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April 5, 1979 The Maroon Tiger
Teachers Must Be More
Than Passive Observers
Washington, D.C.—The time is
past—if it ever existed at all—
when teachers could be silent
onlookers at changes in society,
enduring unreasonable attacks and
baseless challenges to their profes
sionalism, stated John Ryor, presi
dent of the National Education
Association.
In an address setting the theme
for the organization’s 17th annual
Conference on Human and Civil
Rights in Education at the May
flower Hotel here. Ryor told
approximately 400 delegates from
all over the country:
“Not only must teachers relate
their classroom instruction to daily
life in meaningful ways, but their
responsibility is to be more than
passive observers, or ‘thermome
ters’ measuring the ‘hot’ and ‘cold’
currents swirling about them.”
“And when they are targets of
attack by those who are also trying
to reverse many of the gains made
in social programs to meet the
needs of the poor and minorities,
teachers must respond to these
attacks.”
The emphasis of the conference,
“Rise of the New Right: Human
and Civil Rights in Jeopardy,” was
heightened by major figures in edu
cation, politics and other fields.
Also, scores of teacher participants
described the increasing trend of
neo-Right campaigns to reduce
school financing through efforts
similar to California’s Proposition
13, undercut teacher-school board
collective bargaining, undermine
affirmative action efforts, continue
censorship battles aimed at curric
ulum as well as books, and
threaten teacher privacy.
In a statement closing the three-
day meeting that ended Sunday
(February 25) Terry Herndon,
executive director of the 1.8 mil
lion member organization, warned
against underestimating the ability
of the New Right to successfully
capitalize on discontent and dram
atize single, thorny, controversial
issues for which they then provide
simplistic solutions.
Herndon called for “an end to
debate on the issue” and for
“increasing involvement by Ameri
ca’s teachers in the American polit
ical process... Politics is a contest
of values,” he added, “and we can
not espouse our cause and accom
modate the Right Wing.”
Similar emphasis was registered
by Rep. Ronald V. Dellums (D.-
Cal.), who was the conference’s
major non-NEA speaker.
Month
Walton Named
Teacher of
by Duane Cooper
This month, the Maroon Tiger
honors Dr. Harriett J. Walton, a
professor in the Department of
Mathematics, as its “Teacher of the
Month.” On March 17 of this year,
Dr. Walton received her doctorate
in mathematics' education from
Georgia State University.
Born and raised in rural sou
theast Georgia, Dr. Walton came
north to Atlanta and Clark College
to receive her B.A. degree. She has
since procured M.S. degrees from
Howard University and Syracuse
University. In 1958, she began her
work at Morehouse after teaching
for two years at Hampton Institute
in Virginia.
In 1975, Dr. Walton temporarily
went on leave from Morehouse to
begin to work on her Ph.D. She
recently completed her disserta
tion, entitled “A Study on the
Design and Implementation of an
Evaluation Model for a College
Remedial Mathematics Program,”
which, she says, “concerns the
whole problem of remediation in
mathematics.” She has discussed
her research recently at symposi
ums in Orlando and Detroit.
Dr. Walton has concentrated
Dr. Harriet J. Walton
her teaching efforts on the area of
remedial mathematics, though she
also has taught more advanced
courses in previous years. Two
hundred students from each of the
last two freshman classes had to
begin work in the remedial pro
gram. While she emphasizes that
there are very many reasons for so
many students entering college def
icient in math, Dr. Walton states
tow reasons as being poor prepara
tion by many high schools and a
dislike for mathmatics in most stu
dents. She sadly notes that because
of the poor attitude many students
take toward the Basic Math
course, they leave with no marked
improvement in their mathematics
ability.
Though she has attained her
Ph.D., Dr. Walton’s work in the
area of remediation in mathemat
ics is far from complete. “My
goal,” she says, “is (to continue) to
study and work at the problem of
deficiencies in math with the idea
that eventually...at Morehouse
College we will have a good reme
dial program.” She hopes in the
future to work in conjunction with
the Atlanta Public Schools to
attack the problem at the elemen
tary school level.
Dr. Walton, who enjoys singing,
sewing, and cooking, is a mother of
four children: Renee, a sophomore
at Spelman College, Anthony, a
high school senior, Jennifer, a
tenth-grader, and Cyrus, a sixth-
grader.
Harrison Named
Recipient of Watson
Fellowship Award
Lynn P. Harrison, III, a senior
French/Sociology major at More
house, has recently been named the
recipient of a prestigious Thomas
J. Watson Fellowship. The Fellow
ship carries an award of $8,000.
The Thomas J. Watson Fellow
ship Program is a national compe
tition which supports independent
study and travel abroad for recent
college graduates. Fellows are
selected for their commitment to a
particular field of interest and for
their potential for leadership. The
foundation hopes to provide Fel
lows an opportunity for a focused
and diciplined postgraduate year
of their own devising—a break in
which they may explore with tho
roughness a particular and demon
strated interest, test their
aspirations and abilities, view their
lives and American society in
greater perspective, and develop a
more informed sense of interna
tional concern.
The Watson Fellowship pro
gram is administered in coopera
tion with forty-eight private
colleges and universities. All grad
uating seniors at these institu
tions were eligible to compete for
nomination. The Fellowships are
awarded annually by the Thomas
J. Watson Foundation, a charita
ble trust established in 1961 by the
late Mrs. Thomas J. Watson, in
memory of her husband, the
founder of International Business
Machines Corporation.
Lynn Harrison is a member of
the French Honor Society, the
Sociology Club, and has been a
Merril Scholar at Morehouse.
Mr. Harrison is the son of Mrs.
Eula L. Harrison, 227 Ardmore
Avenue, Ardmore, Pennsylvania
19003.
Dellums rejected the idea that
the nation is undergoing a shift to a
right-wing majority position. He
asserted instead that a vocal “coali
tion of reactionary thinkers,” com
bined with elements in the nation’s
corporate structure, are exploiting
classes and race fears to “lock in”
inequalities that still persist.
In addition, Dellums—a
member of the House armed servi
ces committee—emphasised that a
growing military budget, which he
asserted was unnecessary, was eat
ing away at the nation’s social
gains.
As did other conference speak
ers, he called for a broad coalition
of forces, cutting across political,
racial, urban and rural, and eco
nomic interests, to fight the
increasingly active New Right.
“We have an obligation to chal
lenge it. If we do anything less, then
some day the price tag will be so
high that we cannot do it,” he said.
Leonard
Addresses
Morehouse
by Duane Cooper
Dr. Walter J. Leonard, Presi
dent of Fisk University, was the
keynote speaker at the Honors
Day Program recognizing honor
students from first semester 1978-
79.
Dr. Leonard left Harvard Uni
versity, where he served as Special
Assistant to the President and as
Assistant Dean and Assistant
Director of Admissions and Fi
nancial Aid at the School of Law,
the opening at financially-plagued
Fisk in 1976.
He had previously served as
Assistant Dean and Lecturer in
Law at Howard University, the
school at which he received his
Juris Doctor degree in 1968.
Before that, he had studied at
Savannah State College, More
house College, and Atlanta
University.
Dr. Leonard reflected on his
years at what he termed the “Big
H,” Howard University, and the
“Little H,” Harvard University,
and discussed why he left financial
security at Harvard for insecurity
at a struggling Black college, Fisk.
He also stated his vehement oppo
sition to the use of drugs by college
students, remarking on his recent
sadness at having returned from a
successful fund-raising tour, only
to find that a freshman girl, age 18,
had died from an overdose of
drugs.
Among those students honored
at the assembly were Oladisun
Holloway, an Economics major,
who received the Hugh M. Gloster
Award for being the top-ranking
senior. Also recognized were Wil
liam L. Bell, Estrada J. Bernard,
Oladisun Holloway, and James W.
Mack, Jr., for being member of Phi
Beta Kappa. Kemal Oz, a sopho
more, received the first annual
Mathematics Award from Dr.
Henry Gore, chairman of the
Department of Mathmatics.
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This newly founded school opened on February 26,
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Alan K. Rosenwald, Ph.D., Dean
The Chicago School of
Professional Psychology
30 West Chicago Avenue/3rd Floor/Chicago, IL 60610
Telephone: 312/ 280 -1288
The school does not discriminate on the basis of race,
color, sex or national or ethnic origin.