Students’ apathy affects school quality
In her letter, “All Education Should Be ‘Race Neutral,'” Monique Green argues that affirmative action should be continued at the collegiate level because of the sorry state of primary education in many “disadvantaged areas.” Ms. Green argues that real discrimination begins at the elementary school level because minority-filled public schools are filled with “uncaring teachers, outdated books, and [have] little access to computers.” Specifically, she sites the New Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) as an example and fallaciously asserts that a lack of air conditioning makes it more difficult to learn.
As a graduate of the NOPS, I take offense to her assertions about the reasons for the substandard performance of this school system. The problem with the NOPS primarily is not uncaring teachers but students who disdain the schools and the people who try to make them work. It is a nefarious idea that teachers can teach without motivated or at least acquiescent students. The NOPS are full of many students who do not care about their school and are nonchalant about education. It is a problem beginning in the home but is manifested in the schools where the blame is placed wrongly. Shakespeare wrote, Socrates questioned and Booker T. Washington experimented without computers or air conditioning. It is foolish to believe computers and Freon are a necessity for a quality education. Needlessly pumping more money beyond basic and necessary improvements into a school system where students will destroy their new materials is pointless.
The power to fix public education in New Orleans is not with the government but with the parents who transmit or let fester destructive and uncaring attitudes toward education in their children.
Everyone, regardless of their economic or racial origin, by virtue of their ability to think, has the ability to take the necessary steps to help ensure their success; it is no different in New Orleans. The books and the knowledge are there but the students are lacking. Let’s not disparage the teachers of the NOPS who do the best they can in a very difficult environment.
Andrew Whitley
Sophomore — History & Philosophy
Professors can’t force students to be liberal
I found Jason Dore’s viewpoint “Leaning Left” to be little more than just a run-on platitude. He gives weak examples to the sorry point that he is trying to address. The real point should be that college is subjective – no matter what your political background may be.
Dating back to the ’80s, I can remember my older siblings complaining about teacher bias. This is nothing new. It’s unfortunate, but it’s how the system works.
IT IS possible to adjust without having to subscribe to the viewpoint of every professor you encounter. The point of a higher education (in my opinion) is to expand your mind. The point is not to fill schools with cookie cutter images of yourself to reinforce your own opinions. How will you ever be able to grow as an individual if your beliefs are never challenged?
As for your story of the long-suffering Christian students whose faith is not being reaffirmed by STATE employees in the classroom, my advice to them is to attend a CHRISTIAN school and not a PUBLIC one. I am Catholic, but I do not presume to walk into a biology class and have the professor not teach evolution but instead insist on the Bible’s interpretation of how we got here.
And what is wrong with a political science professor exercising the same freedom of speech rights they teach in class? How does it hurt any student for their professor to participate in an anti-war rally outside of class? Should professors not be allowed to stand up for what they believe, in order to prevent them from soiling student’s minds with their own agenda?
LSU, as well as any other public university, does not force you to convert to the ideologies of their faculty. They do not claim their professors are all-knowing, and they do not put up any pretenses that their professors will always tell you what you want to hear. They do challenge your beliefs, and if you are not strong enough to handle that, what does that say about YOU … and YOUR BELIEFS?
Claire Cummings
Senior — English
Student offers cell phone etiquette tips
Ah, the “good ole days” when a person could sit through a class without hearing the cheesy and obnoxious tune of a cell phone.
Don’t get me wrong, the cell phone is a wonderful invention. However, I don’t think it was meant to go off every five seconds. It’s bad enough that every other person walking around on campus has one stuck to the side of their heads (not interacting with those around them). However, my main grievance is that the damn things keep going off in class. I don’t know if maybe the teachers are just used to it, but rarely is anything said. How hard is it to put the damn phones on vibrate! It’s inconsiderate, rude, obnoxious and self-centered to keep your phone on during class.
Let me preface this by saying the following instructions should never be needed, if you turn the phone on VIBRATE!
However, seeing how that button has eluded many of you, I’ve taken the liberty of writing down a few instructions. When a phone goes off in class or in the library:
1. Turn it off. (No, that doesn’t mean pick it up and say “Hello.”)
2. Apologize to those around you for being inconsiderate and distracting those who are trying to learn.
3. Go home and flog yourself because legally I’m not allowed to (those dang Louisiana laws).
Carmen Guy
Sophomore — Studio Art