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April 27, I973

é as QEott‘orl'al

Educational Policy:
A Reconsideration

Where educational policy is concerned Grinnell, like many
other schools across the country,has in recent years exhibited
an alarming tendency to be primarily concerned with form
rather than level of performance. The series of institutional
changes made in the Grinnell Experience just sincethe present
senior class first warily stepped foot on the campus is, we
believe, somewhat amazing.

First we eliminated the stipulation that required courses be
taken for a grade; but that, as it turned out, was just a pre-
liminary for the grand step in the fall of 1970 of eliminating
requirements altogether. The college instituted a new course
»the freshman tutorialc-which, as far as anyone knew, was
original with Grinnell and previously untried.

Last year it was the grading system which underwent the
traumatic experience of being accused, debated, discussed and
finally thrown out, in favor of a plan called “grade-erase."
The old favorite credit—fail was handed its exit papers as well.

At the same time the college was concerned with the juggling
of departments; so we added Religious Studies to the list,
gave Communications our blessing, and set up Black Studies
as a rubric. This year the debate has continued, with Com~
munications being tossed to the wind as a department.

To keep track of it all, the College eventually found it ne—
cessary to set up a new series of committees to deal with
institutional change and so, with a cautious eye upon the stu—
dent power movement, it unveiled the Educational Policy Com—
mittees, encompassing most departments and all divisions,
and provided for an All—College EPC to top it off. Since that
time, most of the debates have found their forum there,
The recent campaign for the at-large student posi 'on on the
AllACollege EPC (which is, to keep matters straight, a sub-
committee of the Executive Council) has pointed up, we beli-
eve, the magnitude of the situation.

To a man, the candidates seemed to be primarily interested
in more structural changes at the college, calling for shifts
to a different calendar, a reinstitution of the credit-erase
option, a rewriting of independent project guidelines, and so
forth. One candidate, whose campaign fortunately seemed to
be less than totally serious, even complained about the low
grades some students were getting in certain courses, sug-
gesting that perhaps we needed some sort of institutional
device to prevent the professors from being so nasty and mean.
The issue here is not the election,but the nature of the debate.
It seems that few Grinnellians are aware anymore that the
real center of educational question is not the structure through
which we operate, but rather the quality of the operation, re»
gardless of the particular way in which it is done.

This is not to say that the institutional changes listed pre
viously are not helpful, nor that the college could not benefit
from further innovations. But there must be a point at which
the change of form grants us diminishing returns, and a con—
centration on quality becomes the paramount issue.

Although Grinnell has habitually enjoyedan excellentacademic
reputation, for example, in recent years several outstanding
professors have quietly left the school, almost unnoticed
in the midst of our debates. The quality of education, many
seniors contend, has noticeably decreased thesepast four years.
As students, we should be able to investigate the reasons for

, that decrease and find out what it is that we must do in order
to improve our quality to the standard we once held. And
as students, we‘ are perhaps in a unique position to carry out
that operation. Only we, in the last analysis, know the kind
of job the school is doing, for we are the recipients of its
product.

The proposed student-run course evaluating booklet, for a
beginning, can be a powerful force in this direction. By iden-
tifying the good and the poor courses on the campus, and then
reflecting our lines of preference in terms of course demand,
we can tell the collegeinavery real way the kind of educational
quality we demand, and provide an incentive for the professors
and the administration to see that we get it.

Only through measures like these can we change the essen-
tial kind of education Grinnell gives. All the calendar changes
and independent project guidelines in the world cannot give
us a better education if therels nota basic foundation of quality
upon which to build.

That type of educational policy, we believe, is what Grinnell
needs. But if as students we continue along in our present
manner, that is exactly the type of policy we will lack. Our
educations will continue to suffer, and despite more mad struc
ctural innovations, the quality will continue to decline.

And the worst of it is, it will be our own fault.

sins. . », .oiu - .,,

Burbules:
To the Editors:

When we liberals are confronted
with the suggestion that our well—
intentioned, concerned and consci-
entious opinions and “assistance”
are neither solicited nor appreci-
ated, we respond with a bitterness
and a rage unmatched in the poll—
tical spectrum, Righteously clutchr
ing our pens, we scrawl with furr
ions moral indignation and biting
sarcasm, shredding opposing argue
ments right and left, sweeping for-
ward with a banner oi Truth and
Humanity...

We are laughed at. And rightfully
so, because there are few sights
as absurd as people brandishing
talismans oi bygone days in an at»
tempt to ward on the demons oi the
future. The editorial letters on bl—
ack/white relations last week der
monstrated this; they were at best
snperiicial and narrowminded (with
the exception oi Mr. rrosijs contrlr
bution), and at worst were indica»
tive oi a poorly disguised and ra-
tionalized racism.

Certainly "peaceful Coexistence
and cooperation” is everyone's id-
eal s. only psychopaths prefer hos-
tiiity and animosity. But to most
liberals oi late this means “inte-
gration” and to black people that
means compromise and assimila-

Bldck “intennt

Vi .urn mi in

Y

tion. The sooner my white brothers
and sisters realize that black iden—
tity and integrity must be indepen-
dent of our Standards and influence,
the sooner perhaps we may stop
interrupting conversahonsYMr, El»
dridge) or decrying “illogical sni-
pes” at our values (as in Dr. wri-
ght’s lecture or in Mr. Alston’s
“shocking" and "offensive” smirk
at our newest bastion of tolerance
and open»mindedness, Gay Libera-
tlﬂl'l).

Most importantly, we can spend
more time developing a meaningful
identity for ourselves (and face it,
the bland paleness of White America
is not only in our skin), and less
time “helping" or “interacting
with” black people who are, fornow,
preoccupied with asserting their
own.

In closing, it is not as if the clus-
ter system or black nationalism are
going to sweep Grinnell (or the rest
oi the country) in a wave ofblack—
supremisl reverse discrimination,
And it is not as if contact between
black and white Students need Sudr
denly become contemptuous and
hateful. It will remain cordial and
perfunctory as, by and large, it has
been all along.

Nick Eurbliles

g, &
letters

Meacham: May 1

To the Editors

it has come to my notice that
the campus is sadly lacking in the
traditions of May first (Tuesday).
The problem seems lo lie in the
fact that no one knows what they are.

First, the tradition of giving May
baskets iull of candy and/or ﬂowers.
The receiver of the basket must
catch the giver and kiss her or
him. This is a great tradition and
should be revived.

Also, there is the tradition oi a
May-pole, Everyone takes a piece
oi crepe paper and dances about a
pole, winding the pole up in the
different colored crepe.

May first is a day for Spring and
everything that goes along with it--
Spring fever, playing in the grass,
and Spring Love, perhaps it will
even boost the morale of the cam-

ns. .
p connie Meacham

Daley: Second Report From Down Under

To the Editors:

This is the second installment of a
Down Under Open Letter coming
from Down Under. In the first in-
stallment I told of the rather grim
situation facing students and tea»
chers in New South Wales, Australia.
In the time since 1 last wrote, not
much has changed, but I would st»
ress that my comments are only
made from my experience at one
school in one suburb of Sydney, and
may not necessarily apply to the
entire educational system in Austr-
alia.
if that sounds as though I’m try.
ing to be nice to Australia, it's
not. But in my experience at Liv»
erpool Girls High School, We found
the home environment is so invol-
ved in how these students perform.
Many have little or no parental
care or too much and so they bring
all their troubles to school and lay
it all on the authority figure there
ruthe teacher, I’ve found kids so
unbelievably distasteful of education

Letters to the editor should
be submitted to the ShB be
fore 7:00 pm. Wednesday eve
ening in order to be included
in the Friday paper,

El: Stone Age

To the Editors:

In our modern era we can ily to
the moon, but we Grinnell students
eat as if we are in the Stone Age.

Students talk about a meat boycott,
but is their any meat to boycott to
begin with? What we need to go onis
a fat and grease boycott.

I present to you the results of a
secret behind the scene investiga-
tion of SAGA and my personal en»
counters with their creations.

Did you know that SAGA puts a lot
oi work into the Friday night meal?
They step on the cockroaches twice.

one Saturday afternoon 1 left my
sneakers in the as. complex unats
tended, and the next thing I saw
was the SAGA boss running oii with
them. In the evening I was served
a steak marked “Converse”. One
thing that i do appreciate about
SAGA is that it gave me my first
look at Vulcanized meat,

One day lcomplained to the SAGA
boss about a ily in my soup, He
said rm sorry I’ll give you a few
more,

SAGA is helping to solve the enr
ergy crisis, They have discovered
a new source of natural gas. (SAGA
food gives you that get up and go
feeling.)

I heard a rumor that the SAGA
boss built his house using bricks
made out of SAGA hamburgers and
used their mashed potatoes ior cone

that school and learning are utterly
useless for them, even as young as
14 years old.

In my dramatic evolution as a tear
Cher here, I’ve found myself back
ing up and doing things 1 never th-
ought l’d ever do before lbegan
teaching. I always had the ideal
(inculcated by the liberal arts back,
ground) that with a little bit of help
on my part, everyone could become
interested in something educational.

I’ve found myself thinking that cor-
poral punishment wasn't completely
far off. l've been called every four,
letter word in the book and even
some I’d never heard before, pecu-
liar to Australia.

The same problems of class size
and lack of equipment,plague educa-
tion here as they do in the States.
But the problems are compoundedby
a great teaching load and the student
discipline problem.

School is only school and there
is very little extracurricular ac»
tivity Such as student government,
SOCial events, or publications con»
nected with a day. Students attend
eight straight periods oi classes,
breaking only for 35-minute lunch
and 15-minute recess,

Classes are 40 minutes long and
most farcicial. All classes are gr-

SAGA Woes

crete.

when it becomes warm SAGA will
have a new dish out, a fruit fly
plate. SAGA saves money on its
coffee by buying rusty pipes.

For all you Grinnell students who
own cars [have good news for you,
I was able to perform a complete
lube job on my car using a SAGA
fried chicken.

Did you know that SAGA made a
deal with the local morgue so that
they would make a commission on
each corpse delivered?

SAGA has been serving organic
foods all along. Their {cod is made
from 100% natural animal byrpro—
ducts.

For you jerks who want to write
in and criticize this letter, don’t
bother,

Brother El

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of lhe mum body, faculty, or admlnlslnllon of
crimii rniiii. Malrrtll us". the Scarlet and
and (Inhol a. reproduced for pninrumi wilhwi
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John van.

ouped according to it}, so the lowest
classes do even less work than the
advanced ones. Add the fact that
the greatest discipline problems
are in these lower classes and all
you get is chaos.

The Teachers’ Union is a useless
group which is out of touch with What
is going on in the schools. Strikes
are called and only a quarter of,the
teachers go out. No one is willing
to lose pay to improve conditions
at school. It’s the same old story
of all talk, and no action. Teachers
Sit in their staffrocms and simply
complain.

My educational experience has been
disappointing, but my living exper-
ience in Australia has been great,
Weather has been warm and tem-
perate since September. The bea-
ches and bush are very close.

, Traveling in Australia over Chris-
tmas was easy. I took the trans
continental Indian Pacific 3000 miles
to Perth and the West Coastandthen
hitchhiked back with no problems.
people in the Outback were very
friendly and anxious to meetanyone.

The ﬂora, fauna, and landiorms
were interesting. Another good thing
is that Asia is very close and easy
to travel in also.

if K might be so bold as to make
some predictions on the future of
Australia, i would say that generally
the Australian future is bright. Her
recent cooling of relations with the
U.S. can only help her since she
needs the closer markets opening
in Asia. ‘

Her internal economy has unlimited
growth potential, but she must be
aware of net economic welfare she
fosters with a growing economy.
Two black spots are in education
and the treatment of Aborigines.

In the near future there will be a
drastic change in the way education
is carried out here. Aboriginal prob-
lems are becoming more heated
each day here. especially in the in-
her city areas. No one seems to
have any workable plan and young
Aborigines grow more angry each
day. ‘
Though this hasn’t been too arti-
culate, l hope it gives you some
idea of what it's like Down Under,

Mike Daley (‘72)

eusmrssMANmEn .,
iovsnrisiwc MANAGER
CIRCULA’MDN MANAGER
sronrs :onon om Calvert
commas-rs , .. ii... iii, Milo
Breed, Tran Cutler, cicii DillM-r, 4m Bop.
pin, sun Much

pnorocnipnrns John Eenzrkl,
mm Bra/ulnar, Hell 2. Dreen, Julie bum, cr.
.ir Kultsakl, le Muller, Ebb Svlrks, huh Tow.
Kruwinokul

Aims-r

.. Tom Glendenlnn
.noiais on.“
on shiihias

Mimm Einstein
Twin , Nancyas‘uld
nrrorrrns . .Anlly Bloom, Elaine
buoy. Ann cisssl, Michelle Casey, lain Clue
er, cnri Cvlrrll, himiy ii", Shrulyn Lei, hon
Median, cmr Murphy, sirvi um, Linda reach.
Dave Hallo, Donnie nusvir. brim Schondelmayer.
Arturo up“. mini. wacku, xsi Winnkur,
Tuincil

 

