THE NEWS-JOURNAL
Raeford, N.C..
October 27, 1993
Viewpoints
Textile program shows school-
community collaboration works
Public School gets its share of criticism so it’s
good that when there is a success to report on the
public hears of it too.
Last week was National Textile Week, and as
is the custom in Hoke County where the school
system and textile industry work closely together,
officials at Hoke High School prepared a banquet
to honor textile industry representatives. (The
banquets prepared by students in the Harriet
Archer's class are successes worthy of their own
articles.)
At the banquet, representatives of Burlington
Industries’ two local plants casually mentioned
that 10 percent of one plant’s work force and
nearly 14 percent of the other’s is made up of
graduates from Hoke High’s Vocational Educa
tion textile program. Considering the size of the
two Burlington plants here, that’s a lot of stu
dents, and represents quite an accomplishment.
The program, which apparently serves as a
model for other school systems, seems to be an
example of what school officials constantly harp
on — successful schools depend on commitment
by the community to the schools and visa versa.
Pill had better improve health
Health care is on everyone’s mind.
People are becoming more conscious
of trying to maintain their good
health. Yours truly is no exception.
1 or years I have preached to every
one who would listen that we are
responsible for our well being. Un
fortunately, the best tone can do is
not good enough in many cases —
As I di,scovered years ago when I
was practicing all the rules suggested
for good health.
livery morning, rain or shine, I
would jog or walk several miles, all
for the sake of keeping my body
well-tuned. Without warning I be
gan to have a pain in my right shoul
der. 1 was checked from head to foot
without any opinion of why 1 was
suffering this discomfort. It was sug
gested 1 spend a day or two in the
hospital. When 1 arrived at the heal
ing institution with bag in hand, they
tossed me in the intensive care unit,
and hooked me up to all kinds of
instruments. To say 1 was puzzled is
an understatement. When finally 1
got an answer to “why” question, 1
was told they were checking to see if
I had a heart attack. After two days it
was determined my heart was beat
ing properly. To make a long story
short 1 had a partially blocked artery.
As the good physicians gathered
around I informed them I had blown
their whole theory. I didn’t drink or
smoke and 1 watched what 1 ate, and
kept my blood pressure and weight
under control. “Never mind,” they
said, “the pressure of your job is
V
A View from
the Country
Raz Autrv
what got you.” Tho,se all-night .school
board sessions will do it every time.
Needless to say, all of the above
adventures came flooding back after
I received the results of a blood test
last week taken during my regular
yearly physical. The re.sults weren’t
any great surprise. The doctor .said,
“Everything is fine except your cho
lesterol. It is 285.” I had danced that
tune before. In fact, the lowest ever
recorded for me was 210. It was
taken right after the Christmas holi
days. I had pigged out on all kinds of
food, not being concerned about fat
or cholesterol.
“We need to put you on some
thing,” said my friend doctor.”
1 agreed, since I had faith in his
judgement, although I had been that
route before. Questran was the cho
sen drug a couple of years ago. After
taking it for sometime and watching
my diet, once checked, I knew it
would be below 200. Wishful think
ing, instead it went to 280. 'This
time,” I thought as I approached the
drug .store, “It will be different.” Yes
indeed, if price will bring it down,
mine should be no more than 125.
Fifty-eight dollars for 30 pills. Not
only will such an expense make a
grown man cry, it will give one sec
ond thoughts about the price of liv
ing. In addition, the men and women
in the white coats who di.sh out these
expensive pills give you a sheet of
instruction.s, which also list the side
effects. The paragraph is titled “Less
common side effects.” It furtherstates
they may go away during treatment.
Such pleasant feelings include con
stipation, diarrhea, gas, heartburn,
stomach pain, dizziness, headache,
nausea, or skin rash. To give one
hope the paper states, “If they con
tinue or are bothersome, check with
your doctor. If you notice other ef
fects not listed above, contact your
doctor, nuLse or pharmacist.”
If there are any side effects other
than the above, your wife won’t need
to contact anyone except the under
taker. Now I am telling you folks if
this pill doesn’t work I am throwing
in the towel. In two or three years, if
a study suggests that cholesterol is
not the culprit, those who have such
a problem will be as mad as the
sitting hen when she discovered the
rooster has a harem.
Don ’ t get me wrong, 1 still believe
in doing the right things for your
body. However it does shake me up
when one of these famous studies
says that-exercising will only make
you live a couple years longer. Ap
parently this study was done by couch
potatoes.
My parting thought: “Money
doesn’t grow on trees,” said the
showgirl, “but some limbs have a
way of attracting it.”
Letters
Disappointed
County went
unrepresented
To the Editor;
On Saturday, October 16, the
1 lillcrest Volunteer Fire Department
held its Open House celebration to
dedicate the new fire station build
ing. Prior to the celebration, 80 spe
cial invitations were mailed out and
the general public was cordially in
vited via The News-Journal.
The Hillcrest Volunteer Fire De
partment is the oldest in the county
as it was established in January 1964.
Since that time the Department has
unselfishly served the Hillcrest Fire
District, the city and county.
The Board of Directors and mem
bers — through their own dedica
tion — had the new state-of-the-art
fire station erected.
Much to the embarrassment and
at the disappointment of the depart
ment, and noted by all present, not
one of the appointed or elected Hoke
County Officers was present; only
City Officials were present and they
did express their pleasure and ap
preciation to the department and
(See LETTERS, page 3)
Wr w«“lcome your letters
Letters to the editor are en
couraged and welcomed. Writ
ers should keep letters as short as
possible. Names, addresses and
telephone numbers should be in
cluded and all letters must be
signed. Names will be printed,
however, other information will
be kept confidential. We resserve
the right to edit letters for good
taste and brevity. Letters should
be received by The News-Jour-
««/ by noon on the Monday of the
publication week.
The best ideas come from below
“Are you aware that you and your
colleagues haven’t found anything
new?”
That question from an education
expert didn’t sound like much of a
compliment to Harvard Profe.ssor
Richard Light. After all. Light had
been proudly telling the expert about
the results of several years of hard
work aimed at improving teaching
and learning on the Harvard campus.
Led by Professor Light, a group of
Harvard faculty had organized an
on-going seminar on a.s.sessment to
explore ways that Harvard teachers
eould teach better and Harvard stu
dents could learn better.
Some of the ideas that the group
adopted have had a profound and
positive effect on teaching at
1 larvard. Profes.sor Light described
the development of some of those
ideas to members of the governing
hoard of North Carolina’s public
universities at their conference in
Boone a few weeks ago.
For instance. Light and the
Harvard a.sse.s.sment group wondered
whether writing skillscould be taught
more effectively. You’d think that
all students admitted to Harvard
would already be good writers. Mo.st
are. but, as the a.ssessment group
^ One on One
D. G. Martin
found, about 15 or 20 percent of their
freshmen were poor writers. About
half this group improved dramati
cally while at Harvard. The other
half didn’t get much better. The
members of the assessment group
decided to try to find out why.
The group followed one entire
class of poor writers through their
freshman year — and got an answer
to their question. Here it is: All poor
writers were required to write a lot of
papers and turn them in for review.
All of them got written comments
from writing instructors on each pa
per. Some, but not all, instructors
also wrote suggestions about how to
rewrite the paper to make it better —
and they required the .students to do
the paper again. Maybe you guessed
the result. Those who got specific
suggestions for improvements and
rewrote their papers became much
better writers. The other didn’t im
prove much.
Result: All writing instructors at
Harvard now give specific sugges
tions and require rewrites of each
paper.
When the assessment group de
cided to explore the study habits of
Harvard students they found that stu
dents who prepared for class in small
study groups were more likely to
succeed than those who always stud
ied alone.
Result: Harvard professors now
divided their classes into small
groups and encourage them to meet
regularly. From time to time, profes
sors visit the small group meetings
to answer questions and participate
in the discussions.
The assessment group wondered
why some Harvard freshmen make
an easy transition to college life, and
others don’t. To try to find out the
answer they surveyed 120 Harvard
sophomores with similar back
grounds and records. Half had a good
freshman year. The others had a tough
t i me. The di 1 ference, the group found,
was one word — “time.” The stu
dents with time management skills
succeeded. Those without the ability
to budget their time did not succeed.
The group continued its research
by having a large group of freshmen
(See MARTIN, page 5)
v:-o>
is we'lL AIL '
HAVE Guaranteed
Health cm.
when
we come home
Want one, gotta buy them all?
Several years ago, a mail-order
publisher offered a set of books on
dinosaurs, and the one on Tyranno
saurus rex really caught my son’s
eye. But this was a smart publisher.
1 could buy the T. rex book only if 1
also bought the 28 other in the series.
There’s something of the same
strategy at work in the five issues
that go before North Carolina voters
on November 2. Four bond issues
totalling $740 million and a consti
tutional amendment are being pack
aged as one vote. Advocates of any
one set of bonds, or of the amend
ment, are being told that they should
support all five issues.
On one level, voters won’t have
the ability to pick and choose among
the projects they wish to support. A
graduate of N. C. State’s engineer
ing school might want to support the
construction of a $35 million re
search center at his alma mater, but
to do so he also must support a $5.4
million physical education building
at UNC-Asheville. That’s because
all of the university’s $310 million
worth of projects are wrapped up in
one package.
The same holds true for the $250
million for community college cam
puses, the $35 million for state parks
around the state and the $ 145 mill ion
for water and sewer bonds. Voters
who want funds for any one of those
projects must approve funding for
all of the projects in that same cat
egory.
During the 1993 session, legisla
tors made no secret of their “want
one, gotta buy ‘ em all strategy.” They
put something for every region, ev
ery campus, in each of the four dif
ferent bond packages.
In committee, it was noted that
the water and sewer money probably
wouldn’t be needed by the state’s
large cities. They have the borrow
ing authority to get this money di
rectly in the bond markets at low
interest rates. But legislators rejected
an idea to take them out of the pack
age out of fear that voters in those
cities would then vote against the
issue.
Early on, backers of the bonds
sought to spread that strategy across
the different bond issues. They rec
ognized the dangers of separate con
stituencies campaigning for separate
bonds. Some might be stronger than
others, and might inadvertently lead
to the defeat of some. Or, given pub
lic concern about debt and govern
ment spending, none might be strong
enough to win alone. So a coalition
was formed.
In some cases, the coalition seems
to make sense. Those who support
university funding would appear
likely to support community college
funding. Those who support parks
would be naturally allied with those
seeking water and sewer bonds.
At least one combination, how
ever, appears difficult to reconcile.
The state’s environmentalist are
working for state park bonds, and are
also endorsing the economic devel-
Watching
^aul T. O'Connor
opment financing amendment that
could take away the public’s best
chance to stop — through rejection
of local bond issues — some ques
tionable constmction projects.
But environmentalists know that
the park bonds face a tough test at the
polls and that their best chance for
victory lies in an alliance with the
state’s monied interests that are sup
porting the other issues and the
amendment.
None of that applies to voters when
they enter the booth on November 2.
Inside the curtain, voters can pick T.
rex without buying stegosaurus.
The News-Journal
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