—comment

Travel to the ’outside’

by Katherine A. Kramer

Like many Grinnell students, I
left the academic isolation of Park
Street on March 12th to find some
rest, many changes, and new
perspectives. As I had hoped, my
spring break trek to Lake Tahoe,
Haight Ashbury, and Seattle
proved to be mystifying, puzzling,
and enlightening—but un-
fortunately also disconcerting. I
traveled with several current and
eXrGrinnell students who served to
remind me of my sheltered
Grinnell 'life While I experienced
the numerous new attitudes and
cultures. My most thought-
prnvoking memories are not the
oceans, mountains. or orange
trees, but the people I encountered.
Ian-l confused about who i met. but
i know that they are parts of my
generation that I ignore while at
college.

To generalize, the Grinnell
culture breeds the new middle and
upper-middle class. We are in»
telligent, careerroriented,
politically aware, and successful.
Many of the elites of govern-
mental, academic and artistic
institutions will be spawned by
Grinnell. Grinnell has a few
students who will tend toward a
lifestyle outside of the establish»

POYNTER'S

FOURTH

ment, a few others will fail in even
their most basic goals. but
generally the Grinnell graduate
will fulfill many basic American
goals and ideals. Social come
mentators may call us the hope of
the future.

Away from this closed. elite
culture the rest of my generation
ponders and plunders on, The ski
crowd of Lake Tahoe surprised me.
Again to generalize, physical
beauty, skiing, sex, and money
were highly valued. The members
of this subculture had dropped out
of their fathers’ law firms, taken a
year off from University of
Southern California, or ended up on
Tahoe after their semirsuccessful,
sixties rock group had broken up.
Lake Tahoe and the surrounding
resorts functioned as a temporary

gander

escape for these people. Most
friends supported their values and
actions, (such as independence,
sexism, and materialism). Un-
derlying the relaxed. casual at-
mosphere was an obvious
frustration and confusion.

The feeling of confusion perr
sisted in Haight Ashbury. My

AVE.
FASHIONS

THE

cho Fizz:

* 2 oz.Jose CuervoTequila
t Juice from one lime (or 2 tbsp.)

it 1 tsp. sugar

* 2 dashes orange bitters
* White of one egg
* A glass is quite helpful, too.

lose CUERVO‘TEQUILA sopnoor
IMPORTEDAND serum or town. HEUBLEIN INC HARTFORD CONN

stereotype of the First Haven for
Hippies broke down quickly Crime
has decreased the houses have
received extensive renovation,
most head shops and street people
have disappeared. None wear
ﬂowers in their hair. But there still
exist many youthsisuch as a
modern dancer with a Janis tattoo,
a photographerrartist whose
parents support him through art
school, a musician who runs a
second-hand store, a Stanford
dropout, a Grinnell dropout, and a
Columbia Graduate School
dropout, Their values centered
around music, drugs, sex, and
television, Intellectual stimulation
received little attention. while
artistic pursuits and radical
political action were admired.
These people spoke of no long
range goals anc seemed to be
living to paytoday’s bills. In a way,
they seemed afraid to look ahead.
As at Lake Tahoe, these youths
acted confused. They saw their
current lifestyles as temporary,
but they had no optimism about the

-future

I fear that the people i en-
countered have no strong com-
mitments, goals, or beliets. No
longer can we take to the streets
for our rights and lor an end to the
war. Few youths that I saw could
believe in the United States or her
institutions. The American value of
materialism may be haphazardly
adopted, but rarely vigorously
pursued. At Grinnell, we are
relatively safe from such confusion
for our parents, professors, and
friends give us goals and ideals,
But when we leave this sheltered;
place, we may begin to question,
only to find no answers. My contact
with our generation scared me.
The youth of the sixties felt
alienated—now We feel alienated
and lost.

The Scarlet and Black, April 2. 1975—1). 6i

Academic pressure
it

and other

by Bob Aldrich

Ah. yes. Spring is coming, school
is almost over, and for the next six
weeks we get to listen to each other
babble about two favorite topics:
how much sleep sherhe didn’t get,
and how much work he-she has. In
addition, the Great Plague will hit,
initiating all sorts of discussions
and maybe a questionaire or two
on how to eradicate the doomed
plight: academic pressure. But by
then, of course, school will have
finished,seniors will graduate, and
all of this nonsense will have to
wait until next fall, when it can
rear its ugly head once more.

Before I go any further, lest I be
labeled sarcastic and other such
sundry accusations, let me say that
yes, I find it all quite boring, and
yes, I think that academic pressure
exists and is a problem. However, i
have yet to see any specific
suggestions made at alleviating
the elusive beast. Perhaps that 15
because of its nature: ambiguous,
varying, a problem that is often
spoken of but rarely defined.
Rather than attempting to define it
here, I would like to offer some
specific suggestions to change the
situation.

The problem begins as soon as
one enters Grinnell, and is further
perpetuated by the school’s
structure and attitude Some time
ago, the “freshman English"
course was dropped and replaced
by the tutorial. Fine, if the tutorial
teaches students how to write—but
does it" I contend not, At best, its
success is ambivalent; at worst. an
out~andvut failure. In a school
where writing is given such high
priority, students need to be taught
basic writing skills immediately
upon entering Grinnell. if this
means an English 101 that

Using Youth Fare overseas?

You Cannot Be Confirmed Until
7 Days Prior To Departure.
BUT . . . You May Be Listed For

Flight Desired.

Check With Us

For Details.

lirinnell Travel Center
1 DAY oSERVIl:E

lETI'ERED

nT SHIRTS,

SWEAT SHIRTS 8r JACKETS.
Send For Free Catalog.

We Need Two People On Campus

To Sell

For Us.

Send Resume!

LYMPIA
S P 0 RI

25 West

LTD
Main St.

Marshalhown, Iowa 50158
Phone “5452-2147

riffraff

everyone takes, fine, But whatever
the form. attention needs to be
given to the skill of writing an
intelligent, articulate paper.

The second problem is inex-
tricably linked to the first, and that
is the adviser system. Too oftei. . n
adviser is simply one who signs a
blank ore-registration card, or
signs the drop sheet or any ot er
banel task that involves red
While I do not advocate a return to
coercion in courseradvising. a
change needs to be made to
prevent the inevitable prob]? s
that arise from a lack of advisiiﬁ
work overloads, courses dropped
that never should have been taken,
courses needed but missed
altogether, etc. A return to ad-
vising doesn't mean limitations on
a student’s freedom, it simply
means having the information
necessary to make intelligent
choices. Complete freedom in
choosing courses does little gdogif
one has no idea how to use it to the
best advantage.

The third problem is that of
graderinflation. Since a ‘D‘
longer exists. and most prof
are reticent to tail students, a o
means ‘D’, ‘3' means ‘C', and mat
leaves ‘A’s. Under the present
grading situation, a professor has
little choice but to proportiona'm
up the grade given a student, A ‘3‘
no longer means ‘good', it means
mediocre. There are some ex-
ceptions to this, and they are
known as the notoriously hard
graders. This article does not even
touch on the weaknesses inherent
in the conventional grading
system, perhaps yet another
contributing factor to academic
pressure, As it is, though, gr?»-
inflation can only perpetuate
problem, .

Even if all of this were done, I
suspect that ‘academic pressure’
Would still be discussed, and He
would still be subjected to f
omnipresent questionaires
surveys. One is tempted to say that
it is the nature of the school that
creates it, and leave it at that. But
lf Grinnell wishes to take itself at
all seriously, then these areas
should be looked at—mayhe even‘
acted upon.

Hamburgers,
Fries,
Shakes,

Ice Cream»

OUIK CHEF“

GLASSES
Made and Repaired
In Our laboratory"

Contact Lenses

Eyes Examined
Phone. 236—7502

EJ. Jensen, 0.0..

OPTOM ETIIIST

Across from Post Office;
Closed Thursday p. m
and Sat p. m.

 

