Page Two

EDITORIAL.

SCARLET AND BLACK

The Student Use of Student Beings

Last Saturday night, the
generous social fund spared
five of its precious dollars to
pay for the most enjoyable folk
concert of the recent. past, Ric
Exner and Friends. The enter-
tainers happily shared their
wealth with the audience, in-
vesting in five dollars worth of
ice cream cones. The generosi-
ty of the entertainers, ice
cream and music, is an exam-
ple of the spontaneous sharing
and enjoyment which is so pos-
sible and so little developed at
Grinnell. People were creating
an enjoyable experience for
each other for only five dollars!
I’m not implying five dollar
concerts are the answer, but I
applaud the communication
and relaxation that was possi-
ble in the concert.

This experience indicates to
me the need for a place for stu-
dents to use and improve their
wealth of talents. Energy used
for negative purposes, anti-
lnstitution, anti - administra-
tion, antivdreft, etc, can frus-
trate and stiffle creative stu-
dents, There needs to be outlets
for positive energy and talents,
latent in so many. The initial
success of Ex Loce two years
ago, is an indication of the need
and potential for in i o r m al

meeting of s t u d e n t s. The
Forum falls somewhat short of
that purpose. Students enjoy
more intimate situations than a
noisy grill or a beautifully fur-
nished South Lounge. At the
same time, running an off-cam-
pus place, the ideal, takes time
and money (rent), that few
students can afford.

The concert was held in the
defunct Forum coffee house.
Only one other time this year
have I seen the forum used as
it can be used. A Friday night

roup of kids moved into the
South Lounge to sing and
dance. Why shouldn’t the for-
um be used more in this way?
Students need only decide to
enjoy it! The coffee house, with
a little student initiative and
informalization of decor, could
easily become a meeting place
for students. Comfortable fur-
niture, the opening of space,
the addition of curtains or paint
could make the room more con-
ducive to student use. Music,
drama, and poetry could be-
c o m a natural occurrences.
Five dollar concerts could be
replaced with free ones. People
would have to buy their own
ice cream, but that is not a dif-
ficult investment in exchange
for the enjoyment and develop-
ment of talent.

M—

Educolion Group to Present Proposals

Seminar Produces Results

Grinnell is conducting an experiment
in radical education. It consists of ii!-
teen students, ranging from lrcshnlen
to seniors, and Don Liggitt of the Edu-
cation Department. Formally, it is an
independent project (some of the slu-
denls are taking it for {our credits.
others for two). Informally, it exists on
many levels. 'lhe purpose of this series
or articles which, hopefully, win appear
weekly in the SIB, is to explicate these
levels as we in the education project
see them. We all believe that the re-
search and planning that this group is
conducting to be a! both immediate and

far-reaching relevance to the Grimlell
mmunity.

An experiment in radical education is.
no doubt, a misnomer. But the fact is
that Gl'lnnell’s liberal arts education is
essentially traditional, and therefore not
sufficiently liberating. While the admin»
isirution worries about the death of the
liberal arts college due to financial in-
stability; we, as students, worry about
the death of the liberal am college due
to irrelevance. The American college
in general, and Grinnell College in par-
ticular, is (unctioning less and less as
all institution which Opens the individual
to the real and potential joy or his own
existence, and more and more as an
instltution which Channels America’s
middle - class youth into ready -made
niches in society. Are we radical be-
cause we embrace this former goal?

This is the second semester of the
project’s existence. Last semester was
spent largely in theoretical discussions
and individual presenlalious on the role
of education in America. This semester
,we hope to get beyond the theoretical

level, and into proposals for change at
Grinnell College.

The project’s goal this semester is to
draw up a concrete proposal lbl' curricw
lulu innovation at Grinnell. We have
been encouraged to do so by Pelsidcnt
Leggett and the Rockefeller Foundation.
(During Christmas vacation, members
of the education project visited Ind
studied, first hand, the various ops
pmaches of experimental schools. Some
schools visited were Antioch, Oberlin, the
University of Michigan, and the Fm
University in Berkeley. The Rockefeller
Foundation bu been informed at tho
project no has encouraged us to pre-
pare a proposal adapting these ap—
proaches to Grinnell.) Our hope is to
receive the amngemeut Ind partici-
pation of Grinncll nuacms. Ideally, the
entire mmmunity should engage, on
some level, in these changes which an
geared not merely It academic renewal.
but at a renewal of the presently-impo-
tent lite-style a: Grinncll College. The
projecl meets every Thursday evening
at 8 o’clock in Conference House. Come.

soumr's

Gifts for All Occasions

Books & Candles

82!) 4th Ave.

talk of the town

Orlginully me by in. New yum
By FREDRICKA NELSON

I sit here in my tenement overlooking
central park, wondering how to write
something unheavy for my readers when
they arrive hack in the literary center
of poweshiek county, grinnell college,
grinnell, lowa. none of you know about
this new writer for a brand new, under-
precedented column on the places to go,
things to see, etc, in our camhridge of
the midwesl. this is my second draft of
no. 1 of the talk of the town. i worked
out and finished nicely an introductory
try, which on rereading was too much,
not the kind of pleasantry you'd expect
to launch a semester. if anyone would
like to read my introduction to what's
doing and what i think about it, please
address said request to our new editor
and she'll obligingly run my first at-
tempt next week. i think booze ls a good
friend to the writer and i’ve got no
money to buy even a six-pack, so ham
rally i’ll be a little less loose than might
be expected since poverty has got mo
(or the third annual vacation. somehow
during the semester: there‘s I cushion
of financial comfort because there's al-
ways someone in grinnell who‘ll buy
you a beer or turn you on to the latest
shipment. you can make it when every-
one’s around. i stayed here last sum-
mer and split this Christmas vacation
between the pleasures of my family's
{arm and my independent existence in
my apanment. the farm never changes
though its people go through emotions
and occasions the same as others. life
in grinnell doesn’t change either so
much except that the more time you
spend here the better you get to know
its secrets and how to unearth them
from a reluctant community. that is the
nature of the midwestern psyche though,
calm and reserved and very spac .
there‘s always a period of fear, i'm
afraid or slebiscus and the man, only
We learned that even without anony-
mity people aren’t always out to beat
up or fink on each other. there are ‘81“
rific problems that l won't allude to
about college — town relationships.
grinnell is sort of a liberal cancer in tho
middle or a solid republican sweep of
countryside, and its people are young,
alien and rebellious. we come here to
hibernate in knowledge for four year!
and that’s about exactly what happens
and we graduate and live in big cities
in enclaves of grinnell people who talk
incessantly of the good old days. now
i'm pointing out that a lot at it is gar-
bage, and that includes the image of
the grinnell students sitting here in a
Vacuous cultural hole. my position is
sort or me as a towniecollegestudent.
in the day l'm more or less in the aca-
demic bag, and then night llle is at my
home which i share with another privi~
leged senior woman and our cat whose
name is sloob. that’s a mnny name,
but she's a great cat and she’s been
with us for I year now. don’t tell me
you can’t do things in the dorms, be-
cause we kept this cat for a whole se-
mester, more or less with the approval
of the other people in the house. i guess
she used to get in the refrigerator and
scale some of the girls to deaLh, but
we made it ok and now she’s port or
our ollrcampus experience. i think that‘s
pretty much what i’ll write about,
simple things like life at the varsity,
and the laundromat, duffy's circuit, in
contrast to the cultural opportunities
offered by forum night life and the book-
store. instead of house parties we have
wonderful neighbors who don't seem to
have that many complaints about our
hours or the noise we make. tenement
walls are thicker than dormitory walls

Friday, January El. 1969

The Scarlet & Black

smash/r Newspaper or
Grinnell College.
Grinnell. Iowa

An independent news

“sumo”, paper published weekly,
on, except during holidays

. and exammauon periods.

the Grinnell com.

mltlee on sluden: ruhli.

canons. Subscilpllen

mu 16.00 per, school

moor _

luxlnesl Man-sex ,
Mun-”n; rumor

Auocllle Editor .
cow Editor ..

chm Pnowv’lnller . DAVID uNhnum

Rmnen .. Jen onml. cull would,

no Hush. cuhv Jana,

Ann xmchner, Roger mmx.

Jon stun. Ron slclnmm

susm mm
. men anon

and you don’t check out our place like
you do the north lounge as you walk
iron the post oliice mornings. no live
in the town and we love it. more and
more we {ind that its open and mm.
smiles are important though and you’ve
got to remember that they're a social
gesture and not really an idle] or
dream. smiles are friendly, and: you
need fiends in the town when you
live and my.

m

New Perspectives

By TED SLICK

This column is going to be I vehicle
10: the pmcntauon of revolutionary
ideas {or thought, consumption. and
hopefully, action upon by the student
body and faculty of this institution or
higher learning. Each column which I
write is not intended to be accepted as
the complete truth; this is not “Where

the Truth Lies." Such an assumption
would be presumptuous and naive;

What this column is intended: to do
is to present, by the use of different
sources, lacs and ideas which are not
the ones usually received from the mass
media. The ideas will be radical ideas.
in the sense that Webster defims radi<
cal, i.e., “favoring extreme change, as
or the social structure." "that is my- po-
sih'on which has slowly developed: over
the past two years to the point when: I
now believe that this country has lost
right 0! Whit it should stand in: {ne-
dam, justice. and wmpassiolh Notwith—
standing Ihe words of our Pmldent,
this country is in need of such vast Ind
great changes that a revolution is
needed in the policies and nations of file
government, and in the minds, social
structure, and altitudes of the people,

llev. Blase Boupano, an American
minister in Guatemala, says: ‘1 bellow
the wail-read student can say honestly
the status quo is to inmlerably vhlem
that it is killing my brother; my broth-
or is suffering IS a result of the insti-
tutioualimd violence in which he lives.
He is dying boo-use he doesn't havc
any land. in is dying because he can.
not organlze hl: labor. n: is dying in—
telleclually because he has in schools."
These lines refer to conditions, not just
in Guatemala. but all over the globe, in
the third world counlries and, in certain
respects, within the world‘s developed
countries. including the United States.

Man must come to realize that by
lupporting his government's policies of
oppression of other peoples, policies to
he examined in depth in this column as
the year goes on, he is compromising
the noblest ideals that. he may hold. I
will explore the draft and resistance to
it, the United States foreign policy.
conditions Within the armed forces, the

PERSPECTIVES—
_(Conunued on Page 6, Col. 4)