Page Two

SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday. May lb, lm

__M

DITORIALS

Outdated Educational Requirements Need Updating

As the fatality list of the class of ’69 increases with each ad-
ditional “unacceptable fulfillment” (according to the faculty),
of various requirements, we find our respect for the highly valued
Grinnell degree and our faith in the meaning of a liberal educa-
tion shattered. it is reasonable to expect that the college will
establish certain criteria that must be met before one can receive
a diploma, which is supposed to signify some level of meaningful
accomplishment. If the college expects the diploma to have any
.value, then certainly the requirements must have value.

One of these requirements, the comprehensive examinations,
is described in the college catalogue as a test “designed to moti-
vate, and to evaluate, the student’s progress toward mastery of
his special field of learning.” This year unfortunately, we have
seen how much the comprehensives, as a purported measure of
this “progress,” have fallen short of their original goal. More spe-
cifically people are being screwed out of graduating because of an
exam which has become dysfunctional, although none of the
"powers that be” care to admit it!

We feel that the present comprehensive examinations have
failed to reach their educational, as well as their evaluative goals.
How many departments examine a student’s ability to integrate
his learned techniques, knowledge and experiences and not just
his ability to regurgitate recently acquired facts? But even when
comprehensives are aimed at pure evaluation of a student’s per-
formance they so often completely miss the mark. Orals and
many written exams are known to have low reliability. This
means that there is a greater tendency for an individual faculty
member to be inconsistent in his grading, for many faculty mem-
hers to give a wide range of grades to the same quality exams,
and for students to be inconsistent in their performance. Not to
mention the actual value of “grading” anyone‘s intellectual ac-
complishments. With all of this variability, comprehensives are
still considered to have enough evaluative merit to keep some
people from graduating!

And if the test is an evaluative one, why can’t students keep
taking them until they pass? What true justification is there for
scheduling the make-up exam in August in this day and age of
cramming? On the other hand, since some students did not have
to take comprehensives this year, how does the school justify
graduating these particular seniors, but not graduating those who
have “failed” under a highly questionable evaluative system?

We recognize that many of the problems mentioned occur
with numerous tests given throughout the school year. but be—
cause comprehensives are still basically a one-shot affair, with
so much attached importance that they are a to-graduate-or-not-
to—graduate question, their many inequities cannot be tolerated,
We believe that this year all of the seniors should be allowed to
graduate regardless of their performance on their comprehen-
blves,

As a final note, we would like to suggest that the goal of
a comprehensive could be better served by a senior thesis, or at
least a senior seminar or a required independent. This would
more fairly and helpfully ”motivate and evaluate the student’s
progress toward mastery of his special field of learning,” and
would be a real educational experience worthy of undertaking,
r , . , 1

Why Do Yoii Exisi? 7

The academic standing of three mem-
bers oi lhe [acuity is now being con-
sidered hy the newly lormed Sllllng
Comml‘nee on Faculty Standing

 

The Scarlet & Black

Student Newspaper of
Grinnell College,

Grinnell, lowa

An mdcponocni none
publnhou moldy.

rcpt during holidays

nu l'xamlnauml pcrloda,
floy lhc annual: cum.
K ullllee on Student Publlr
.4 ., .ra- (.ululls. Silhscrimlon
“KIM,“HJ r c soon per whunl

yinr,

The unideuulied members oi the facul-
ty who recently completed the compro
hensive examination aimed at venrymg
their academic slanding, were asked to,
“Justify your exrslcnce m 25 welds or
less, Start here.”

Editor
lxhsm a Mnnuuur

susmy lrnrsm
ukuc: s'luolu
pawn swcu

lee 0|ilel's taking comps ibis Spring,
one response was pl'elzlceil, “I consider
this presumptuous but I will go along ,y Iiill'lor .
will the gag wilh me hope ihdi llle pror muw
motels will learn something from it," CW W‘"

His juslilicuuon done ll! 25 words, was, “WM

"As a poruon of noun-e l have as much
right to exist as any other creature.

EXISTENCE—
,( Continued Page 12, Column 2)

ANDREW
Michael urnudnu,
Kinky Bull, Dun cu iuz.

Ken Hicks, Susan lunn,

umuy Knrlson, l’fler Kucnncws,
.Iunu Smilh, Tom luomm.
Richard Wicxnrom

talk of the town

News from the Farm in the Morning
Hy FREDRICKA NELSON

with Quotable Quotes from the mouths
of Emles all around

i’m wrillng imm the living mom or
another place, no longer 8271/, broad,
ralher the newly souled farmhouse that
ls going to be a home it it takes as long
as twenty years. we moved here one
weelll ago last saturday and are getling
more at home each day, though organ-
ized we’re not, and the garden, the pump.
the lawn, the workshop, nature and new
puppies all wait on us. soon and niki,
deslonde and the whole cat family live
out here together, and i’m the one on let
you all know about me living.

there is a (rent porch picture some-
where in this paper and i will tell you
a little geography, first of all, we are
twelve miles out east of grinnell on
the east side of a gravel road, with nee:
on the north and east sides, and fields
to the rear. the farm isn't ours or the
fields, just the house and its outbuild—
lugs, and the garden and the grove. the
porch looks at the sunset through scotch
pines and evergreen trees that are just
on the other bank of the road. right he-
hind the porch is the dining room, a real.
tarnilysrzed one even ii we’ve only got
the long table so Jar. we haven’t had a
big meal around it since we just got the
oven a few days back, but that could
happen any time. the house has lois of
good sized moms and a real bath and a
real kitchen. there's a back porch and a
basement . .and lordy. us got the feel
of a mansion to us tranSlents til now.

there must he 8 better word than
“growing-up” for waniing to get oneseli
settled in a beautiful and comfortable
place. not settling any longer for a nine-
month year or a summer vacation in a
sublet that you've not quite got the time
tor. . , .no, no more at that, though some
gypsy eyes might lead us off away for a
Winter now and lhen. a place like a farm
is a place to stay in while after
you’ve had what you wanted
from cities and universities and crowds.
the thin gs to do are always
there, where ever you go, only some
times they’re free and other times they
might cost $250 a throw. excuse me, but
how can you compare a porchtul of
morning glories in the sunset to 3 and
lime! flick?

i‘m terribly prejudiced, but i think odd
lime questions like that really aren't
just little after all. the last time i
wrote this column 1 had a few words
about America. i still have some and i
have a hunch they are multiplying. or
course it means a lot where you started
your life, and i don’t make a persistent
habit of ”americanlzmg" my lnends
lrorn other places to my kind or n-lyihs
about a place — never could be so pre-
sumptuous.

where you really want to be — not
in chasing some abstract cloud or busy
band-wagon — by working devotedly at
relationships with people and places and
owers that be. right outside this window
n the rising sun there are those powers
working in the clouds and through the
trees. wind ls blowing, and the water
coming down is heated up by the sun to
fly lmo the sky all over again. green
things in the front yard are pushing up
and squirming around together Io find
the sun and keep a straight backbone.
the light comes and goes and the lilacs
am blooming.

this morning l’m up after working on

FRED and her sat at the form.

I paper all night, but i can‘t be con-
cemed over much with getting it done
in a hurry. . . .not when men! ouch
spring r‘aisin’ up outside.

school work is fine, but it should never
be approached as work, only as pastime
or pleasure and pressure shouldn’t have
to exist, my tardy paper is on an and its
coming together though it still can't
usurp all the real art all around art 1:
good news lately, with the opening of
u. oi i. new building last Saturday and
a happening by allan kaprow that was
more than you might have found easy
to believe in the papers. kaprow is one o(
the warmest people We met and he’s
very open to all kinds of experience,
exemplary for some. on the local art
scene, grinnell’s own happening is today
~right now this lnsiani, readeritriday.
my 16th on barber plaza. everybody got
on over to it right now.

one more thing and then a goodbye. do
take care to clean your spiritual beings
oi mischiol before the happening - ouija
Will and you out when yoll get zhere. you
might be harbouring the spring gnat and
all at once he could get called right out
of you e lllen where would you be?

the country is free and peaceful in
these bad times, and we're havin’ good
luck now we share it with you

FRIENDS on the front porch at the new country home,