The Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 9, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 9, 1989 Page: 3 of 12
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A
EDITORIAL/OPINION
November 9* 1989
3.
v
Why are Athletes Special?
Hirsch Revisited
(continued from page 2)
compete lor funding u:u! .un." 'ion
like any other club on our :*■ 111 <ns.
Members of the Lacrosse to'im
provide their own equipment,
uniforms travel expenses, ;im!
time. Although iiici'iIpis of the
Lacrosse team do not receive any
of the privileges other athletes do,
they still managed to plum first in
their conference Iasi \r;m (a
conference that includes Texas
Texas A&M, and I S!i among
others). Thai i> .-o.., .! mv m m,
of the other teams on oni c ampus
do. Technically, the I.across,.'
team is a club'and themfoiv tnttsi'
managed to do although tliey laid
the full force of the athletic
department behind them.
I know that 1 speak lor many
students when 1 say that allowme
athletes to register before all other
students represents a distortion of
values on the part of our college.
By allowing athletes to register
before all other students, we are
essentially being to'I that athletes
We have certain questions and
comments concerning Mr. Biles'
letter "Bile is Back". As this letter
is addressed primarily to Mr . Biles,
we will refer to him hereafter in
second person.
Concerning, your views about
abortion, wc disagree with your
reasoning with regards to rape
victims regaining their dignity
regardless of whether or not they
are pregnant. It could very well be
easier for a woman to regain her
dignity and composure without a
constant reminder of their rapist
bulging oul of her stomach,
throwing her family and religious
life into chaos. There arc some
families and churches which you
might be aware of (or indeed, bo a
member oQ that arc closed minded
enough to disallow abortion while
^Jtre more important llieu oidmary
students. It is c leai that the
athletes do not need, and do not
deserve the priority they reecr, e
during registration. !t is equally
clear that if the values of our
university are gome to have am.
credibility, the practice min stop.
Athletes should have to go ihrouah
the same process ilia! a'! oilier
students must deal with If th -v
cannot arrange their schedules 1 >
allow for them to pea Mice, they
simply should not practice. After
all, this is the same suuaiioa d:a:
every student must deal v. eh "Tee,
he or she tries to balance Tas. e:
and extra-curricular atuivipe'- in a
given semester’s schedule.
Choices and opportunity costs are
an inevitable pan o! any student's
schedule. It is essentia! in mi
academic community such as ours
that those choices he made lair! •
on a level pla\ mg 'i-T1. ! mi a In
even venture to say that part ui 'lie
"college experience' is learning to
make choices, assess opporuaniiv
costs and deal with an imp airs t
simultaneously considering a
woman to be in sin if she is
pregnant and unmarried, regardless
of whether the baby was obtained
through rape or fornication.
Secondly, wc question your
overall attitude as represented by
the tone of your article. Though
you advocate the notion of
intellectual argument, you blindly
insulted well over half the campus
(or at least came close enough for
most to take offense). Wc arc
certain this was merely an
your haste to express your
opinions, but wc would appreciate
more polished letters from you in
the future. For as you no doubt
are aware, insulting people does
not make them listen to you, it
merely makes them angry.
schedule.
1 firmly believe T ?: u nil
students are created eoually. :>■' | Tl
deserve a fair chance a' yet hum i!v
classes they warn foil >}
regardless of their mlTnv u 1 r
or ability. I imagine du.ue'arv a !. '
of students out time- w no am ■
with me. If you fee! as me. up!"
about this issue as I do. :v ! \ mi
want to make Sou!!;", ev" u n Pmvr
place to get an edu ui • , !\ we
voice be heard by awmww a
member of the Si"d.w s! (:<<•<
Council or add-evoug wur
comments to Jud\ .' lurne pae/,
X1755, Box 6182. Nothing will
happen unless there is
overwhelming opposition to the
current registration policy. You
can bet the athletes will fiuht to
retain their privileged status. If
you want to change this pain v.
you must let your voice he 'want
now.
Sincerely,
Jon Brinkley
Though you have also insulted
the National Enquirer, wc are
nevertheless sending them a copy
of your letter for publication (We
are sure that such abuse does not
trouble them much). Admitted!'/,
there is only a very slim c' ■eve
they will use your w'ork, but it is a
chance that journals of liigluT
integrity would not give it, except
perhaps as an extra in the Political
Satire column.
PS. Yes, wc arc aware that we
have insulted you, but we really
don’t expect you to 1 isten to us
even if we were nice.
PPS. No, it won’t do any good
insulting us, because we aren i
listening to you cither.
David Roberts
The opposing reactions of Trey
Gerfers ("College Not to Blame,"
Oct. 12) and Bohdy Hedgcock
("Blame it on Hirsch," Oct. 19) to
Dr. E. D. Hirsch's Cultural
Literacy: What Every American
Needs to Know provoked me. 1
pulled out my copy of this 1987
work and proceeded to reread
several of its chapters. For
language acquisition teachers like
me, Hirsch's principal message is
how vital the interrelationship
between language and culture is.
When language is developed in a
vacuum, the historio-cultural
references contained in literature arc
lost on the reader, be hc/shc
foreign-bom or native-speaking.
In the summer of 1987,
Hirsch's book proved to be a
supplementary curricular boon to
my English-Second Language
Methodology course. My students
(public school teachers)
unanimously agreed that not just
their foreign bom pupils, but also
their native speakers of English
were embarrassingly ignorant of
the references found in Hirsch's
Appendix: What Literate
Americans Know. (The Gallup
Poll underscores their assessment.)
How to remediate this
deficiency is clearly a pedagogical
dilemma. My interpretation of
Hirsch's advice differs from
Hedgcock’s: In my view, Hirsch
advocates an unlocking of Jean
Jacques Rousseau's and John
Dewey's stranglehold on American
education (i.e., experiences
paramount and information
secondary). Hirch proposes a
reversal--emphasis on specific
information, "communally shared
information ... so that children
can learn to participate in complex
corporate activities with other
members of their community."
And it is the latter knowledge to
which he has assigned the term
"cultural literacy."
In his Preface, Hirsch troubles
to differentiate between
"prescriptive" and "descriptive"
lists: his Appendix, he points out,
is "descriptive," meaning that it is
a log of information actually
known by literate Americans. Of
course, what literate Americans
actually know is subject to
perpetual amendment A discourse
—if not debate—on the factors that
shape this body of knowledge
would be a lively one, but
certainly out of place in this
space.
Now please allow me to
respond to Hedgcock's
trivialization of Hirsch’s Appendix
as mere fodder for the pasttime
"Trivial Pursuit." Yes, to
skeletally identify , say, Spiro
Agnew as an ex-VP of the U.S.
might qualify to score in the parlor
game, but Hirsch intends for the
"literate American" to be able to
flesh out that identification into a
portrayal of the character and deeds
of that politician vis-a-vis the
political climate of his years in
office.
I'm sure Billy Joel didn't
fathom support of Hirsch’s thesis
when the popular singer-musician
brainstormed his latest album
Storm Front. But the strong
reinforcement is there in his litany:
"Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride,
Heavy Metal, Homeless, AIDS,
foreign debts . . ." Are these in
fact not more historio-cultural
references for an updated Hirsch-
style Appendix? Think about it!
J. Donnie Snyder, Ph.D.
Foreign Language Department
tFrssQmoira su/atSl Solpifrsmipos
Biles is Bashed
Wondering Whether or not Rush is for You?
Finn OUT!
For Women:
TO RUSH OR NOT TO RUSH
Monday, November 13, 1989
7:30p.m.
Cullen Auditorium
Ken Roberts, Chair of the International Studies Committee
will conduct a workshop on the requirements for the new
International Studies major.
This meeting will be held in FJS room 132, Wednesday the
25th at 7:30 P M.
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The Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 9, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 9, 1989, newspaper, November 9, 1989; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth634665/m1/3/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Southwestern University.