Opinion Page
THE BRUNSWKK#RACON
Edward M Sweat t and Carolyn H. Sweat t Publishers
Edward M Sweat t Editor
Lynn S. Carlson Managing Editor
Susan Usher News Editor
Doug Rutter Sports Editor
Eric Carlson StaJfWrUer
Mary Potts A Peggy Earwood Office Managers
Carolyn H. Sweatt Advertising Director
Timber ley Adams, Cecelia Gore
and Linda Cheers Advertising Representatives
Dorothy Brennan asd Brenda Cienursons Moore ..Gf,nh!? Artists
William Manning Pressman
Lonnle Sprinkle Assistant Pressman
PACE 4-A. THURSDAY. JUNE 23. 1994
School Survey Respondents
See Problems Related Not
To Money, But To Behaviors
? Too many students in Brunswick County arc, upon gradua
tion from high school, either unprepared for the job market or in
need of remediation upon entry into colleges and universities.
m Many potential businesses and residents choose to go else
where because of perceptions about the quality of education in
this area.
mil is desired that the quality of education in Brunswick
C ounty, as well as the perception of that quality, be such that res
idents and potential residents not only consider i: adequate for
their needs, but also are attracted to the area as a result.
Determining the validity of those statements was one goal of
the Southport Oak Island Chamber of Commerce's project to de
termine how Brunswick Countians feel about their public
schools. The answer is a resounding "true, true and true," the poll
results seem to indicate.
it's important, but not particularly comforting, to point out
that you could probably replace "Brunswick County" with
"North Carolina." or even "The South" and expect to get the
same "amens" from any random sample of constituenLs. Still, the
just-released survey results deserve to be taken seriously, espe
cially in light of the likely showdown ahead concerning the
schools' funding in the new county budget.
Some may see an irony in the release of the survey results at
the same time Brunswick County commissioners and school
board members are girding their loins for a budgetary impasse
that could top last year's. But watch for those on both sides of the
school system funding debate to refer to the study to help make
their cases that (a) the schools are substandard because education
is underfunded, or (b) that infusions of cash do not make teachers
teach better or students learn more.
The survey sheds some light on how public perception differs
from the party line of school administrators and teacher organiza
tions about funding. Two issues raised frequently by school offi
cials ? overcrowding and lack of Financial support ? were not
among the problems survey respondents considered most press
ing. Respondents' believe the top problems are lack of discipline,
lack of parental involvement ar.d lack of student interest. Those
are woes whose roots are societal rather than fiscal.
Consider Yourself Warned
About Sobriety Checkpoints
Don't say we didn't warn you.
Law enforcement officials all over the state will be cracking
down on alcohol-impaired driving offenders ne;.t week during
whal the governor has proclaimed "Sobriety Checkpoint Week."
The Independence Day holiday weekend is typically one of
the most dangerous weekends to travel, in large part due to the
increased incidence of alcohol-impaired driving. Last year during
the July 4 holiday period, alcohol was involved in 58.9 percent of
all fatalities nationwide.
Here in Brunswick, we have a special problem when tens of
thousands of sun-starved visitors pour in to throw their cares to
the winds. That unwinding often involves copious amounts of
adult beverages, fueled by the attitude that, for this one week of
the year, the otherwise responsible drinker may exercise his or
her divine right to behave like an idiot while on vacation.
Be as foolish as you'd like, but stay off the road if you're go
ing to drink. (For that matter stay out of the water too.) If yon
won't do it just because it's the right thing, think about that cop
down the road who's not on vacation but on double duty ? and
not in a good mood about it.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Red Cross Thanks Donors
At Seaside For Patience
To the editor:
()n May 25 the Seaside United
Methodist Church sponsored a
blood drive for the American Red
Cross. The community response was
overwhelming!
At a time when most blood drives
that arc scheduled daily throughout
the state have difficulty achieving
their goal, this drive produced 154
percent of the goal.
The American Red Cross would
like to thank all the donors who
came to this drive for their patience
and understanding of long (or im
possible) waiting times In our fu
ture planning, we will not underesti
mate the large numbers of caring cit
izens residing in the communities of
south Brunswick County!
Jean Maiwaiu
rr^ciiltsn!
American Red Cross
Keep Mr. Chestnut
To the editor:
Waccamaw Elementary School is
about to lose a tine. Christian gen
tleman named Terry Chestnut, vice
principal.
Many parents and many workers
at the school want the board of edu
cation and the superintendent to
know that we want Mr. Chestnut to
stay at Waccamaw.
On Wednesday. June 22, at 5:30
p.m. in Southport, many of us will
present our feelings.
Pal Purvis Brown
Ash
Write Us
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published.
i
World Cup:
Can 2 Billion Be Wrong?
I had an interesting conversation
the other day with a 15-year-old girl
named Emily, who lives just north
of Dayton, Ohio.
We were on a boat returning from
an offshore fishing trip when she
plopped down on the seat next to me
and said, "Hi!" in that wonderfully
friendly manner characteristic of
nearly all Midwesterners.
An hour earlier. I had snapped a
picture of her reeling in a small red
snapper and noticed that she was
wearing a T-shirt advertising Uic
"Huber Heights Warriors" soccer
team.
Wanting to reciprocate her warm
gtcciing, i casually asked if she
planned to watch any of the upcom
ing World Cup Soccer matches,
which ? in case you haven't no
ticed ? are being hosted by the
United States for the first time in
history.
As it turns out. this was like ask
ing a Charlotte auto mechanic if he
pays any attention to NASCAR rac
ing.
I learned that Emily is the goalie
for her high-school soccer team. Her
brother is a college soccer player. So
of course she's going to watch every
World Cup game she can. In i dci,
she's going to videotape each one
for future study.
Emily is such a devoted soccer
fan 'hat she even wrote her lates!
term paper on the history of the
world's most popular sport.
Although it is impossible to say
for sure when or by whom soccer
was invented. Emily tells me that
the Vikings used to celebrate their
conquests by playing a variation of
the game using the severed head of
an enemy.
According to Emily, modem soc
ccr can be traced directly to a me
Eric
Carlson
dieval English version of the sport,
which was played over vast areas
wiih goals sometime* spaced several
miles apart. These contests became
so time-consuming and grew so
popular that they diverted the king's
subjects from their duties. So in
1314, King Edward II issued an
cdict forbidding its play.
Still, the game flourished and be
came England's national sport. At
the time it was called "association
football" to distinguish it from "rug
by football." The modem word
"soccer" comes from the sccond syl
lable of "association."
As the British empire flourished,
English sailors introduced soccer to
cultures around the globe. In less
than a century, it became the num
ber-one sport of almost every nation
on eat in. Except America.
Why is that? Marketing experts
will tell you that soccer won't be
come really popular in America un
til the games sre shown on televi
sion. Trouble is. soccer is an unpre
dictable game without the regular
time-outs that make it easy to sell
advertising time.
Boxing is the perfect TV sport.
You get 15 three-minute rounds with
a 60-second (commercial?) break
between each nnr t !nfortiinati?jy_ to
day's viewers prefer their violence
sanitized and in soft focus. So spon
sors give us a mind-numbing bar
rage of magically bloodless shooting
deaths cach night while condemning
(as barbaric, no less) the courage
and fortitude a top-notch boxing
match can display
American football (soccer
claimed the name first) is another
ideal made-for-TV sport. Each team
gets to call time outs. The officials
get time outs. There's a pause after
line changes, a break after every
punt and another after cach score.
Every half has a two-minute warn
ing break, with more pauses after
each quarter. And that doesn't in
clude half-time.
Baseball games likewise have
convenient stopping poinis. Basket
ball games take a time out whenever
Nike or Reebok says to. Stock cars
are already dressed up like orbiting
billboards, so nobody minds much
when they pause from racing action
to sell you something else.
But in soccei, the clock never
stops. Each 45-minute half goes on
without a single break that's long
enough for a sponsor to hawk your
mutt's favorite dog food. They don't
even take time out for injuries.
Instead, fallen players arc quickly
whisked off the field, with the ex
pended time added by the officials at
the end of the half.
Americans, with their notoriously
short attention spans, say they find
soccer boring becausc there are so
few goals scored. They prefer the
shot-a-minute action of professional
basketball, despite the fact that the
only important shot is the one that
wins the game a few seconds before
the final buzzer.
Seeing Ireland win its first-ever
World Cup victory over '.Lniy
Saturday, I realized that watching a
soccer match merely to see a few
goals scored is like watching the
Daytona 500 just to see who crosses
the finish line first. It's the drama
between the flags that matters.
A soccer game is really hundreds
of small, intense contests between
the player who has the ball and
members of the opposing team who
are trying to steal it. Each skirmish
is won by a artful maneuvering
around a defender or an accurate
kick to a team-mate. Or the momen
tum is lost to an equally deft steal
by an opponent
Goals are merely the icing on the
cake, the climax to a burst of skillful
positioning and passing that gains
the attackers a tiny but sufficient ad
vantage over the defenders. For the
novice soccer watcher, it often takes
an instant rc-play to sort out all the
maneuvering and teamwork that re
sults in a successful scoring drive.
Soccer is the national sport of al
most every country on earth. Nearly
one out of every three people on the
planet ? an estimated audience of 2
billion ? is expected to watch this
year's World Cup finals. In 1990,
the final game was seen by 75.8 per
cent of Argentina's population,
while only .004 percent of
Americans bothered to watch.
in a world made smaller every
day by television, computer net
working and international trade.
Americans can't afford to ignore the
rest of the world. One of the best
ways to understand other cultures is
to leam about the games they play.
And wc arc beginning to do just
that. All across the U.S., schools arc
discovering that soccer programs
cost a lot less (in dollars and in
juries) than American football.
They're aiso discovering that Kids ?
boys and girls, big and small ? like
to play soccer.
Just ask Emily.
uOOK IF you WANT MORE /VOHEX
you SHOULD COME TO FALEI6H .a
AND BEG m IT JUST LIKE i
EVERYONE ELSE!!
What You Get For Two-Years, $3,000
The N.C. Department of Commu
nity Colleges has some great news
for all those parents who have been
forking out big bucks for four-year
educations at state universities.
If an immediate increase in earn
ing potential is the only, or the major
reason you re sending a child
through state university, think again.
If you're an older worker consider
ing enrolling in a degree program at
a community college to upgrade
skills, read on. I hope the numbers
aren't too hard to wade through.
Tar Heel community college stu
dents who completed a two-year as
sociate of applied science degree in
spring or summer quarter of 1991
overall had higher first year earnings
than corresponding University of
North Carolina bachelor degree re
cipients. according to a recent study
by the N.C. Department of Com
munity Colleges. An AAS degree is
intended to prepare a student for the
workplace, and in some instances
can be used to transfer to a four- year
institution.
DCC tracked graduates' earnings
by matching school records with un
employment insurance quarterly
earnings files maintained by the
N.C. Employment Security Com
mission Hiey didn't track graduates
who had earnings outside the state,
or ihose who earned less than
S2.040 a quarter (the equivalent of
full-time at minimum wage).
The numbers will mean more
once additional studies are done that
document pre -enrollment earnings
of community college students,
earnings of individuals wiio do not
complete programs, and the long
range relationship of postsecondary
education and salaries
Meanwhile, the numbers now
available suggest that in terms of
mmediate earning potential, a two
Susan
Usher
year AAS degree serves very nicely
indeed.
The AAS grad was earning an av
erage annual first-year wages of
$23,102, while the average BA/BS
grad was earning $21,923. Univer
sity grads with a master's degree
were earning an average of $30,990
their first year out of school.
Community college students who
graduated from a certificate or
diploma program (less than two
years) were earning around $20,000.
Results lean slightly in favor of
the university grad when you take
into consideration students' ages. Of
the study group over 70 percent of
the bachelor degree recipients are
under 25; over 60 percent of the
AAS degree recipients are 25 or old
er.
Cluster grads by age and degree
and you find that bachelor degree re
cipients earn more than their AAS
degree counterparts in all but one
age category. But she AAS degree
recipients trail their bachelor degree
counterparts by only a small margin
in five categories, and were slightly
ahead in age 25-29. which haooens
to be the age when many adults be
gin returning to mimm! fur additional
training.
Here arc the average annual first
year salaries:
? under age 20: AAS. $16,391;
BA/BS, $ 1 7.6H4;
? age 21-24, AAS. $19,996;
BA/BS, $20,569;
? age 25-29, AAS, $23,649;
BA/BS, >22,763;
? age 30-34, AAS. $26,300;
BA/BS, S26.675;
? age 35-39, AAS. $26,781;
BA/BS, $28,554; and
? age 40 and older, AAS,
$26,383; BA/BS, 31,034.
According to DCC's calculations,
the difference is less than 15 percent
in each age category, and 7 percent
or less in all but the last category. In
the 21 to 24 years of age category,
which constitutes a large majority of
the UNC BA/BS completers, the av
erage first year earnings of AAS de
gree completers was 97 percent of
the BA/BS average.
Look at the earnings of the AAS
grads as a percentage of earnings of
the BA/BS grads and the results are
equally interesting. For all ages
combined, the AAS graduates' first
year earnings equaled 105 percent of
the BA/BS completers.. For all but
one age group they ranged from 93
percent o 104 percent. Only in the
40 and older category was the figure
significantly lower, at 85 percent.
It's impossible for me to get as
excited about these numbers as
some folks in the community col
lege system, because I've never be
lieved earning more money was the
best or only reason to go to college,
though it's certainly the most tangi
ble.
What I do see confirmed in the
numbers is the community colIcge
beine an dstrtino noiiil nr
? ? o r - *
alternative to a four -year education
for probably a majority of high
school students. They can capitalize
on this opportunity even more by
taking advantage of the Tech Prep or
"4 + 2" track in high school.
Two-year degree programs offer a
means of earning a decent living, a
j
fast route into the workplace, a
chance to explore a career area with
out making a S50.000 investment,
and for many, simply the next stage
in what will be a lifelong education
al journey as they train and retrain
for iobs of the future
? ? ?
Good things in a community
don't happen by magic. Whether it's
a major do like the N.C. Festival By
The Sea or something smaller,
there's always a group of people
hard at work in the background to
make sure an event goes off as
planned.
That's certainly true on July 3,
when the Volunteers In Blue Air
Force National Guard Band presents
an open-air evening concert at
Sunset Beach. Members of the spon
soring organization, the Sunset
Beach Bcautification Committee,
have been working hard to arrange a
proper welcome. On arrival the
National Guardsmen and women
will be treated to supper at tile Sea
Trail Plantation Pavilion, with com
mittee members like Cathy Kakos
and Ginny Barber preparing some of
the food and arranging for contribu
tions of other items from supportive
local businesses.
By the way, they're expecting a
larger crowd at this year's concert.
Mid-morning heal kept some music
lovers away last year, but a 7 p.m.
start time Sunday week should as
sure a good crowd. If you live close
by, consider walking over, Ginny
??ggr?t?, sine; parking -.pzee -a:!! be
limited rjon't forge! to bring s tew
el or folding chair for seating.
P- lease don't consider this an in
vitation to "Stump the Band," but if
there's a favorite tunc you'd like to
hear, don't hesitate to ask. "These
folks arc great," says Cathy. "They
can play everything."