ie Battalion
O
PINION
Page 11 • Monday, October 4, 1999
Wesil
EWARE THE ROBOPROF
rofessors’ actions add to students’ sparse attendance
rofessors at Texas
&M University
end to become
lily irate when half
indents do not
~V 'the' t0 show up for
[tedpes after the first
arkumiya
ek of school.
Many attempt to
rent this phenome-
JESSICA
CRUTCHER
ISRAEl
bv taking attendance, often making
ipossible for students to pass the
ss if they miss more than a given
iraber of classes.
However, it should be noted that al-
T‘ olh some students do skip out of
j£:j|QHess, many times it is instead be-
K they doubt they might glean any-
instanti ing useful from lectures,
jse,’ . s ar;: j^tead of accusing students of apa-
e refugee I ].. c turers should look toward them-
[led by ::B s jf they notice a consistent drop in
i/reakec t enc jance from a large percentage of
1 concern: ei r class .
?*y- Students cannot be expected to gain
ts groupsjl e y should from classes if instruc-
ut theIniBafg unable to speak understandable
advance.M s h, choose to lecture directly from
intingto»ook or are generally apathetic
ingthose wut their classes. .
?tribution Host students have had at least one
or, peacf|)f, ssor in their academic careers who
-ea neariiHwould like to see permanently
said the I
wasielarcj
oldiers
^eek in
the !ai
barred from teaching, and sometimes
the reason for this hostility is the poor
English skills of the instructor.
Kristin Yerex, a sophomore health
education major, said the difficulty of
language barriers in the classroom can
impair learning.
“How are you supposed to learn any
thing when your professor speaks Chi
nese?,” Yerex asked. “You cannot pay at
tention to the lecture because you are
too busy trying to understand what she
is saying.”
Yerex’s statement expresses the frus
tration felt by many students stuck with
professors they cannot understand.
If students do not feel they will bene
fit from the lecture, they probably will
skip class.
The professor who chooses to lecture
directly from the text at 8 a.m. on a Fri
day morning also should expect low at
tendance rates.
This kind of professor seems to be
the most likely to take attendance in a
300-person class, simply to ensure peo
ple will show up. Tbying to keep track of
that many people takes a great deal of
time that could be better invested com
ing up with a more interesting way to
say in lecture what the book has not al
ready said.
Basic reading skills are a requirement
for A&M students. Therefore, students
should be able to comprehend the text
without having it read to them in class.
Students should not be criticized as too
lazy to come to class if professors are too
lazy to come up with relevant lectures.
Students also tend to be driven away
from classes in which professors them
selves seem not to care about the class.
Tenured professors often are more
prone to be in this frame of mind. Since
their jobs are guaranteed, their grade
distributions basically cease to matter.
There are few things more frustrating
than a professor who rambles vaguely
for an hour every day, then administers
a departmental exam with seemingly no
relation to the lecture material.
There will always be students who
skip class no matter how wonderful the
professor is.
However, if there is a marked decrease
in everyday attendance — 200 people in
a 400-person classroom — the instructor
should consider changing his or her lec
ture format instead of punishing absent
students.
Many students have a great deal of
motivation and would be happy to at
tend class if they believed it would be
worth their time.
Jessica Crutcher is a sophomore
journalism major.
mark McPherson/i hk battalion
eepingo]
ellysaid tk
- since ero
the early
.^nhes^lSry
ontroversial ‘Dutch 5 biography skews line between fact, fiction
MARK
PASSWATERS
OH
jids when
were
nger. As
Y grew up.
Hose imagi
nary friends
bmj/jivay.
But what happened to them?
the case of author Edmund
jis, that imaginary friend
Id up in the Reagan White
pe.
orris is the author of Dutch,
n biography of former Presi-
eitt Ronald Reagan. Morris was
ven unprecedented access to
lagan during his administra-
|n, to the point the president
¥-1 that “one night in bed.
Icy [Reagan] sneezed, and
ftund said, ‘Bless you.’”
Even with this access, Morris
me up with a book unworthy
[he ‘biography’ designation,
■work, which relies on fiction-
characters and sensational ac-
fctions, fits in quite nicely with
le Jerry Springer” generation.
Criticism of the book has
come from all angles, for many
reasons. A good portion of re
viewers’ criticism attacks Morris’’
insertion of a fictional character —
his own alter ego — into critical
moments in Reagan’s presidency.
Morris, according to the book,
was with Reagan when he was
shot, when he decided to bomb
Libya and during one-on-one
meetings with former Soviet
Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
After reading Morris’ work, it
may be considered unfortunate
his alter ego did not decide to
follow General George Armstrong
Custer instead of Reagan, so that
he could have gone to the Little
Big Horn instead of the White
House. Had this happened, we
might not have Morris’ warping
of history.
Morris said his insertion of a
fake character was intended to
make the book more interesting.
It also made it fiction.
Conversations in the book be
tween “Ed” and former presi
dents Reagan and George Bush
never happened and invalidate
any claims Morris may have had
If 11
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JEFF SMITH/T in: Battalion
to being historically accurate.
The reader is left to wonder
what is truth and what is not,
and confusion over truth should
never happen in a biography.
But Morris did not stop at
reinventing the historical wheel.
He also went out of his way to
incite controversy.
Morris said Reagan’s mental
facilities went steadily downhill
after Reagan was given a transfu
sion of “lukewarm” instead of
“warm” blood in 1981 after he
shot during an attempted assassi
nation.
He also said Reagan was a
simpleton unable to understand
many of the day-to-day functions
of his office — but also too com
plicated a man for even his wife
to figure out.
Morris contends that while
Reagan was indeed mentally in
capable of grasping many things,
he was as sharp as a tack when
it came to such duties as dealing
with the Soviet Union.
Morris said in the book that
SDI — Reagan’s “Star Wars” mis
sile-defense program—was based
on a comic book Reagan read at
age 11, and that Reagan, who
spent his presidency fighting
“Godless leftists” and “The Evil
Empire,” tried to join the Com
munist Party in the ’30s.
Not surprisingly, these allega
tions have brought criticism from
the Reagans, Bushes and former
Reagan administration officials.
Despite the reception his book
has received, Morris maintains
the book is historically accurate.
He is correct if historical accu
racy is defined by the National
Inquirer. There is certainly no
place for fake characters in a
book that is supposed to be an
accurate representation of what
really happened.
When James Michener planted
characters from the same family
at the Constitutional Convention,
at the battles of Yorktown,Gettys
burg and Okinawa, he did not try
to pass it off as history.
Instead, it became his best
selling novel. Legacy. Morris is
using the same plot device, but
claims his book is different. It is
only different in his mind.
Morris has put his ego ahead
of his duty to present fact with
this book. As a result, he has
butchered a grand opportunity to
honestly relate the actions of a
remarkable individual.
Authors who insert them
selves into situations that really
happened or attempt to create
controversy should not be con
sidered historians.
They should be considered
sensationalists and fiction writers.
The big loser in all of this will
certainly not be Morris, as his
book will probably be a best
seller, albeit in the wrong sec
tion. The loser will be those hop
ing to catch an honest portrayal
of America’s 40th president.
They will have to wait for
someone to do his or her job
properly.
Mark Passwaters is a graduate
student in electrical engineering.
special | SERIES
Litmus Tests for Racial Bias
hen students cannot pass, they
sue — at least in the case of the
Texas Assessment of Academic
(TAASJ test.
In an ironic twist, the TAAS is about
tb undergo a tough examination set forth
y high-school students — one which
tight cost the exam its life.
The Mexican-American Legal Defense
lefollo''^ nd Education Fund (MALDEF) has tak-
r k alon^ n up a fight against the TAAS on behalf
if seven African-American and Hispanic
Itudents who failed the test. The TAAS
p an exit exam the state of Texas re-
juires students to pass to receive their
[igh-school diploma.
MALDEF is choosing the wrong fight
n the battle against poor minority TAAS
lerformances.
The problem is not a racially biased
est but sub-standard schooling in low-
ncome areas dominated by minorities.
UALDEF should realize the value of a
tandardized exit test, even though dis-
idvantaged minority students might
uffer until their schooling is brought
lip to par.
MALDEF charges the TAAS discrimi
nates against black and Hispanic stu
dents, noting that three-fourths of stu
dents who fail the exam are members of
these minority groups, as are the majori
ty of Texas high-school dropouts.
A States receiving federal education
money cannot offer tests which discrimi
nate on the basis of ethnicity. However,
each question is screened nine times for
any racial bias by a special committee.
The questions are not the problem.
jTS tO'V
degree-'
-s’ coopt
lationpf
• educ#
redite^
=nt lis^
< days f 1
includi 11 !
Alrli^
Schools in low-in
come neighborhoods
suffer from poor reten
tion rates and sub-stan
dard instructors, and
their students are being
ill-prepared for a test
that will determine if
the students have the
necessary academic
skills for graduation.
Until these poor
school conditions are
rectified, a test is need
ed to attach a uniform
worth to a public high-
school education.
The TAAS should
ensure high-school
students in Texas are
not slipping through
the cracks of the edu
cation system.
Just a decade ago, it
was not uncommon to
hear of high-school
graduates who graduat
ed from the system still
illiterate. Over half of
the states in the United
States have standard high-school exit ex
ams, and a federal case in Florida in the
1980s upheld states’ legal rights to ad
minister such exams.
Deborah Verbil, Texas assistant attor
ney general, has attempted to relieve
doubts about the benefits of testing.
“There is no other way for the state of
Texas to ensure that students learn the
LEGAL
ISSUES
Part 1 of 5
State tests
under fire:
Do high-
school
exit exams
discriminate
against
minority
students?
material that the state of Texas considers
important than by an objective test,” Ver
bil said in an Associated Press interview.
Verbil’s statement illustrates MALDEF’s
misplaced blame in the case.
Blaming the TAAS for failing minority
scores is like Bill Clinton grouching at a
marathon for being too long.
It is not the run — it is the extra
cheeseburgers.
MALDEF should choose its battles
wisely, focusing more on the lack of
funding and low standards of poor neigh
borhood schools and less on the TAAS.
Poor preparation of students is what
leads to poor test performances, not the
test questions. A1 Kauffman, MALDEF re
gional counsel, disagrees with the policy
of punishing those students with poor
test performances.
“It is extremely harmful to our com
munity to deny a high-school diploma to
good students who have worked in
school for 12 years, been assessed by
dozens of teachers and have performed
at grade level or above.”
But simply staying in school for 12
years should not be enough for a diplo
ma. Students must prove they have the
necessary academic skills for future suc
cess. Kauffman should realize it is more
harmful to Texas to approve the gradua
tion of students who may have over
achieved throughout high school and
lack the skills to be called products of the
Texas education system.
Jeff Webb is a senior
journalism major.
PITS proposal
hurts students
PTTS’s proposal to "al
low University parking re
sources to be better allo
cated” is nothing more
than a blatant scheme to
further exploit the stu
dent population for more
cash. The motive for the
proposal to change
Southside parking
garage to random park
ing clearly is to enable
RTFS to sell more per
mits than there are park
ing spaces. PITS current
ly cannot get away with
assigning two people the
same spot, but if they
were to convert the
garage to“place” parking
they could easily assign
two or three times as
many permits as there
are spots while still
charging students premi
um rates.
Students pay about
three times as much for
garage parking as other
permits, in part for the
convenience of always
knowing that you are
guaranteed a spot and to
know where that spot is.
Transforming Southside
into another Fish Lot is
robbing students of part
of the service they paid
for. Students should not
put up with the
Gestapo's money-grub
bing schemes, which do
MAIL CALL
not consider students’
best interests.
Jeff Becker
Class of ’02
‘Unfriendly’
not helpful
In response to Eric Dick
ens’Sept. 29 column.
The more I thought
about Eric Dickens arti
cle, the more it did not
make sense to me.
I have personally nev
er seen a brochure about
Texas A&M that has
“Friendliest University”
plastered across it, but
I’m sure they exist. The
thing is, I believe that
this is a friendly campus,
and I came to that con
clusion on my own when I
visited here my senior
year of high school. I
never read it, and I al
ready believed it long be
fore I attended Fish
Camp. My main problem
with the article is that I
do not believe promoting
A&M as an unfriendly
school would be honest
or helpful to our cultural-
diversity problem. I know
this school lacks diversi
ty. That is the one thing I
wish I could change, and
I think about what I can
do every day as a person
and in organizations to
help this situation. Nev
er did it cross my mind to
stamp out the fact peo
ple at A&M are unusually
friendly. Why damage one
of the best things we
have going for us? One
might say that you, as a
white male, by attending
this University are demot
ing the diversity by con
tributing to the majority
percentages. But do you
think it is a good idea to
quit allowing white males
into this school? No —
that’s ludicrous, and so
is saying that by forget
ting about this school’s
friendliness we can pro
mote diversity. As a fe
male, I have felt sexism
at work many times, even
here at A&M, but I never
thought it would help the
problem to label A&M a
“Not-sofriendly” University.
Crystal Goodman
Class of ’01
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