PAGE 2 — THE DECREE — NOVEMBER 13,1987
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OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN COLLEGE
Cfl-Edftor-ln-ChlcjT—Tom Rivets and Mike Tnibey
Staff Reporters—Melanie Boilings Mark Ctum,
Sharon Evani^ Pam Hanrisott^
DcU Lewis, Wayne Maru'n
The Decree is located in the Student Union, North Carolina
'Wiedeyeai College, Wesleyan College Statioa, Rocky Mount, NC
27B01. Policy is deicrnuncd by the Ediiorjjl Bo.ird of Ihe Decree
R^bUcaiioD of any mailer herein wuh«ul the e^prcs^ consent of the
Edilorial Board is s(ricil> torhidden, Ihe Decree is lomposed and
printed by The Spring Hope Emerprt w
C^iaiDns published do not necessarily reflect those of North Caro
lina Wesleyan C!oUej;e.
Student athletes
unfairly criticized
Student athletes may be the
most criticized students on
college campuses today. Staff
and faculty generalize when
they talk about stupid “jocks”
and their lack of interest in
their academic endeavors. The
student athlets are not getting
the credit that these men and
women deserve for the hard
woiic that they do.
While there are some stu
dents on college campuses that
only go to class, eat three
meals a day, and spend the
remainder of their time in the
library studying, there are
other students that go to class,
eat, study, and also practice
their respective sport from 2-3
hours per day. Yes, it is by
choice that they choose to
participate in athletics, but at
the same time they are repre
senting their school in inter
collegiate activities.
These students often spend
additional time traveling to
and from other schools to par
ticipate in athletics. This takes
away time for studying also.
There are athletes who try to
take advantage of this situ
ation by telling the professor
“We had an away game,” or “I
didn’t have time to do my
homework,” but there are also
those who still get their work
done on time. It may be argued
the student athletes who get
the work done arc in the minor
ity, these are the students that
should be given credit for hard
work and determination.
One professor at Wesleyan
has often been heard saying
that he feels there are students
at Wesleyan that are also ath
letes, not the other way around
with athletes that act as stu
dents. This may not be true of
all of the student athletes at
Wesleyan, but there are some
that deserve a great deal of
credit for the time and effort
they put into representing the
school in their sport and also,
and more importantly, for the
time they put into being a good
student.
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Merit pay useful idea
NCAE’s position selfish
By DON RHODES
I was flipping through the News
and Observer the other day , and I read
an article that disturbed me. The ar
ticle stated that the North Carolina
Association of Educators had decided
to endorse Lt. Governor Jordan for
governor next year because of Gover
nor Jim Martin’s support of a merit
pay system in public education.
Don’t get me wrong; the
newspaper’s coverage of the issue is ^
not what bothers me. Rather, it is the
decision of the teacher’s association
to choose not to endorse the governor
because he supports merit pay.
In Europe, the teacher is put on a
f>edestal. Europeans realize the im
portance of a quality education, and
they are paid accordingly. The
teacher’s association definitely wants
higher wages for teachers, but they
want higher wages for all teachers,
both good and bad.
The teachers seem to be afraid to
have themselves judged on their ef
fectiveness and competence. The
important thing is the children in
volved here, not that an incompetent
teacher has his or her job spared. A
merit pay scale might even encourage
a teacher to go that extra mile. Even if
the teacher wasn’t working especially
hard for the right reason (the chil
drens’ best interest), the money could
encourage him to work harder.
Merit pay also brings in the issue
of the quality of people that teaching
attracts. It has been shown that the
most intelligent people, the people
who can make the most money in the
business world, are not going into
teaching because diey will not make
good money teaching. If people know
that they have the opportunity to
advance in status and in salary, then
they will be more likely to consider
teaching as a career.
So where are we left? We have a
teacher’s association that does not
care about the children, but instead
about themselves. That unfortu
nately, may be something with which
we have to live, but if we do, why not
ensure that there are qualified people
in our schools?
For this nation to continue to pros
per, it is imperative that we do not
allow a teacher’s association to deter
mine what is best for our children,
when all that they are interested in is
their job security.
Monthly calendar planned
The Student Activities Committee will be publishing a monthly
calendar of all activities oncampus. If you have an event you would like
to put in the calendar, please leave the information in the Student Life
Box at the switchboard, or drop it off in the Stadent Life Office.
The deadline for entries will be the 15th of each month for the
following month. The calendars will be distributed to the faculty, staff,
and students the last week of each month. If you have any questions about
the calendar, please do not hesitate to give me a call.
Anthony Rice
Director of Student Activities
Comments on ^rock n* rolV spurs debate
It’s only rock n’ roll, says best
selling author Allan Bloom, and he
doesn’t like it.
In fact, the University of Chicago
professor blames rock — and other
forms of popular culture — for clos
ing the American mind.
Other educators, however, say
Bloom’s argument smacks of elitism,
sexism and racism. “His shot at rock
n’ roll is ludicrous,” said University
of Oklahoma English professor
David Gross. “It’s his mind that’s
closed.”
Bloom’s ‘The Closing of the
American Mind,” a nationwide be
stseller for more than 20 weeks, has
sparked considerable debate about
the role of higher education in Ameri
can society. Bloom’s book argues that
higher education is failing because
curricula no longer emphasize classi
cal Westem cultural studies.
Popular cultures. Bloom writes,
has made Americans intellectually
lazy and inept.
Bloom describes atypicalrockfan
as “a pubescent child whose body
throbs with orgasmic rhythms; whose
feelings are made articulator in
hymns (about) the joys of organisms
or the killing of parents; whose ambi
tion is to win fame and wealth in
imitating the drag queen who makes
the music.”
The sentiment doesn’t sit well in
some places.
A sign in Bowling Green State
University’s (Ohio) popular culture
department’s office predicts “Allan
Bloom will bum in hell.”
Bloom would have “a small elite
group of people define what is of
value and ram it down people’s
throats,” said Bowling Green pop
culture professor Jack Nachbar.
Popular culture studies are offered
at Bowling Green, said Nachbar, to
help students understand their envi
ronment better. “We provide a means
for students, a way to understand their
enviroimient better and to help them
think critically,” he said.
Bloom also attacks academics for
teaching “relativism,” examining is
sues comparatively, without impos
ing absolute values. Yoimg people
view any idea as just as good as any
other. Bloom argues. As a society, we
should apply and absolute standard to
all ideas, philosophies, and teachings,
he says.
“We see it (relativism) as a won
derful development,” said Bowling
Green’s Nachbar. “When you disre
gard relativism you open yourself up
to academic fascism.”
“He puts down pluralism so eas
ily,” said Gross, who lectures on rock
and roll lyrics at Oklahoma. “He talks
so easily about the truth. But wisdom
is not some self-contained platitude
fi-om Plato. It’s ridiculous to say that
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