M assistant ;.fe.
at 690-0994, I
ooking for vo. iesd;i v October 31, 2000
lot more Info. IBB
1 accepting appi
Inendly andoi'J
illion. ComputeiJ
to accomtnodattl
udent. Please i:j
your resume
THE BATTALION
t, Cats, Dogs
s, snakes, rab
5-5755.
ot enough homework
lew Jersey school district limit oti homework inhibits responsibility
ircat. Uniquer;
I BlackLab'I
ost kids
i hate home-
pias just tm/ Mwork. Most
slgeiorKe Ws complain about
slio. cling too much
___ > ^^Biework and
emales, bomorB ne about How
» would rather
t25 r 'each iw »^lay i ng outside
3 (udopions Htli their friends.
165 0, ? lagwll ftvidentlv. the kids in Piscataway,
’.seio. complained so much that the
VIATF9 B 21118 — an( l the school district —
gave in. The school board in
Ispataway has set a policy this year
■t limits the amount of homework
|ven to Piscataway public school
lents.
The parents and school district are
mo no mis -iving their children an easy way out
fll ultimately setting a bad example.
■IT
Spring s
"S Mme
11-8239.
s^ent p 3 adfcWfhe policy does have some rea-
pmable points when dealing with
s cemesieir jidren in grade school. There is no
‘ Json children in third grade should
rmg' subiees MW to do four hours of homework
.■they need adequate downtime
CES
tely, newd^l-, c J a y_
■ But the time many of these chil-
Bn spend on their homework is
Lots-ot-tuniTme they could spend with their par-
iscounI 1 :nls, who should be helping and tak-
B an interest in their children’s
Bio<
-ri(6pm-8pm| I
Inside* Baii
. Lowest pries
7. 846-6117.
tioolwork.
For children whose parents show
classes sc, io interest in their children's work.
The ore'c ! 16 manc l a tory 30 minutes of work
rycourse.com will point out this problem to the
www.hons teachers in school.
The high school kids, however, are
‘ED a different story. One of the most im-
caiif^Striant assets children could receive from
parents and teachers is the freedom to
SiOnake their own decisions.
_J| One of the most difficult things to
bike.
*' s, 34 a Ie arn is how to manage time wisely, but it
—a lesson that each person must learn on
/.eot/ 5" 0/ ' ler()Wn - Students need to decide
qiessize4ore. ©r themselves how much time they need
to study and how much time they need to
spend resting.
This choice is the reason many parents
ease up on curfews as their children near
the age when they leave home. And, it is
the reason children whose parents do not
ease up tend to get lost when they are on
their own because they have no practice
in personal responsibility. Many people
RUBEN DELUNA/The Battalion
know that the wildest kids in college are
the ones who were the most sheltered
growing up and are unable to deal with
their new freedom.
In another semester, the seniors from
Piscataway will go to college, where they
will either spend much more than two
hours a night on homework or will not get
the A’s they received in high school.
When A&M freshmen register for
classes, advisers recommend that stu
dents study three hours outside of class
for every one hour in class.
While it is important to realize that not
every student will need to spend that
much time studying for each class, in
some classes, students might need to
spend double that time.
Students who have never been taught
time management skills will be clueless
and most likely unsuccessful in their first
few months of college.
Another problem is that this new
homework limit teaches children to do
what is mandatory for them, rather than
what is in the best interest for them to
learn.
The two-hour limit focuses on doing
homework just for the sake of doing
work, instead of spending quality time on
useful assignments that contribute to
these students’ educators.
Often, college professors suggest ad
ditional assignments that may not be
mandatory or have homework problems
that will not be graded.
Students who are accustomed to doing
only mandatory work will most likely
overlook these helpful assignments.
The parents in Piscataway are whining
as much as their children are. They spit
out figures about how children are, on
average, doing almost an hour more than
they were in 1981.
Maybe these moms and dads are the
ones who need to be doing homework.
Glancing at any current college under
graduate catalog would tell them that
SAT scores and grade-point ratios are up
— way up from 1981.
The competition these days is high,
and these parents are not giving their
kids an advantage over anyone by giv
ing them more time to play outside in
the afternoons.
Melissa Bedsole is a junior
psychology major.
LOSS
New Lower P
ffended students missed
oint of pro-life displays
In response to Chris Carter’s Oct. 30 column.
When I saw the movie Schindler’s List, my eyes
iicai tr,i# re flooded with graphic images: people being brutal-
hsis on J murdered and dead bodies lying everywhere,
res heavy! Buttha1:was not what 1 was appalled at. Rather, I
tnd ve'ba disturbed that human lives had been de-
jroyed, all because they were “unwanted.”
lcl ® nc y '1 When I saw the anti-abortion signs from Aggies for
!t rmfwam 6, of course ’ m V stomach turned a little bit at the
ERMEWAm a g es . But y 0U know w | ia1; sickened me the most?
’ Suite le fact that I was looking at a murder victim. The re-
"ization that someone had killed this baby.
never know his or her name, nor will anyone
jse. That baby will never be able to grow up, go to
fchool, make friends, yell for the Aggies or grow old.
Jus person was never asked if he or she' wanted to
, live: someone else’s choice took his or hers away,
innjjf No matter how you look at it, abortion is the pre-
✓pUUjrledjtated killing of a human being and is therefore
is for | urder -
I We are getting away from the real issue. Let us
)nnel. Stop the selfish complaints of “I am offended,” and in-
ible h(# ead remember that a person was killed.
any
cation.
Zack Russell
Class of ’02
—-'Criticism of Vision 2020 vague
I In response to Jennifer Ramby’s Oct. 30 column.
I I was appalled when I read the recent column con-
ire cerning an expansion of the fine arts and international
-e Anytime ^tudents programs.
Develop' | had no idea that people attempting to expand
leqe staff 6ir minds at an institution of higher education would
Jqe coJ sa PP rove Programs that support higher-level
igital toolsfinking skills.
fge potetf I agree that pre-existing programs should be sup-
lented^ or f ed and continuously funded, but “changing the
akeup of the student body, which could have long-
rm effects on what it means to be an Aggie” is not a
Efficient reason to trash Vision 2020.
Fear of different types of people is a major concern
[f the Texas A&M campus. It certainly explains the
uge white population and miniscule minority popula-
ons among stlidents. I am half Hispanic and find it
ad that there is not a larger minority population.
You may be thinking, “What does this have to do
ith a music program?” Well, the final comments the
uthorof this article made about the “changing make-
□k basMp 0 f the s t uc jent body [having] long-term effects on
/hat it means to be an Aggie” is a fine example of
his problem with our campus.
Not only do liberal arts and international student
unity emf|j)rograms promote diversity of student races, but they
Iso promote diversity of ideas and experiences.
The latter is what appears to be the main concern
vith Ramby and others like her. Not only do I play the
rench horn, I am forced to do on my own time due to
qq |t lie lack of available programs.
-q , I learned a lot about the similarities in people
^ around the world despite our cultural and historical
UON r'ffe ran c a s. This is a very important aspect of the
id in c0'
an ASP
>er will ^
using
Beans
ants slii
th Wir
ational
pment
; oftware
ans.
3 to
.com
Mail Call
learning process. How else will the world progress if
different people cannot come together for a similar
goal, in this case education?
We should share our Aggie experience with the rest
of the world. We are known for our friendliness and
hospitality, so why is it so different now?
If the Aggie spirit is based on discrimination of
ideas and cultures and not on friendliness and com
panionship, then I came to the wrong campus.
Dawne Duan
Class of ’03
When I was an undergraduate a half-century ago, I
espoused the same line Ramby espouses.
Why require me to study all of those courses when
' all I need are the journalism courses? My dean, a much
more astute man than I, set me straight.
He challenged me to tell him which course anywhere
in the University would be useless to me in my career
as a reporter. I failed the challenge.
So I now challenge Ramby: Which course at TAMU
would not be of some value to you at some time during
your career as a reporter?
True, specialization is not a bad thing. However, for a
well-grounded, well-rounded education for the 21st cen
tury, people need to know more and more about more
and more. Liberal arts provides a wealth of information
about the past and the present — history, archeology,
astronomy, political science, English literature, foreign
languages — the list is endless, and all of it essential.
Those who do not learn more and more about more
and more will be doomed to live in the past, not in the
future.
Why not make TAMU No. 1 in every discipline?
What would it hurt? Nothing.
What would it help? A lot.
Sure, TAMU was founded on agriculture and me
chanics, cows and plows, to teach Texans the tech
niques of farming and how to repair broken equipment,
a necessary talent when the nearest town was a day’s
ride away and money was scarce.
But, we have come a long way from a horse-and-wag-
on society. We have reached the moon and are seeking
the stars; we are also trying to reach our contemporaries
just across the border.
Well, TAMU has changed. Thank God. Students do
not come here for what TAMU is, if they ever did, but for
what TAMU can make of them.
I hope sincerely that TAMU does change the make
up of the student body, of the definition of a typical Ag
gie. I hope TAMU does have a major effect on what it
means to be an Aggie. So far, in 125 years, TAMU has
changed a lot of Aggies. And Texas and the United
States are better off for it.
Fortunately, education teaches more than a profes
sion; it teaches people how to live, a necessary ability,
given the fact that the demands of society change not
year by year, but day by day.
So a stronger arts and sciences program is far from
being politically offensive; it is a national necessity.
And ranking 17th cannot be good enough. It is bare
ly acceptable.
All change costs money. Major change costs major
amounts of money. TAMU is no longer state-supported;
it is state-assisted. TAMU receives money from many
sources in addition to the state: student tuition and
fees, contributions from graduates and friends, and do
nations by corporations and foundations, among oth
ers. today, the main job of the TAMU president is not to
run the University, but to seek funding for its multiple
programs.
Thank God for the vision of those who developed Vi
sion 2020. Each of us may disagree with parts of it, but
none of us should denigrate any part of it because it is
designed to produce better citizens, citizens who can
make life better for us and foij our descendants.
Douglas Starr
Professor of journalism
Youn^, George W.
Page 9
QoUC digger
Smith lawsuit a travesty
/ t has been said every
thing is bigger in
Texas. It seems Texas
scandals are bigger and
nastier as well. Such is the
case with the current dis
pute between Anna Nicole
Smith, widow of G.
Howard Marshall — a bil
lionaire oil baron — and
Marshall’s son, Pierce Marshall.
Smith has filed a lawsuit against Pierce
Marshall in an attempt to get her hands on half
of Howard Marshall’s assets.
In one of the most appalling stories of greed
and betrayal imaginable, Smith has filed suit
against Pierce Marshall, claiming that she had
been wrongfully denied an amount in excess of
$1 billion. The circumstances surrounding the
lawsuit are even more eye-catching than the
figure in question.
G. Howard Marshall, 86 years old at the time,
met Smith in G.G.’s Cabaret, an “uptown”
Houston-area club featuring topless dancing.
Marshall was 60 years older than Smith.
Smith said, “He asked me to dance for him,
and 1 could see the sparkle in his eyes. I knew
there was something special there.”
Howard Marshall courted Smith for four
years. During that period. Smith received gifts
whose total worth is estimated at more than $8
million.
At the same time, Smith made contacts that
facilitated her appearance in Playboy.
At the end of this four-year period. Smith
consented to one of the many marriage propos
als Howard Marshall had made. Fourteen
months later, he passed away.
The nature of this dispute is
despicable. The fact that a
dispute over money could
lead to a dispute over the de
ceased's ashes is sickening.
Then, the plot thickened. Smith and Pierce
Marshall immediately began to fight over the
fruits of Howard Marshall’s labor.
Smith learned after her husband’s death that
she was not included in his will. It turned out ,
his assets had been tied up in trusts for years.
Howard Marshall never operated with very
much liquid capital in comparison to his net
worth. In fact, Howard Marshall had to borrow
money to finance the engagement ring he
bought for Smith, which was so extravagant
that she was featured wearing it on television.
Smith claimed in her suit that she was enti
tled to one-half of Howard Marshall’s assets
based on a verbal promise he supposedly had
made her.
The dispute between the two potential bene
ficiaries was so heated that they had held sepa
rate funerals for their beloved father and hus
band, each being conducted with half of his
ashes.
The nature of this dispute is despicable. The
fact that a dispute over money could lead to a
dispute over the deceased’s ashes is sickening.
Unfortunately, in a situation like this, the blame
for the lack of respect for the deceased must be
assessed. It lies entirely with Smith.
This is absolutely no mention of Smith in
the will. It is very cut and dried. During the
course of courting and marriage, Smith was
showered with gifts.
Many of the career opportunities she re
ceived are a direct result of the limelight she
was cast into because of her high-rolling
husband.
All in all. Smith was very well taken care of.
Apparently, she was digging for the whole gold
mine and not just a few choice nuggets.
Smith’s trying to lay claim to all the wealth
acquired by Howard Marshall in the 86 years
prior to their meeting is not just. This just does
not make sense.
In an interview with “20/20” in response to
an inquiry as to what would be the first thing
she would do if victorious in the courtroom,
Smith said, “I will go to church and get on my
knees until they are bruisy and bloody and
thank the good Lord for doing the right.”
Smith also should consider asking for a con
science, not to mention a shred of decency.
Luke McMahan is a senior
industrial engineering major.
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 per
son at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters
may also be mailed to:
The Battalion - Mail Call
014 Reed McDonald
Texas A&M University
1111 TAMU
College Station, Texas 77843
Campus Mail: 1111
Fax: (979) 845-2647
E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com
Columns and letters appearing in The Battalion express the
opinion of the authors only. They do not necessarily reflect the opin
ion of other Battalion staff members, the Texas A&M student body,
regents, administrators, faculty or staff.