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January 21, 1965 - Image 4

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The Michigan Daily, 1965-01-21

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Sevemt y-Fifth Yeor
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVEASTY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD TN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.

s

21 JANUARY 1965

NIGHT EDITOR: LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM

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University Professors Should
End Installment Teaching

~~MWII

PAPERS, LAB REPORTS, quizzes, prob-
lem sets, assigned readings, exams and
finals: it's a four-year chain. Students
are led by a quick-falling succession of,
due dates from one week to the next,
from one month to the next, from Sep-
tember to May and from the freshman
year to the senior year and graduation.
If one were to tell an entering fresh-
man all he would have to accomplish to
get a degree, he would panic, become dis-
couraged, flounder and be unable to
tackle the immense amount of work, even
though he would be given a full four
years. But tell him that he has to get the
problem set in by Friday, he gets it done.
In short, the student can operate perfect-
ly well on a time unit basis-week to week,
term to term.
It is almost as if students lock them-
selves onto a schedule which sees them
safely through and from which deviation
is disastrous. Is this necessary?
COLLEGE DOES NOT necessarily have
to be run according to some preset'
pace. College education in Britain illus-
trates that fields of study can be com-
municated just as well when students
take responsibility for learning and pac-
ing themselves, if the students are edu-
cated in such a tradition. There is no
inherent need for having the teacher
arrange education for the student.
Yet why does this characteristic of
American education persist?
Perhaps the reason can best be seen
through a seemingly disconnected aspect
of the society from which the student
comes: religious installment buying.
As William H. Whyte points out, credit
buying has become more than just a
means to buy goods without having the
money immediately available: it is now a
way of removing unwanted choice, of get-
ting rid of frightening freedom.
What the consumer seeks above all is
to have a regular amount of money re-
moved from his paycheck before he can
spend it. Insurance companies have even
started forced savings plans, whereby sav-
ing is no longer a fluctuating variable left
to the whim of the saver.

THE CONSUMER who buys on credit and
the student who prefers to follow the
paced education process have one very
important characteristic in common.
They are both afraid of the one big un-
certainty which remains in their lives:
themselves.'The consumer seeks security
and constancy on a road to material
wealth which he cannot leave. The stur-
dent sits on a conveyor belt which takes
him through a complicated maze oTtasks:
wobble a little and he may roll off.
Whether or not credit buying is good
is not at issue here. But whether or not
a teacher-oriented learning process
should continue is at issue. For the aca-
demic community should not meekly fol-
low and foster approaches and attitudes
set by society at large.
To develop better students, professors
should abdicate some of their responsi-
bility to keep a class on a schedule and
force that responsibility onto the stu-
dents-whether they want it or not. In-
structors should not emphasize the grad-
ing process as a means of motivating stu-
dents, for otherwise after graduation
there will be no grades and thus no mo-
tivation. Feedback-letting the student
know if he is on the right track-can still
be given through problem sets, papers and
even exams without having such activi-
ties function as a grading device.
Progress toward a degree should not be
measured by results from one-term cours-
es. This measure develops a short-sighted
vision of just what a student's goals are.
Instead, progress should be noted for
longer intervals and for more realistic,
long-term goals. Perhaps comprehensives
could be introduced at the University.
IF STUDENTS are ever to be freed from
the need for forced feeding, then the
responsibility for motivation must be giv-
en to them-not left for the professor.
Some students may flounder at first, but
to develop independence professors should
abdicate responsibility for pacing stu-
dents.
-MICHAEL SATTINGER
Associate Managing Editor

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"1

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
E xploding the Congo Myth -Exp lode r

To the Editor:
'WE WISH to make a few com-
ments on the letter concern-
ing the Congo published in The
Daily of Tuesday, January 19, and
written by Mr. Mutu Gethoi, pres-
ident of the African Students'
Union. Our letter is made neces-
sary by two facts: 1) Mr. Gethoi's
analysis of the Congo situation
seems to us to be too superficial
and emotional and therefore lack-
ing in objectivity; 2) in view of
the above, it seems desirable to
point out the dangers and harm-
ful influences which might be
caused by elevating purely per-
sonal opinions to the rank of a
consensus. This latter point ap-,
pears relevant especially as Mr.
Gethoi found it proper to record
his position in the African Stu-
dents' Union. His style of writing
also bears out this point. We as-
sume that his use of the first per-
son plural is not dictated by ele-
gance.
Mr. Gethoi set himself the task
of "exploding the myth of the
Conga situation." Myths there
probably are, but Mr. Gethoi's
anlysis lacks the factual basis
necessary for exploding them.
What he has apparently succeed-

ed in doing is simply to add new
myths to the old ones he set out
to explode.
More specifically, he refers, for
example, to the "so-called 'mas-
sacres'" and claims that they
were "provoked" by the U.S.-Bel-
gian landings. He may be right
but his interpretation is difficult
to square with evidence of mass
killings prior to the landings and
the extensive =- and as yet un-
contradicted -quotations by Paul
Henri Spaak in the Security
Council of inflamatory statements
by the rebel leader Gbenye.
FURTHER, we are told among'
other things that the U.S. "train-
ed and sent Cuban refugees to fly
troops" in planes supplied by the
former. This indeed is probably
the truth but the U.S. State De-
partment denied any involvement
with the Cuban pilots. As Mr.
Gethoi pointed out elsewhere in
his letter, if we are "far from top
secret files" we don't have much
else to go by either, and nothing
conclusive is possible at this time.
This is not an attempt to de-
fend anybody. It is merely an at-
tempt to point out that if myths
must be exploded - and we be-

Learning Through Ineptitude

NOW THAT EIGHT student groups are,
engaged in the business of compiling
a course evaluation booklet, much atten-
tion will be given to the competent pro-
fessor whose scholarship and ability to
teach are outstanding among his associ-
ates. Indeed, the entire purpose of the,
course evaluation booklet might be seen
as a student attempt to recognize and re-
ward competence and to publicize and
condenn ineptitude among the faculty.
The project undertaken by these stu-
dent groups seems to be based on the as-
sumption that a professor's worth as a
teacher is commensurate to his scholar-
ship and performance in the classroom.
The assumption is widely accepted among
students and faculty. Yet a good case can
be made for recognizing the inept profes-
sor-one whose scholarship is shoddy
and teaching methods poor-as a valuable
asset to learning.
Certainly these individuals do exist
and exercise a kind of horrible, mind-kill-
ing tyranny in the classrooms of this uni-
versity and others. Most every student
encounters at leastone before graduation.
THE UNFORTUNATE ASPECT of the sit-
uation is-f6t so much that such pro-
fessors exist - people of this sort are
H. NEIL BERKSON, Editor
KENNE'T'H WINTER EDWARD HERSTEIN
Managing Editor Editorial Director
ANN GWIRTZMAN ....... Personnel Director
BILL BULLARD.............Sports Editor
MICHAEL SATTINGER .... Associate Managing Editor
JOHN KENNY .. ....... Assistant Managing Editor
DEBORAH BEATTIE ..Associate Editorial Director
LOUIS LIND ......... Assistant Editorial Director in
Charge of the Magazine
TOM ROWLAND .......... Associate Sports Editor
GARY WYNER.........Associate Sports Editor
STEVEN HALLER .............Contributing Editor
MARY LOU BUTCHER .......... Contributing Editor
JAMES KESON .. ...... .. .. ....Chief Photographer
NIGHT EDITORS:. David Block, John Bryant, Robert
Johnston, Laurence Kirshbaum, Karen Weinhouse.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Lauren Bahr, William
Benoit, Bruce Bigelow, Gail Blumberg, John Mere-
dith, Leonard Pratt, Barbara Seyfried.

bound to appear in any institution of this
size-but that students fail to see that
ha'ving an incompetent professor is not
occasion for doing shoddy work them-
selves or doing "just enough to get by."
On the contrary, having a frankly in-
competent professor is an intellectual
gauntlet thrown down to the student with-
any scholarly aspirations whatsoever.
If nothing else, the inept professor
commands some kind' of active response
from his students. An excellent profes-
sor can be accepted by an overwhelming
majority almost without effort; an ex-
crable professor can neither be abided
nor abhored passively. Vehemence here
is a prerequisite to staying in the course
-as is too often necessary in order to ful-
fill the college's distribution require-
ments. And vehemence, which engages
the student in his studies in some active
manner cannot help but be good.
IN ADDITION, the experience of an in-
competent professor demands that the
student make some kind of decision con-
cerning the nature of his own scholar-
ship. Is the occasion of an inept pro-
fessor ample justification for a poorly
written and poorly thought out term pa-
per? Is the knowledge that a professor
demands little in the classroom an excuse
for neglecting the reading assignments
in his course?
Surely the answers to these and sim-
ilar questions must be "no"; education is
an individual matter and neglecting one's
work for a professor ultimately means
neglecting one's duty to oneself. Obvious-
ly the student enrolled in a poorly or-
ganized and poorly taught course must
engage in this kind of introspection and
somewhere take a stand. How can such
self-examination on the nature of schol-
arship help but be good?
APART FROM THESE considerations,
there is certainly no excuse for in-
competence among the faculty. Any stu-

lieve they should - the necessary
condition for success is high-
powered objectivity. This seems
to be lacking in Mr. Gethoi's
analysis of the Congo situation.
There are other troublesome
points in Mr. Gethoi's letter. For
example, he suggests that the at-
tack on Stanleyville could be
seen as "an effort to fight China
and Communism by eliminating
African nationalism." This is
peculiar logic unless African na-
tionalism can be taken as synony-
mous with Communism or unless
it is conducive to Chinese and
Communist influence. In our
view, both of these possibilities
are completely untenable and the
suggesetion lacks merit.
In the same paragraph where
Mr. Gethoi made the abovesug-
gestion, he drew an analogy be-
tween the killing of women and
children by the anti-Tshombe
forces and the killing of women
and children by the atom bomb
dropped on Hiroshima. This is a
most, unfortunate cynicism and
marks a confusion of two entirely
different circumstances.
COMING TO the Congo prob-
lem itself, we agree with Mr.
Gethoi that the basic problem is
that there are too many govern-
ments meddling in the affairs of
that country. In our view, how-
ever, some African countries are
as guilty, if not more guilty, of
this offense than the non-African
countries he referred to. The Con-
go is a sovereign nation with a
written constitution. The consti-,
tution empowers the president to
appoint the prime minister, and
the former has. exercised this
power in appointing Mr. Tshombe
to his present position. This is a
basic fact, and however unpleas-
ant Tshombe might be in view
of his past activities, the legality
of his present position is beyond
question.
The acceptance of this basic
fact is the crux of the problem.
For once this is accepted, Mr.
Gbenye and his associates must be
seen as rebels fighting against
constitutted authority. The Afri-
can countries supporting him are
therefore abetting rebellion, inter-
fering grossly in the internal af-
fairs of a sovereign country, con-
trary to the O.A.U. charter and
prolonging indefinitely the solu-
tion to a complex problem.
Mr. Doudou Thiam, the Sene-
galese foreign minister clearly
shared our view when, in a speech
in the General Assembly debate,
he criticized the "false indigna-
tion" about the Stanleyville land-
ings, adding, "The Congolese
problem is serious but let us be-
gin, we Africans, by refraining
from any interference in the af-
fairs of the Congo if we want to
be the qualified judges and critics
of other interventions."
THE ACCEPTANCE of the in-
disputable legality of Mr. Tshom-
be's position also lies at the heart
of the controversy over U.S.-
Belgian landings. The humanitar-
ian considerations aside - and
they are most powerful consider-
ations - the fact remains that
Mr. Tshombe as the prime min-
ister of an independent and sov-
ereign country is free to conduct
his foreign policy as he sees fit
irrespective of whom it displeases
- African or not. If Mr. Tshom-
be decides to bring in troops from
outside the Congo (be it from
Mars or Jupiter) he is answerable
to nobody but the Congolese peo-
ple. In any case, there is the
precedent only a few months be-
fore of Kenya, Tanganyika and
Gabon inviting foreign troops to
put down local rebellions. It is
interesting to note that no hell
was raised in the case of these

Security Council - that Africans
must, think alike, react to situa-
tions in the same manner, and
act in unison.'Differences of opin-
ion is not necessarily a sign of
weakness. There is often strength
in diversity.
ONE FINAL and informatory
point. Mr. Gethoi is contemptuous
of Miss Koch's reference to the
Nigerian foreign minister Dr.
Jaja Wachuku as a statesman. He
is of course entitled to his opinion.
But his caustic remarks about the
minister are unwarranted and un-
called for. Among other things he
writes that "it is indeed hard to
believe that the 'statesman' really
represents the thinking of the
Nigerian people."
From information available to
us, the situation seems to be the
complete opposite of what Mr.
Gethoi's statement would imply.
Witness this quotation from the
weekly journal West Africa of De-
"cember 12, 1964:
In a country where
.... slogan shouting is rife, a
demonstration against Amer-
ican and Belgian action in the
Congo would be expected to
win support, however unin-

formed. But last week's Lagos
demonstrators were outnum-
bered by the police, and turn-
ed out to be a handful of
cheerful youths with nothing
better to occupy their time.
Mr. Jaja Wachuku, Nigeria's
minister of external affairs,
strongly criticized by some
other African spokesmen at
the UN f o r championing
Tshombe's right to call in the
Belgians, has most certainly
not been disowned at home."
-Emmanuel C. Edozien
Samuel A. Adetogun
Isaac A. Adalemo
Applause
RE: the following quote from
the New York Post (Jan. 17):
The Michigan Daily, the
campus newspaper, has not
printed anything about Mrs.
Oswald. "We just don't think
she's news,"esaid Buddy Berk-
son, the editor.
Your good taste and restraint
are certainly in order. It makes
me proud to be a Michigan
alumnus and an ex-Daily staffer.
-Cy Carlton, '52
New York City

Segovia Performance
Wins Standing Ovation
ANDRES SEGOVIA, the grand old man of the guitar, evoked a stand-
ing ovation from a sellout crowd at Rackham Auditorium last night.
Segovia's stage presence adds greatly to the "living legend" back-
ground that listeners bring to his performances. Sitting alone on the
stage, as a consummate master of his craft, the Spanish guitarist com-
mands immediate attention. The audience maintains a hush to absorb
the gentle and subtle shadings of his playing style.
Last night it became clear that Segovia is not a flamboyant in-
strumentalist who relies mainly on the virtuoso showmanship'towhich
the guitar so easily lends itself. Rather, his program was somewhat
deficient in the livelier, more colorful guitar and lute literature aud-
iences might expect from such a master.
* * * *
PARTICULARLY bland was a set of ten "old airs and dances from
Poland," the "In modo polonico" by Alexandro Tansman. Toward the
end of this number, by far the longest offering on the program, the
audience's cough level went up considerably.
The program opened with a set of Baroque transcriptions of Fres-
cobaldi, Weiss and Bach which brought to mind the great body of
Renaissance and Baroque music written originally for lute which Se-
govia sometimes seems willing to leave to Julian Bream (and Suzanne
Bloch) to explore.
After the Tansman dances came intermission and a group of
twentieth-century Spanish guitar pieces, ranging from mild to haunt;

'Luther' Disappointing
After New York Raves
'LUTHIER " JOHN OSBORNE'S charismatic success that won the
NewYork Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Tony Award as
"The Best Play of 1963-64," originally directed by Tony Richardson,
paid a courtesy call last night at Hill Auditorium, ranted for three
very long hours, and left withoutshowing much tojustify its laurels.
Though its sound and fury were told with eminently professional pause
and polish, in the last analysis it really signified very little, and we
were left wondering precisely why "Luther's" notices kept insisting that
"it makes the theatre ten feet tall."
In fairness, the Professional Theatre Program's offering got off,
totally by chance, to a rocky start. The truck transporting their sets
and properties arrived in town after eight o'clock, and the curtain
never did go up until nine-thirty. In fairness to the standing-room-
only house, however, even the New York laurels faded, as scene after
scene refused to vindicate the tedious delay.
LIKE MANY latter-day, sophisticated Broadway vehicles, "Luther"
requires an inordinately long lope down the first-act runway, before
it manages to haul itself off the ground. And Alan Bergmann, bearing
the title role, does a truly superb job of giving flesh and nerve ends
to Osborne's Luther. Bergmann is surrounded by a thriving crowd of
first-rate acting talent, and throughout that long first act they
manage to bring much of the early sixeenth century's religious
conscience into some degree of focus.
But the conscience and the characters that Osborne demands
of them are inhumanly massive and confused. The Luther that he
draws is a brilliant misfit, afflicted variously with epilepsy, a bad
case of-religious scruples, recollections of an unhappy childhood and
constipation; in these are the makings, when coupled with frequent
lip service to intellectual integrity, of the Reformation. Not hopeless,

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