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Wednesday, October 11,1989
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By Andrea Warrenburg
Of The Battalion Staff
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A College Station elementary school teacher
has been chosen one of the six finalists for the
1990 Texas Teacher of the Year award.
Charlotte Slack, a second grade teacher from
Rock Prairie Elementary School, is one of the
three finalists in the elementary school category
in the running for the honor. Three other fi
nalists are in the high school category — all were
chosen from hundreds of nominees from school
districts across Texas.
The six teachers will travel to Austin at the end
of October to be interviewed by a panel of judges
made up of representatives from various state
teacher organizations. Only one will be chosen by
the panel to represent Texas in the national com
petition.
“The administration is excited,” Slack said.
“Since we’ve never had anyone enter the contest
before, we didn’t think we’d go this far.”
Each school district can enter only one applica
tion to the panel. Slack’s 19-page essay applica
tion was chosen the district winner above the
other applications from the seven elementary, ju
nior high and high schools in the College Station
Independent School District.
“I was surprised to win because there are so
many wonderfully outstanding teachers in this
district,” Slack said. “I can’t even comprehend
the state selection yet.”
Slack has been a teacher for 15 years, 13 of
them in the CSISD. She said it is her inquisitive
nature that led her into the teaching profession.
“My inquisitive nature led me to teaching and
helps keep me there today,” Slack said. “I had the
simplistic idea that I wanted to help children an
swer their questions. I never seriously considered
any other profession.”
Slack’s philosophies include teaching in a posi
tive atmosphere, emphasizing the things the chil
dren do best and communicating with students
and the parents.
“The essence of teaching, and one cornerstone
of my philosophy, is a deep respect for the worth
and dignity of each individual child in my class
room,” she said. “Each family sends to me their
very best, their most precious being. They have
entrusted this child to my guidance, and I accept
that trust with a deep sense of commitment to do
my best.”
Slack said she has not thought down the road
to actually winning the honor.
“My goal is right here — to work with the chil
dren everyday,” she said.
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
Clayton Williams gives students a Gig ’Em Tuesday night.
Williams warns Texas:
drug offenders will pay
By Mia B. Moody
Of The Battalion Staff
“China, reform or regression?”
was the topic of a forum Tuesday
night of A&M staff members who
were in China during the Tianan
men Square demonstrations.
Dr. Jon Alston, a sociology profes
sor, said during his visit in April and
May, he saw a mixture of success and
failure in Chinese economics.
“There is a positive trend toward
economics in China,” Alston said.
“People are well fed, healthy, live in
decent homes and really aren’t wor
ried about the bare necessities any
more, but this economic progress is
concentrated mostly on farms.”
Alston said intellectuals, state and
industrial workers haven’t enjoyed
economic progress because of the
high inflation rate. In fact, he said
taxicab drivers make more than pro
fessors.
Dr. Lawrence Wolken, a lecturer
in the finance department, said gad
gets such as televisions, video tape
recorders and telephones are more
prevalent in China than in 1986.
“When I was in China before, the
only phones that were around were
Freshman runoff elections decided
>y Michael Kelley
The Battalion Staff
Bill Benker was elected the Class of ’93 president for
the 1989-90 school year. Benker, a general studies ma-
or from Houston defeated Esther Cochran, a political
icience major from Plano, by 31 votes, earning 53 per-
:ent of the 560 votes cast in the freshman runoff elec-
perso: tions yesterday.
Benker said he will now work to unify the freshman
lass by working with his newly elected staff to find out
what the Class of ’93 wants to do this year. He especially
wants to start working on the freshman ball at the end
of the year to begin the fundraising needed to purchase
the class gift in 1993.
Cochran said she would run again next year, but in
the meantime would work with Benker, whom she said
was a good friend of hers. She said she wants to work to
see her canned food drive competition idea become a
reality between the A&M freshman class and the Uni
versity of Texas freshman class.
The following Class of ’93 positions were also filled
from yesterday’s elections:
• Vice President—John Sweeney
• Treasurer — Greg Hurst
• Secretary — Lance Ogletree
• Social Secretary — Blair Johnson
• Historian — Dean Blackenship
phones at work, which were always
busy,” he said. “Now a few people
have their own private home pho
nes.”
“During my first visit, people
didn’t have television sets, or if they
did they were black and white ones,”
Wolken said. “Now many people
have their own color televisions.”
Wolken said many farmers were
facing problems because the govern
ment wouldn’t allow prices to be set
by natural supply and demand.
“The government had very low
fixed prices for grain which caused
farmers to spend more on produc
tion than they made at the market,”
Wolken said. “On the other hand,
there was no price control on vegeta
bles and they were bringing in a big
profit. This made most farmers
switch from producing grains to veg
etables.”
Wolken said the government then
imposed a quota on the amount of
grain farmers had to produce.
Alston said the black market is
popular because it is the best way to
See China/Page 6
By Melissa Naumann
Of The Battalion Staff
Clayton Williams, Class of ’54, will
bust drug offenders by having them
bust rocks if he is elected governor.
Continuing on the campaign trail,
Williams spoke to the A&M College
Republicans Tuesday and em
phasized his plan to give drug of
fenders a “second chance,” sending
them to a 90-day boot camp, fol
lowed by a six-month work camp.
“I want to teach those young crim
inals the joy of busting rocks while
they build roads and parks to pay us
back for the damage they’ve done,”
he said. “If someone doesn’t want a
second chance, Gov. Williams will
have a place in the penitentiary for
them.”
Williams, who teaches a class on
entrepreneurship at A&M, said the
drug problem needs to be ap
proached from a business point of
view, dealing with supply and de
mand.
While planning to cut down on
the drug supply, most of Williams’
focus is on demand. He will fine
drug offenders $20,000, revoke the
driver’s licenses of high school stu
dents caught with marijuana and ex
pel college students caught with
drugs at state schools.
Williams said he will announce his
plans for funding his drug program
Friday.
He approached the education is
sue by saying that teachers are the
ones who know what needs to be im
proved, not legislators.
“The best fertilizer is the foot
prints of the owner,” he said.
High school students who aren’t
college-bound frequently get bored
with courses on Shakespeare and
drop out, Williams said. These stu
dents need more options to keep
them from dropping out, he said.
“If you can’t get a job, you’ve got
two roads,” he said. “You’ve got a
road to welfare and a road to crime.”
He said he will veto any mandates
from the state Legislature to local
schools that don’t provide state
funds, so local taxes won’t have to be
raised.
“We don’t need more taxes — we
need less government,” he said.
Williams said the business envi
ronment in Texas is suffering be
cause the Senate doesn’t support leg-
islation such as worker’s
compensation or reform on product
liability.
“The liberal Democrats are run
ning the state of Texas and they’re
running it like a wrecking machine,”
he said. “We’ve got to give them
their pink slips.”
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846-3238
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Otter good Oct. 2,1989 Otter expires Oct. 24,1989
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2501 Texas Ave.
College Station, TX 77840
693-2331