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Viewpoint Wednesday, February 14,1990 The Gamecock 3 Solution Schools must wan for remedial progr Remedial education does not so a report issued Monday as part of Carolina. Last year, more than half of blai required exit exam failed at least < test. Almost 80 percent of the wl wno i ciii ai leasi one 01 tne secion and math, are put in remedial clas to pass ? once in the 11th grade a Of those re-taking the exam, wl better and have a better chance ( Also, the numbers of students pass tempt at the exam. "Such results suggest that rem toundingly unsuccessful," says the by Dr. Aretha Pigford, an associate Education. What all these numbers boil dov 4,000 seniors, most of whom are spring unless they pass the exit exa since the 10th grade. Why such an alarming number? want to graduate since they continu may lie in the fact that the 15 s< passing rates are predominately blai in her report. These districts don't have the mi will to give those borderline studen The Columbia Urban League, w that because there is little incentiv< medial programs, the instructors wh qualified for the job. This especially hurts the poorei enough trouble attracting highly qu? programs. There are solutions. Orangebur there are ways to try to overcome si The district requires students wh( exam to add an extra hour of reme load. Education Improvement Act computer lab with 120 terminals e: men and sophomore students in tl school or repetition of a grade is school students who fall below the ram test average. In 1986, the year it was first o 10th graders in the district passed t3 82 percent passed. "The issue is not whether schoc remedial students), but rather do s< can ill afford to accept the failure c foregone conclusion," according to Orangeburg decided it wanted to tricts with a poor percentage of si state, to decide if they want to. uviriwrwuw . Ul-Di? The first clue that we ma ** M 0iiS whole German reun jlL The Gai Robert d. Thomas Editor-in-Chief jeff wilson, News Editor roe scott pruden, Carolina Life Edito teddy lepp, Photo Editor rc lynn gibson Assistant News Editor Elizabeth Lynch Assistant Carolina Life Editor Deborah Ryan Assistant Photo Editor Renee Meyer, Di Kristin Francis Graduate Assistant Ed Bonza Director of Student Media ray Burgos Assistant Production Manager Jeffrey B. Thompson Assistant Advert sing Manager Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to be, at maximum, 250 to 300 words long, fessional title if a USC employee or South a student. An address and phone numbe Gamecock reserves the right to edit lette space limitations. The newspaper \a circumstance. s t improvements ams to succeed em to be working, according to the annual State of Black South ck lOth-graders taking the nowone of the three sections of the lite lOth-graders passed. Those s, which cover reading, writing s and given three more chances nd twice in the 12th. lite students generally do much )f passing than black students. '1 r> rr mitVi ao/^Vi ?/m?t img u^uv/a^> wiui i/aui iitw dlediation efforts have been asreport, which includes a study 5 professor in USC's College of m to is that between 3,000 and : black, will not graduate this m in April, a test they've failed Most of the students obviously e to take the exam. The answer :hool districts with the lowest ck, rural and poor, Pigford says Dney, the resources or even the ts the help they need. 'hich compiles the report, says J for teachers to work with relo do teach usually are the least st districts, who already have ilified teachers for their regular g District 5 offers proof that jch obstacles. ) fail at least one section of the dial work to their daily course funds were used to set up a delusively for the use of freshle remedial program. Summer required for grade and middle Basic Skills Assessment Progffered, only 35 percent of the fie exit exam. Last year, almost >ls can educate this group (the ;hools want to. South Carolina if poor and black students as a the report. i. Now it's up to the other distudents who graduate, and the mecock Kathy blackwell Managing Editor iyn thompson, Copy Desk Chief r JEFF Nichols, Sports Editor )bb lane, Graphics/Comics Editor Lucy Soto Assistant News Editor Brant Long Assistant Sports Editor Sharon Williamson Assistant Copy Desk Chief irlrnnm Technician Erik Collins Faculty Adviser Laura S. Day Production Manager renee Atkinson Advertising Manager Carolyn Griffin Business Manager print all letters received. Letters should The writer must include full name, proi Carolina resident, or year and major if r are required with all letters sent. The rs for style, possible libel or in case of rill not withhold names under any v^uiiiiiiuiiiaiii titan It is change in major proportions. jpww And seemingly the Soviet Union is fastly be- j-i coming Westernized like many other commun- * ^ ist countries have done. # ?? The past couple of weeks have brought events that will live on in our minds, and the , Wag Atlantic Ocean separating that part of the world MX, : and ours has suprisingly become a little smaller. On Monday, Soviet leaders called for a spe- ceDtjon 0] cial session of their Congress to strengthen the ^ accQ president's office. That move and others will events wj strengthen the Soviet government not the Com- and , munist party that has ruled the nation for 72 years" people ? The moves may also allow the citizens to di- have all I rectly elect the president, and that is a freedom few mont] that is the foundation of American government, fied becai But, all these moves have not come easy for concerns i the Soviet people. Since the Soviet Union's in- And no Martyrdom, boyc< Valentine's Day is a day for love and romance, and it gives the card companies a really good excuse to beef up their profits for the first rB^, couple of weeks in February, right? Well, I suppose so. But let's think about ^ where the name of this ultra-mushy holiday S comes from. Way back when, there was a guy jr 1 named Valentine who martyred himself in the name of the Catholic church, so of course he MB was made a saint later on. giving sc So does that mean we have to go out and be a GINT martyrs for our particular religious persuasions? Valentin* I certainly hope not. Most Methodists I know person is are pretty nice folks, but laying down my life Yes, e fnr thorn r?r? Volpntinp'e T>q\7 icn't mv if\pt\ r\f Hitvp Kaa AVyl uivin Uii ? uiviiuuv kj i 1011 * J 1UVW v/i *?i*t v uvv hot and heavy romance. entine's ] Regardless of how Val ended up lending his Actual name to a holiday for love, that's what Valen- entine's tine's Day has ended up as. Some choose to freshman boycott it. Some enjoy celebrating it more than party. I any other holiday. Some are just ambivalent ab- else, and out it. she make I'm one of the ones who enjoys it. those are I've always thought the idea of a holiday de- Actual voted entirely to romance and love was a pretty said was good idea. After all, in the average day there's If thei very little love and affection that goes on. attitude. Someone might think about leaning over and So nati CTTCDO "TO XL1C CI l-.li I I crto I Inez tzi Cinema review ^'???$.5 not objective just happened to loc that he was "carded" I To the editor: cashiers in order to b So much for journalistic inte- an "R" rated movie grity. David Bowden's very these little scenarios slanted critique of Columbia's mo- Mr. Bowden? Probabl vie theaters was a bit more than I could stand. He did not seem truly j am certain that I < satisfied with any theater. Granted my colleages at the that anyone who chooses to see the Cinemas when I say t Texas Chainsaw Massacre III turC) Mr. Bowden she can't be all that bright in the first his 'criticisms a bit place. But it seemed overwhelm- tively, instead of resoi ingly apparent that the man has an shots. ax to crind with the Bush River Cinemas. Rona Being an employee of the Bush Former River Cinemas, as well as a former Bush Rb student at USC, I found his criticism of our theater quite offensive. ^ Mr. Bowden's comment that "ev- JaCPQII W erything is wrong with the theaters ? at this place," all the while singing i|-| rof jrkfl the praises of the local second-rate dl/lvFlI dollar movie houses, is totally off base. To the editor: We pride ourselves on being the I like a man who is best theater in the city, and we his thinking. If man i: must be doing something right, be- than any other spec cause our patrons come back again here by chance and i and again. more evolved than c So I don't know what happened then Mr. Tom Regan to Mr. Bowden on his last visit to of animal rights is i our fine cinemas. Perhaps he was February 12 Gamecoc iging fast in Sovi \ with Mikhail S m 1 one of the mo f Gorbachev has L& ?-> n -r. . r. lations with t h Robert Thomas worw a much Gorbachev in Germany is to keep both f communism, there have been count- show that bot unts of suffering and killings. These whplir?Jnaiv th 11 live on in the minds of the relatives e who observed these dreaded events. With the e strations ? one with over 200,000 many and the and even riots and threats of civil war communism c been the center of attention the past coming mi hs. But the civilians' actions are justi- tence on the g< ise they have all helped to express the hopefu ind wants of the people. citizens to enj< w the term "glasnost" is synonymous 03118 have enjc jtts and love on A |gk age this lovel; drop the nega mjp ~ serious smooc And smooc very influentia Scon PRUDEN Actually it one of the hap >me stranger a smooch in the middle of Despite wh; class every day of the semester, but love to be fo i's Day is die only day of the year that times it's sne actually going to consider doing it. come up behii ven I, the cynical and jaded journalist, and drag you n compelled to be extra mushy on Val- and screaming 3ay. cover how co ly, I was phenomenally mushy on Val- you just don't Day a year ago when I met a brash much more ki< i from Darlington at a sorority crush So relax fc was there hoping to hit on someone mance becaus< I assume the same for her (sometimes who wants to ;s me wonder if it wasn't planned, but just don't see not things for a man to know). make a little r ly, she was in the midst of what she ound someone a boycott on men. part of the g e's anything I hate, it's a negative you've got to I played, an jrally, I took it upon myself to encour- Angie. 3ITOR irhaps he did as saying, ". . . it is inconsistent to te i for the mo- have one ethic for one species of P r perhaps he beings and another entirely diffe- is )k so young rent ethic for all species. That's r> 3y one of our not rational." I hope Mr. Regan u s admitted to follows his philosophy at home. If Hrt anu nf it'c \irrr\nci tr\ murrlr>r a human hp. tl aUU J VI *? M niuug IV IIIU1UV1 u vv ring a bell, ing in cold blood (and most would a y. agree that is it), then in order to be a consistent with Mr. Regan's philo- d ;an speak for sophy of animal rights, it be wrong r Bush River to "murder" a mosquito, a cock- s hat in the fu- roach, an ant or a house fly. a >uld arrive at But> man js different than all ^ more objec- Specjes> he was created dis- e ting to cheap ^nct from all creation. Man is to v rule over creation, subdue the v earth, and be good stewards of the ^ ild Campbell environment. We must not, how- j, USC student ever, equate this responsibility v /er employee with having the identical ethics for v animals that we have for human c rnno beings. 0 * "**?5 Nancy Friday Griffin r||0 Part-time Faculty Member v Mandela story s no different deserves more } ies, if he is v s just a little To the editor: c >ther species, I was both disappointed and an's philosophy gered after reading the Monday, rational. The Feb. 12 issue of The Gamecock, 'k quoted him The freeing of Nelson Mandela af iet Union !. Gorbachev who has emerged as st respected leaders in the world, i greatly increased diplomatic rehe U. S., which will make the better place for all countries. has also agreed that reunification ; inevitable and the best measure sides from collapse. Polls also h West and East Germans overink reunification is a must vents in the Soviet Union, Gerones this past summer in China, ertainly is going to the tested in anths. There is bound to be resisavenmenf s side. lly those nations will allow their }y the basic freedoms that Ameriyed for decades. T " A /aientine s y young lady to end her boycott, tive attitude and commence some hing on this skinny white boy. h we did. And, as the author of a il book has said, it was good. was so good, that we're still le year later. And this being a relationship for me, it's also been piest years I've ever had. at the cynics think, there is good und on Valentine's Day. Some:aky. If you're not looking, it'll id you, whack you on the noggin off to the land of bliss, kicking But once you get there and disizy having someone love you is, want to leave, regardless of how :king and screaming might go on. )lks. Make yourself open to ro; somewhere out there is someone give it to you really bad, and they a very good openings Flirt a lot, nore eye contact, put your arm ar5 for no particular reason. It's all ;ame, and if you want to win, play. id I won. Thanks for a great year, ? ? ir 27 years in a South African rison is history in the making. It ; an event which certainly warants more than a small reference nder "Briefly in the News." One could hardly say that more aan quarter of century stolen from man's life is brief. Nor could nyone venture to say that hunreds of years of institutionalized acism, bigotry and brutal violence uffered by black South Africans t the hands of a white minority is rief. So why is it that such an exremely important international vent gets pushed to the side, /hile the virtually insignificant isit of an Atlanta artist gets top :ii: TT i 'a. i *.i ! miug. nau 11 oeen anouier crisis i China or the tearing down of a /all of separation, no doubt it /ould have received front page overage. What does that say ab?ut The Gamecock's priorities? In consideration of a nation and /orld that is rapidly moving towrd a culturally diverse and multiacial society in which whites will lot be the dominating factor, we vould do well to re-examine our lefinition of what's important and that's not important and adjust >ur priorities accordingly. Pearlie Payne System Personnel Division Staff member