SALE MIT E
February
Assembly Today Will Be"
“Oh, no, how boring. I think I’ll cut assembly,” has been
heard around campus occasionally as grumbling students
complain and blame the mysterious “they” who plan the chapel
programs. Some irate students even suggested in a letter to
the editor that assembly be held only once a week because it
was a waste of time. Some of the speakers have been criticized
in editorials and on campus.
But a closer consideration of this situation will show that
the chapel committee has planned programs that should be of
interest to the student body. Although not every person will
be interested in every program, the assembly cuts should take
care of this.
The chapel committee, however, has been working under
several handicaps. First, they cannot guarantee the speakers
which they get. Certainly they would expect a United States
Senator or a noted local speaker to present an interesting and
stimulating speech. But sometimes they don’t. And the as
sembly committee gets undeserved blame.
Also the assembly committee has been limited in the past by
not having any funds to work with. It is very hard to get
good speakers, year after year, who are willing to speak with
out a fee. Many speakers in this area would probably speak
if they were paid for transportation costs and a meal, but the
assembly committee could not even guarantee that this mini
mum could be scraped together from private donations.
At the beginning of second semester, however, this block
was removed when the Rondthaler Lecture Series and other
sources donated money to the assembly committee. With their
new found financial freedom, they have planned most of the
programs in two units of programs. The firest of these units
begins next week and deals with rebellion in five areas of
modern culture. This will be followed by another unit later
this spring.
Even with some of the poor speakers that we have had this
year, we think that the assembly programs have been worth
while. The assembly committee has done well in overcoming
its handicaps in planning two good programs every week of
the year.
IRS Urges Improvements
For the last several months, the IRS Council has been con
cerned with tidiness in the dormitories and student behavior
in the refectory. First students and then members of the ad
ministration complained about these matters. The I. R. S.
Council felt that some new steps must be taken to help correct
the dormitory tidiness and the dining room behavior.
It was decided that two new committees should be set up to
deal with these problems. One of these is the dining room
committee which consists of three I. R. S. Council members,
Mrs. Calhoun, Mrs. Heidbreder, and Mrs. Chatham. This group
will see that the regulations drawn up by the dining room
staff are carried out. It will also work with the staff to see
that the students get the most efficient service possible. Al
ready service has been improved by having extra milk and ice
on the serving tables and tables served with fish on Friday
nights.
The other new group set up by the I. R. S. is a council of
room checkers. The checkers are students who are not on the
I. R. S. Council but who will work closely with it. The room
checkers will give call downs for generally untidy rooms, but
their major purpose is to promote a more pleasant atmosphere
in the dormitories.
These two new groups were not set up just because the
I. R. S. Council wanted to give more call-downs. The I. R. S.,
after all, is made up of representatives from every class and
from the day students. It is a cross section of students who
are trying to promote a sense of responsibility for and pride
in one’s actions and appearance. This attitude behind the rules
is the goal in every I. R. S. project from checking rooms to the
dances. The I. R. S. is more interested in seeing the students
develop a feeling of self respect and confidence than they are
in merely enforcing each little rule.
The I. R. S. Council has the difficult task of enforcing the
rules pleasantly. We can make their job much easier if we
will be more considerate of others and more aware of ourselves.
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Stone Defends Student Teachers;
Craig Speaks On Junior - Senior Banquet
Dear Editor,
It was with considerable shock
that I read your editorial in this
week’s issue of the Salemite dis
paraging the tradition of Junior-
Senior banquets. It seems to me
that you have completely misunder
stood the reasons for which these
have been held in the past and for
which they will continue, as I hope,
to be held in the future.
Obviously the Junior-Senior ban
quet has never been held to better
relations between the two classes.
If the Juniors and Seniors do not
know each other by the time the
Seniors are about to leave, they
will hardly get to know each other
over a dinner. Indeed, to prevent
this, the two classes are generally
seated at different tables.
Nor has the banquet been held
so that everybody concerned will
have a good time. This is a very
foolish idea. In late Spring a pic
nic is more fun than anything else,
and if fun had been the objective
everybody would have decided on a
Junior-Senior picnic long ago.
No, we must go deeper, dear
Editor, for the reason behind this
honorable tradition. Since no one
usually has a hilariously good time
at the banquet, since it does not
supply vitamins and proteins, etc.,
unobtainable in the college dining
room, and since the money spent
on the banquet could otherwise be
devoted to some useful purpose,
such as a scholarship; the banquet
admirably fulfills all the require
ments for conspicuous waste. As
Thorstein Veblen points out in The
Theory of the Leisure Class, one
demonstrates one’s status in so
ciety by means of conspicuous con
sumption. If the articles consumed
were, however, necessary articles,
people might get the idea that the
expenditure was constrained by
need. Obviously this is not very
honorable; it is, in fact, very im
portant that the consumption of
goods should serve no useful pur
pose whatsoever.
Let me quote a passage from Mr.
Veblen:
The person of leisure must cul
tivate his tastes, for it now be
comes incumbent on him to dis
criminate with some nicety be
tween the noble and the ig
noble in consumable goods. He
becomes a connoisseur in credi
table viands of various degrees
of merit.
(I. e.: Obviously it would be
highly improper to have a picnic
with hamburgers or hot dogs, since
this might lead to a suspicion of
ignoble tastes.)
Mr. Veblen goes on:
Since the consumption of these
more excellent foods is an evi
dence of wealth, it becomes
honorific; and conversely, the
failure to consumein due
quantity and quality becomes a
mark of inferiority and de
merit.
(Bold mine.)
I think I have shown that using
the money for a scholarship would
not be better than ‘squandering the
money on a party.’ ‘Squandering
the money’ is precisely the end for
which we have the banquets any
way. A scholarship or a picnic
would fail miserably since they
would not be conspicuously waste
ful;'there is the grave danger that
they might easily be unobtrusively
useful. Naturally we want to avoid
this as far as possible. I hope you
will retract your statements, dear
Editor: my position in society is at
stake.
Well
I mean!
Yours, etc..
An outraged senior.
Felicity Craig
Dear Editor;
From the editorial “Where Js
Our Emphasis In School?’’ I feel
there has been some misunder
standing of what was said in the
Miss Student Teacher’’ program.
Speaking for myself, I did not
mean to leave the impression that
social adjustment” should be em
phasized over the academic. While
the editorial seems to equate ad
justment with “sociability”, I gave
my _ definition of the word as “the
ability to meet situations that arise
in one s life with confidence in
oneself and in his values, the
ability to live with oneself and
with other people, and continual
growing through searching for
truth and knowledge—not conform
ing to the group.”
I do agree that it is most im
portant to continually evaluate
where our emphasis is and that our
primary emphasis in education
should be intellectual development.
I have found in my experiences as
a student teacher that there is little
time or opportunity to accomplish
much in helping a child to develop
in the other aspects of life. It is
hard enough to cover all of the
subject matter adequately, much
less think about whether or not
Johnny is getting along socially.
But should we then just ignore
everything except subject matter?
I am inclined to think more teach
ers are guilty of this than of over
stressing “social adjustment.” Even
though it may make teaching more
difficult, I do think that develop
ment in 'not only social but mental,
emotional, and physical areas have
an important place in education.
First, they are related to the learn
ing of the child—not as an ends
in themselves but as very important
means of effectively teaching sub
ject matter. Second, education is
not just a process of absorbing
subject matter.
It doesn’t matter how- much sub
ject matter with which a person
comes in contact if there isn’t some
meaningful change within him
which results in a meaningful use
of what he has absorbed. It may
have been worthwhile for Van
Gough, Listz, or Coleridge to have
been “ill-adjusted,” but history has
also shown that “ill-adjustment” is
not always desirable—Hitler, for
example! (Compensation they call
it in Psychology 102).
Emily Stone
IRf IOUE*r^ wm
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