid — covert, overt, lethal, non-lethal — it would wither in no time. Even with a minimum of $100 million in U.S. aid, that still might happen. The Nicaraguan military by and large still supports the Sandinista regime; the church is critical but not in open rebellion and the nation is not ending a second decade of an authorita rian regime, but just beginning its first. CIA headquarters. The United Sifl clearly backed her electoral insurgeil But it could be argued that sheisirl fice today despite — not on accoutfl — the long-term policies of the Real administration which backed Marca| most to the last minute. Only whenr ity tapped like woodpeckers on heads of senior administrationoffic was the policy reversed. History does not necessarily subsc to Commentary, the neo-conserv; magazine and its fancy foriegn-pfl doctrines. What works in one coufl may not work in another. Thereisa dif ference between assisting a rev tion in one country and fomentini counterrevolution in another. Laxalt would be wise not tositb In the V lommitte |he Conn Bight. I Denis Bays aboi to be fille The C the two fronting ICenter - dered T the rece »y MSC The N approva order. Board o percent phone. The lessons of Manila don’tsj essarily apply to Managua. Maybetli of Vietnam do. Richard Cohen is a columnist for Washington Post Writers Group. What did Laxalt do under such cir cumstances? Did he suggest to Marcos that he shoot a few nuns to restore or der? He did no such thing. He told Mar cos what was clear to every television viewer: It was all over, Ferdi. Laxalt’s good judgment takes your breath away. Laxalt lends his name to our era because he is the personification of the school of thought that says the United States really had a choice in the Philippines, that it moved early and decisively and that — here comes the really smart part — that all the lessons learned in Manila can and ought to be applied to Mana gua. The two have so much in common. Not only do both cities begin with the letter “M,” but most of the people living in them are small (by American stan dards) and darker-skinned. It’s time to move. Wagons, ho! The Laxalt Era would hardly be worth the name if it did not also have a doctrine. It is this: Establish an alterna tive evil to the regime you are opposing and then ask people to choose. In An gola, the doctrine compels the United States to ally itself with Joseph Savimbi’s UNITA movement which itself is both identified with, and beholded to, a racist regime in South Africa. In Nicaragua, the administration has worked the same magic. It has cleverly asked Nicaraguans to choose between an oppressive and in competent regime on the one hand and the legendary Yankee interventionist on the other. Some have chosen the Sandi- nistas; some the contras. Most, it seems, have made no choice at all. Historians will note that in the Laxalt Era this is what passed for logic. Secre- Even in the Laxalt Era, to think that Nicaragua can follow where the Phil ippines has gone takes some imagina tion. At no time were Filipinos asked to choose between their indigenous re gime, as loathsome as it might be, and a foreign power. Mrs. Aquino, unlike the contras, was not on the American dole and her movement was not created at The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association • Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Michelle Powe, Editor Kay Mallett, Managing Editor Loren Stef'fy, Opinion Page Editor Jerry Oslin, City Editor Cathie Anderson, News Editor Travis Tingle, Sports Editor DALLA Bfitors ro -Blcompc bl challei dismiss p cause, the ported Su |: In a o said that qualified finely e xc! flhe n month ii P (ls eai tt makeup i rqmpton prosecute Editorial Policy I he Battalion .t non-pioth. self-supportingi , pel operated as a community set vice to Lexus A&Mw h<lV( Bryan-CotlegeStation. capital ca Opinions expressed in I he liattalion are those olM mk Editorial Board or the author and do not necessarily^ B resent the opinions of Texas AXM administrators, facuk | or the Board of Regents. I The Battalion also serves as a laboratory nenspapethi students in reporting, editing and photograph) chs# within the Department of Communications. ■ The Battalion is published Monday through FridiJ during Texas A&M t egular semesters, except torhoSm and examination pet iods. Mail subscriptions arc Sib 1 * per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 perl year. Advertising t ales furnished on request. Out address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDomV Building, Texas A&M L ’niversity, College Station, ft 77843. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77SH- POS TMASTER; Send address thanges lo The Battal ion, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843. set ‘The Right Stuff’ buried beneath bureaucracy “The Right Stuff’ — No one’s expecting such stalwartly prom ised success from NASA these days. Instead of mixing more men and millions of dollars under its magi cian’s hat of bu reaucracy, NASA relations effort in recent years, most of us stopped pondering these space mis- sions a while back. ers satisfy the public? No common sense, no sound judgement, Rogers ac cused. And nowhere to turn. Cynthia Gay must pull out of its past — right now. The heroic mist that anointed our astronauts with America’s awe began fading away long before Challenger blew up the shuttle panacea for space flight. To keep us dimly cognizant of its bu- sywork in recent years, NASA has pushed “We Deliver” slogans on us, im plying train-like simplicity and filled our school children’s minds with starry sug gestions that they throw away their Flash Gordon comic books and study chemisty and calculus and computers. Science would see them in space one day, NASA promised. While the American school child has lived at the forefront of NASA’s public Challenger got our attention all right, but it took losing one-fourth of the U.S. shuttle fleet and, more importantly, seven lives. So now we’ve exchanged ap athy for worry. Worry that it’s costing too much, and that “flawed decision making processes” may be everyday sna fus at NASA. We worry that it might happen again. If the world’s rotation had somehow skipped past Jan. 28, or if that disas trous day’s temperatures had been 20 degrees warmer, would NASA be in the nation’s hot seat today? We’d probably be a little bored with school-teacher-in- space stories, wondering when NASA would get around to inviting us, Joe jan itors and gas station mechanics, to see the moon for a weekend. So now we read on our front pages that NASA employees are walking the halls with their heads down, and the Johnson Space Center has hired a psy chologist to pep rally sagging morale. Considering that during his first days on the job 1,050 NASA workers were laid off at the Kennedy Space Center, this psychologist has an almost insur mountable task. Granted, NASA needs an administra tive cleanup and a possible service job on its solid-fuel rocket boosters, but the space agency should not have waited for a 13-member presidential firing squad to find dust under the shuttle rug. Can such painful stated shots like those aimed by commission head Willian Rog- Furthermore, boosted morale has tra ditionally marched hand-in-hand with success and solid fuel booster rockets. Rather than spending more money sticking band-aids on emotional wounds, better to root out the source of NASA’s problem. Depression’s fog will rise into space as more changes and ad justments are made up top. Lately we’ve endured the press crit icizing Congress for criticizing the presi dent for putting his own commission in charge of criticism. All these public- image piranhas must get in their shots at the shuttle, or forever hold their pout. It seems our congressmen’s sensors have bleeped back to Capitol Hill that Americans are torn by a two-pronged feeling — a lingering sympathy for the families of the seven who died and a fid gety intolerance with NASA. In the wake of political paranoia, NASA is now delaying the next shuttle launch. Twelve, maybe 18 months later Americans won’t be so hungry for tan gible results, right? NASA shouldn’t count on it. Gramm-Rudman budget cuts will have burned deeper in our con sciousness and pocketbooks by then. As a result, taxpayers may look askance at the typically hyped dregs of NASA news. worthwhile profit, he it dollars or scifl tific breakthroughs — as long as something Americans can sink il teeth into and then send more monel But as a bureaucracy, NASA issd paperwork and paper managers, t®! heavy with regulation and empilj handed of enthusiasm. Moreover, neither Morton Thiol 1 The space agency publicly says to ex pect perfect launches, flying journalists and, last but not least, the first Indone sian woman should be up there soon. In other words, forget real results and step right up to be taken in. It’s called manned space flight, but all this public relations passenger emphasis, dragging on in Challenger’s aftermath, is merely monkeying around — more costly and distracting than the first furry creatures that were launched from earth two de cades ago. Being a bureaucracy, NASA forgets from time to time that it must prove a Inc. or Rockwell Corp. should should* the burdensome blame. They pr f j duced. Then they warned. Free entd prise came through in the clutch, M NASA officials just couldn’t swityI gears. Then again, flexibility never a 1 * I grace the hallmark of bureaucracy. ' “The fact of the matter is, it isn’t cl# I who is running the agency,” saidJoeAj len, a former astronaut who now wort I for Space Industries Inc. He’s smartl® switching. He knows the surer profitli* 1 1 where the bread is best buttered. Taking this and many hints like it,tl' 1 federal government should trad*I NASA, in its glutton of bureaucracy,! a streamlined corporate existence feeding off its own funds to the satisfa* tion of America and her taxpayers. Cynthia Gay is a junior journalism 0 jor and a columnist for The Battalm wr