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COVER STORY
Winners Page 1
This week's cover story won first-place in the 1983
LSA Student Government essay contest on the value
of a liberal arts education. LSA Senior Kent Grayson
received $200 for his fictional essay, entitled
Mike's Beard, about a calculus teaching assistant
who dares to mix Shakespeare's poetry with a math
lecture. Cover photo by Doug McMahon.
MUSIC
Battling bands Page 3
It began as a successful contest at Michigras last
year, where local bands challenged one another to a
melodic duel. The winners have gone on to seek local
and national stardom. Read this week's article to find
out about this year's spectacular repeat performan-'
ce.
He may not be a "fiddler on the roof," but 30-year-
old Peter Zazofsky has succeeded in doing some sen-
sational fiddling at Rackham Auditorium. Come
examines this member of a new generation of
musicians, who has chosen Ann Arbor as the spot for
his debut.
THE LIST
Happenings Pages 5-8
Your guide to fun times for the coming week in Ann
Arbor. Film capsules, music previews, theater notes,
and bar dates, all listed in a handy-dandy, day-by-day
schedule. Also, check out our restaurant list.
FEATURE
Middle-East melodies Page 9
She started her career by winning first place in a
talent contest and rose to international stardom.
Chava Alberstein, Israel's "Singer of the Year,"
starts her tour early to make an Ann Arbor ap-
pearance. Read the history behind this hummer of
Hebraic harmonies.
DANCE
By leaps and bounds Page 9
Read how the Oakland Ballet Company manages to
demonstrate didactic dancing in pieces such as, In-
consequential, Waterways, and Dvorak Dances. The
company is said to grace Ann Arbor audiences with
its fine art of performance.
BOOKS
Tall story Page 12
Discover how one special athlete overcame a series
of obstacles to become a big-time basketball hero.
This week's magazine takes a peek at Kareem Abdul-
Jabber's autobiography, Giant Steps, and tells how it
manages to transcend the usual autobiography fare.
ning different things in different ways.
Thus, when a student graduates with a
liberal arts education, the student is not
necessarily trained in a specific field,
but is fully prepared to become trained
in a variety of fields. The graduating
liberal arts student chooses from
a greater range of jobs or graduate
schools. Once employed, the liberal ar-
ts student is more able to assume dif-
ferent responsibilities or change jobs
entirely. Also, despite the specificity of
many jobs, knowledge in other areas
will always enhance professional per-
formance. Ability to communicate with
fellow workers about a variety of
topics, knowledge of business
organization, facility with a foreign
language, and comprehension of
economics, to name a few, will all im-
prove workplace interaction and
satisfaction.
In a sense, the process of training
is vertical, like constructing a tall
building, and the process of a liberal ar-
ts education is horizontal, like laying a
massive foundation. One cannot assert
which course of action is better; it
comes down to a matter of personal
preference. However, it is clear that
each method is equally effective in
helping a student to be successful after
graduation. Just as Mike showed with
his proof, there is more than one way to
achieve a desired result.
Here at the University, a student can
effectively pursue either course of ac-
tion. The University has countless
disciplines and subdisciplines available
for exploration, enabling a student to
get a quality education in a variety of
fields. Almost all of those fields have
more than enough classes to give a
student a thorough and specific
training. Because of that variety at the
University, it is even possible to pursue
an education and a training at the same
time, giving a student the benefits of
both. By doing so, a student graduates
with an optimal education: One
becomes a "Jack of All Trades" and a
"Master of One."
However, building horizontally and
vertically at the same time is not easy.
Here at the University, the possibilities
are limited somewhat by what appears
-W
Weekend
Frday, March 2, 1954
VOI.II Is e 17
Magazine Editor: ..... ............Mare Hodges
Sales Manager ................... Debbie Dioguardai
Assistant Sales Manager ............ Laurie Truske
Weekend is edited and managed by students on the
staff of The Michigan Daily at 420 Maynard, Ann Ar-
bor, Michigan, 48109. It appears in the Friday edition
of the Daily every week during the University year
and is available for free at many locations around the
campus and city.
Weekend, (313) 763-0379 and 763-0371; Michigan
Daily, 764-0552; Circulation, 764-0558; Display Adver-
tising, 764-0554.
Copyright 1984, The Michigan Daily.
>
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FILL OUT THIS ORDER FORM
AND CALL 668-6058
'I can still picture his bearded face smiling
as he solved limit equations on the same
blackboard with Shakespeare's sonnet.'
insignificant and fruitless. To use
Pope's metaphor, despite the colossal
significance of each Alp, the moun-
tains' sheer abundance can dishearten
even the most dedicated climbers. The
University needs to provide an incen-
Sterile classroom: No time for poetry
r=u
Michigan Ensemble Theatre
Ann Arbor's Resident
Professional Theatre
Presents
August Strindberg's
Miss Julie
with
Markle Marie Chambers
Directed By
Christopher
and
Erik Fredricksen
to be a greater positive emphasis on
training than on education. Job
placement and high grade point
averages are touted as vital goals,
while pursuit of course variety is ex-
plained, if at all, as a necessary evil.
Indeed, distribution requirements and
accessibility of classes in other colleges
provide some inducements for a
minimal liberal arts education.
However, two obstaclesto a more com-
prehensive education exist, ones that
can be easily eliminated. The first is a
lack of specific and satisfying
academic goals for educational pursuit.
The second is a somewhat daunting
grading and class offering system that
discourages students pursuing training
from also pursuing an education.
A LIBERAL ARTS education is less
focused than training, and is there-
fore inherently less goal-oriented.
Because, as Pope adroitly describes,
knowledge is boundless, liberal arts
students can feel as if their efforts are
tive for students to delve into
disciplines without acquiring a
training-level capability in each. This
incentive should be more than the
satisfaction of completing a
distribution requirement; it should be
similar in desirability to an academic
award or perhaps even a degree. The
re-institution of minor concentrations
would provide this incentive. Minors
would be mentioned as an integral part
of the college degree, showing con-
siderable achievement in a field other
than the major. Minors would en-
courage experimentation and at the
same time allow for training in the
form of primary concentrations.
Although it is true that, in today's
system, a student can declare a double
concentration, the result is not the
same. A double major is more
prohibitive in its requirements, almost
limiting a student's schedule to the two
subjects, and restricting further diver-
sification. Minors would give students
incentive in the direction of diver-
sification, which would carry over into
their free course choices.
Students are sometimes reluctant to
take a course in an unfamiliar
discipline because of potentially adver-
se grade point ramifications. Even the
brightest students do not initially excell
in a new educational environment.
Because the grade point average is
seen by employers and graduate
schools as an indicator of training
quality, students are apprehensive
about taking courses in which'they are
unpracticed. Timeconstraints exacer-
bate this problem. Just as Mike's
poetry detracted from time,.spent on
calculus, so, too, can pursuit of an
education detract from training. Time
spent on exploration is time not spent
on honing an expertise. This problem
would be solved if courses in a variety
of disciplines did not have such poten-
tial influence on a student's grade point
average and time commitments.
One suggestion for this provision
would be to offer non-concentrators the
option of taking introductory courses at
half credit, provided that they cannot
use the class as a pre-requisite. Of
course, those taking a class at half
credit would not spend as much time on
it as those taking it for full credit, but
that is one of the goals. Half-credit
students would be exposing themselves
to a different subject at the introduc-
tory level, expanding their education,
and enhancing their training. And these
students would still have to take the
classes seriously - the classes would
count, just not as much.
A more ambitious, but similar
solution, would be to offer two introduc-
tory courses in each discipline, one of
which would be a mini course. A mini
course would .alleviate the
pressures of time constraints and
gradepoint influence. Some might
argue that the
watered-down
courses serve
courses. How(
courses with
for Poets" ar
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March 9, 10, 15-17 8:00 p.m.
March 11,18 2:00 p.m.
Previews March 7,8 8:00 p.m.
The New Trueblood Theatre
P.T.P. Ticket Office 764.0450
LQ
0l
8" Round-$ 7.90
9" Round-$ 8.90
10" Round - $10.90
a Sheet - $ 7.90
'/ Sheet - $11.90
Full Sheet - $19.90
CAKE - White
Yellow
Chocolate
Cherry Chip
L-I
WHY NOT ORDER A DOZEN OF OUR
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2 Weekend/Friday, March 2, 1984
ll Weekend