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2 Friday, November 5,1993 School Forum Debates New Skills Curriculum BY JOHN RED BLACKWELL STAFF WRITER Local parents and educators held a pub lic forum Thursday night to discuss the issues surrounding the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools’ curriculum-restruc turing plan designed to teach students prac tical skills for today’s work force. The discussion, which was held in the Chapel Hill Town Hall, was the second of four public forums scheduled this fall con cerning current issues and programs in the school district. A panel of nine administrators, teach ers, parents and school board members addressed the concerns of the approxi mately 40 citizens who attended. The curriculum-restructuring plan, which was approved by the Chapel Hill- Canboro Board of Education last Decem ber, still is in its experimental stage. It includes comprehensive procedures for teaching students to solve complex prob lems; operate in teams; acquire and evalu ate data; and understand social, organiza tional and technological systems. Parent volunteer and panel member Gail Neely told the assembly she thought the best advantage of the new curriculum was that it stressed applied knowledge. “When children are taught only theory and memorization of facts, they lose sight of why they are at school," she said. “I feel that this is the kind of curriculum that is more conducive to learning." School board member Ken Touw told the assembly that practical-skills knowl edge included in the new curriculum was necessary for students to become success ful in today’s work force. “We don’t want students who just know the three R’s,” Touw said. “We want stu dents who are effective members of our society.” But some of the parents who spoke at TAR HEEL SPORTS SHORTS ► THIS WEEKEND at CAROLINA Men's Tennis - Rolex Region II Championship JHHS I Saturday, Nov. 6 & Sunday, Nov. 7 HP' Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center - All Day Volleyball - TONIGHT!! vs. Maryland - 7:30 pm Sat. Nov. 6 - vs. Virginia - 2:00 pm Carmichael Auditorium GO HEELS! WjkwAoOW" UNCStudents/Faculty free with ID! ’Jfc ■ THANK YOU, TAR HEELS! Dear faculty, students, and staff: Your strong support of the University Improvement Bond issue in Tuesday’s referendum will redound to the benefit of all who learn and work on our campus and all who live and work in our state for decades to come. You have helped make possible: ♦ anew building for the Kenan-Flagler Business School. ♦ more space for patient services, teaching, and research in our School of Dentistry. ♦ more room to study the causes of cancer and develop new treatments at the Linebetger Comprehensive Cancer Research Center. Other schools and departments needing space on campus will occupy facilities vacated by units gaining new structures. Off campus, the Carolina Living and Learning Center for Autistic Adults will get new residential and service units, and our network of nine Area Health Education Centers across North Carolina will get much needed new space for training medical students and other health professionals. All this will allow us to enhance the quality of our educational enterprise and the workplace environ ment for our faculty and staff. I am pleased that so many of you joined with our friends all across North Carolina in authorizing state government to make this investment. Thank you for your vision and your vote. This message paid for by North Carolinians for Our University, Our Future. the forum were concerned about the effects of anew curriculum that did not concen trate on basic academics. “Let’s not be so concerned with the interpersonal aspects of education that we don’t teach the basics,” parent Alan Belch told the panel. “I think it’s important that students be able to add, subtract and mul tiply without a calculator.” Panel member Diana Caplow, a teacher of academically gifted students at Seawell Elementary School, said she thought the new curriculum would enhance student’s understanding of basic academics. “I think it is a misconception that an integrated education neglects basic aca demics,” Caplow said. “When children become interested in the subjects, they want to read and leam more.” Touw said, “Research has shown that by teaching students these higher-order thinking skills, we can actually enhance their ability to leam basic skills.” School board Chairwoman Mary Bushnell said the curriculum would moti vate students because it made education “relevant to their lives.” “That’s not to say that facts are not important, you have to have some specif ics,” Bushnell said. “But students really need to understand the bigger concepts behind the facts.” Parent Peter Morcombe told the panel he thought parents and taxpayers would not approve of such a comprehensive change in education. “We thought that we had a fight on our hands with the multicultural program, but I think this will be a bigger one, ” Morcombe said. He said he thought the restructuring would cost the school district too much money. “I don’t think it should be seriously considered without definite, proven ben efits.” (cuucf Chancellor UNIVERSITY & CITY Dance Company Offers Eclectic, Inventive Styles BYWAYNETTE GLADDEN STAFF WRITER The world-renowned, radical, eclectic and avant-garde Bill T. Jones/ Amie Zane Dance Company will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday in Memorial Hall. To live up to the omnipotent string of adjectives that normally precede its name, the company is alive with innovation and energy. It is fa mous for its use of unexpected body juxtaposi tions, unusual partnering and the diverse back ground of its dancers. Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company Performance 8 p.m. Saturday, Lectures 11 a.m„ 2 p.m. Today The 10 members of the troupe have extremely varied training ranging from ath letics and acting to classical, folk and mod em dance. Their training parallels their ethnic-racial backgrounds, which run the gamut from Puerto Rican to Jewish and Irish Catholic. One dancer is overweight. One dancer is an ex-convict and one, Jef frey McLamb from Clinton, studied dance at the N.C. School of the Arts. The most striking element of the Jones/ Zane company is its in-your-face, confron tational choreography. In 1980,1981 and Lab! Explores Four Generations of Family Problems BY ALISON MAXWELL STAFF WRITER “Daughters,” Lab! Theatre’s latest “hands-on” production, promises to be a truly “heartwarming, humorous, wonder ful spectrum of emotion that absolutely anyone can relate to,” according to senior director Joanna Buckner. A contemporary play written by John Morgan Evans, “Daughters” is the story of five central Ital ian female char acters and their ability or inabil ity to deal with intense, often “Daughters” Lab! Theatre Graham Memorial Saturday Through Tuesday heartbreaking crises. Set in New York, the play unfolds within the single-set kitchen of Mom, portrayed by freshman Megan Martin. The play centers upon a veracious, genuine portrayal of human life and sur vival within the family. “The dialogue is actually what you ex pect when you sit down to anyone’s kitchen table, and the conversations give a won- PHARMACY FROM PAGE 1 did not reflect what was taught in class. “A lot of students want to make sure he’s fired,” she said. “Nobody can follow what goes on in class. He just puts up overheads.” - 1982, Jones received Choreographic Fel lowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. The themes for his pieces include equal rights for gays and blacks. In his work, “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land,” Jones shocked the art world with the final sec- tion, in which members of the company and some volunteer nonprofessionals ap- peared completely nude. Jesse r ,„~-c Helms’ followers can relax, because this piece is not on the pro gram for Saturday JM M' night. , F M/m Jones’s choreography is sought after 1 Ii MjH * ™ W I 9 J f ; l formed by many dance companies such Ailey American ater and the Boston Jones, who was named the world's most beau- and per famous as the Alvin Dance The- Ballet. one of tiful people by People magazine, said, “I derful picture of how women hold them selves together in the face of crisis, ” Buckner explained. Four generations of women, including Grandma (freshman Hilary Sparrow), Mom, Tessie (freshman Guillermina Molina), Patty Ann (junior Jenny Schwartz) and Cetta (junior Nicole Gibson), are seemingly burdened by a se ries of trying situations. The woman first are faced by the doleful situation of Pop’s (Mom’s husband) can cer of the throat. Trying to decide whether or not to consent to the removal of Pop’s voice box, the women debate the pros and cons of the operation while facing other life trials. Tessie, Mom and Pop’s favorite daughter and also an intensely high-strung woman, discovers that her husband is hav ing an affair. After this striking revelation, Tessie experiences a nervous breakdown and is admitted to a mental hospital. While Tessie is recovering, 93-year-old Grandma passes away in her sleep. Mean while, Patti Ann, who often is put in the background during family discussions, as- The student said Smith had told the class he would not curve the grades. In a telephone interview Thursday, Smith said that in the end there would be a curve. Smith said that he was unable to attend the meeting with the students becuase of prior commitments. Pollack said that although Smith’s teach ing style was different from what the stu dents were used to, he thought Smith used a valid educational approach. Smith said he thought it was unusual that scores in other classes in the pharmacy school averaged in the 90s. “Students are coming off of a honey- EDUCATION FOR THE REAL WORLD Graduate degree programs (MA, Ph.D) in International Affairs with an emphasis on contemporary policy relevant issues. Area and Functional Fields: □ Interamerican Studies (including U.S.-Latin American Relations) □ European Studies □ Post-Soviet Studies □ Comparative Development □ International Business □ International Economics □ International Health Policy □ International Relations Theory □ International Security and Conflict □ Foreign Policy Analysis Apply by February 1 for assistantships and other financial aid. Center lA[, UUtVtlilTt 0 F H1..1 Students who are interested in Interamerican issues are particularly encouraged to apply for North-South Center Graduate Assistantships. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Admissions, Room #338 Coral Gables, FL 33124-3010 (303) 284-4173 TM r UNIVERSITY OF Miami don’t want to fulfill somebody’s trendy, multi-colored agenda. I think they’re approaching me because they want something different. ” , His very different perfor- mance here Saturday night will include “And the Maiden,” “Just You,” “Another History of I I Collage” * and “D --man in the j Waters.” The i last piece received the 1988-89 Bessie Award. It is set to Mendelssohn’s string octet ■ and is dedicated to deceased company member Demian Acquavella. Its epigraph on the program reads, “In a dream you saw a way to survive and I you were full of joy.” Its k theme is the new vitality in I life that can occur during times of grave crises or illness. To accompany the perfor mance, Jones will giveaffee lecture on his current works in progress, “Still/Here,” at 11 certains that her husband also is having an affair. The final twist to this bizarre and complicated plot is 17-year-old Cetta’s engagement to a 25-year-old lawyer. Throughout the play’s production, the audience will discover an underlying power struggle between Tessie and her daughter Cetta. Tessie, who lives with Mom until her death, always has been the central, domineering power figure. When Tessie breaks down mentally and is sent for recu peration, Cetta takes control of the family and decides to cancel Pop’s throat surgery. Gibson and Molina agree that “the con frontation between mother and daughter is the most enjoyable and intense scene in the play.” Although “Daughters” sounds like a morose version of a soap opera, the play promises to be a warm and humorous production, Bucknersaid. “The playwright finds a real-life kind of humor in the every day situations presented. ‘Daughters' is full of humor, but the real-life crisis situa tions will touch the audience.” Thematically, the play centers on a bond moon period,” Smith said. “This is a required course, and it is usually not an easy course in the curricu lum.” Smith said he taught a similar course at the University of Texas at Austin twice a year and found that the grades averaged from 60 to 70, but that it all evened out in the end with the curve. Pollack said that in the pharmacy school, test scores typically were curved by taking the class average into consideration. J.P. Grumbles, assistant to the dean of pharmacy school at the University ofTexas, said the current dissatisfaction among UNC pharmacy students would give some indi cation as to why Smith left the University ofTexas in July 1992, but was hesitant to discuss Smith’s case in detail. “It is an awkward situation that would be unwise to discuss,” Grumbles said. Smith said his reasons for leaving the University of Texas included the better research environment at UNC and a career opportunity for his wife in the Triangle. William Campbell, dean of the UNC School of Pharmacy, said holding an open meeting for students to voice concerns was not an unusual occurrence at the school, because it provided an opportunity for com munication. [7 — ; Hi WEffiWANE Enjoy patio dining at A Southern Season’s comfortable cafe Momky-Saturday <Ul|p Sally Sar Hppl a.m. today and a free demonstration at 2 p.m. today in the Student Union’s Great It HaU. ELmtf&ißM K “Still/Here” is scheduled for September 1994 at the Lyons (France) Bienale. It has a similar theme of mortality in the r / f r I of celebrating life instead of fearing death. His lecture will % focus on this issue, which has special mean ing to him. Jones is HTV-positive and lost his com panion of 17 years, Amie Zane, to AIDS in 1988. In “Still/Here," he strives to tran scribe these issues into an artistic vision and bring them to the stage. Tickets are available forthe performance at the Carolina Union Box Office. They are sls for the public, $13.50 for senior citizens and $8.50 for UNC students. Call the box office at 962-1449 or the Union Information Desk at 962-2285 for details. of love that keeps the family firmly held together. The playgoer is guaranteed to realize the importance of family relation ships and leam that in the end any family actually can overcome adversity, Buckner said. First-time director Buckner said the whole directing process “has been wonder ful due to the great work of stage manager Josh Thompson, technical director Clara Campbell and producer Holly Derr." Buckner stresses the importance of the entire cast’s effort on the overall success and appeal of the production. “Audiences are really going to like it because of the fantastic cast ofwomen who have really connected with the characters and brought them to life,” Buckner said. “Everyone who views the play will come away from it having learned something,” she said. “Daughters” opens with a preview at 8 p.m. Saturday in the basement of Graham Memorial. Other performances will be at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday and at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Admission is free. WEST FROM PAGE 1 Another element to valuable public com munication is an all-embracing moral vi sion, he said. “An all-embracing moral vision is being able to say to your neighbor, ‘What are you going through?”’ Self-critical, courageous stands no matter how difficult—also are fundamen tal to public communication, he said. Citizens need to be open to learning something every time they enter a conver sation, he said. “When you enter a dia logue, you are one person, and when you leave it, you are slightly altered.” Finally, in order to reach a radical de mocracy, citizens must have a sense of audacious hope, West said. “I come from a tradition of hope,” he said. “(To act as fellow citizens,) we need hope that there’s something else. “Can we overcome the cynicism and pessimism?” West asked the audience. “I think yes,” he said. “(It’s possible) with time, energy and people keeping alive the vision of hope.” Campus Calendar FRIDAY II a.m. Carolina Union Activities Board will sponsor a lecture by choreographer Bill T. Jones in the Great Hall of the Student Union. There also will be a dance demonstration at 2 p.m. Alpha Chi Sigma win hold a hot dog sale in Kenan Lobby. 6:15 p.m. N.C. Hillel will hold Shabbat services followed by a vegetarian dinner ($5) and a guest speaker. 6:30 p.m. CUAB will sponsor a journey through Asia in Great Hall. SUNDAY 8:30 a.m. N.C. Hillel will sponsor a hiking trip to Raven Rock State Park for graduate students. Meet at Hillel. Bring water and food. 10:30 a.m. Campos Christian Fellowship will hold worship at campus house. 7 p.m. Newman Catholic Student Center will have mass at Newman. ITEMS OF INTEREST The Rainforest Action Group will sell raffle tickets and T-shirts in the Pit today. Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority will celebrate Founders’ Week next week. NURSE oppomuNims NURSING AT ITS Furot You’ll find pride and professionalism as a member of the 100% BSN Army Nurse Corps-plus the pay and benefits of an Army officer and excellent opportunities for higher education. Call your Army Recruiter now. Call Collect 919-790-7893 Sgt. Ist Class Reinelt ARMY. BE ALL YOU CAM BE.” The world miereof ■r face of f terminal illness and
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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