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
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Letters may be submitted in person at 013
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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.