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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1975)
2 ’ Chemawa American Chemawa American Editorial and Opinion Page So W hat Took Us So Long? When's the Chemawa American going to come out? Is the Chemawa American going to come out? What happened to the paper? We did have a paper once, didn't we? How come we don't have one any more? A lot of students and alums have been asking this ques tion, and they deserve an answer. They also deserve a pap er, so here we are again. We may look a little strange and a little ragged, but we are out, and we hope to keep coming out on schedule from now o n . What we suffered was a near-fatal case of too much soph isticated equipment. The fancy machine that sets our copy in nice, even, justified columns broke. Then it broke aga in. And again. And again. So we are doing the paper the old-fashioned way. It may not look quite as pretty, but it gets done, and that's what counts most. There should be a point or a moral behind every editor ial, so here is ours. The more complicated and fancy you become, the more you multiply the chances for something to go wrong. We apologize to our readers for taking so long to learn this lesson. T ie Sm ell Mirecle Thet H eppetu Here A minor miracle happened here during' the first semester. Nobody fired off a cannon or ran up a flag to celebrate i t , but it still happened. What was this miracle? Some stude nts finally learned how to read. Chemawa is not the only school to be troubled with low reading scores. Schools all over the country have this problem. It might be worse here because many of Chemawa's students have histories of poor treatment in public sch ools . But Chemawa is doing something about i t . Take a look at the first semester. In September 83% of the freshman class read below an eighth-grade level, and one per-cent could read at a ninth-grade level or above. This clearly shows that most of our students enter high school without proper reading preparation. But thanks to the reading lab, one freshman gained a full five years in reading ability in one semester! Two others gained more than four years, Ten gained more than three years. Twenty-one gained more than two years, and thirty-two gained more than one year, The average gain for a semester is four months, but for Chemawa's freshmenit And this average in- was nine months--a full school year, eludes several students who were enrolled for only nine of the eighteen weeks. But It's a nice gain and we are glad to boast about it. the real gainers are those students who can now read and work properly at the high school level. Congratulations to them and to Mrs. Brixius, Mrs. Esler and Mr. John, the three fine reading teachers who made these gains possible. Money Troubles Hit Yearbook This year the yearbook will cost more than ever before. Next year the cost may go even higher. Many students wonder why the charge of eight dollars per book. Could it be done any cheaper? The answer is no. Even at eight dollars the Stu dent Council is going to lose money on every book they sell. With the number of books Chemawa has order ed, the publication cost is just over eight dollars a copy. There is one way to keep the price down. If more students (or alums) would order books, then the cost per book would go down, and the Council could pass the savings along to the stu dents. But unless more students order books, the price will continue to rise THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN Member— Oregon Scholas tic Press, Quill £ Scroll. Published through the school year (except during vacations) by the joint ef forts of the journalism, business ed and graphic arts classes. Official publication of Chemawa Ind ian School, 5495 Chugach St. NE, Salem, OR 97303. Student Staff: Gary Carden Raymond Gunn, John Monaghan Edna Simpson Photography: Mr. Matt £ Brad Filkins Typing: Business Ed Cluster £ Staff Advisers: Mr. John Dashney M r . Ron Berg Prin.: Mr. J.W. Smith Supt.: Mr. Ed Lonefight
