Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1999)
1999 cat Battalion O PINION Page 7 • Friday, March 5, 1999 ’ear ! $ Same old song and dance " lofessors who lecture from textbooks alone do disservice to themselves y their students David LEE or those students reading this edition of The Battalion in the half-empty class- onis all across campus, con- 1 K filiations are in order. mm least they have the gump- ' in to show up to class. Skip- joubW c l ass at Texas A&M is as ITMilar a tradition as mugging vith D M a stranger at Midnight Yell baskf-shouting obscenities at Bon- I stack. ■he scenario is a familiar one: the day of an tail, the lecture hall is jam packed with focused udents. The next time class convenes, however, ere are empty seats galore, les, poor discipline and blatant laziness of stu- mts are among the culprits. After all, Aggie stu- ?nts are at the age where they should have the ‘lidiscipline and maturity to attend class on a ■lar basis. ■owever, having professors who teach strictly it of the textbook, instead of presenting more in- ■ information, does not help the situation. It Kan'i: lows students to become complacent and lazy, in idition to wasting valuable lecture time that Derce mid be used more resourcefully. Consider the fol- ■ng: •Students have no incentive to attend lecture. fh\ should they? If students know that every- T ~ liig is going to be taken straight out of the book, tnkb kure periods will prove to be pointless. Why sit cenie’B lecture hall for an hour listening to something > P a iat is already in the textbook? imete;Kt uc j en t s will rationalize that they can make up P en ' lissing lectures by reading the textbook a few he \\;» e times. They run the risk of missing out on in- eybeaijs discussions as well as pointers that the pro- liodes JBqj- ma y ma ke on possible exam questions. easy^Whis procrastination eventually culminates in ||Mll-nighter the night before an exam. The only *:®ntive students have for attending lecture peri- dais obtaining information that is not mentioned m (ithe textbook. By not presenting this informa- ^oi, professors will welcome students to think ie\ have nothing to lose if they miss lecture. •Relying on a textbook reflects laziness on QT/ie professor’s part. Granted, the majority of the ♦iVcilUy here at A&M works very hard to create ^ iliprehensive course work for their respective 2 perc The. 1 whet 7 4 Fe! classes. Many rely heavily on their own research and information, using a textbook sparingly. These professors should be commended for their diligence and hard work. However, for a professor to completely rely on a single textbook and refrain from using other sources to edu cate his or her students is irre sponsible and downright lazy. Instead of using lecture periods to rehash material the student should have read outside of class, why not take advantage of the time to present more in formation? By taking the easy way out, professors are robbing students of valuable time, time that could be better spent on something else. They are, in essence, reduc ing the class to the level of a high school course. Heck, why not just show a videotape? Or assign mere busywork like a crossword puzzle? •The system is unfair to stu dents who do not skip. These are the students who suffer the most. They possess the drive to consistently attend class, eager to work hard for their grade. These students are more like ly to actually read the textbook than those students who skip. This proves to be an interesting paradox since these hard-work ing students are the ones forced to sit through lectures re-ac- counting information they al ready have read. Sleeping, reading and socializ ing become popular activities during the lecture pe riod. Meanwhile, the students who need this infor mation the most are out and about town, laughing at the poor chumps who actually showed up to class. No, truancy will not grind to a screeching halt if all professors were more responsible. Skipping class will always be a popular activity in college. Howev er, by diversifying the sources and types of informa tion presented in lecture, more students will force themselves to attend class in order to get all the in formation necessary to get a good grade. ROBERT HYNECEK/The Battalion By limiting themselves to a textbook, professors are inviting truancy. Until more professors make the change, take heart. Finding an empty seat in class will be the last of a students’ worries. David Lee is a sophomore general studies major. Kosovo situation requires American intervention A Luke SAUGIER itudents respond iiiiaiKp creation debate In response to Christina Bar- r tant m’and Brendan Guy’s Mar. 3 iP e P°;imns. 5ica (P ^ iel1 !! In his column, Guy proceeded i l ' n jtnake inaccurate blanket t' 115 Jtements such as, “there is no fl P ,e hidence to support creationism” id! “it is a belief that can only justified by faith, because it is jainly not justifiable by evi- e.” n the contrary, more and e evidence is being discov- every day that points to the :ence of the almighty Creator ,the author of the universe as jknow it. He did not even both- / extract quotes from more 0 lucated professionals on the ect... kind of arrogant to _ ffie such bold statements and JJback them up. Cefyagree with what Barrows Texas'*. “Evolution appears to be a system held together by as r TA,vl Jlh faith as as any other creed.” Statistics alone denote the high improbability and impossibil ity of a random collection of hy drogen and helium molecules somehow evolving into the con sciousness of man. Common sense alone says that one cannot put chicken soup to a fan and get a coherent sentence. I would also like to point out the conference held earlier in February on the meaning of evil and suffering in life. It was a very good program, presenting the answer to this question from the view of Secu lar, Naturalism, Christianity and Eastern beliefs. In his presentation, Dr. Ravi Zachariah makes this statement: “If the universe did come into ex istence by totally random means, then we would have no sense of the difference between good and evil, for Chance is ‘amoral,’ in that it does not care whether things are good or bad. “It happens just the same ... so how can we as humans draw a moral line between good and evil, if Chance is the only thing ruling the universe? Chance does not care. Chance does not have a moral code that says one thing is good and the other is evil. Only an almighty, good and benevolent creator could give men the consciousness in their hearts to know the difference.” One last thing. Darwin himself said in his book when talking about the complexity of the hu man eyeball that it is highly un likely that such a complex and in tricate biological machine could just “happen” without the direc tion of a Supreme and Intelligent Master Architect. Christina Virgilio Class of '00 Taking earlier biblical texts as fact is as close-minded as taking them as fiction. In my opinion, the main point behind the book of Gene sis is to give the impression that God was in control of cre ation, not to give the vehicle of creation. Taking into account that sec tions of the Bible were written as interpretations of visions, not first hand accounts, shows the metaphor that exists with out disputing the power of God. If a fast-paced vision of uni versal creation (the big bang) and evolution were given to you, how would you put them into words? Brian Murray Class of ’99 The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words or less and include 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 McDonald 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: 111.1. Fax: (409) 845-2647 E-mail: batt@tamvml.tamu.edu menca s threatened .intervention in Kosovo begs the question, “Does America have any right or obligation to go around try ing to solve the problems of other nations?” The answer — absolutely. America is by far the most power ful nation on Earth, and no other country can enter Kosovo. However, this raises the question, “What will be the cost of intervening in this way, and does the government have the right to order citizens to go fight and die in another country for a cause which in no way affects them?” Definitely not. Fortunately, this is not a problem. According to Richard Marcinko, a former Navy Seal, there are hundreds, even thousands of American soldiers who would relish the chance to volunteer to go to an other country and put their military training into action. Marines should know they enlisted to kill people and break things, and right now, they are getting to do pre cious little of either. “Peacekeeping” missions , such as this one, should be entirely composed of active-duty personnel since they entered the military by choice, know ing what their service might entail. It should be made abundantly clear to all volunteers that they are there to protect women, children and innocents by hunting down and eradi cating the people who engage in genocide. As for the cost, there are so many benefits to this kind of voluntary war fare that the cost would be virtually nil. Casualties would be fairly light, as our troops would be fighting forces Newsweek described as “untrained, armed thugs. “ Our troops and commanders would gain combat experience, which would be invaluable in case of a real war. These experiences would provide our military the opportunity to refine its training and operational procedures in a real combat environment. The next question that must be an swered is should America intervene on behalf of people in other nations? Ideally America could simply sit back and let all the people of the Earth do their own thing. Unfortunately, the “thing” for some people is to kill members of another tribe, religion or ethnic group. Even this would be OK if everyone in the region was involved in the killing, be- fcause then there would be no inno cent bystanders because everyone “Thus, innocent people are suffering, and something needs to be done/ 7 would be equally involved. In actuality, the people with guns do not want to shoot at other armed people; they might shoot back. In stead, the thugs kill women and chil dren who want nothing to do with the whole conflict. Thus innocent people are suffering, and something needs to be done. The Kosovo situation is not like Vietnam where Americans felt their ideology was at stake. The fighting in Kosovo is mostly about who is allowed to occu py certain areas. America’s success as a nation proves that the American way of life is the best. It is therefore America’s right to force other cultures to abandon those aspects of their way of life which lead to the suffering of innocents. Ethnic groups that continue to en gage in such violent and destructive activities should be dispersed to facili tate the loss of their culture of hate. America’s intervention in situations where innocent people are being hurt is necessary and just. Managed cor rectly it provides valuable learning op portunities for our military, as well as a steady supply of combat veterans. Cultures which engage in genocide should be forced to conform to a more constructive lifestyle, namely ours. America carries the biggest stick, so we can speak as loudly as we want. Luke Saugier is a sophomore petroleum engineering major.