| OCR Text |
Show THE THUNDERBIRD DR fl.F. RICH, OPTO M ETRI ST MAY Rent a VCR and a movie for only $5.G0 and get the second movie i I Monday thru Thursday Only Good May 2 5, 1S8J WM) MBSeggr s 580 SOUTH MAIN STRKET A LARGE PIZZA AND A PITCHER OF PEPSI W? Y0UR CHOICE OF 3 TOPPINGS EVERY TUESDAY EVENING 4 - 9 P.M. 60 25 M- - RTH MAIN DINE IN OR CARRYOUT THROUGH MAY 17, 1988 1 tjy DELIVERY ON u LASSES & CONTACTS DISCOUNT ON ALL SERVICES AND MATERIALS TO STUDENTS, AND STAFF AND THEIR FAMILIES YEAR ROUND. FACULTY 2, 1988 PACE 5 PICK A PEARL OF A MOVIE! The writing's on the chalkboard As the candidates of 1 988 bump and fuss their way to the election's merciful end in November, candidates Bush and Dukakis will bluster about the many new directions that can make America great again. Last week, the one potholed avenue from which all directions of greatness must spring was discussed in a sweeping report released by Education Secretary William Bennett. The report capsulized the condition of the American educational system and handed the candidates the most potent issue in the 1988 presidential elections. In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released a stinging indictment of the American education community and demanded, as Casey Stengel once had of his woeful Mets team "Can't anybody here play this game?" The report described the malaise that was strangling the education of our youth. 1983 saw a high school dropout rate of nearly 40 percent, SAT scores that had declined 90 points since 1 963 and an average teacher salary which caused a continuing exodus of educators to other professions. The mport began and concluded with the notion that the appalling state of educational system had put "A nation at risk." Bennett's report last week was a battlefront description of the Reagan Administration's "moral equivalent of war" on ignorance in America which seems to have encountered mixed success. Sweeping changes were made in the level of high school graduation requirements as roughly 40 states have raised those requirements. Forty-si- x states, according to Newsweek, have required new teachers to pass mandated competency tests. Average teacher salaries have been increased at a rate more than double that of inflation to $28,031 . The decline in SAT scores has leveled off and even recovered 16 points. However, although all 50 states have adopted some sort of educational reform since 1980, problems still remain. Down 10 peicent from the astounding 1 983 high school dropout rate, the rate of dropout remains at an alarming 30 percent. In addition, the math and science achievement of those who do graduate lags far behind those in many other countries. Perhaps most alarming of all, as former Secretary of Education Terrel Bell pointed out, "I was one of the naive thinkers that thought the 'Nation at Risk' report would do more for those that desperately need education and they are the ones that we have not touched." A report released by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching concurred that the reform movement in education is "largely irrelevant" to a vast section of our nation's children including black and Hispanic children in urban schools. The problem in many states, as is acutely the case in Utah, is the lack of available funds to attract quality teachers and maintain an effective learning environment in the classroom. Without significant fiscal intervention from the federal government and increases in teacher salary, longterm alleviation of problems in education appear remote and we will continue to attract substandard entrants into the teaching profession. Increased federal funding is essential. Teacher competency must be raised. Nobel laureate psychologist Jean Piaget in his book Education and Child Psychology pointed out the need for every educator to be a research psychologist as well. In this way the educator remains on the cutting edge of research knowledge and is intimately involved in the creation of that knowledge. With this in mind, publish or perish mandates for public school teachers would demand greater levels of intellectual and professional commitment on the part of teachers as well as give them greater writ in the process of educating. The new Bennett report summarizes the meager progress made against the daunting problems that now exist in education. In the same way the federal government acted to bring civil rights to all citizens, it must act to bring education to its citizens as well. As a Detroit principal pointed out: "The future is going to belong to the intelligent." It is the responsibility of our government to ensure that intelligence comes to as many of our young people as possible. MONDAY |
