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2 TMI Witt CfOKGIAM MIOAV Wl t. Iff* 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 I p |: l ij j, j WHAT 00 YOU MEAN •••! FORGOT TO ORDER THE BOOKS? Ecditoßiai amcxi 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.