He also asserts that in a liberal arts course "you can state things without knowing the facts and sound like you have a doctorate in the field."
Perhaps Hamilton-Wright can't tell the difference between a Ph.D. and an ignorant blowhard, but I can. In fact, I think I know which of these categories he falls into.
Christopher Roberson, Ph.D.
visiting assistant professor, philosophy
Crush Collision is a radio show on WCBN-FM, the University's student-run radio station. It has been heavily involved and strongly associated with the techno scene since its inception. Numerous local, national and international DJs and musicians have been guests on the show, including Dan Bell (DBX), Carl Craig, Claude Young, Autechre, Basic Channel, Underground Resistance, Richie Hawtin (Plastikman) and many others.
The show was started in 1987 by DJ Tom Simonian as an outlet for electronic dance music and techno. In 1990, it was taken over by BMG, a CBN DJ and musician.
The show is currently aired on Thursday nights from 10 p.m. till midnight on 88.3 FM and is followed by "Bliss," a show dedicated to all forms of electronic music (not just techno and dance music).
Erika Sherman
LSA junior, Program Director, WCBN-FM
I am sure many Americans agree with Bailey when he writes, "when we take control of a child's education away from their parents and the community around them, we destroy part of a child's education."
However, the kind of schools required to educate children for today's world have made the traditional American local school system run by a local school board a woefully inadequate anachronism.
The members of a local school board may not have a sincere interest in education because election to a school board is a time-honored first step to a political career. And even if they do have good intentions, they probably do not have any special s kills or background for running schools or even picking good administrators. They may not even be particularly well-educated themselves, especially if the district is a depressed or working-class town. The board members may include real estate agent s and retired policemen. How can local boards like that - and the administrators they hire - compete with the best school systems of Europe, that are large, centralized and run by highly trained professional educators?
Another problem with our system is that the over 300 local school districts in Michigan are independent employers who compete with each other for teachers. People in the business know that it takes three to five years of experience to make a good te acher. If you are fresh out of college looking for your first teaching job, your best chance is in one of the "less desirable" districts. An affluent school district will look for teachers with five years experience.
So a young teacher goes to a rough school district to spend a few years making mistakes and gaining experience. Then he or she likely applies for a job in a wealthier district.
What happens if the teacher does not have what it takes to make a good teacher? One possibility is that after a teacher is given a chance in an affluent district, that district will not renew the teacher's contract. And then? The teacher may leave t he profession or - you guessed it - get a job in a poor district again, perhaps to stay until retirement age.
A well-run statewide system would not put almost all of the beginning teachers in the toughest schools and would not put almost all of the best teachers in schools that are in the wealthier communities.
Local control of schools has emotional appeal, but for the education of children, a more centralized system is much better and fairer.
David Sirkin
Medical School
To say that the sciences are superior to liberal arts due to their definitive nature is not only ridiculous but completely off track. Any random answer to the questions posed in liberal arts classes is not correct. These answers require some sort of premise, some basis.
Without it, the argument cannot hold its own when put side by side with other answers. He is right in the fact that there is more than one answer, and sure, you can put just about any answer to a question that you want on a piece of paper. But if yo u want that answer to have any credibility, you had sure as hell better be able to back it up.
As for the sciences, in particular engineering, many times the answer is not quite as cut and dry as Hamilton-Wright seems to think. Maybe in his introductory courses where he is learning principles they are, but later on when you apply this knowle dge that is rarely the case. You have to look at several principles and weigh them out using a thought process probably beyond the capacity of someone who thinks liberal art classes are a joke. Sit down and look at the debates over quantum mechanics and you will see that even the basic "cut and dry" principles he holds so dear are not so cut and dry after all.
I have spent six years in the College of Engineering and some of the greatest lessons I have learned have been in my liberal arts classes. Anyone who thinks that these classes are in any way less important than a technical class is a shallow fool wh o obviously lives by the philosophy about as shallow as the "money = happy" idea that James Miller refers to ("Liberal arts can boast more than job placement," 2/5/97). For this sorry lot, college is nothing more than daycare for 20-somethings.
Steven Shannon
Rackham