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Show Page 6 - THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, Friday, January 1, 1988 ons Opini The Herald, its readers, syndicated columnists and cartoonists discuss the issues. mi Herald opinion Higher high school standards justified "Leaner, meaner, better academic medicine" is the way Secretary of Education William J. Bennett describes his presciption for the ills of secondary education. His "leaner, meaner" approach calls for more required core classes and fewer electives. "There is so much academic clutter, so many electives in the way of other courses, that sometimes the core program gets lost," he said this week when he announced the guidelines he thinks all secondary schools in the country should follow. His plan calls for four years of English with regular writing assignments, three years of social studies covering Western civilization and American history, three years of math, three years of science, two years of a single foreign language, two years of physical education and health and one semester each of art history and music history. This criteria, unlike a National Commission on Excellence in Education report in 1983 that lists the same requirements, goes one step further and gives specifics in each area. Utah schools are already close to or are continually moving closer to what Bennett has announced. Provo students are already required to take four years of English and during that time they study all of the specifics Bennett mentioned. The state of Utah, by the way, only requires three years of English in high school. College-boun- d students at all Utah high schools are encouraged to take more math, science and social studies such as Bennett recommends even though the graduation requirements are not as high. Provo District reports about 80 percent are taking more "core" classes as electives. Requiring all students to take more "core" classes as Bennett suggests, sounds lofty but forgets an important segment of the student population: the student at risk, the mentally disadvantaged or the ones most likely to become I OTWO....IDFEEL Bglffl HiOMTfiEEMAFAT high school dropouts. For them, the present system, at say Timpview High School, is almost more than they can manage. Getting through two years of math required there is a nightmare for some students; three might be an impossible goal. Also, "core" for one will be something different to another. Someone intensely interested in music would consider music classes far more important than other classes. The same would be true for drafting, journalism, home eco- nomics, art or many of the other subjects Bennett chooses to list as electives. The key to the whole issue, however, lies in the fact that Bennett's office has no power to mandate curriculum, only to suggest. What really happens in individual high schools, in individual cases, happens on the state and local level. While state and local school officials strive to upgrade and improve the education of Utah's youth, they must also always rek child while member the balancing the needs of the average and advanced students. at-ris- Some countries handle that problem with two different kinds of high school certificate, one more academic and another geared more for students interested in a trade for their future. Bennett's suggestions are de- signed to stimulate debate and they are an interesting attempt to define what a "good" education should include. Japanese high school students tackle a core curriculum a little less stringent than the one he suggests and there should be no doubt left that current US high schoolers will continue to do economic battle with their counterparts across the Pacific. The Bennett plan should be given very careful consideration before it is dismissed as either too challenging or too detailed. Those of us calling for better high school education must take this suggestion seriously. Feedback Report instances of abuse Editor, Herald: I feel that it is a monumental tragedy whenever child abuse occurs. For years, physical abuse was tolerated, condoned and even encouraged by some people as a necessary part of rearing children. It left its scars and perpetuated more abuse generation after generation. Sexual abuse has always occurred as well, often along with physical abuse. Sexual abuse was never tolerated by the general population, however, and a great veil of secrecy surrounded it. Loyalty, rewards, lies, and threats protected it. who don't understand the facts of child abuse are so frightened and feel so horrified when confronted by child sexual abuse that it is normal behavior for them to ignore it, block it from their minds, or hush it up. Perpetrators are usually very oriented to external appearances, and often are adept at manipNon-abuse- rs ulation and getting themselves out of jams. They have a way with people around them that encourages blind loyalty. They have mentally categorized their behavior in such a way that their treatment of their children seems natural and permissible t themselves and often to a few close friends and relatives who may suspect, but don't know all the facts. Children who have dared to try to expose parents have in the past been revictimized by the system that should have protected them. Normally, because of the nature of the emotional pressure on them, they never spoke up. Those who did rarely got past the first person who rejected their story outright. Those few who've been determined and desperate enough to persist have had to withstand lengthy trials, being badgered by professional lawyers whose only interest in the child was to make her or him look bad. They've been shunned by relatives and friends and labeled by adults as PRESENT liars. Often, the perpetrator gets off relatively unscathed. I am a volunteer for the Women and Children in Crises center in Provo. Sexual abuse of children is not an insignificant or rare problem filthy-minde- d in this valley. It is a widespread, deeply entrenched problem, very carefully guarded and continued gen- eration "to generation. It is no less of a problem among the LDS population than among those who are not of that faith. I speak from what to me is a vast personal experience. d I have no knowledge of the recent surprisingly well publicized trouble in our valley. I have no observations on that specific instance. I just want people to use throughful care before they ignore, shun, or hate the children. first-han- Statistically, it is a very small minority who lie. The vast majority are telling the truth when they bring something like this up. Listen to them. Protect them. Love them. They hardly know what love means, usually. I've seen the awful emotional scars, hopelessness, suicide, and destruction that comes from hiding the festering wound of sexual abuse. There's no need for hysteria. You need to get the facts, we need to open the wound and clean it out so it can heal. It isn't a simple problem, nor will it be stopped unless you get involved, even in a small way. Call for direction on how to get more information. If you suspect sexual abuse, by State law it must be reported. If you have questions, or if you've been abused and need help, call the Division of Family Services, Also, for or Parents United, emotional support, and if you need to talk to someone who understands your feelings, feel free to call the Center for Women and Children in Crises hotline, Ianny Monson Provo 373-615- 4. 377-550- 0. Violent movies? check theaters as my wife said, you don't know what's in their pocket. Just the other day, her wisdom was confirmed by an incident in a ed Baltimore theater. The last time I went to the movies, a young man sitting next to me laughed uproariously at almost every line of dialogue. That would have been okay if the movie were a comedy, but it was serious and sad. After a half hour of this distraction, I finally turned to him and asked if he would please show a bit of restraint. responded by swearing and shrieking about how I didn't have the right to tell him what to do, that he had paid for his ticket, who did I think I was, and so on. My wife, who has a keen eye for such things, whispered: "He's on something and he's high. I think you'd better ignore him." Out of the corner of my eye, I looked the lad over. He was short, scrawny arid had delicate arms and wrists. I had him by 60 pounds, 6 inches, more upper-bod- y strength, a vicious nature and the element of surprise. He was a perfect adverHe sary. So I whispered to my wife: "All it will take is one or two good pops to the side of his head and I'm sure his manners will improve." That seemed a reasonable solution. It was obviously too late for me to tell him to say no to drugs. I might even have been doing him a service by helping clear his head. But she said: "No, you don't know what he has in his pockets." She was right. I had forgotten that in this, the age of the new barbarian, it was risky business for me to have even asked him to keep quiet. And if I slugged him, who knows, he might have whipped out a weapon and done in the entire audience. So we left. As I went through the lobby, I saw a man who appeared to work there, and I said: "In about the 10th row, there is a loony bird making all kinds of noise." He nodded, smiled weakly, but didn't move. Ah, for the days of old. semi-automat- ic Mike Royko Tribune Media Services Inc. was a theater usher in would have been chargwe Chicago, ing down the aisle. We carried industrial-size flashlights. First, a beam of in the noisemaker's eyes. If that light didn't silence him, a command that he leave. If he resisted, fine, that was why we carried the heavy flashlights. They left a neat crease in the brow. Times change. There is no longer any devotion to duty. The twerp just slouched there, nodding and smiling. He was probably on something, too. That was the last time I went to the movies. I had sworn off several times earlier because of the chatterers, jabberers, hooters, howlers and other noisy goofs. Each time I weakened and went back. But when it reached the point that I had to defer to a scrawny hophead geek, I knew it was time to become a couch potato. Oh, you can still go to a Woody Allen movie and tell some magpie to shut up. Most of the young men in the audience are frail creatures with trimmed beards who feel they must explain the plot to their yuppie mates. At everything else, though, the yahoos have the upper hand because, When I A man sitting in the back row found his view of the screen blocked by a guy who was standing in the aisle. He tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to move. The man in the aisle indignantly said, "Don't touch me," and whipped out a pistol and opened fire, wounding a woman in both legs. All that for a tap on the shoulder. What would he have done if someone had jostled his popcorn? It's been more than a year since I swore off going to the movies, and I've found pluses and minuses. The pluses are that eventually everything comes out on cassette or one of the cable movie channels. I can also ignore the film critics because by the time I get around to seeing a movie, I've forgotten what they said. The minuses are that the most creative special effects spaceships swooping between planets, fiends slashing off heads at the senior prom d and little gremlins on housewives aren't as chomping sharp-toothe- effective on a TV screen. So I occasionally consider giving it one more try, maybe at the last show on a Tuesday night at a theater in a deserted-lookin- g mall. And I've thought about carrying something in my own pocket, possibly a length of lead pipe. But that isn't really a good idea. Actually, it is, but I could wind up in front of a knee-jer- k judge who would take the narrow view and say: "I can understand your irritation at being subjected to the torment of constant giggling from the group behind you. But giggling does not justify the crushing of three skulls." As someone said, the law is an ass. in a Mideast valley Hatred boils WASHINGTON Even as this is written, revolutionary zealots are plotting acts of terrorism against Americans. They have been enlisted in an underground war against the United States by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. He has ordered his terrorist legions to strike back at the "Great Satan," as he describes America, for sending a naval force into the Persian Gulf. This message was addressed to us and delivered to our associate Barbara Newman by Hussein Musawi, the terrorist operations chief in the terrorist stronghold of Baalbek, Lebanon. Two newsmen have already been grabbed by terrorists in Lebanon. Yet Newman, traveling with a escort of bodyguards trigger-reada Lebanese warlord, by arranged recently visited Baalbek itself. She has kept in touch with the warlord, Ellie Hobeika, whose own headquarters is located in Lebanon's forbidden Bekaa Valley, not far from Baalbek. The message from the terrorist stronghold has been confirmed by intelligence sources. They agree that Khomeini's terrorists are preparing to strike against U.S. targets in the Mideast, Europe and perhaps America itself. The implacable ayatollah has recruited an invisible army of terrorists from squalid, restive Shiite villages across the Moslem world. They y Jack Anderson were the deprived, the dispossessed, the disillusioned. But overnight these nobodies have become somebodies; they have been transformed into "soldiers of God," driven at once by idealism and hatred. Most have been indoctrinated and trained at nine terrorist camps in Iran. But Lebanese terrorists are trained in Baalbek at a former Lebanese army post, called the Sheikh Abdullah barracks, which occupies a hillside above the town and casts an intimidating shadow across the valley. They are trained by Ayatollah Khomeini's revolutionary guards, who were sent there from Iran. The scruffy, raw recruits go through intensive training. They are taught puritanical Islam, inculcated with a fierce hatred of things foreign and instructed in the grim arts of assassination, sabotage, hijacking Even more omiand hostage-taking. nous is a suicide course; the gradu- ates are sworn to die for the ayatollah. Khomeini has a mystic, menacing appeal that incites a worshipful hysteria among the Shiite masses, however remote from his own power center. He has become an agitating force sweeping across Shiite villages, the amplified voice of their frustrations and yearnings, the symbol of shames avenged and foreigners defied. His trained terrorists operate under various names to confuse their adversaries and to accommodate rival clans. In Lebanon, the motley terrorist bands are governed by a secret body called the Council of Lebanon, made up of Shiite mullahs, revolutionary guards and terrorist chiefs. The operational orders, like commands from on high, come from Iran. The dominant terrorist group is Hezbollah, the "Party of God." From former terrorists who lost their enthusiasm for suicide missions, Newman learned that Hezbollah's securi- ty chief, Imad Mughnyah, has custody of most foreign hostages. They are held in basement cells in the Sheikh Abdullah barracks. One exception is Anglican envoy Terry Waite, who flew to Lebanon on a mercy mission to negotiate the hostages' release and is now himself a prize hostage. He's reportedly still alive, though in poor health, under close guard in the Shiite section of Beirut. Newman was told he'll be among the last to be released, because the terrorists are angry at Britain. Apparently they also behove their own propaganda: that bo's a CIA spy. |