pages THE RIDGERUNNER October 27, 1977
Closs of 1980: Diplomas
will be horder to get
MARYKNOLL
MARYKNOLL. N Y. 10545
WORLD
By Ounpua Digest News Service
Once upon a time, there was something
called "grade InHatlon.” This was when,
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the
radical chic more or less ruled the
academic roost and grades were con
sidered somewhat reactionary. As a
result, grading was made considerably
less harsh-to be blunt, professors and
Instructors were throwing "As" and
"Bs” around like confetti. Hence, grade
inflation.
Well, now like all Inflation, we are
paying for It. lately, a crackdown on too-
easy grading has swept the schools and
colleges of the nation. Hard times,
academically, have hit the campus. And
the latest manifestation of this new trend
bodes 111 for the future.
The scene is the Newton Conover High
School In Newton, N.C. The time Is 1980.
The story Is that no student below a "C"
average will be able to graduate.
This Is the decree of the Newton school
board. Alarmed over the ever-increasing
number of high schol graduates who
cannot read their diplomas, the board
has decided that begliuilng for the class
of 1980, no one will be able to graduate
without at least what the board calls a
straight "C” average. That means that
any grades a student earns below "C"
would have to be offset by grades above
"C”.
Last spring, 32 of the schools 187
graduating seniors had "D” averages;
nonetheless, they received their
diplomas, the school board found.
Not only that, but the board has
recently heard complaints that some of
their graduating seniors were func
tioning at the level of seml-llUteracy.
"We heard gripes from employers who
were hiring high school graduates who
couldn't read or write," WUli Zlntbaum,
chairman of the school board, told the
Associated Press. "We want this to
happen less frequently and one way Is
through the stlffer requirements."
Newton's plan sounds logical, but some
educationists are saying it's a pipe
dream.
"I can't think of any high schools in the
nation that have gone to a grade-point
requirement," said H. T. Connor of the
North Carolina Department of Public
Instruction. "In a typical high school in
North Carolina, this sort of thing would
Increase the number of students who
don't get diplomas."
However, the school Is trying to help.
At this point, current sophomores will be
affected by the new policy. School of
ficials say they are going to provide extra
help to those students who need It. These
needy students will be found when the
sophomores' grades are computed
against the straight "C" average they
will have to meet In two years.
What about those who complete their
senior year and (literally) don't make
the grade? They will be Issued "sub
stitute" certificates that specifically say
the student holding them did not
technically graduate. Some teachers
have complained that such a certificate
would hurt a student seeking a Job.
But to the high school principal,
Jerome Ingle, the new requirement’s
benefits outweigh its problems.
"I think all the students will buckle
down and meet the average. They’re all
certainly capable of it,’’ he said.
Time will tell. Meanwhile, U the
Newton plan carries on, It mlgt>t spread
across the country...even to sme college
campuses.
IF LOVE IS A SIDELINE
His Christian name is Bernard and he
looks like an ordinary American kid. But as
one of the estimated 3,000 illegitimate off
spring of U.S. soldiers stationed in Korea,
he learned a bitter truth: in a society which
traditionally esteems racial purity, his ap
pearance was stigmatizing.
Bernard was luckier than most. His
mother and stepfather loved him and did not
abandon him, but they realized his features
condemned him to life as an outcast in.
Korea. They turned to Father A1 Keane, a
Maryknoli Missioner for help.
Al’s deep, personal involvement with the
problems of racially mixed children began
accidentally in 1970 during Christmas Eve
festivities at San Kok Dong in the northern
part of Inchon. “I glanced up arid saw these
kids who looked like Americans. Then I
noticed how poorly they were dressed in old
rags.” After Christmas, Al found 25 of these
Korean-Americans crowded together in an
unheated room, surviving the cold by shar
ing their body heat. Originally wards of an
orphanage that crumbled under fmancial
pressures, the children were no longer small
and cute and had no hope of adoption.
Al bought them clothes and food. Because
SAUM ARABIA
Newspaper awards given
By Gampus Digeet News Service
Recently, the Society of Professional
Journalists, otherwise known as Slgnut
Delta Chi, made its annual student
newspaper awards. Read 'em or weep
(or cheer):
The Daily mini, at the University of
Champalgn-Urbana won the award as
best newspaper.
Anthonie H. WoUer of Brlngham Toung
University, Provo, Utah, won the best
news story award for his version of the
execution of Gary Qllmore. (Who?)
Laura Bloodworth, Jackie Medley and
Jerry Pannln, students at the University
of Oeorgla, MUledKevlUe, won the radio
^porting award tor lila broadcut "An
Kduc&tlonal Kmergency."
PhlUip Benson, a student at Drake
University, won In the television
reporting category for a story on a
nursing home fire In Altoona, la.
Rhonda Dickey of the University of
Iowa, Iowa City, won the editorial
writing competition with an editorial
calling for an investigation of local law
enforcement officials. (Qul custodlet
custodlentls?)
Craig Newman, a student at Arizona
State UiUvenrity, Temj>e, won In the news
photography award for a picture of a
woman praying after a tornado.
DavidOrlffln, of Woodstown, N.J., won
the feature photography award for a
photo of a dog straddling a doghoua* (no
kidding). And Robert M. Ooldstein of
Oregon State University, Corvallis, won
the feature writing award for an article
on defoliants.
The editorial cartooning competltlcn
was won by Brain Basaet at Ohio State
University at Columbus. We have no
description of the cartoon.
The prize-winning nonfiction magazine
article award went to Mark Sackett of
Marquette University In Milwaukee for
an article concerning the next aoo years.
BtnaUy, the top student magmslne
according to the professional journalism
fraternity is Kllpsnn, produced at
Western Washln^on State College,
Bellingham Wash.
Four of the society’s chapters per
formed the Judging; greater Bulfaio,
greater Kansas aty, and plain old Loa
Angeles and Connecticut.
To those of you who made It;
CONGRATS from CDNS. To those who
didn’t make it; you’re not alone.
Medical schools
rate high
Qjr Ounpoi DIgMt SwvlM
Recently, the Bakke caae Haa Omnm
U.S. medical ■cboola Into aom*
disrepute. Well, b« that aa It may, but
compared to tboM outalde the UJI., our
medical schools aeem to ■tlU b« no. 1.
An Inveatlgatton o acorea on itTI and
ivra certUlcatton examlnatkma of the
American Board of Internal Medicine
diows that graduatea of fonslgn madlcal
schools au not perform as wall as
.graduates of UA and Canadian maHeal
schools.
An article
of his kindness they began coming around
each day. He admits that he did not know
what his next step should be.
“I figured that if I taught them English,
somehow they'd survive," he explains. He
tutored them and then undertook a far more
difficult project—finding homes in America
for them. With perseverance, the help of
friends and cooperation of the Hope Adop
tion Agency, all but two eventually made it
to the U.S.
Word of Al's efforts spread. As a conse
quence, his "family" expanded to include
Billy and Danny, brothers retrieved from the
custody of a "nice man" about to employ
them in a house of prostitution.
That was in 1971. Billy and Danny are still
with Al and he provides for their support.
Billy, 19, is a college student and Danny, 17,
is in the first year of high school. For a time
Al's household also included Jamie, an
energetic 13 year old who left for the U.S.
last summer to join his new family.
For Bernard, too, meeting Father Keane
signaled a new beginning. Al arranged for his
adoption by an American family who met his
real family in Korea. “His new parents want
him to be their son by love,” says Al, “but
they encourage contact with his mother and
stepfather who will always have a place for
him in their hearts.” And later he reflected,
“I thought I was doing something for them,
but I realize now. I’ve gained far more.”
Remarkably, Father Keane's concern for
these children, human war surplus who have
experienced so much scorn and so much suf
fering has been very much a sideline to his
many other responsibilities. That is, if you
can call love a sideline.
1077.1 I’m Fr. Ron Saucci.
High times in Matpii
Bjr OaniNia Dtgeat Newa Rarvtca
Think lobsters are the high point tn
Maine? Not qulte~at leaat in Auguata.
There, local puahen have provan th«t
"hl^ times” are everywljere in the U.S.
Forty-nine bales ot marijuana was
confiscated there Uurt week with a atreat
value of some $1,800,000.
A 23-year^d student, Jeffrey Boylan,
from the Vl^^ Islands, had the pot In a
truck he waa driving.
And apparenUy, thia waa not aU the pot
that waa gt>lng to be puahed In Mahie.
Boylan’a arreat waa prompted by the
selsure by Ute Coaat Guard of a aafflXMit
and 90 more balea of pot at dockatda in an
unidentified point on the Maine coastline.
Looks like “flah and chlpa” might ba
replaced by "the evU weed” aa the MMM
heartthrcrt*.
appearing In tlw
oC BtedMae reported
that their had been much dlacuaslan over
the part foraign madlcal achool
graduates play in U.S. medicine,
"particularly about the preparatton for
practice In the United States attordad
them.”
As a rasult of that dlacuaalon, the
authors of the article, Dra. Jolm A.
Meakauakaa and Jcdm A. Banaon, and
Kllaabath Hopklaa, UlYaattc*ta4 th"
performanca at 2.CM foraicn Tnertlral
achool gradnataa, moat of wiiom «Uh
three yean of raaKtency tralatac in tba
U.8.
The reautt?’n>a aattkora fouBd that tha
over^ ootnpoatta aooraparlormanca ot
the total group “la slgnlflftantly lower"
than that o( U.8. or Canadian medical
achool graduataa,
Holdera of the loweat mean acore wara
graduataa of PhlUlplne mediesil adtoola,
and those who moved to the bead of the
slaaa Included graduataa at madlcal
schools in India, Peru and Thallani!.
Intel eetlngly. there was conalderably
vmrtablUty wUhln Hie groupe aa weU aa
iMtween them. Bald the authors. “TIm
pertormanee of the very beat foreign
medical graduates waa equal to that of
the beat of the graduataa of United Btataa
medical achoola.”
Also Interaatlng la the finding by the
authors of the article that U.S. students
who studies at medical schools In Italy,
Switzerland, Mexico and Belgium also
did poorly on the exama.
Well, now you know where not to get
sick.