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Page 14 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, June 12, 1984
School-by-mail offers H.S. diploma
LINCOLN, Neb. (UPI) - Donald
Page has never set foot inside a high
school classroom. Yet he received his
education, was a presidential and merit
scholar, and now is an associate
professor of physics at Penn State
University.
Page, 35, is one of thousands of people
who received all or part of their high
school education through the mail from
the University of Nebraska's Indepen-
dent Study High School.
PAGE GREW up in a remote area in
Alaska. He received his elementary
school education from his parents, who
taught in a special federal school for
Eskimos and Indians. Because the
nearest high school was 1,000 miles
away, he decided to take his high school
courses by correspondence rather than
move away.
"It was preferable to stay at home
rather than being away from my
family," Page said.
He studied at his own rate and
received his high school diploma in
1967, but it took him five years to com-
plete the four-year program because he
"didn't rush."
HIS EFFORT paid off. Page was
awarded a national merit scholarship
and a presidential scholarship, two of
the highest honors bestowed on high
school students. He went on to receive
master's and doctorate degrees.
Page is one of the more successful
students who took advantage of an in-
stitution that claims students from all
over Nebraska, every state in the
nation, and nearly 100 foreign coun-
tries.
Although more than 30 colleges and
universities offer similar programs,
Nebraska's offered through the Depar-
tment of the Division of Continuing
Studies, is the largest and oldest of its
kind in the nation, principal Robert
Abel said.
ABEL SAID about 8,000 people have
taken courses at the school in the past For those not attending a traditional
five years. high school, a full course load through
The institution began in 1929 with a the Independent Study High School is
grant from the Carnegie Foundation, a five classes, usually four required
national philanthropic organization. courses and one elective, Abel said.
'It was preferable to stay at home than
being away from my family'
- Donald Page
Penn State professor
five-hour courses from the school to
receive a diploma. Abel estimated the
institution awards about 100 diplomas
each year.
Most of the institution's students,
however, receive diplomas from a
more traditional school, and take the
independent study courses to sup-
plement their more traditional
education.
"Our basic mission is to assist in-
dividual students in particular and
schools in general by providing them a
vast variety of alternatives," Abel said.
"There's a lot of flexible alternatives
that students and schools use us for."
Some students have schedule conflic-
ts and cannot take a required course
through their regular school. Some
must make up classes missed because
of illness or other reasons. Some han-
dicapped people do not want to attend a
regular school. A few are children of
missionaries working overseas.
The school's oldest student, a 90-year-
old man, is taking courses to obtain the
diploma he never received, Abel said.
Whatever the reasons, the school
works. Abel estimated50 percent of the
students who take courses through the
school go on to college, and he said the
independent style of study better
prepares them for college because they
discipline themselves and learn to write
and express themselves clearly.
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I
The school is fully accredited through
the state Education Department and
the North Central Association, a
national association that accredits
schools in about 20 states, Abel said.
STUDENTS HOPING to be able to
get credit for correspondence courses
from their home high schools should
check with the home school.
Correspondence students can take
any of the 120 classes offered, ranging
from basic mathematics to a not-so-
basic class called typing with one hand.
Each student has a supervisor, who
corresponds with the teacher about the
student's progress. Classwork and tests
are sent to the teachers, who return them
with a grade.
TUITION, BOOKS and other supplies
make the average cost of one course
$80. Students taking full course loads
will pay about $800 per year.
A full load is not required. Students
are sent class materials and work at
their own rate. No deadlines are im-
posed, but the school suggests a five-
hour course should not be completed in
less than five weeks.
STUDENTS MUST take at least four
6
6
Aeid rain does not
Court relaxes rules on
illegally obtained evidence
(Continued fromPage 1)
vor, Leaming said the girl should
receive a "Christian burial."
Williams then led police to the body,
dumped along a gravel road about 16
miles from Des Moines.
He was convicted and sentenced to
life in prison.
In overturning the appeals court
ruling, Burger said. "If the prosecution
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Justices William Brennan and
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may be used against suspects, but they
said prosecutors should be held to a
more stringent standard in proving that
such discovery was inevitable.
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Division of APSI.
hurt crops,
WASHINGTON (AP) - Acid rain by
itself does not seem to damage major
crops or some trees much or at all, the
government's acid rain research panel
reported yesterday.
But some pine woods in Eastern U.S.
forests show drastic slowdowns in
growth over the past 20 years, and "we
cannot find an adequate explanation in
natural factors alone," such as insects
or drought, said Chris Bernabo, the
scientist who heads the 12-agency
research program.
Bernabo, who is with the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-
ministration, called the crop finding
both "significant" and "not sur-
prising."
Early studies suggesting that acid
rain damaged crops were "poorly
designed," with natural causes of
damage "overwhelming," he said.
The result is not surprising, he added,
because farmers are "applying sulfur
and nitrogen to crops 10 or more times
heavier than acid depositon," and far-
mers typically control the acidity of
their soil.
The debate over what to do about acid
rain started a few years ago, focusing
on acidified lakes in the Northeast
where fish cannot live, but increasingly
has shifted to forests.
Bernabo said it was clear that
sulfuric acid in rain hastens the
acidification of lakes, but he added,
"The threat to forests is much larger
than the threat to lakes."
The report to Congress, the second
from the National Acid Precipitation
Assessment Program, said in a brief
summary of crop research last year
that "simulated acid rain did not affect
the yield of potatoes."
Highly acidic rain did damage
soybean seedling leaves, :"but overall
says report
soybean leaf area damage was small.
and apparently did not affect yield."
Of two varieties of soybeans tested in
less acidic rain in Illinois, one - the
Williams variety - was insensitive,
while another - the Amsoy - showed
an 8 percent decline in yield.
Two varieties of corn were insen-
sitive to highly acidic rain.
Experiments on loblolly pine
seedlings show no effect on growth
from highly acidic rain. But when ex-
posed to ozone, growth was slowed, and
when exposed to ozone and acid rain
together, growth was slowed even
more.
That experiment confirms what
scientists in West Germany, where
forest damage is far heavier than the
United States, are coming to believe.
"It's the interaction of the two" that
reduces growth, said David Holder, a
scientist involved in the assessment.
But the experiement does not show
that a strategy aimed at preventing
forest damage would aim at acid rain
and ozone and nothing else, because of
the possibility that other polluntants
might play roles.
Ozone, in high concentrations, has
long been known to damage trees and
crops.
Most discussion of acid rain in the
United States has focused on the
desirability of reducing sulfur dioxide
emissions from power plants and in-
dustrial boilders in 31 Eastern states.
Sulfur dioxide is one of the principal
precursors of acid rain, being changed
to sulfuric acid in the atmosphere.
Bernabo noted that West Germany
four years ago decided to aim at sulfur
dioxide reductions.
"Now they are finding that sulfur
dioxide may not be the bad actor,"
Bernabo said.
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