The Rattler (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 5, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 29, 1982 Page: 4 of 8
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A
THE RATTLER
: Page 4
Wednesday, September 29,1982 :
j
$217 m added to Student Aid
he said in his veto message.
WASHINGTON,
The First ‘Sesame Street’ Class
Enrolls At College This Fall
foresaw.
others
tion
ITEN: SESAME STREET’S FIRST
N
ok,)
/
8
I
Teacher Evaluations Tied To Merit Raises
Dr.
Comedy Club: Lots of Laughs
by Emma C. Rodriguez
6
ik
u,
Pac Man Flunks High School
But Does Great In College
The Pell Grant program will
have an additional $140 million to
distribute to students, and the
Supplemental Educational Oppor-
The club is located on NW410
and DeZavala Road. The cover
charge on Amateur Night is $2.00.
Other nights the cover is $5.00. It
"My uncle used to tell me if I
watched Sesame Street, I'd grow
may seem steep, but for three
hours of fun and laughter (you are
allowed to heckle the performers)
it is worth it.
There is a new club in town
called "The San Antonio Comedy
Club" which provides both profes-
sional comedians and new talent
with an audience.
With this idea in mind, I went to
the Comedy Club on Amatuer
Night and sure enough, they lived
The Army Threatens to
Retaliate Against Campus
Gay Rights Rules
<1J
tunity Grant program will get an
extra $77 million.
it is done on paper or not.
If there is a problem with a
teacher, Lovell said, the admini-
College Press Service
Now KIDS, LETS ABOUT THE INDETERMINACY
OF THE VELDCITY CP SUB-ATOMIC PARTICLES ..."
a
Students and faculty at Tates
Creek High School originally
admitted the two electronic won-
But Congress, in handling the ders in hopes of making extra
president one of his few legislative money for the school while giving
defeats since assuming office, students an entertaining way to
overrode the veto Sept. 10. spend their free time.
LEXINGTON, KY (CPS)-Pac-
Man, along with video sidekick
Donkey Kong, almost made it
through two days of classes at a
Kentucky high school before
being expelled by the district
superintendent.
children's shows.
Kid-vid, says Dave Connell,
Sesame Street's first executive
producer, "has improved a little,
but not as much as it should have.
It was just a cosmetic effect,
really; a little less violent, a little
less racist, but a lot of it is still
dreg."
"The fact the networks are
Ann Arbor, MI. (CPS)--Time
flies when you're watching TV.
It's already time for college's
first Sesame Street class. This
year's freshmen were five years
old--the eldest of the show's
confer with the individual." He
said that the evaluations are
"over-inflated in favor of the
faculty. There is still an aspect of
respect and admiration for the
faculty."
to re-align curricula to accom-
modate them.
But except for some fond
memories, this year's freshmen
aren't sure Sesame Street has
made that much o a difference.
Their teachers, moreover, haven't
done much to alter college courses
"Anyone who doesn't recognize
these breakthroughs as the first
limping troops the vanguard of a
mighty host is just out of touch,",
he exulted.
Children's Television Workshop
(CTW), the show's producer, has
have an impressive array of
students showing how the show
has had dramatic effects on
VIEWERS NOW
TAT eeT i cum ((
IN COLLEGE ft
stration knows about it "long
before the evaluations. We get
informal input" from the students.
When students complain exten-
sively about an instructor, the
deans react immediately and
O.E. Lovell, Jr., dean of
original target audience--when
Sesame bowed in the fall of 1969.
Back then the show was a bold
experiment in combining educa-
tion and entertainment. The goal
was to help three-to-five-year-olds
prepare for school by teaching
basic cognitive skills and social
behavior through slick television
<< techniques.
The result, many experts said,
would revolutionize education as
the generations of show-taught
kids moved up, forcing educators
•; to allow for their earlier educa-
tional development.
"Let's put it this way: college
faculty aren't ripping up their
syllabi waiting for these kids to
enroll in college," says Carel
President Reagan originally
vetoed the appropriations bill--
which totalled $14.5 billion for a
variety of programs, including
student aid--because it spent too
much on social programs, too little
on defense programs, and would
be a "budget busting" measure,
_ .. , _ College officials have already
Even with the additional funds, found the video games extremely
the total federal student aid lucrative. In an average campus
budget for fiscal year 1982 is some arcade, each game can rake in
eight percent lower than the 1981 $200-$300 a week, according to
fiscal year budget. various estimates.
Thibodaux, La. (I.P.) Teacher would not elaborate, however,
evaluations by students are to be because of the "complexity" of
tied in to merit raises for the the proposal. He said that stu-
instructors this year, according to dents evaluate the faculty whether
D.C. (CPS)--
up retarded," remembered Mich-
igan freshman Laura Schultz at
her orientation.
"College students today have
been deeply affected by televi-
sion," observes Barbra Morris of
Michigan's English Composition
Board. "It's their primary lan-
guage."
The much-publicized decline in
traditional reading and writing doing so little for children is a
skills over the last.15years is major disaster in American tele-
often blamed on TV, but one vision," adds Peggy Charren,
can t point a finger at television," president of Action for children's
Morris argues. It s a matrix of Televsion
factors It has just as much to do The "anti-regulatory fever in
with the fact there s been over- Washington" discourages kids'
crowding in the classrooms. Not programming, she says.
enough has been done to use Sesame Street seems secure
television to promote literacy as anyway. "I don’t have a crystal
Sesame Street has done. ball,” says WTW Information
And if Sesame Street s influ- Director Frances Kaufman, "but
ence has been less than expected, it‛s pretty likely Sesame Street
some blame must go to other will still be on the air 14 seasons
groups for not improving other from now."
pre-school and kindergarten child- The formative questions
ren concerning teaching style are for
But the effects never radiated guidance and information to the
much higher, Fessler says. individual teacher to use to make
"The show has probably helped improvements and to respond to
elementary and pre-school students as needed. The summa-
teachers move the kids along a tive questions are used to evaluate
litte faster," he says. "When you the teachers, Lovell said. He
get to second grade, it just lets would not indicate which ques-
teachers do the things second tions were summative, however,
grade teachers used to be able to because it would influence the
do before academic standards and results.
performances fell. By third grade A committee has been meeting
। ' the effect is probably gone." for a year to determine how the
"You have to wonder if kids evaluations will be used. Lovell
academic affairs at Nicholls State
University. The questionnaire, he
said, has "formative" and
"summative" quesitons.
up to their reputation.
The Comedy Club allows new
talent to come before an audience,
however, the amateur comedians
need not be good to perform...
they need only have enough guts.
If there is anyone who has been
wondering about trying out the
San Antonio Comedy Club, I
recommend that you do.
given credence to deep-seated
concerns by educators that all
Pentagon money comes with
strings attached. Inevitable, the
educators have warned, DOD and
other military spending on college
campuses will put schools in a
compromising, possibly subser-
viant position to the Pentagon.
The seven law schools--
Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Wayne
State, New York University, Ohio
State, and the University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA)
-all ban job recruiters from using
school facilities if, among other
things, they discriminate on the
basis of sexual preference.
Thus the Army, with its blanket
policy against hiring gays, has
been unable to recruit at the seven
law schools. So earlier this
summer, Army officials sent
letters to the schools urging them
to reconsider their policies in light
of the Army's "special personnel
requirements."
"Soldiers are required to live
and work under entirely different
Congress' override of President
Reagan's veto of a "budget
busting" appropriations bill will
add some $217 million to two
student aid programs this year.
Fessler, an education professor at
the University of Alaska who has
studied television's effect on
education.
Fessler believes most of the
show's impact is confined to lower
grades, and that it never rippled
upward in spite of educator's best
hopes.
The show has done "creative
and exciting things," says Helene
Gerstein, a professional develop-
ment specialist with the National
Education Association, but it's
had little effect on even elemen-
tary school curricula.
Some teachers have added
extra programs because of in-
creased "reading readiness"
Sesame Street provided, but they
haven't been able to change their
methods of teaching reading and
writing, Gerstein says.
It's a far cry from the starry-
eyed visions that entranced
Sesame Street fans when the show
debuted.
Common Cause Director John
Gardner, then a recent ex-Secre-
tary of Health, Education &
Welfare, saw the show as a
harbinger of "a radical upgrading
of educational quality on a mas-
save scale."
(CPS)-While some universities conditions than civilians," the
aren't exactly welcoming gay letter says. "Soldiers must often
students on campus, seven of the sleep, eat, and perform personal
country's most esteemed law hygiene under conditions affor-
; schools are drawing criticism and ding minimal privacy. The pre-
threats from the U.S. Army sence of homosexuals in such an
precisely because of school environment tends to impair unit
policies which protect gay morale and cohesion."
students. Then the letter threatens to
Moreover, the Army, in threat- withdraw all DOD funding for the.
ening to cut off Department of law schools and their parent
Defense (DOD) research funding universities unless Army repre-
for the universities involved, has sentatives are allowed to recruit
a
—13
_
..................
At the University of Arizona, creased violence to alienation and
students plunked in over one withdrawl—among children who
million quarters-some $280,000- play them excessively. One expert
at the 35-game arcade in the claims the colorful and pulsating
University Center. The school's lights on game boards can pitch
profit was $150,000. players into seizures, comas and
Texas Tech, which converted a cardiac arrest.
meeting room into an arcade two Brownsville, Texas officials
years ago, now has 75 games that recently complained teenagers are
bring in $300,000 a year. sniffing painted quarters to get
The Universities of Illinois, high at local video game arcades.
Washington, Cincinnati and But so far, none of the dozens of
Tennessee, to name a few, also colleges that have installed the
report fiscal success with the games has reported such side,
machines. effects. In fact, some college
"But I haven't seen any evi- union officials claim the games
dence to prove they have anything are good outlets for student
to do with education," dissents stress.
Dr. Guy Potts, Lexington's school There's also some evidence the 2:
superintendent who ordered the games are actually good for
two machines out of Tates High. players.
"It was strictly a fundraising A California physician, for one,
project as far as I could see, and says the games keep kids active
didn't meet any criteria for and alert, as opposed to watching
fundraising as established by the television, a passive activity.
Board of Education," he explains. Optometrist John Rogers pre-
"So I thought they should go." scribes video games to children
In addition, Potts says, "based with coordination problems,
on my experience and knowledge claiming the games can improve
of the problems we've had in the hand-eye coordination.
schools with discipline and tardi- The games don't lead to
ness, I felt the games would be stealing, truancy or drinking,
fairly disruptive." either, says B. David Brooks, a
Some psychologist have even juvenile crime consultant who has
warned the games can foster studied the games' effects on
anti-social behavior--from in- children.
there.
Meeks thinks most of the law
schools will stick by their policies,
although he admits that threats to
cut off funding "are obviously:
something we are very concerned
about."
"The DOD has on many
occasions shown its readiness to
use its funding as a lever,"
observes Dr. Symour Melman, a
Columbia University professor
who has written several books on
the issue of Pentagon funding.
"The new twist to this whole thing
is the greater vulnerability of
universities at a time when federal
funding is being cut back."
The Army, however, denies ’
using DOD college funding-
expected to total $709.7 million ;
this year--as a lever to force the
law schools into amending their ,
policies. :
"Discussions are still underway
on the matter, " says Margaret
Tackley, Army public affairs
officer. "There haven't been any
decisions by any of the colleges
that we know of."
Tackley says the Army's main
purpose in sending the letter was
to explain the Army's situation,
and to let the schools know that
"we might recommend with-
drawal of DOD funds.
So far, the law schools are .
standing behind their anti-
discrimination policies, although -
they have agreed to "consider"
the letter. Several, such as Yale
and Ohio State, have sent the
letters to special committees to .
evaluate the Army's argument.
"I will present the matter to the
law school faculty this fall," says
James E. Meeks, law dean at Ohio
State, "but I don't anticipate
anything to changes. I think
there's a real reluctance on the
part of the faculty to allow :
recruiters to discriminate on the <
basis of sexual preference."
In addition, Meek points out, -
"Sexual preference should be >
irrelevant to being a lawyer in the •
armed forces. The Navy recog- >
nizes this, and they decide such :
matters on an individual basis. 2-
remember the show by the time
they get to collge," he says.
They remebber.
"I always watched Sesame
Stree," recalls Laurence Owens, a
Pittsford, N.Y. 18-year-old now
starting at the University of
Michigan.
"And when I went to first grade
I enjoyed it because I felt like I
had an edge. I already knew a lot.
I wish I was as confident about
college."
"I'll never forget my Cookie
Monster doll or Muppet finger
puppet," muses one UM pre-med
major. "I watched Sesame Street
every day. Those guys were the
best friends a kid could have."
If Sesame Street's first college
class hasn't been the cutting edge
of a "radical upgrading," it
hasn't been the agent of destruc-
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St. Mary's University (San Antonio, Tex.). The Rattler (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 67, No. 5, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 29, 1982, newspaper, September 29, 1982; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1522953/m1/4/: accessed July 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting St. Mary's University Louis J. Blume Library.