Northwest High School - Silvertip Yearbook (Wichita, KS)

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'i f f . L in am Wi f Q ,s I -s ,gp vlan-Askvlsaiiafblvok Superzmendem' Moms 5,115-grirjjf retires rom 16-year tenure ' f' 1' I'd like ro report publicly to the Board of Education, to all the employees in our school system, and to the community at large that I will be retiring at the end of this school year. In a calm and even tone, Dr. Alvin Morris announced at a meeting of the Board of Education that he will leave the superintendency at the close of the 1983-84 school year. It was a tone which showed no trace of the emotion that had briefly choked the same announcement to his administrative cabinet. The announcement came almost 15 years to the day after Morris accepted his first contract to be superintendent of the Wichita Public Schools. He originally came to the school district in 1958 as assistant superintendent for elementary education, and later served as deputy superintendent. He was appointed acting superintendent in june, 1968, and became superintendent that August. He is 63. His accomplishments throughout the 16 years that he held that position were many. He developed a school desegrega- tion plan in 1971 that later became a model for the integra- tion of many other systems around the country. Morris secured voter approval, in 1974, of the largest school system bond issue in Kansas history - S30 million that since has helped make possible the construction of Northwest High School, Levy Special Education Center, Colvin and the pre- sent College Hill Elementary Schools. He also led other ex- pansions throughout the state's large school districtg expan- sions of vocational and technical school programs and the creation of a transportation skills center to train truck drivers and the Aviation Education Center. Individual Board of Education members praised his work as superintendent, using terms such as superman and island of stability to characterize his leadership through years which saw the nation and its educational systems shaken by racial turmoil and social revolution. -Anita Zelmer Discussing homework load with friends is one thing, but doing it on television is another. Senior Kim Bulman andjunior Derrick Nielsen participate in a local televi- sion program and discuss student concerns on the amount of assigned homework and the quality of education. 'Hs Taking time to visit with other participants at the Regional Educational Forum arejo Brown, Board of Education president, Dr. Alvin Morris, Wichita superintendent of schools, and joyce Focht, a member of the Wichita Board of Education. Nation at Risk '11

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Committee makes recommentiatiqns . ' ' ation at R1 k' criticizes pubhc education On August 26, 1981, Secretary of Educa- tion T.H. Bell created the National Com- mission on Excellence in Education and directed them to present a report to the American people on the quality of educa- tion that the American students were receiv- ing. This report, released in April 1983, show- ed that students at the high school and col- lege levels were not being taught the basic essentials needed to secure a future in the working society. The basic essentials ac- cording to the committee consisted of four years of English, three years of science, social studies and mathematics, and one- half year of computer science. Also, for those students who were college bound, two years of a foreign language were recom- mended. Indicators of the risk included studies on the number of people who were functional- ly illiterate, the decline in the number of students demonstrating superior achieve- ment, the lower scores of standardized achievement tests, and the number of students enrolling in the New Basics. These U.S. Secretary of Education Terrel Bell opens the Regional Form on Public Education conducted last july at Northwest. Also participating in the opening session were Governorjohn Carlin and Undersecretary Garyjones. Approximate- ly 1,000 individuals participated in the Regional Forum. Despite recent criticism on the quality of public education, Northwest Advanced Placement English students continue to excell in their educational pursuit. -f , if he Ni Nw 'uxz 10 ' Nation At Risk facts, after being compiled were put together in a report, A Nation At Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform. It was found that the decline in educa- tional performance was in large part the result of disturbing inadequacies in the way the educational process itself was often con- ducted. The commission expressed its con- cern on the curriculum, or the very 'stuff' of education. The courses a student could choose from was a mere smorgasboard. An astonishing 25 percent of the credits earned by a student were in physical education, work experience, remedial English and math courses, and personal service and development courses such as single survival. Another issue discussed in the report dealt with the amount of time students in the United States actually spent in the classrooms compared with the amount of time students in other countries spent in school. The average American student at- tended school for 180 days a year for six hours each day, while most students in England and other industrialized countries spent eight hours a day in the classroom, 220 days per year. Also, compared to other nations, American students spent much less time on their school work. The time that they did spend on their homework or studies was used ineffectively and therefore, defeated the purpose of outside classroom' work. Recommendations by the committee in- cluded strengthening high school gradua- tion requirements, raising college and university requirements for admission, devoting more time to learning the new basics, and improving the teaching profes- sion so that it might draw better and more qualified college graduates into that profes- sion. It was the hope of the committee that citizens across the nation hold educators and elected officials responsible for pro- viding the leadership necessary to achieve the things that were outlined, and that citizens provide the fiscal support and stability required to bring about the reforms that were proposed. -Anita Zelmer A ESX ii i tt' -f.--. -..ti. I-iz: --,Ii: Being a teacher is more than standing in front of a classroom and lecturing. For Il Strattman, photography instructor. teaching requires much time and patience w working with students on individual projects.

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W were V' , -if Wdeo game popularity mereases among teenagers Video games were big business. In 1981, S5 billion in quarters were fed into arcade games, representing 20 billion games and 75,000 man years of playing time. That was 100 games for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. That S5 billion was twice the gross ofthe movie industry over the same period, as well as twice the year's combined television revenue and gate receipts of major league baseball, football, and basketball games. An additional S1 billion was spent on videogame consoles in that year. This figure was tripled in 1982. Pac-Man alone pulled in S1 billion in its first year in the arcades, and the first Asteroids games brought in 31000 per machine per week. It was obvious that a lot of people were playing these games. The question was: Why play them? There were many reasons as to why video games had become so popular. They offered more of a challenge than many other forms of enter- tainment, they provided an outlet for tension, they allowed the player to have control over his situation factive entertain- ment as opposed to passive entertainment, such as watching a moviej, and they allowed players to escape from everyday life. Approximately 80 per cent of arcade-goers are teens, and arcades often caused problems for them. One of the most prominent was overspending. Three dollars was usually the minimum satisfactory amount for a visit to the arcade, and it took anywhere from S20 to S50 to become proficient at any game challenging enough to be fun. Other problems includ- ed glorification of violence, gambling, health problems such as eye strain and Pac-Elbow, and wasting time. Fortunately, the good points of video games outweighed the bad. It was proven that playing these games improved hand-eye coordination, which improved driving skills. In- terestingly, video games improved reading speed as well as geometrical thinking. Moreover, many educators believe that video games helped improve learning skills and gave more confidence to master complex learning situations. -David Draco