Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

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There is one problem educators can ' t explain away personality and charisma don ' t always pay the bills. Besides, it ' s hard to be dignified and have self-respect when you ' re flat on your face after graduation. Businesses are yelling, though. They charge col- leges and universities with graduating ill-prepared stu- dents. ACT scores are telling the real story, while rising grades are giving the educators fallacious arguments for their case. Grades are skyrocketing with little or no concurrent increase in student ability as gauged by standardized tests. Standardized test scores are reaching all-time lows around the country. The indictment is true of at least a handful of educa- tors in virtually every U.S. college. Where did the classes go? Relaxed grading policies keep students from competing. It works, all right stu- dents couldn ' t give a damn about schoolwork. But students aren ' t stupid. If the teachers don ' t give them enough to do, they ' ll find something. Usually, that something begins with Aggie and ends with bars . More brains are lost in urinals than in any other place. I used to think the forces for traditional education had been pushed all the way back to high school. But the seeping education made fun syndrome is biting heavily there, and casualties are becoming numerous. First it was history and English courses in high school. Next thing you know, it ' ll be science. Turn up the beat, an uncomfortable student says. Yes, sir, answers the instructor, whose salary is dipped from a federal grant for experimental high schooT education. But we really must get to the busi- ness of teaching you all how to run a projector that ' s important in the real world, you know. How I long for that junior high school science teacher we thought was a sadist. He would open all the windows in the classroom for a test. As the teen-degree air briskly filled the room he would remark, with a smile, You perform better when the room ' s cooler. It was funny, though it always worked. But you didn ' t waste time on questions you couldn ' t answer. Nevertheless, we learned something from that teacher. He expected, and got, attention from his sev- enth grade classes. We didn ' t dare turn away or close our eyes for fear a piece of white chalk might come zip- ping by our ears. No monkey business in that class. But perhaps the great educational joke goes back even further than junior high. Grade schools are afraid to teach the basics, or rather too timid to make the stu- dent learn what he or she must know. As more than one high school and college teacher has remarked, These kids can ' t even read. If they can ' t read, what can they get out of college classrooms where a premium is put on communication of ideas and thinking? Not very much. And that ' s what has been the catalyst of alternative learning and the mindless class. A graduate without stretch marks isn ' t going to be questioning much of anything particularly the edu- cation that bores him. I want to be able to ask those questions. education 1 7

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Hickory sticks thrash results of ' new school ' by Scott Kraft I ' d trade it all four years of drinking, dating, party- ing, cramming, sleeping, and eating sporadically for one honest-to-goodness classroom. A classroom with real tests essay tests, and a classroom with real lectures demanding appropriate recitation, are the things I ' ve spent my undergraduate thesis looking for. In short, a classroom from the old school of education. Oh, for 50 minutes of Socratic training. Stretching the mind, searching for an answer that ' s there, but not obvious. Even though the answers are there they may differ from person to person there ' s knowledge to be gained from the stretching. And that ' s what we as education consumers need a lot of mind stretching. But instead, we are permeated for four years of col- lege, and most likely four years of high school, with lis- tening labs, appreciation courses, superficial current events discussions, and pud class projects. That ' s right the junk food of education. The word pud , as attributed to easy classes, has almost grown meaningless with overuse. It is now possible, with the help of modern technol- ogy and all that, to go through four years of higher education and emerge unblemished with not one stretch mark on the mind. How can one get into this great sport we call college? It ' s not difficult to get in, or to stay in. And with a pleas- ing personality and a charismatic aura, you can go far in college. 16 education

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18 k-slale union