Page Two
THE SALEMITE
February 10, 1961
Where Is The Emphasis In School?
The Miss Student Teacher contest has prob
ably been forgotten by most students now. It
was before exams and mid-semester break and
the snow. But several questions about modern
education and especially about the attitude of
our Salem education students were raised
which should not be forgotten or ignored.
And every teacher must answer them, not just
the three representatives on the stage.
As Dr. Lewis, in his role of grand inquisitor,
pointed out, the emphasis in education seems
to be away from the academic to the social.
In assembly and around campus we hear more
about “helping Johnny to adjust to his peers
or “teaching him to know himself his
strengths and his weaknesses” than we do
about teaching him math or Latin or reading.
Now this lack of public discussion of the
academic phase does not necessarily mean that
our future teachers ignore subject matter.
Most of them seem to accept the course ma
terial as an understood part of teaching. What
the trend of the discussion does seem to in
dicate, however, is a shift in emphasis to
group adjustment and the shoving of subject
matter into a secondary role.
This criticism always brings the rebuttal,
“But you have the WHOLE child and you
can’t ignore everything except his brain.”
Well, of course, we have the WHOLE child.
We have always had the WHOLE child. The
debate is over a matter of emphasis whether
you emphasize the academic or adjustment.
After all, just how far is the teacher re
sponsible for helping a child to adjust? Be
sides trying to correct any dangerous anti
social tendencies, such as stealing, lying, or
sadism, and besides trying to correct discip
line problems which disrupt a class, how far
is a teacher responsible? Isn’t there the dan
ger that the teacher will find herself “playing
God” to" help children to adjust to her ideas
of what is best?
And assuming that a teacher decides that
her primary duty is to help the child to be
well adjusted, what would be her purpose?
Would it be so that the child would feel
happy and secure? If we believe many philo
sophers, these are unattainable goals to begin
with. Is it to prepare him to get along well
with others in his future vocation? Unless a
worker is so maladjusted that he disrupts the
whole office, isn’t the employer’s primary con
cern for how well the employee knows his
material and does his job? In the great com
petition for good jobs, an employer would cer
tainly give preference to a man showing em
phasis on good training (academic) rather
than on sociability (adjustment).
Too often the teacher’s purpose, intention
ally or not, seems to lapse into wanting ad
justment for its own sake because it is the
popular idea. Everyone emphasizes that little
Johnny must be well adjusted so we unques-
tioningly think he must be too.
This major emphasis on the adjustment of
the student also raises the interesting question
of adjustment to what? Adjustment to the
other children? Children adjust to each other
naturally. Adjustment to the teacher’s idea
of what is right for her students? Again we
run into the danger of the teacher “playing
God” and setting up an inflexible standard of
what is being well adjusted. This leads to
the danger of adjustment coming to mean con
formity. If this becomes the meaning of the
term, then we sincerely hope that the teachers
fail in their aim.
Many of our most creative people have been
remarkably illadjusted. In art, music, litera
ture and other fields we find that Van Gough,
Listz, and Coleridge were not “well-adjusted”.
Perhaps the fact that they were ill-adjusted
was a stimulus to their creativity — compen
sation they call it in Psychology 102. We are
not sure that it would have been advisable for
their teachers to see that they were well ad
justed.
Any careful consideration of modern edu
cation leaves any teacher with several de
cisions to make. They must decide whether
the major emphasis should be on the academic
or the social. They must decide how far they
are responsible for a students’ adjustment,
what is meant by that term, and what the
value of adjustment is.
The decisions of which we are speaking can
not be a superficial decision of what would
sound good to the education department or
in a formal philosophy of education for a job
application. It means deciding what your re
sponsibility is and what you think that an
education should put in first place.
The Salemite will be glad to publish any
replies from students or professors, who are
inside or outside the education department.
Should Salem Tradition Of Junior
Senior Banquet Be Continued ln’6l
Traditions, traditions —- Salem is full of
them. We hear about hat-burning and tree
planting and Christmas vespers. And around
this time of year we also hear complaints
about the traditional junior-senior banquet.
The juniors like the seniors, but earning the
money for a formal banquet is often difficult.
In the past it has cost approximately $600
for one evening—$600 that it has taken 8
months to raise.
As the graduating class became a little
larger every year and the money became
harder to earn, students began to question the
advisability of having a junior-senior banquet.
The class of 1960 was ready to change the
tradition, but they got Dave Brubeck for a
concert which made approximately $1200. The
present senior class had considered changing
the tradition, but no place could be found
large enough to accommodate the number of
people involved for another type of event.
And now the juniors are again debating
this annual question of whether or not to have
a banquet.
The main point in having a banquet seems
to be that it is a sacrosanct tradition. “All
of the classes before us did it, so we must
too”, some juniors feel. “Everyone expects us
to have a banquet, and people will think that
we are cheapskates if we aren’t willing to
spend the usual $600. After all, last year’s
class did—they can change next year.” say
some juniors privately.
But the junior class for the last 2 or 3 years
has been saying “Let next year’s class make
the change,” and still no one has. If the ban
quet is not a good idea, then someone has to
do it, and this year is a good time to do it.
The Class of 1962 which changed Eat Week
to FITS Day should be accustomed to making
difficult and controversial changes.
A change at any time will have some oppo
sition and some support from both the senior
and the junior classes. The main question
therefore seems not how many would oppose
any change, but how worthwhile the banquet
is. Is it really worth $3.00 extra for class
dues and working all year to raise the neces
sary money just for a party for ourselves?
We think not.
Seniors realize that they will be missed next
year by their friends in the Class of 1962; and
having a banquet, though it is a nice gesture,
is irrelavant. The seniors are already honored
by the Christmas banquet and a dinner given
by Dr. and Mrs. Gramley; the junior-senior
banquet is just another good dinner. Although
it is a good dinner, is it worth $600? We
don’t think so.
The same amount of money could be used
for a scholarship in the name of the senior
class and have a lasting and valuable effect.
This certainly would be better than squander
ing the money on a party. If the juniors still
want to honor the seniors with a party, a
picnic or a tea would be much less expensive
and still mean just as much to both classes.
Juniors, consider this antiquated tradition
carefully before you decide to continue it. Is
the banquet worth $600? If not, then why
leave it for next year’s class to change? Do
what you consider best and not just what you
think people expect you to do.
_ &0MfcT.ME6 1 THINK iWfc’UV- UO ^NYrHt^lG•
FOK AN A'
Beyond The Square
By Dean Major
Have you ever been tortured? How many times have you
had to flee from your country and hide yourself, an exile, in a
land far from your own ? By this time I imagine you ready
to throw down your paper in disgust as you exclaim: Is she
crazy? What gives?”
What gives? I wish we Salemites knew! Few of us have
suffered any torture beyond having “four quizzes and a term
paper due before Christmas,” or beyond the agonies of waiting
for that all-important phone call, or of being able to buy only
one of the two dresses we wanted. Do you realize just what
this means, just how free from torture our lives have been in
comparison with the lives of students in many parts of the
world ?
We at Salem have heard charges again and again that “You
are becoming ingrown; you have no concern in international
affairs.” Yet these charges have simply rolled off our well-
clad Villager backs.
How long can we continue to ignore this challenge? What
are we to do when confronted by an Algerian youth, also a
student, with lines of sorrow etched into his face, who says
simply, “I do not know what will happen tomorrow. Probably
I shall never be able to return to my country.”
This student, Eashid Benaoumeur, who is now studying at
the University of North Carolina, recently spoke to a group of
students from Salem, UNO, NC State, Davidson, Eandolph-
Macon, Sweetbriar, and other colleges in this area. To this
ivy-league, cosmopolitan group he told the tragic story of his
people and his fellow students. In an informal session Eashid
sat quietly in his chair, facing us, and leaned thoughtfully
against its back as he tried to make us who had known nothing
but comfort understand the plight of Algeria.
Eashid displayed no emotion, merely stated the facts. How
ever, these facts both horrified and shamed his audience. For
example, we learned that there are Algerian students all over
the world—except in Algeria. No Algerian is allowed to con
tinue his education beyond the most elementary level; there
fore, these students have been forced to flee their homeland
and seek knowledge elsewhere. And of these students, 25%
are held in concentration camps in France. Is this the same
France that saw the horrors of concentration campus under
Hitler, this France that now has seven concentration camps in
use within her borders? Those Algerians not in concentration
camps are in constant fear for their lives, for of the 12,000,000
people that were once in Algeria, 1,000,000 have perished in
recent years. Not satisfied with pursuing the people within
their nation, one group has organized LA MAIN EOUGE, its
sole purpose being to kill those Algerians studying in other
lands. I do not like to speak of torture,” said Eashid, “but
it IS part of the everyday life in Algeria.”
What can we do about it? Plenty! Shall we Salem girls
board the next steamer for Algeria? No, that is of course
absurd. The real absurdity, however, is that Salem girls—
supposedly well educated—know nothing and seem to care less
of life m the rest of the world. How far beyond that white
fence have you looked lately, Salemite?
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