The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, December 9, 1960 Page: 2 of 8
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Two
THE THRESHER
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1960
Spoiled * Rotten
A letter on this page stoutly defends teaching
freshman history in its present form for, it argues,
it is necessary to have a basic knowledge of the facts
before one may interpret history. This argument im-
plies either that facts can be divorced from their sig-
nificance, or that facts will interpret themselves, or
that everybody needs to take advanced history courses
to learn the interpretations.
What about it? If the facts are divorced from
their interpretation, who is going to remember them
until they can enjoy the blissful atmosphere of an
upper-level history course? Don't forget, most of the
information acquired in freshman history is the late-
at-night variety, crammed into the wee hours, and
generally forgotten the next day. Unless there is some
meaningful framework to hang these things on, they
are forgotten. Also, it's pretty unlikely that the facts
will do anyone any good once they are divorced from
their interpretation. The Normans conquered England
in 1066. So what?
Of course, if the facts interpret themselves, we
can do away with historians.
As History 100 is presently presented the students
are left at a disadvantage. The engineer is left out in
the cold again; he's got to try to grasp the whole basis
of Western civilization in just one year. Even the run-
of-the-mill academ suffers. In an advanced, highly
specialized history course—say, Modern European His-
tory, 1871 to 1945—there isn't any room for long-range
trends in European civilization.
One of the reasons why freshman history is noth-
ing more than piles of facts is that high school courses
don't prepare people for the rigors of college history.
We suspect also that part of the trouble is that history
courses in high schools are taught in the ninth or tenth
grades, and are themselves collections of meaningless
hard-to-spell names and obscure dates without any
frame of reference. These are easy to forget, and by
the time a highschooler has gotten to college he's done
just that. And by the time an alumnus of History 100
or 110 has been out of school for ten years, he'll prob-
ably have forgotten most of them all over again.
The first moral to this story is that freshman
history, to be really meaningful, has got to include not
only the what, the where, and the how many, but also
the why. This is the professor's responsibility.
The second is that the problem is our fault. One
of the freshman history teachers says that he once
asked his class to make the choice between "regurgi-
tative" and an "interpretive" exam. The class chose
the former overwhelmingly. Why? It's easier to mem-
orize vast amounts of material than to sit down and
really think about an historical problem. And it's safer
to feed back information than to risk striking out on
your own. This is our responsibility. - •
Rice students take the line of least resistance.
Here freshman history is a symptom of the disease
that plagues every course in the curriculum. The im-
portant thing is not to learn history, but to get through
history with as high a grade as possible so we can
graduate and take our place in the suburbs along with
teeming millions of other happy Americans. The higher
our grades, the better our jobs. There's not anything
that can be said about this objective. Except that it
keeps us from getting anything out of our four years
here of any real, lasting value.
The fact of the matter is that Rice students are
spoiled rotten. Things are so easy for us fhat all we
have to do is sit back and stuff ourselves with informa-
tion. We are spectators in the intellectual game, not
participants. And not very good spectators at that. So
until we become interested in a college education in-
stead of a college degree, freshman history courses
are not going to have much value. Nor will the rest of
our education. The faculty has become aware of the
old adage, "You can lead a horse to water, but you
can't make him drink." t .
Drink.—W. P.
TS
"I GATHER YOU GENTLEMEN DIDN'T CARE
FOR THE GRADES ON THAT FRENCH REVOLU-
TION TEST!"
THRESHING - IT - OUT
Student Defends Present
Freshman History System
To the Editor:
The editorial entitled "Culture
'Package' " includes several well-
taken points, but I should like to
defend somewhat the system now
in use. Engineer or academ, every
Rice graduate should have a
basic knowledge of historical
facts and chronology, particular-
ly of Europe and America. This
fundamental knowledge will help
him to understand and appreciate
references and trends in litera-
ture, music, and art, if nothing
else, thus allowing him to absorb
and enjoy more of this "culture."
It is next to impossible to get
this factual background except in
a general survey course, which
must necessarily stress political
developments as the .concrete
bases upon which to pin down
intellectual and cultural develop-
mentsv
I CAN ONLY base my opin-
ions on History 100, but since
I took the course I have noted
and greatly appreciate the bene-
fits gained in heightened aware-
ness of historical references and
parallels. All the isolated facts
gleaned over the years now fit
together in an overall plan. Per-
haps I do not remember the exact
day on which a certain battle was
fought, but my knowledge of the
significance and general picture
of the times was facilitated by
the learning of a few dates and
ways of thought as rfeeded bases
to localize vaguer culture pat-
terns.
I should like to commend Mrs.
Drew for her consistent approach
to history as a cultural pheno-
menon as well as a political chart.
She has done about all that
could be done to infuse a feeling
for culture into the drier list
of facts (which I still think are
necessary).
—NAME WITHHELD
Ed. note: See editorial at left for
some further points.
fowler howls
By JOHN FOWLER
One of the most frustrating
experiences one can have here
at Bice, and I'm sure it's hap-
pened to you, is to get a letter
from one of your old high school
buddies, you know the type of
guy he is, a well-meaning, slap-
on-the-back type joy boy, who
figures you're really living, and
wants to fill you in on all the
happenings back home.
Here's his letter:
Hi Buddy!
Just thought I'd drop you a
line to let you know we're all
thinking of you back here. I bet
you're really having the time of
your life up there in Houston,
you old dog.
BOY, I SURE wish I had the
brains to get into Rice. Back
here at Belch Gulch J. C. I'm
about to flunk out. I have a hell
of a time with college algebra.
As a matter of fact, I'd probably
be flunking the course, if it
wasn't for your girl friend, Betty.
She sure is a good sport. She
tutors me every night. I told
her I was going to write you and
she said to tell you she's sorry
she hasn't written, but you know
how it is, those studies keep hef
pretty busy.
I was over at your place for
dinner the other night. Did you
know that your sister is dating
Sam Jones now? Well I guess
the funniest thing I ever saw
was when he got looped the
other night and fell right off the
fifth street pier. Luckily, though,
he didn't get hurt. But I guess
he got your new tux pretty wet.
Well, it was a little bit too big
for him anyway. Ha ha.
YOUR SISTER has reallyJbeen
getting a lot of use "out x>f your
old car. She said to tell you she
found the place where you hid the
keys (you old rascal) and so she's
using it to learn how to drive.
But don't worry, she's a pretty
good driver. As a matter of
fact, she can make that hairpin
turn in Swenson Road at seventy,
and that's pretty good. She's
got the old car looking- sharp,
with that flashy new pink paint
job, and the curtains and all.
Well, buddy, it's about time
(Continued on Page 3)
^CULTURAL EVOLUTION' . . .
White Makes Provocative- Evening
The
BILL DELANEY
Editor
MARJORIE TRULAN
Associate Editor
GRIFFIN SMITH
Managing Editor
EM LINDAMOOD
News Editor
Thresher
An all-student newspaper far 44 ■stars
DICK VIEBIO
Business Manager
MILTON NIRKEN
Advertising Manager
BURTON SILVERMAN
Circulation Director
DENIS ASHTON
Editorial Assistant
By JUDI TRAVIS
Dr. Leslie White, speaking on
"Cutural Evolution" November 28
in Fondren Library, provided in-
terested Rice students and fac-
ulty with a most stimulating and
provocative evening. Author of
several works about the topic on
wjiich he spoke, Dr. White is at
present Professor of Advanced
on culture itself rather than bio-
Palo Alto, California.
THE CORE of Dr. White's
talk was an explanation and de-
finition of the word "culture,"
a new science, which is the ob-
ject, Dr/ White feels, of a great
amount of misunderstanding.
Culture is not the study of be-
-havior nor is it an "abstraction"
from a civilization itself.
It is supra-biological ^and
extra-semantic — outside the
human organism. "It deals with
pottery bowls and marriage cere-
monies in terms of their inner-
relations among themselves —
this is culture ..." A vast change
of outlook accompanied the em-
ergence of the concept of culture,
said Dr. White, a "culturological
revolution," which put emphasis
on culture itself rather than bio-
logical structure or neurological
organization.
PART OF the reason why the
science of culture was so long
in getting started was that so-
ciology and psychology were try-
ing to absorb its subject matter,
and no science can function with
subject matter. Science observes
and classifies, but there are a
class of phenomena for which
we have no name; things and
events which are expressions of
"symbolizing," an act which is
unique to man, and which may
be defined as a "trafficking in
non-sensory forms."
Symbolizing becomes human
behavior in one context, culture
in another. For instance, among
the problems of behavior not
psychological are 1) the reckon-
ing of descent (i* is Reckoned
from the mother, the father, of
bilineally?) 2) various taboos,
and 3) warfare. ,
CULTURE consists of thing3
which are expressions of symbol-
izing and which constitute a
fiux, or continuum, such that cul-
ture is a thing self-generating.
While in certain contexts the
"culturologist" has to refer to
the human organism, culture is
generally explained in terms of
itself, the behavior of peoples
being a function of their cul-
tural tradition.
Finally, we cannot control our
culture; in fact, only our ignor-
ance of culture makes us be-
lieve that we can. Dr. White
made the point that we know
less about our own culture than
mahy primitive ones. Why, for
example, doesn't our culture per-
mit polygamy?
WITH characteristic profes-
sorial wit, the speaker said that
only those who had not thought
about this question could answer
it.
Men operate through cultural
forces which are, in an manner
of speaking predestined, much
like the weather.
Free-willists and self-deter-
minifts are behind the times, Dr.
White asserted. Apparently, all
of the audience did not agree
with much of what he said, but
few seats \vere vacated during"
the long question-answer period.
This was a lecture well worth
attending.
0°
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, December 9, 1960, newspaper, December 9, 1960; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth231165/m1/2/?rotate=270: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.