The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 05, 1990, Page 3, Image 3
English
Teaching assistants should
be able to communicate well
The issue of whether foreign students with limited Englishspeaking
ability should be allowed to teach math, computer science
or anything else to other students is a touchy situation ? at
oesi.
The problem is not their nationality or their knowledge of the
subjects they teach. It is their ability to communicate that knowledge
to the people they are supposed to be teaching.
The international students who are teaching assistants are intelligent
people who know what they are doing in their particular
field and have the knowledge to teach it to others. The problem
occurs when the others can't understand-what is being said.
These TA's have to take the Test of Spoken English, and the
results are sent to the professor they want to teach for. The professor
can then do anything he wants to with the results. He can use
them, overlook them or simply ignore them. Or he can call the
international student in for a personal interview to see if he can
understand them.
Of course, this is like putting someone in front of a radio distorted
by static and asking them to listen to their favorite song.
They'll understand the words no matter how faintly they can hear
them because they know the song straight through. But if you put
another person who had never heard the song and asked them
wnai me woras were, mey a oe ai a compieie loss.
A calculus professor is going to understand the teaching of
mathematical formula no matter how broken the English, but a
student who has never seen a particular formula before may not t
realize that when the TA says, "sqlay loot" he means "square *
root."
Professors need to pay attention to the English proficiency tests.
State regulations need to be set that wil ensure students can a
understand their TAs and get their money's worth in the classes tl
they're taking. $
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The Gamecock "
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News: 777-7726 Advertising: 777-4249 f
Jeff Wilson Sharon Willamson L
Editor in Chief Managing Editor/Copy Desk Chief
Lynn Gibson Elizabeth Lynch ]
News Editor Carolina Life Editor
DougAube Renee Meyer J
Sports Editor Photography Editor
Kelly C. Thomas t<
Viewpoints Editor
Elizabeth Fox Sherri Tillman te
Assistant News Editor Assistant News Editor ai
David Bowden Kathy Heberger **
Assistant Carolina Life Editor Assistant Carolina Life Editor ^
brant Long Julie Bouchillon
Assistant Sports Editor Assistant Photography Editor
Sara Verne Octavia Wright t
Assistant Copy Desk Chief Assistant to the Editors C
Kristin Francis Erik Collins fe
Graduate Assistant Faculty Adviser ?>
Ed Bonza Laura S. Day oi
Director of Student Media Production Manager oc
Ray Burgos renee Gibson d
Assistant Production Manager Advertising Manager ^
Kyle Berry Carolyn Griffin 1
Assistant Advertising Manager Business Manager ^
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Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should
be, at maximum, 250 to 300 words long. The writer must include full name, pro- lc
fessional title if a USC employee or South Carolina resident, or year and major if fc
a student. An address and phone number are required with all letters sent. The
Gamecock reserves the right to edit letters for style, possible libel or in case of
space limitations. The newspaper will not withhold names under any
circumstance. S)
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VTHEY COULD
Dbscenity, ent
A 32-year-old father of four was convicted of
crime Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
tat could send him to jail for a year with a
1,000 fine.
Charles Freeman was convicted of selling a
assette to an undercover agent in June that was
randed obscene.
The cassette was 2 Live Crew's "As Nasty
is They Wanna Be." Granted, the lyrics in
lany of 2 Live Crew's songs are risque and
istasteful by my standards, but I know many
eople that find the group and its songs acceptble.
That's the problem with regulating ob:enity.
What one person considers to be ob:ene,
another person considers entertainment.
By passing a law that labels song lyrics ob:ene
and by convicting store owners for selling
le lyrics goes against the First Amendment of
le Constitution. It is too difficult to regulate
)mething so vague and subjective as obscenity
ithout infringing on freedom of speech.
Freeman's attorney Bruce Rogow said in his
Books don't i
A book is a book is a book.
There is no substitute for a good book. Readig
feeds the mind and allows for the quick extiange
of ideas. Reading is also a wonderful
ay to just pass the time. All different mediums
ave their place, but nothing compares to
ooks.
Therefore, it is shocking to me that books
rould be thrown away on a university campus,
lpposedly a center of learning.
Through no fault of its own, the Thomas
ooper Library is forced to throw away about
,000 books a year. There is a tax law that will
3t allow the library to do anything with books
jnated to them. The library doesn't have much
loice other than to throw out old books each
jar.
The library is caught in a sort of Catch-22.
hey have a limited amount of space, and new
Doks are constantly coming in. As these new
Doks come in, space has to be made. But since
ey have a limited amount of space, they are
>rced to make choices, pick books and get rid
r them.
I think it would be safe to assume most peoe
who work in libraries are fond of books and
LETTERS TO THE
Walloons do IX oS
)ose threat characters
tively imm
0 the editor: isms of dc
In response to Tim Queen's let- to a study
r to the editor on Monday, we of Miami,
e pleased to hear that Queen sup- the digests
jrts the environment but are dis- life for up i
essed at the misinformation pre- In his le
dent to his letter. We are happy correctly si
1 document our evidence dealing cause of s*
ith the harmful eifects of bal- hit by boa
ions on marine wildlife. amination,
A /^/*rvrdinfT t/~V A1 A A r?1 f TYr* hnua hnd *
ntwiuiug iu rvi IVI^IIVII ui Lt" uuvi/ nau y
aiders of Wildlife in Washington, systems. I
.C., balloons can travel hundreds starvation,
f miles to land intact in the even cause
;ean. 50 Simple*Things You Can. ndering a t
o to Save the Earth, compiled by prey or es<
ie Earth Works Group, states that boat propel
)alloons released in the Midwest Aside fi
in wind up in the ocean. Recen- implication
y, a test balloon released in Ohio there are a
ached the South Carolina coast to be cons
only two days" (p. 58). A bal- mind The 1
>on released in St. Louis was Species Ac
>und in Nova Scotia by Zoe Lu- $25,000 fi
is during an environmental study. sentence to
Balloons are made from either harming an
mthetic rubber or plastic, neither Althougl
: which is biodegradable. Accord- seem like
BE THE DEATH BLOW TO
AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE'
gyb i SLAYIN<SS
this year
1 .'111'!.
I /<S*******.
^rtjiinmpiit ha
jjji^ JEFF WILSON
closing argument, "It's never easy living with
the First Amendment. One person's vulgarity is
another person's lyric." The idea of protecting a
person's right to say something others do not
fundamentally believe in is not new. Eighteenth
century French philosopher Voltaire said "I disapprove
of what you say, but I will defend to
the death your right to say it."
I disapprove of much of what 2 Live Crew
says, but is it my right or the courts right to say
the group shouldn't say it? Ironically, the 2
Live Crew controversy has made the group
do much good
*T * f
Dennis Shealy
f
pta * / ,
would not throw any into the trash unless they
had no other choice, and because of this law,
they do not have a choice.
The Thomas Cooper Library is not allowed
to give the books away or do anything else with
them because those who donate the books can
take the gift off of their taxes. Therefore, the
state sees the books as non-transferable
property.
This is not necessarily a bad law. I realize
people could do some very tricky things with
their taxes if there wasn't such a law, but there
should be room for exceptions. Books are far
too valuable to just throw away.
I realize many of the books are probably out
of date, but they could still be of some use. At
least the paper could be recycled and put to
: EDITOR
itizens Guide to Plastics ^ symbolic of the larg
an, "(Plastic's) durabil- cal dilemmas facing our
>ably its most valuable day. There are so ma
>tic. Plastics are rela- threatening our enviro
une to natural mechan- so little time before c
?ay" (p. 9). According species are extinct. E\
done at the University protect our earth is signi
ingested plastic stays in Katri
/e tract of marine wild- Shann
to three months. -p:
tter to the editor, Queen
tates the most common
va turtle deaths is being Leig
L pi v>A.~ ill cm UC1
many of these turtles
)lastic in their digestive ^ ^ ^
n addition to causing J[ OD ^5 1
ingested plastics "may # * *
i excess buoyancy, re- PFPfl
urtle unable to dive for * V1
:ape from predators (or To the editor:
lers)" (p. 8, Citizens). I am writing in respo
om the environmental Gamecock Top 25. Wh
s of a balloon release, this thing, anyway? To
tlso legal consequences and I, it is a joke (I thin]
idered. We humbly re- campus echo my sen
[JSC of the Endangered mean, what does it tal
:t. This law promises a vince you people that V
ne and a 10-year jail nia is not a Top 25 fcx
any person(s) linked to this season. They are c
endangered species. ing a difficult time adjus
l balloon releases might without Major Harris
a small problem, they Turnbull, Mike Fox, <
1 OUR CHERISHED
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($r. ie>us pofr-ptfpAr**rd
to regulate
more popular than ever. There are several other
rappers out there like Erik B. and Rakim,
Young M. C., Queen Latifah, Schoolly D. and
many more that may be relatively unknown to
the mainstream public because they do not get
the media attention like 2 Live Crew does.
Others are not controversial enough, but 2 Live
Crew is getting front-page attention in newspapers
nationwide. This makes people want to go
out and buy the album just to see what the hype
is all about, which is the opposite effect of what
the lawmakers wanted.
And people like Charles Freeman get caught
in the middle.
'They don't know where my record shop is.
The verdict does not reflect my community
standards as a black man in Broward County,"
Freeman said.
Obscenity, a vague term that means different
things to different people, cannot be regulated
fairly or effectively, but tell that to Charles
Freeman.
I in a landfill
good use rather than just going into a landfill.
However, I have a friend who has looked
through many of these and she told me that
most of the books were not out-of-date books
but were in fact many of the classics that were
merely old but otherwise still in good condition.
It seems to me these books could either be
put on sale to students or given to other local
colleges that might not receive as many books
as a large university like USC does. Some of
them might even go to local high schools.
There are already students willing to do
something with these books; they only need the
go ahead. I plan to Find out more about this law
and hopefully convince whoever needs convincing
to let something useful be done with these
books.
America seems to be determined to close its
mind. Censorship is slowly becoming the norm
and individuals' rights seem to be on the slide.
Throwing books away seems like one more nail
in the coffin. If this concerns you in any way,
do something about it. Write letters to USC's
hnarH of fnicfppc tr\ TU& nr tov
v* w. UUIVVUj tv M. I WUfrtbUl/UfV U1 U1V lUA
commission, or volunteer your help in moving
the books. Make a difference because you can.
*
;er ecologi- think you're getting off that easily,
society to- though.
iny factors One other major faux pas stands
nment and out. What does Brigham Young
mdangered University have to do to prove that
rery act to they are better than Miami, beat
ificant. them again? That win wasn't a
na Nylund fluke. Ty Detmer, the BYU quaron
Stewart terback, picked that vaunted Hurri,,
canes' defense apart en route to a
m Steckler solid victory
eth McKay
_ m i t >ii j . r_ .
n anenaan 1 win give you creau ior a ecu's
of SAGE ple ?f things, however. Your poll
does recognize Oklahoma as the
seventh ranked team in the country
r\A|] (someone even thought they were
good enough for a number one
jl|lp vote). You were the first poll to
* A-JIV recognize our Gamecocks as a Top
25 team; and lastly, Georgia Tech
nse to The 8ets some well deserved respect in
o votes on y?ur P?H by being ranked,
my friends in 1 feel that to be taken
k others on seriously your poll needs to do
timent). I little things like not waiting until
ce to con- now 10 rank Virginia higher than
Vest Virgi- our dreaded rivals, Clemson. When
Dtball team y?u work out those little kinks,
learly hav- The Gamecock Top 25 will finally
jting to life get respect.
, Renaldo Jeff Driggers
etc. Don't physical education sophomore