Newspaper Page Text
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Math Test
Solution
West Georgia’s math department has finally noticed it
has a problem, the inability of many students to succeed in
freshman math courses. Their solution is to have these
students take not one but two courses if they do not score
high enough on a placement test.
We agree that the problem merits action, but do not feel
the action taken is the answer.
Tests are not fool proof and any admissions counselor will
tell you that standardized tests are often no indication of a
students’ abilities. They do not measure motivation,
willingness to study or attend class regularly. The high
tension testing situation is also a deterent in many cases,
causing students to do poorer than they would under normal
or classroom circumstances.
Just as tests are not fool proof, neither is the theory that
high school scores and the number of math courses one has
taken are an indication of how a student will fare in college
math.
One student might have made C’s under thorough in
structors but learned a great deal, while another made A’s
under poor circumstances and really gained no knowledge
of math. One student might have taken three shoddily
taught math courses which in no way prepared him for
college, while another who did not take math in high school
but is attentive and studious is able to pick up math skills
and experience success on the college level.
He might not have been able to pass a test beforehand, but
with proper exposure to the material, he might be able to
master it.
There is simply no formula for determining who will be
successful in math classes, just as there is no formula for
determining who will be successful in college on the whole.
Rather than further burdening students, we suggest that
the math department take a long look at its own instruction.
When such a high number of students consistently fails,
faculty background can not be totally to blame.
The math department should examine carefully student
evaluations. True, some are irresponsible, but others voice
valid complaints, such as losing total credit on problems
with the correct answers because an instructor does not like
a student’s methods of solving a problem; nit-picking and
deducting credit for any number of small details; and lack
of receptiveness to student questions.
We are not saying the faculty’s methods are wrong, but
they certainly do not seem effective, and if something does
not work, it should be changed.
There may be some real problems in math instruction
which can hardly be solved by having students take more of
the subject. The department should stop looking at scores
and look to student input. To employ a very old cliche,
where there is smoke, there is fire...
\~~SRANS OPENING
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WHAT 00 YOU MEAN •••! FORGOT TO ORDER THE BOOKS?
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Ed Lorenz
Not Quite Ten Years After
They say that politics makes strange bed
fellows. 1 don’t know about that, but I've known
some bedfellows that would make strange
politicians.
Carter’s got his Cabinet, Busbee, his advisors,
and even Dr. Townsend has his confidants. Me,
I’ve got gut feeling and intellect. Granted, gut
feeling is a bit vague, and my intellect has been
questioned from time to time, though with no
basis. Still, I’m beginning to wonder which way
West Georgia College is going.
Really.
My first intimation with the breezes of West
Georgia was in the spring of 1973. A good friend
of mine, a student here, and I went to the Ten
Years After concert at the Omni. I brought her
home (to Carrolton) and was fortunate enough to
have lost my license and my money at the
concert. I spent the day in Carrollton raising
funds to return home. Those students who I met
in the interim were not just wild and crazy guys,
but revolutionaries with purpose
Today, the longhairs are simply that, and no
more.
Politics has re-reared its ugly head. “We’ll
play my game by my rules, or I’ll take my ball
and go home,” is the way it goes.
The University system is full of it, and let’s
face it, most of you are waiting for someone to
tell you what to do and where to go. I’ll tell you
where to go, if you don’t know what to do. Get off
Martha Martin
The Song Remains The Same
As I write this, my debut column, I am
reminded by my father that 41 years ago he was
on the staff of the West Georgian, serving as
managing editor, reporter and columnist.
Our paths are crossing in the latter capacity;
he, blazing the trail four decades ago and I,
following in his footsteps. Aside from feeling a
little crowded, I’m comfortable and familiar
with the ways of a college newspaper staff and
through his reminiscences, feel a part of the
‘family’ and tradition.
The West Georgian crew of 1938 had no office,
but made do with a janitor’s room in the old
administration building (now razed). The room
had no calendar since every day was April Fool’s
day to the staff. Furnishings were scant, with
Daddy often stationing himself on an up-turned
mop bucket.
A whopping S9O was alloted the paper as a
monthly budget, providing enough ads were sold.
Five lEEGAD) faculty members ruled a
censorship committee with iron fists. Prior to
publication, all stories were submitted to this
group for fastidious review. However, and
fortunately for the student body, the members
would occasionally forget to accompany the staff
to the printer’s.
Some of the wilder issues were slipped past the
censors and these were sold at night in the girls’
dorm for a dollar apiece. Proceeds were pooled
to provide booze for the hard-working staff.
Often a great deal of work went into the
tHE WEStSEOFOan
Editor-in-chief Debra Newell
Managing Editor Ed Lorenz
Ad Manager Rick Johnson
News Editor Bob Bolding
Feature Editor Gail W. Cowart
Sports Editor Bill Pennington
Entertainment Editor Harriett Davidson
Photographer Zeke Carter
Opinions expressed in signed articles are those of the authors. Unsigned editor
ials are those of the majority of the staff members on the editorial board. In neith
er instances are they to be taken as representing those of the student body at
large, the faculty, the staff, or the administration at this college.
Box 10005 Phone 834-1366. 1-4 daily
your collective butts and shout at someone.
Raise hell without raising Cain.
When you graduate, they (whoever they are)
are always challenging you to do something with
this world that they so tearfully “give" to us.
Well, the fact of the matter is that we’ve got this
world already We’ve got it by the short hairs, as
it’s been said. Now we gotta pull. Hard.
No, I don’t have any easy answers, but I’ve got
energy. If you’ve got a bitch, then jump on it.
And jump on me. That’s what you’re here for,
and that’s what I’m here for. Bitchin’.
Without the press, as stifled as it’s been of late
with Supreme Court rulings and all, I’ve got
nothing to bitch with. If we lose freedom of the
press, then after that, we’ve got nothing else to
lose It’s just like not saying what’s on your
mind.
The next time someone tells you to jump, don’t
ask, ‘How High’ on the way up. Ask them ‘What
the hell for?’ Say it now and say it loud. Don’t be
like the masses who swear to this day that they
voted for McGovern in ’72. If all those people had
really voted for McGovern there’d never have
been a Watergate. Or even a Nixon. Don’t ‘just
not, and say we did’... DO.
If I had said everything they wanted me to, I’d
be graduated by now. As it is, speaking an honest
mind. I’m working for a living.
It’s good practice. You ought to try it.
masking of incidents to get around the censors.
The most popular method was the assigning of
ficticious names, which led to one headline:
Belle Botts Busts Beautiful Butt.
However, the censors caught up with that one
and decided it would be more appropriate if she
injured her back. A series of explanatory articles
followed the famous headline and they discussed
at length just what part of Belle Botts was
busted.
A true ‘wheel’, the 1938-39 editor traded the
lone typewriter (shared by newspaper,
magazine and yearbook staffs) to a local
bootlegger for linolieum for his dorm floor and a
gallon of homemade wine.
He is now editor of one of the top dailies in the
state. (Another former staff member is sports
editor of the Albany Herald and one of the more
staid contributors is president of Brewton-
Parker College).
Daddy had 52 cuts his first quarter at West
Georgia due to admitted “journalistic zeal.”
Additionally, he was called to the dean’s office
every Monday morning to explain “inadvertent
fractures of the codes of conduct as outlined in
the student handbook.” (The fact that he was
voted ‘wittiest male’ in 1940 played no small role
in the perpetration of these fractures as I can
imagine!)
We, the present journalists who grind out the
copy for the West Georgian, can only hope to live
up to our illustrious heritage.