..... v . . Scarlet andBlackn February-ll~page 5 ,

 

., Day Care Center,
«fights for existence

by Ellyn Toscano

Equality for women will never
come about unless our society
begins to share responsibility for
child care, Traditionally, society’s
ideas about children and the family
have centered on the assumption
that the family, and in particular
the mother, is responsible for the
care of her own children. This idea,
however, fails to account for single

ﬁrent families, families whose
economic survival is dependent
upon the mother working, and
families in which the mother may

{moose not to be in the home.
Because of these considerations,
day care facilities for children are
a necessity, allowing men and
women to choose life stylﬁ for
themselves NOW, as many other
women's organizations around the
country. has vocalized this idea
and is working towards broader
implementation of child care
facilities.

Grinnell's Day Care Center was
founded seven years ago by the
League of Church Women.
Presently it is located at 1901
Fourth Street in the basement of

‘ Francis Manor, a senior
atizen's home which is owned by
the Grinnell Hospital. The Center
cares for children three to nine

ii“: of age. It is licensed by the

ute to have forty Children on its
premises at a time and has a total
enrollment of fiftyrseven Children.

The majority of children are
from town families. About one-
third of the Children are from
single parent families,
predominantly single mothers,
Fees are based on _a sliding pay
scale, ranging from nothing to six
dollars a day, based on a family's
ability to pay. Other funding comes

 

from Title XX funds and donations.
The Center, open from 6:30 am,

to 5:30 pm., has a paid staff of ‘

nine, including a director, a
curriculum director, two fullrtime
teachers (one of whom is Adie
Goldberg, a 1976 Grinnell
graduate), two partvtime teachers,
a secremy, a cook and a cleaning
woman, It relies heavily on
Volunteers as its state license
requires a five to one ratio of
children to teacher, and the Center
does not have adequate funds to
maintain a staff that
Grinnell College studens have
been particularly supportive in
this area. Last semester about
fifteen students worked three hour
shifts once a week.

According to Goldberg, the Day
Care Center, assuming the role of
parents in absentia, provides a
secure and productive en-
vironment for children. It aims at
the development of motor and
cognitive skills but emphasizes
social skills within play groups and
multisaged groups.

Without the professional child
care facilities the Day Care Center
provides, many women would be
prevented from working or having
free time for themselves, and their

'children would be deprived of the

companionship of other children
and educational facilities. Besides
hiring a sitter or sending children
to private homes (provisions which
are in most cases inadequate for
the proper development oi
children) women who need to work
for either economic or personal
reasons are prevented from doing
so. with the opening of economic
and educational opportunities ior
women the need for profasional

large-~

day care facilities is even more
important.

The Grinnell Day Care Center is
View facing a critical situation. A
new senior citizens home has been
built, replacing the building in
which the center is presently
housed, and the Day Care Center is
unsure of its future. As it stands
now, it looks as if the Center will be
evicted June 1, a startling fact
made known to the public a month
ago.

There are several options open to
lhe Center. First, it can rent a
building nearby for a dollar a
month, but it would require ex
tensive renovation and necessitate
a cut in enrollment to thirty or
thirty»five Children because of lack
of space. In order to keep up the
present enrollment, a Butler-type
building could be added.
Renovation and the addition would
cost an estimated $36,000, a figure
the Center's Board is pessimistic
about meeting. Another possibility
would be to build a new Center, one
more suitable to day care needs.
However, this might mean an
interruption in day care service
while financial support is solicited
from the community and while the
new center is built,

Monday night the City Council is
meeting and will discuss a petition
from the Day Care Center for
revenue sharing funds. It is an
open meeting, and it is hoped that
many people will come to support
this proposal. It is imperative that
the Grinnell Day Care Center
remains open with facilities
adequate to accomodate the

 

present and future needs of the
community.

 

 

’,

by caryOden

While looking through the 1976777
edition of the Grinnell College
catalogue I found a section titled
“The Purpose of the College.” It is
stated here that ”While Grinnell
offers much, it also seeks students
who are willing to give much,
eager to understand as well as be
understood. The quality of life . . ,
depends upon a willingness to live
.{ly and creatively with others;
and the college highly values
students who wish to build a strong
community and make an in»
stitution work.” (page 7) After
r ing this i looked, retrospec
t eiy, at my four years here at
Grinnell and questioned whether
this purpose was actually fulfilled.
I came to the conclusion that the
college administration has
provided the elements for the
fulfillment oi the purpose stated
above, such as 24 hour visitation,
practically no rules, and freedom
to organize student groups.
However, it is m opinion that the

 

students have failed in reaching
the nonracademic objectives of the
college due to hypocrisy and a
misinterpretation of what it is to be
educated.

This is illustrated in the
existence of the pseudo-intellectual
who Is absorbed in academics from
Monday to Friday afternoon until
the weekend comes when he»she
allows him-herself to revert to the
actions of “Common" people A
typical weekend in Grinnell in-
volvcs a lot of damage to college
property (breaking windows,
telephone booths, vending
machines). Even when viewing
some of the social spots on campus,
like the Pub and Forum, the
MondayrF‘l‘iday intellectual can be
seen llollering Obscenities, strip-
ping clothing, and stimulating
lights. But of course the culprit in
this situation is not the inner
nature ofstudents, but the fact that
they were drinking alcohol and
relieving frustrations. This is
clearly not an example of a
willingness to llve civilly and
creatively wtth others

The campus racial situation is
another example of the failure on
the part of the students to fulfill the
goals of the college. Time and time
again I have encountered all forms
of prejudice and stereotyping of
students by other students. Race,
like most issues discussed on this
campus, is considered to be a
concept instead of a reality. People
are not considered as individuals
but as representatives of their
race. This conception therefore
prevents interaction between

open opoee open opopp open space

a The forked road of Grinnell

races, because people react to one
another according to stereotypes,
For example. the CBS organization
has been constantly attacked for
one reason or another: the main
reason CBS has remained intact is
because it serves the function of
providing a unified goal for black
students. that goal being to reverse
the negative connotations of
blackness and promote positive
attitudes towards being black, The
black student organization does
not in any way promote
separatism, but the separatism
thatdoes exist is due to the narrow
mindedness of the inleldual. This
is not to say that only black
students desire separatism; there
are other members of the college
community that share this
ideology and thcse are the students
that have failed at attaining “the
purpose of the college." Fur
thermore, the lack of interest of
most students to participate in
cultural experiences other than
their own continues to perpetuate
the stereotypes and lack of un»
derstanding needed to fulfill the
purpose of the college

As my ”Grinnell Experience"
comes to an end I see that there is
indeed a forked road which
Grinnell students have created by
emphasizing formal education
over life experiences and informal
education. By ignoring the latter
type of education, which is an
essential objective of the college,
and centering on a purely
academic education, students are
not getting the true and complete

 

“Grinnell Experience."

Blame it on
the Russians

by Fat Edmunds

“You’ve gone too far this time,"
my most understanding critic told
me Saturday.

“Yes, tetched, off the wall,” I
agreed, knowing full well the
qualities present in last week's
column. “But," I added lamely
while searching for the metaphor
to precisely capture a vision
ﬂoating through my brain, “one
must hang loose sometimes.”

“You mean, you‘d rather be a
feather pillow than a bag of
cement," she said, reading my
mind,

“Upon impact, certainly,"
agreeing again then confiding,
“You know, I’ve been very
troubled lately."

“It's the weather,” she said as to
reassure, and patted my hand
warmly.

“No, it’s the Russians," I looked
at her sharply.

“The Russians?” Incredulous,
then looking at me seriously,
gauging the situation, she decided
more time was needed and ordered
another round of coffee. Mean
while, opening my wallet to where
I accumulate newspaper clippings,
having found these far more en-
tertaining than the usual green
variety of paper stored in such
places, i continued.

“Have you ever seen more
outrageous, irresponsible jour-
nalism'? Why even if it is true," I
rage. “should it have been prin-
ted?"

Before her I laid now a front
page story cut out from the
previous day’s paper (The Des
Moines Register. February 4,
1977). This article reported that
there is speculation in Canada that
the Russians have learned how to
transmit electricity without wires,
perhaps after a process developed
by the Yugoslavian inventor,
Tesla, at the turn of this century.

in part the article read, “Tesla
suggested a number of possible
uses for his equipment, including

 

power transmission, geological
exploration, national defense and
weather modification."

“Weather modification?”

“Yes," I answered, “It says
right there that Dr. Andrija
Puharich of the US ‘declined to
rule out the possib ty that the
Russians may be using Tesla’s
theories for weather
modification ’ "

“Oh yes," she noted, “I see; ‘I
think they have a lot of reason to do
it.Y he said.”

Then frowning and after a
moment‘s pause she spoke again,
“But the reporter continues here
Without even the use of legitimizing
quotation marks!" she read,
“ ‘Puharich pointed out that the
Russians might be interested in
pushing their cold, arctic air mass
elsewhere—perhaps toward the
U.S.~thus lengthening their own
agricultural growing season.’ "

“Serious implication," I intoned.

“Barerfaced innuendo," she
corrected.

Sure now I had in my friend a
ready ear, I felt at last at liberty to
confess my wildest anxieties.
“This one‘s from the radio,” I
began. Recalling then the news
item that caught my car as I lay
awake, half~consicous of the full
moon overhead a iew nights'
before, I said, “Air Force bombs
dropped on Indian Reservation in
New Mexico today.”

Speechless now, I hastened to
inform her that I was not really
sure if there were three or four
bombs, whether it really was in
New Mexico, and that memory
might not serve to remind me if
they had been dropped on Indian
lands rather than on an Indian
Reservation.

“But stranger still," I told my
friend, “Is that I’ve yet to find an
account of this event in the
newspapers.” For how indeed is
one ever to know what sort of
bombs they were: nuclear,
dynamite, feather, flour, or fluff?

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