4 - Friday, December 9, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4 - Friday, December 9, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom W I iigan Batil Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MICHELLE DEWITT STEPHANIE STEINBERG and EMILY ORLEY NICK SPAR EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. Imran Syed is the public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@michigandaily.com. FROM THE DAILY Don't blow away power Michigan should implement wind turbine plan s the country's global energy demand increases, so does the importance of finding a renewable energy source. In today's society, renewable energy plays an integral role in provid- ing people with environmentally friendly, clean and inexhaustible electricity and heat. Michigan has the opportunity to implement clean energy practices through wind turbines. By installing both on- and offshore wind power sites, Michigan can become a lead- er in renewable energy. Michigan legislators need to find a way to provide funding for large-scale wind turbines and construct wind farms within the state. ...this brings back very bad memories and bad associations. That this is actually happening is unbelievable." - Virginia Tech director of creative writing Ed Falco said about the shooting at Virginia Tech yesterday, as reported by The New York Times yesterday. *I Arbitrary standards An offshore wind farm with 36 turbines began operating off the coast of the Nether- lands in 2007. The operation currently pro- vides power for about 100,000 households. The turbines are located six to nine miles off- shore and are not, for the most part, visible to people on a nearby beach. The first proposal for the same type of wind turbines in Michi- gan off the coast of Lake Michigan near Pent- water was shut down last year after strong opposition by the Lake Michigan POWER Coalition - a non-profit organization com- mitted to preserving and protecting Lake Michigan's resources. Wind turbines are one of the best sources of renewable energy because once they've been built and put into place, they only require wind to function. America's energy needs have steadily increased in recent years, and if Michigan could supply its own renew- able energy, then the state could reduce its energy expenses and become more economi- cally self-sufficient. Legislators need to reconsider the pro- posal to install turbines in Michigan. One of the main arguments against wind turbines is their unpleasant appearance and size. Many opponents claim that turbines will reduce the property value of lakefront homes if they are visible. However, if the turbines are placed far enough offshore, potential tourists and local residents should not be able to see them except on extremely clear days. And if turbines were constructed in Lake Michigan, they would be built a large distance from land to ensure the highest wind power. As a state with a history of industrial man- ufacturing, Michigan has the infrastructure needed to produce wind turbines. If the wind turbine plan was put into effect, recycled oil tankers could be used to install the wind turbines far offshore, since this type of ship is large enough to transport the massive tur- bines. Implementing the project with recycled oil rigs would be an additional benefit and make the process more sustainable. Addition- ally, this plan would provide a boost for the Michigan job market, which the economy could certainly use. The principle argument against wind tur- bines is the aesthetic concerns from water- front homeowners and cities that rely on the tourist industry. But by placing large wind turbines far off coastlines, that concern can be eliminated. Wind turbines are a tremendous source of renewable energy, and the Michigan Legislature needs to find funding for turbines and create a plan to implement them. made it to college. We all did. And in order to do so, I had to take the SAT, the ACT, the MEAP and a whole host of other standard- ized tests. I trudged through them, as I'm sure many of you did, because, as frustrating as HASHA theywere, some- where there was NAHATA the generally accepted notion that the tests were important. They mattered - if for no other reason than the fact that they supposedly measured how prepared you were for the next stage of your life. But a recent Washington Post blog post draws doubt on the ability of standardized tests to see how well- prepared students are for real life. In Marion Brady's Dec. 5 blog, "When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids," she writes about the experi- ence of one of her longtime friends, Rick Roach. Roach is on the school board of District 3 in Orange County, Fla. He has a bachelor's degree in education and two master's degrees in education and education psychol- ogy. He has been re-elected to be a board member of Orange County's school board three times. In addition to being a school board member, he's been ateacher, counselor and coach. Roach decided to take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The FCAT is a state standardized test administered to students in grades 3 through 11 in Florida every year. It measures students' knowl- edge of mathematics, reading, sci- ence and writing. Similar to the Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests for the state of Michi- gan, the FCAT is used to determine schools' accountability while also assess student preparedness for the next grade. After Roach took the test, he described his response. Here is the conclusion he reached: "I won't beat around the bush. The math section had 60 questions.I knew the answers to none of them, but man- aged to guess ten out of the 60 cor- rectly. On the reading test, I got 62%. In our system, that's a 'D,' and would get me a mandatory assignment to a double block ofreading instruction... If I'd been required to take those two tests when I was a 10th grader, my life would almost certainly have been very different. I'd have been told I wasn't 'college material,' would probably have believed it, and looked for work appropriate for the level of ability that the test saidIhad." Roach is a pretty successful pro- fessional by today's standards. He has been through undergraduate and graduate school, and is cur- rently working on a doctorate. He presides over an organization con- sisting of 22,000 employees and a $3 billion budget. The fact that he couldn't answer most of the ques- tions on the test is telling. It isn't_ that standardized tests are too hard or that students who do poorly are stupid or lazy, but the style of ques- tioning on the tests is obscure and abstract. The types of questions asked and the criteria for passing or failing seems tobe arbitrary at best. And, as Roach says, much of the concepts - especially in the math portion - that students are tested on will not be applicable in most college and professional careers (with the exception of the few who become math majors or go into business). How can a test claim to adequately assess how likely stu- dents are to succeed in the future if the material being tested has no connection to the criteria by which success is measured in the real world? And should such tests be used to rank schools, determine readiness for college, or grant fed- eral funding to schools? State tests don't accurately reflect academic ability. Standardized test scores play a large role in determining schools' reputations and in gauging wheth- er students are or aren't "college material" (as Roach puts it). But, when successful professionals with bachelor's and master's degrees are clueless about a majority of the questions, something is wrong. Many have made the argument that standardized tests don't accurately reflect a students' true abilities. Roach's experiment shows that the tests don't relate to how the real world functions either. And yet, they continue to shape the future of countless people. Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the role that stan- dardized tests, specifically state administrated ones, playin the edu- cation system. -Harsha Nahata is an assistant editorial page editor. She can be reached at hnahata@umich.edu. 0 0 MANDY KAIN E Eviction is against our values EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Aida All, Kaan Avdan, Michelle DeWitt, Ashley Griesshammer, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Patrick Maillet, Insks Mayer, arsha Nahata, Emily Orley, Teddy Papes, Timothy Rabb, Vanessa Rychlinski, Sarah Skaluba, Caroline Syms, Seth Soderborg, Andrew Weiner Over winter break, many Jewish students - including40 from the University -will depart on Birthright trips to Israel, celebrating their connection to a land that has been home to both Jews and Palestinians for thousands of years. Many of those involved nationally with J Street U and J Street UMich were introduced to the land and its people through Taglit-Birth- right. We are excited that others are traveling to Israel, but we want to ensure that our com- munity engages with the history of the land in a way that is consistent with our values. Unfortunately, an ongoing attempt to evict a Palestinian family from their home in East Jerusalem illustrates the challenge of aligning our experience with those values. The Sumarins are a Palestinian family living in Silwan, a predominantly Arab neighborhood in the Old City of Jerusalem. The City of David is a tourist site in Jerusalem that is the putative location of the ancient political capital of King David. It is managed by the non-profit organi- zation Ir David Foundation (Amutat El-Ad), which has a rigid political agenda to increase Jewish presence in Arab neighborhoods. The Sumarin home is located within the City of David National Park, and has become a victim of the controversial Absentee Property Law, which states that any property whose owner and/or heirs were not physically present after 1967 would be turned overto the state of Israel. Musa Sumarin, the home's original owner, died in 1983 while his three sons were living outside of Israel. However, other members of the Sumarin family have continuously lived on the property for decades, with the permis- sion of the owners. The Israeli government declared the Sumarin home an Absentee Prop- erty in 1991 and turned it over to the group Himnuta - a subsidary of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) - slapping the Sumarin family of 12 with an eviction notice and sparking a long legal battle. The most recent date of eviction, Nov. 28, was postponed due to outcry from Israeli and international protesters, including Rabbis for Human Rights - an Israeli organi- zation of Rabbis and Rabbinical students that advocates for human rights. The postponement was announced bythe JNF. Yes, that JNF - the one our Jewish com- munity centers, day schools and synagogues all collected tzedekah, charity, for in blue boxes to help plant trees in Israel. The JNF was integral to the founding of Israel and now maintains Israel's parks and historic sites. But in addi- tion to these noble tasks, itcalso owns and oper- ates Himnuta, an organization that does what the JNF officially does not - obtains proper- ties over the Green Line, the demarcation line established in the 1949 Armistice Agreements separating Israel from its neighbors, and turns them over to settler organizations like Elad, as Himnuta has done over and over again in Sil- wan. Clearly, this is not an isolated incident. These groups are dedicated to de-Arabizing East Jerusalem and preventing it from becom- ing part of any future Palestinian state. JNF claims that it is not accountable for the actions of Himnuta, despite all evidence to the contrary. We hope thatthe JNF will build upon its legacy - of bringing the dream of a Jewish homeland into fruition - by acting to support, rather than oppose, a two-state solution and stopping the Sumarins' eviction and all further activity over the Green Line. Birthright participants from the Universi- ty's campus who are scheduled to take a tour of the City of David should question the implica- tions of the site for displaced Palestinian fami- lies. Trips to explore Jewish identity should not usurp the identities and rights of others. Recognizing and respecting Palestinian ties to their land does not threaten or delegitimize Israel; rather, it creates an empathetic dialogue among all those who love the land - Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. J Street UMich strongly believes that this can only come through a two-state solution. As American, Israeli and Palestinian politics alike become more divided, we must take advantage of the unique opportunities on our campus. While our viewpoints may differ, we should all agree that the events in Silwan are against our values as a Michigan community, and we can no longer allow antagonistic and divisive actions such as these to characterize the Israe- li-Palestinian situation. In the new semester and the New Year (with a presidential election, no less), J Street UMich hopes to work with others on our campus to engage in robust dia- logue and undergo collective activism that are characterized by civility, empathy and, above all, a commitment to peace. This viewpoint was written on behalf of J Street UMich by Mandy Kain. She is a Rackham student. One 'sweet' resource When I was much young- er, the Microsoft Word spell-checker was my only editor. As I advanced as a writer, I learned that in addition to electronic help, there were many resources out there that could help me LEAH with my writing POTKIN - not the least of which were my parents. However, I always bristled at their criticism (read: advice), so I was excited when I had the opportunity to work with my peers on my high school newspaper. While I ben- efited greatly from my time spent working with peers, when I came to the University, it was back to the spell-checker. This is not to say that the Univer- sity doesn't offer the appropriate resources for peer help, but rather that I was unfamiliar with them. Before my sophomore year, I had little to no idea what the Sweetland Writing Center was. Quite frankly, the extent of my knowledge was that one of my classes met in a room inside the center. Early in my junior year, I was introduced to Sweetland as a place where "troubled writers" could get help. I reluctantly checked it out, and was surprised and thrilled to discover that it was a place for all types of writers, troubled or accom- plished, to sharpen and develop their writing skills. Since then, I have trained to become a Sweetland peer tutor and have learned firsthand whatthis previouslyunfamiliar place has to offer. So, with the end of the semester looming and final paper due dates approaching, students - strug- gling or not - should familiarize themselves with Sweetland and take advantage of its myriad of resources. Quite often, students stereotype writing centers as places where challenged, or dare I say "bad," writers are sent for help. Unfortu- nately, teachers often do little to combat this misconception as they often recommend that struggling writers pay a visit to Sweetland. And while Sweetland is indeed a great resource for students, it is by no means a place only for the strug- gling. Anyone can benefit from a visit to the writing center, and stu- dents from all different schools and departments should realize how much they can learn from engaging in one-on-one dialogue about their writing. Sweetland tutors are there to help students brainstorm, struc- ture and edit, while catefing direct- ly to students' needs - whatever they may be. And while I under- stand that there are people who feel confident enough in their work to go at it alone, I think I'd be hard pressed to find a student on campus who hasn't struggled at some point in the writing process. That being said, because stu- dents frequently feel embarrassed about needing extra help, teach- ers, students and tutors must work together to break the undeserved stigma of writing centers. There is no shame in either needing or want- ing help, and students should know that writers of all levels and needs are welcomed at Sweetland. In fact, students should realize how lucky they are to have such an amazing and free resource at their disposal, as few other tutoring services on campus are cost-free (I know peo- ple who have shelled out hundreds of dollars on tutoring in a single semester). And because there is no charge for appointments - most of which are on a walk-in basis - stu- dents simply have no excuse for not visiting the center. Sweetland even offers online tutoring for students who either can't fit a one-on-one session into their schedules, or who are uncomfortable speaking about their work in a personal setting. Students should use University's writing center. So, as you work on your final drafts, or as you begin drafting, be sure to remember that Sweetland is only a short walk or e-mail away. By visiting Sweetland, you have the opportunity to improve not onlythe paper you are working on, but your writing skills and abilities. Tutors are always happy to see new faces, and though the separation might be hard at first, I doubt your spell- checker will miss you too much. - Leah Potkin can be reached at lpotkin@umich.edu. 0 S