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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1999)
Po he Battalion o PINION Page 13 • Wednesday, February 17, 1999 noring the fruits of education Students need to look beyond grades, embrace joy of learning Christian ROBBINS ble title after :| ranked eightM way they defee::|- 2, 3,5 and 10tel come the firstd that title. The duo cunerj overall. Madder I up the individual jumping from No.f 23 in the record. d All-Amt Year by leaguec;! 1 was an all-tourrf lection at Challenge Mich. Moscovic seii freshman recordtr assists with 1,25! fifth in the per game. Sheal;:jp records for assist game Big 12 mar against the P Michigan and as. ; : freshman in a sri : with 74 again# ty of Colorado. jch ensli lis coaching ca 1 dual-match record 1 and is a member collegiate Tennis and Texas Tennis sociation Halls o 1 Kent was duction by a se' GABRIEL RUENES/Thk Battalion A t Texas A&M, grades have taken im portance over learning and stu dents are sacrific ing their quest for knowledge in pursuit of higher GPAs. Is it possible to enjoy learning and still make good grades? The answer lies within the problem, which is the administration, teachers and stu dents. Higher education is a huge finan cial investment. Students invest in themselves in order to become mar ketable within the work force and also to become informed citizens. Doug Clayton, human resource manager for GE Capital said, “A col lege degree gets your foot in the door ,because we know that you have the will to complete objectives that you start, but after that its how you per form that keeps you here. ” Once students enter the work force and society in general, they cannot perform efficiently if they have learned nothing but how to memorize enough material to make an “A” on a test without actually learning the material or why it is useful in life. In many curricula, there is one of two flaws. First, some departments make the student’s degree plan so rigorous and structured that the stu dent cannot take anything outside of his or her major. How can anyone become a well- rounded student when they have to spend 4, 5, 6 or 7 years in classes that only pertain to one subject? It is ex tremely difficult to take a class when the punishment is prolonged gradua tion or paying out-of-state tuition. Von Goethe said, “They teach in academies far too many things, and far too much that is useless.” Departments should keep this in mind, when developing curricula. They must realize that in order to make students marketable, students must be diverse and well-rounded. A student may make straight “A”s in industrial distribution, but when he or she is in a relaxed business set ting and someone makes a reference to famous literature, a college gradu ate should not draw a blank because only basic literature was allowed in their college curriculum. Teachers are the catalysts of the classroom. Some teachers have no choice but to teach toward a test, but in other cases, there is no excuse. Many professors have had the same test for years and instead of altering the test to fit what their students have learned; they alter what they teach to fit the outdated test. The professors’ lack of enthusiasm is seen by their monotonous tones as they babble directly from notes and in extreme cases directly from a text book. Students recognize and rave about teachers who are excited about a subject. These are the classes that stay full when attendance is not tak en. When a professor is excited about a subject, most students are excited, too and class material re mains the focus, not grades. Teachers need to give students credit for making it to college. It is improbable that any professor would like to pay thousands of dollars to hear someone read directly from a book or piece of paper. Reading a nice poem, passage or even from the syllabus for clarification is fine, but reading from American Government: Past and Present, 5th edition is unac ceptable. All college students can read. Professors have the power to peak interest in a subject or halt it all together. In some subjects, open dis cussion is not possible or productive, but guest speakers, like a mathemati cian or an accountant, can help stu dents learn how the subject pertains to real life situations. Students are the most affected and damaged by putting grades before learning. Students have the tendency to forget why they decided to come to college. Yes, students come here in hopes of finding jobs after gradua tion, but why (besides money) did they want that job? What did stu dents love about their majors? What did that love about learning? There should be no joy in a 4.0 if there are no thoughts, experiences, and new knowledge to back it up. Students can also be part of the solution by paying attention in class and not facilitating collective stupidi ty by asking repetitive questions. But students must also begin to respect questions and comments of others and not become disgruntled when the class discussion progresses to something that may be relevant and helpful in learning, but not included on the test. Tests will never be abolished in a public school and they should not be, but the material tested over should reflect real life experience. Is it possible to enjoy learning a still make good grades? Yes, good grades and sincere learning go hand in hand. The reward for all of the hard work, money and dedication stu dents put into a higher education should not be manifested in a high GPA, but vast knowledge, experience and introduction to society as a well rounded citizen. Christian Robbins is a junior speech communications major. Danel appointed! ?d States Tennis ; fexas Section. Science without humanity may spell end for artistic s well as scientific community around nation, world MAIL CALL ay here is a growing danger that ;ience and the umanities are rowing farther nd farther apart. For example, ist fall, compos- r Michael Gor- Cai.fr MCDANIEL senfed fc on Sand librettist if lattliew Maguire debuted an opera about flBll ^ aos theor y en tided, appropriately, Chaos.” I From the reeling reception the opera re- eived from music critics, it appears the ti- j , e says it all. The cacophonous musical 5 /regressions and discordant harmonies /f-lywere indeed chaotic, if not anarchic, and tr he subconscious repetition of the libretto rilled home the central premise of chaos 1 heory — “The movement of a butterfly’s iring in Beijing can magnify till it sets a [ansas cyclone spinning.” At that point in the score, the opera ayperson might say, “Give me a break.” 4odern mathematics and music do not ShOW T ^ in ^ S su P erstrin S Theory just S rev { s Deli vere not meant to be string arrangements, tl-conceived operas like Gordon’s and 4aguire’s seem to prove the idea that sci- nce and art should go their merry ways nd never the two should meet. Physicists an stick to quarks and painters can stick ■ collages. Madama Butterfly should not >-nlj tomionn ■ m. , . , „ , J , \ nrioi l W' t0 klck U P Kansas cyclones. On the other hand, “Chaos” illustrates the difficult dilemma that art and science find themselves in at the end of the 20th century. In a civilization where the arts have always communicated the central values of being human, what happens when science begins to encroach upon those values? This question is played out on much smaller levels even at places like Texas A&M University — what is a science-based research institution to do about those pesky humanities? As abstract or seemingly melodramatic as such questions must be, citizens of a sci entific age must face them. As the new mil lennium approaches, we must be careful to avoid one of Gandhi’s most timely social sins — science without humanity. On its most basic level, Gandhi’s warn ing reminds us that science cannot be con ducted without humanity if only because alone humans delve into science. In reality, that reminder is what the opera “Chaos” tried to convey. In the Feb. 14 issue of The New York Times, composer Gordon revealed the deeper point behind his score. “If you don’t know anything about sci ence,” Gordon says, “you might think it’s this very cut-and-dried thing.” The opera instead tried to capture the “very human, very raw way” scientists work. “The scientific process is as human as the artistic process,” he said. “It’s an emotionally driven, passionately driven en deavor. ” In other words, even physics can be po etry because both are produced by human beings. But to deify physics and throw out poetry would throw out the passion of the scientific enterprise, the youthful exuber ance of a Bill Nye, the Science Guy. For the aim of science is not to undermine arts, but to understand Michael Faraday’s wide-eyed revelation, “Nothing is too wonderful to be true. ” It should be obvious that science with out humanity would not only be boring — it would be self-defeating. As science be comes increasingly theoretical, we must not allow it to become sterile and static, because “Science” is not its own self-sus taining personality suspended somewhere in the ether — it is something humans do. And scientists cannot take off their human ity, their deepest sense of what is beautiful or right, just to put on their lab coats. The danger of such a divorce between science and scientists, however, raises a second specter that our civilization is just beginning to fathom. Science without hu manity would also mean science uncon strained by ethics and morality. This danger grows more real by the decade, and hopefully its worst realities have already been lived out by the Nazi scientists who conducted torturous experi ments on human babies. Our moral dilem mas with science may not be as salient as the inhumanity of the Nazis, but just be cause they are more subtle does not mean they are less important. An age of genetic engineering and environmental issues rais es human questions that cannot be punched into a calculator. When confronted with these human is sues, science cannot scoff at Pascal’s sug gestion that knowledge of science will not be as helpful as knowledge of God in times of moral distress. Science’s attempts to find ethics in evo lution or morality in the theory of relativity have ranged from the ridiculous to the in sidious, and it is high time that human val ues be reassigned in the scientific sphere. To hear some scientists talk, one would think that a human’s only obligation is to his or her genes. Scientific reductionism has begun to reduce morality to math. To rant about such dangers now may be a bit premature. But the spooky images of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World may not be so imaginary. If science leaves humanity behind, the future world will not be a nice place for humans to live because it will not be human at all. On a practical level, perhaps the most we can do right now is refuse to let our academic communities teach science with out the humanities. Small steps taken now to protect human values and norms from abridgement by science can reap great re wards in the future. Even though modern science may be more remote from the average human un derstanding, science is still, above all, a hu man project. And science without humanity is chaos indeed. Caleb McDaniel is a sophomore history major. Clinton removal trial not “circus” In response to Manisba Parekh’s Feb. 16 opinion column. The Independent Council did not “fail” and the GOP is far from “trained monkeys.” For all the per sonal attacks against Ken Starr, no one disputes his findings. Even some of Clinton’s most loy al defenders acknowledge that he committed perjury and quite possi bly obstruction of Justice. These are felonies, and it saddens me that a robust economy and an apa thetic public can save Clinton. He was not prosecuted for pri vate sexual behavior, but for violat ing an oath more than once, and enlisting others in the fight to ob struct justice. I am thankful for those who stood against the pre vailing political winds and decided to do what is right. Jonathan Jones Class of ’02 The Battalion encourages letters to the ed itor. Letters must be 300 words or less and in clude the author’s name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style, and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in person at 013 Reed Mc : Donald with a valid student ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: UU Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: batt@tamvml.tamu.edu