ustxtxb_obs_1984_09_28_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

OPEN MONDAYSATURDAY 10-6 AND OPEN SUNDAY 10-4 WATSON & COMPANY BOOKS SALE Extremely Low Financing Available on Repossessed Lands The Veterans Land Board of Texas will have a bid sale on 75 repossessed tracts of land on October 17, 1984, at 10 a.m. in Austin. All tracts are available for bids by veterans and some may be bid on by non-veterans. These lands are located throughout Texas and: are at least 10 acres will be awarded to the highest bidders will be financed by the Veterans Land Board with interest rates as low as 9.25% \(interest rates for nonwill be financed with 30-year assumable, fixed-rate loans Bidders need not be present at the bid opening on October 17. All winners will be notified by mail within one week after the sale. For more information on the tracts available, bid procedures and application forms, please call the Veterans Land Board at: 1-800-252-VETS or 512/475-4704 GARRY MAURO CHAIRMAN VETERANS LAND BOARD requirements for high school graduation, for more rigorous grading with no allowances for social promotions, for more time spent on academic subjects and hardly any attention paid to the fine arts, and for merit pay for teachers. Clearly, no more recess will be the least of a fourth grader’s worries this fall. The Adler mindset recedes beyond the complete personal and business insurance ALICE ANDERSON AGENCY 808-A East 46th P.O. Box 4666, Austin 78765 realm of “Essentialism,” the “back to the basics” theory of essential skills . reading, writing, arithmetic that resurfaced during the ’70s. Rather, he is considered to be a “Perennialist,” advocating a curriculum that consists of permanent, or perennial, studies. Perennialists, at the extreme right of the educational theoretical spectrum, base their philosophy on two major premises: human nature is rational, and knowledge resides in unchanging, absolute and universal truths. Those on the right in the education debate are suspicious of any practice that makes the school an agency of workplace socialization, of life adjustment, or of vocationalism. They insist that such nonintellectual activities will ulti Adler proclaimed, “Youth itself is the most serious impediment.” mately destroy the school’s intellectual and cultural civilizing role. Although his proposal for a core curriculum of classic liberal education formed the recommendations of SCOPE, critics said that Adler’s is an elitist approach to learning. A singletrack curriculum, they argue, destroys the pluralistic intent of the publiceducation system. Academically oriented learners should be allowed to excel at a fast pace, while vocationallyinclined students shouldn’t have to undergo college prep courses. “Tracking systems,” they say, respond to the individuality of the student. But Adler insisted that each citizen must grasp a single set of essential components of knowledge, learning skills and mental discipline in order for a democratic system to thrive. He proposed the same educational objectives and the same course of study for all, with no electives, throughout the twelve years. From Adler’s Paideia Proposal: ” ‘You propose,’ the objectors may say, ‘the same educational objectives for all the children.’ Yes, that is precisely what we propose. ” ‘You propose the same course of study for all, and with no electives throughout the twelve years.’ Yes, again, that is right. ” ‘You propose that they shall all complete this required course of study with a satisfactory standard of accomplishment regardless of native ability, temperamental bent, or conscious preferences.’ Yes, yes, yes!” JUST AS Admiral Hyman Rickover insisted during the 1950s that “learning isn’t fun,” Adler, in 1982, proclaimed “youth itself is the most serious impediment in fact, youth is an insuperable obstacle to being an educated person. No one can be an educated person while immature.” Mirroring that philosophy was Perot’s recent diagnosis to the legislature: “We need a big change from the world of play that now characterizes the school day.” Isn’t it ironic, then, that Adler, the ringleader of this educational hoax, claims to have based his authoritarian philosophy upon the theories of the instigator of Progressivism and father of modern American education, John Dewey? The single element that Adler and Dewey share is a word that is common to their vocabularies: democracy. In his book, Democracy And Education democracy with the development of the experimental method in education. His democratic criterion for education meant the student is to be free to test all ideas, beliefs and values. Adler, on the other hand, believes that the education of everyone in a democracy “should be the same for all.” 22 SEPTEMBER 28, 1984