Page Two
THE HILLTOP. MARS HILL COLLEGE. MARS HILL. N. C.
September 28. ISsptembei
Live and Let Live
Be yourself. You may wear a shoe with a
giant size 13E or a diminutive 3AAAA. Which
ever it is, wear it with ease. You may be 67",
5'6", or 4'10". Whichever it is, walk with con
fidence. You may be a Southerner who drops
the r's in words you speak—"How fah is it from
heah to yoa home?" or you may be a Yankee
who replies, "I hove no ideor." Whichever you
are, speak with assurance. Your skin may be
brown, white or black. Whichever it is, let self-
respect make you a compliment to that race.
There is a uniqueness about every person that
we sometimes forget or override. In your frantic
desire to "belong," you may try to dress, speak,
and act like the "big men on campus." As a
matter of fact, these BMOC's may be worthy ex
amples. But more important than imitation or
emulation of them is the cultivotio nof the inimi
table you. Emerson said it this way:
There is a time in every man's education when
he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignor
ance; that imitation is suicide: that he must take
himself for better for worse as his portion . . .
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron
string. Accept the place the divine providence
has found for you. the society of your con
temporaries. the connection of events.
Contemporary society may seem to compel a
conformity that relieves you of individuality—
"The multitudes of men that kill the single man
. . os poet Wallace Stevens puts it. Interde
pendent though you ore and liable to conformity
in many areas, you need not lose your identities,
like checkers moved about on a checkerboard.
Adopt yourself to the requirements of life around
you by conforming as you need to, but be
aware that you are conforming or not conform
ing, as that need arises. William H. Whyte sum
marizes such an idea thus: The organization
man is not in the grip of vast social forces about
which it is impossible for him to do anything; the
options are there, and with wisdom and foresight
he can turn the future away from the dehuman
ized collective that so haunts oiu: thoughts He
may not. But he con.
A necessary corollary to "Be yourself" is "Let
other people be themselves." If, for example,
you think soft pink is your girlfriend's most be
coming color, but she prefers cm ugly purple,
need you offend her by loudly expressing your
distaste? Or, if you happen to be quite a talker,
must you stab your silent companion with "Why
don't you talk more?"
Self-respect does not imply a consequent lack
of respect for your neighbors. An inordinate self-
love or insecurity leads to snobbery, some forms
of which Russell Lynes categorizes as Regional
Snobs ("We've had it tougher than anybody,"
"We know how to live better than you do," "I
hove lived here longer than anyone"). Moral
Snobs ("I am more tolerant than anybody").
Emotional Snobs ("I feel things more deeply than
anybody," "Nobody can get along with me").
Physical Snobs, Intellectual Snobs, Reverse
Snobs or Antisnob Snobs! Probably no one is ex
empt from snobbery, but that is no reason to let
it go unrecognized in yourself.
Part of the Christian ethic is that the mon-be
ing is partly the "image of God." Such a con
cept by its very nature encourages you to re
spect the God-image in yourself and in people
around you. Be yourself and let others be them
selves. —Mary Ihrig
Published by the Students of Mars Hill College
CThe Hilllop
Box 486-T, Mars HilL N. C.
Second-class postage paid at Mars
Hill, N. C. Published 14 times dur
ing the college year.
Volume XXXVni Sept. 28. 1963 Number 2
STAFF
Editor-in-Chief Mary Mattison
Business Manager Sally Osborne
Sports Editor Bill Deans
Assistants Bo Hendrix, Ralph Magee
Circulation Manager Ken Huneycutt
Asst. Circulation Manager Jimmy Daughtry
Religion Reporter Martha Penley
Reporters Sue Hatfield, Faye Shaw,
Dolly Lavery, Bessie Cline
Typists Sarah Delancey, Natlie Soos,
Wanda Locklear
Faculty Advisor Walter Smith
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
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Shun Gobbledly-Gook!
Do you know what the follow
ing sentence means? “Upon the
advent of the investigator, his
hegemony became minimally co
extensive with the areal unit ren
dered visible by his successive
displacements in space.”
Translated into plain, every
day English, it simply means,
“He came, he saw, he conquered.”
Too many people today use gob-
bledy-gook when they should be
using plain, ordinary English.
The consequences of faulty com
munication can be disastrous, es
pecially for the college student.
To get your ideas across prop
erly and persuasively, semanti-
cists and psychologists recommend
that you follow these five rules:
1. Avoid words that are too fa
miliar or not familiar enough.
Words that are heard too often
and end up not being heard at
all. They make no mental im
pression. They are stale, lifeless,
“blah.” Nowadays, perhaps the
English language is “fabulous,”
that there are two most-over-used
words, “great” and “lousy.”
On the other hand, don’t go
too far out of your way to use
unfamiliar words either — like
“telelogical” or “entity.” If you
have something worthwhile to say,
you don’t have to check it in
dazzling clothing.
2. Don’t confuse or misuse
words. Even one of America’s
greatest writers has confused
words. William Faulkner, in his
novel Requiem for a Nun, consist
ently used the word “euphemis
tic” when he meant to use the
word “euphonious.” (“Euphemis
tic’ means substituting a mild ex
pression for one that might be
unpleasant; “euphonious” means
having a pleasant sound.)
It’s easy to make a mistake. A
“Breton” lives in Britany, France;
a “Briton’ lives in Great Britain.
A “correspondent” is someone
you communicate with; a ‘core-
• • •
. . . my sincere appreciation
to the Hilltop staff and others
for their expressions of sympathy
at the death of my father.
—Dan Keels
National Magazine Vlig
)xc
Hits Homeworn
B;
Miss Edi
Homework, a subject that is dear to the hec
of every Mars Hillian, was given much disci
sion in last Sunday's issue of Parade magozirij.^ spent
Assigning papers, requiring parallel in unfceeks this
amounts, making moth problems so long it tak^erican
all night to work one of them, having studer°'^ Land,
interpret poetry that makes little sense to ariQj.j^
one but a scholar who has spent years in troiiw st. Pe
lations, and having music students practice untacombs
their fingers ore sore—these are some of til’s once a
spondent’ is a person involved in
a divorce suit. “Sensuous” per
tains to the senses; ‘sensual”
means full of pleasure.
All of these words are decep
tive because they are similar to
other words with different mean
ings. There are also words that
people simply misuse. A “ful
some’ speech is an offensive one.
A person who “tinkers’” with a
radio is doing a bad job of trying
to repair it. Most Scotsmen don’t
apreciate being called Scotch. A
person who is “masterful” is dom
ineering.
As the saying goes (and our
English teachers will be telling
us), “When in doubt, look it up
or leave it out.”
3. Be terse. Theodore Bern
stein, assistant managing editor
of the New York Times, is for
ever telling his reporters: “Use
one idea to a sentence. It’s eas
ier to understand something that
is brief.”
4. Recognize the connotation
of a word as well as its denota
tion. A word’s denotation is
what it means precisely. Its con
notation is what it suggests. It
also would be helpful to recog
nize the emotional implications of
the words you use. Take the
word “mother.” It suggests many
more things than “woman,” “par
ent” or “relative.”
As John Opydke, a language
expert, has said, “house for sale”
is cold, but “home must be sacri
ficed” is expressive.
If you still don’t understand
the difference between denota
tion and connotation, try calling
a girl in your class “fat” instead
of “plump.”
5. Seek simplicity. Of the
450,000 words in Webster’s New
International Dictionary, only one
out of ten comes from the Anglo-
Saxon (Old English). Yet these
are the most essential ones. They
are short, hard, gritty words, the
words that bite. (Examples:
“the,” ‘short,” “hard,” “gritty,”
“words,” “that,” “bite.”)
You don’t have to recognize
words of Anglo-Saxon origin. Just
make sure that whenever you can
use a word of one syllable in place
of a word of three syllables, you
do it.
homework requirements noted on campus*^®®
throughout the country. ^ ^
■' le world-]
While the student may not always agree wi Egypt v
the amount of the assignment, the teacher ^®
ally has a reason behind it. One main complaj.^
here at Mors Hill is made when there ore spechants. On(
events on campus and professors make the lord on the
est possible assignments. Perhaps this soun^
unfair to the professor, but often it is the case. ^
yramids ’
Dr. Harold Moore, superintendent of schoJiss Swan
in Littleton, Colo., predicts that if the prese Beirut,
trend in workloads continues, we will see on Worl
crease in "mental health problems beyond aij
scope now existing." He adds, "It is false i this an
think that only putting students through mcf the Per
academic material of the kind now present an
improve the educational system." ancieni
nd the B(
One authority criticized "quality vs. quontiascus, sci
in homework." More schools seem to be givi*®'t®>_ "was
more and more homework and beginning ^
, , 1 . , ith their
earlier each year, he said. prove
Eric Groezinger of the New Jersey Deportni^°PP*|'g I
of Education recently wrote that "some scho. ^ Bigh-1
4ew from
are so busy trying to be tough that they actua)j.oup
undermine the purposes of education." sed Land
Overloading hit suburbs in Virginia and ^
necticut this summer when students in the Hiimax to ■
grade were given list of novels to read and I Near Be
port upon by September. Books were required'ell, Miss
be read while "on vacation." This vacation red"'®*''® P‘
ing caused students not to be able to read 1'’®'*P ®aw
of ]V
/me
pure enjoyment and not to have much time Igad to th
leisure activities that homework prevented d' in the (
ing the regular school term. Studying during the group
summer cut into piano lessons, reading for ple^^®Pght t
ure, family vacation trips, and other things.
Some school officials maintain stoutly till
heavier workloads in school ore port of "a p?
tern" in which parents push children to grow |I
faster, mature earlier, and achieve more thf,
they themselves did." II
Other educators feel that work is a disciplil|[
"A lot of life is drudgery and they might os vit,
get accustomed to it," said one teacher. Feelij
sorry for students is a waste of time, accorc
to one educator. The parents ore the one who |
the complaining, and the children seem to
much better under the pressure.
Mars Hill professors often give too much woj]
I realize that we must practice a certain amoij]
of self-discipline and do what is expected ofj
as college students, but must the faculty m^5
bers all assign papers due the some week, p|]
allel enough for three courses to be done in o|j
book reports due in three English courses ^
some week? On and on the list could go. ^
dents often find time on their hands one w4
and can hardly get assignments done the nq
Is there not some way that the homework s|
otion could be remedied in order to space th^
papers and reports over the semester and
when every other professor is assigning hiJ
assignments or when tests ore being given?
ore here to leom; however, if we are given |
much work to do that we do it to meet a de
line instead of really being able to learn, ar^
we failing to accomplish the real purpose j
genuine learning?
Im
at
laz
col
mi
Homework, or home study, is essential,
please let us enjoy doing it and feel that
hove learned something in the process.
—Mary MattiS^'^'^'^’^'*"*"