Burton Issue
Hobbs Explains
About forty students met
last Thursday afternoon with
Guilford President Grimsley
Hobbs to further discuss the
decision not to renew the
contract of Bill Burton,
director of the Fellows
Program. Also at the meeting,
which lasted well over an
hour, were Assistant to the
President Bruce Stewart and
Academic Dean Cyril Harvey.
Hobbs opened the meeting
with a reiteration of the
Administration position that
Burton was not rehired solely
because the position for which
he had been hired had been
abolished. Hobbs stated that
he had not received "a single
negative phone call" about
Burton but that Burton had
come to Guilford "strictly on
trial" with "no thought of
continuing unless the program
was continued and nothing
happened this year to make
me think the program should
be continued."
Hobbs responded to student
descriptions of Burton's con
tribution to their intellectual
growth by saying, "He's
admittedly a good teacher, I
suppose." But he went on to
say that Burton's talents were
not in question, in the eyes of
the administration, and "We
have many other stimulating
professors."
Hatvey clarified his earlier
statement on the influence
Burton's activism had on the
decision, by saying that he
had meant that it would be
impossible to slice off one
factor as "unrelated and
unconsidered"' - that Burton
had to be evaluated as a whole
person.
Hobbs spoke to the activism
question by stating that as a
Quaker school, Guilford wel
comes activists and has many
activists in its faculty. He gave
as an example Ann Deagon
who has spent many hours in
front of the downtown post
office in a Quaker Vigil for
Peace. Further, students here
are also involved in the
community. "One girl is
teaching the deaf, and that is
quite proper," he said.
Hobbs mentioned that the
administration is "always
monitoring student opinion."
When questioned as to which
students were involved in the
Burton decision. Hobbs re
sponded "none". Later in the
meeting a comment by Hobbs
that "We welcome student
input on this" drew a
muttered response from a
student, "We only wish you'd
welcomed it before the
decision was made."
Dean Harvey pointed out
that at Earlham there are two
Promotion and Tenure Com
mittees - one composed of
students and one of faculty.
When they significantly dis
agree, the two committees
meet together to iron out
differences. Harvey said he
was "rather enchanted with
the procedure used at
Earlham" and suggested that
Guilford might like to adopt
such a system. This sugges
tion was endorsed by both
Hobbs and Stewart. Speaking
of recent criticism of the
system of tenure Hobbs said,
"Tenure is a fact of life that I
have to live with." Not to
accept that would mean that
"Guilford College would go
right down the drain..and
fast."
Hobbs reiterated Harvey's
position that "if we found the
right position for him" Burton
might be rehired, but left little
doubt in his listem er's minds
that he felt that such an
occurance would be extremely
unlikely. He said, however, "I
don't think I've ever made a
decision that 1 feel is beyond
review," and that "if more
evidence comes in, 1 and
others here will be happy to
reconsider it. He said that
ultimately the decision rested
with the Board of Trustees,
and some students raised the
possibility of sending repre
sentative to the Board to voice
student concern over the
Burton issue.
As the meeting drew to a
close Hobbs was asked what
effect it had on his thinking.
"I think that you've showed
me you're concerned" he
said. Sophomore Beth Zulick
pursued the question, asking,
"But does our concern
matter?", to which Cyril
Harvey responded, "It's fair
to say that you can't be
ignored."
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Representative Margaret Keesee | second from left 1 discusses her bill limiting corporal
punishment.
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Thursday, February 21, 1974
Keesee Discusses Anti-Spanking Bill Here
At a luncheon meeting at
Ragsdale House Monday,
Republican State Representa
tive Margaret Keesee discus
sed several of issues, among
them, her bill concerning the
regulation of corporal punish
ment in the public schools.
The bill, which has roused a
great deal of public controver
sy among teachers, principals,
counselors, and parents,
states that force may not be
used against a student except
in certain extreme cases: to
quell a disturbance, remove
weapons, protect persons or
property, or in cases of the
teacher's self-defense.
Rep. Keesee would like to
see every case of corporal
punishment recorded in the
school principal's office,
though not on the student's
permanent record. Once her
bill leaves committee and
reaches the floor of the house,
Keesee plans to amend it to
read that parents who don't
use, or don't want others to
use, physical punishment with
their children, may write a
note to the school and have it
honored. As things stand now,
she emphasized, parents can
write such a note with
Poetry Reading
There will be a poetry
reading, sponsored by the
Women's Center, on Wednes
day, March 6, at 1 pm in Shore
lounge. Bring original poetry
or poems written by others.
Greensboro, N.C.
absolutely no guarantee that it
will be honored, and if they
bring suit against a teacher
who violates their wishes, they
will lose.
"Apparently," Ms. Keesee
said, "we'll have to really
have someone get hurt before
anything will be done." The
teacher is only liable if it can
be proved that (s)he delibe
rately damaged the child
physically - for example, the
intentional blinding of a
student.
Rep. Keesee said that she
has received over 300
contacts, in the form of letters,
calls, and petitions, in favor of
her bill; these have come
mostly from parents and
guidance counselors, although
"there have been some
educators." Approximately
260 individuals have express
ed disfavor with her bill (with
varying degrees of hostility),
and both the Principal's
Association and the North
Carolina Association of Educa
tion have lobbied against her.
Says Keesee, "I had no idea
when I introduced the bill that
everyone would go bananas."
One of the ex-elementary
teacher's major concerns is
that in schools where children
are frequently or unfairly
punished, middle-class pa
rents can get their children
away from the situation by
putting their children in
private schools. Lower-income
suspension. "Parents have so
much trouble being heard,"
Vol. LXX
parents, however, have no
such recourse, and their
children become subject to the
choice of spanking or
Kep. Keesee commented.
''They try to go through
channels and get nowhere." A
member of the audience
pointed out that many parents
also feel that to draw attention
to their children in that way
may merit the teacher's
retaliation.
"A good teacher who is
humanistic in his or her
approach doesn't need the
crutch of paddling," Keesee
stated. "Rules in the
classroom aren't for the
benefit of the child but for the
benefit of the teacher -so her
routine won't be upset." In
her classroom of first and
second graders, MsyKeesee
encourages her students to be
responsible and use self-con
trol; in that way she feels that
confrontations - in which the
teacher may be tempted to
resort to the paddle - can be
avoided.
Keesee suggested that one
way to go about getting better
teachers, who will rely more
on imagination than disci
pline, is to improve teacher
education programs at the
college level, making them
more interesting and varied,
and giving student teachers
more actual classroom exper
ience earlier. Louise Smith,
wife of State Senator MacNeill
Smith, also suggested that if
retirement benefits for teach
ers were provided earlier, the
bad teachers might be more
easily gotten rid of: many
poor-to-mediocre teachers
might be more willing to
retire or even want to retire - if
they could afford to do so.
A student in the audience
pointed out that while North
Carolina ranks third in the
U.S. in the of its
highways, it ranks 47th in
education. Rep. Keesee said
she considers that indicative
of the priorities of the N.C.
Legislature, and is particularly
the fault of those legislators
who have been in "forever"
and run unopposed in every
election, and therefore "never
have to deal with the real
issues."
Rep. Keesee has filed for
re-election, though she ex
pects to have trouble in this
campaign, as she expects that
all incumbents - particularly
Republican - will.