The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 14, 1990, Page 3, Image 3
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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