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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 1998)
2 TI- ie CI ac I< amas P rìnt Wednesday, October 14, 1998 oursing below our familiar au the environment provided by the tumn rituals here at Clackamas campus community: instructor men tors in the flesh, and a progression and other community colleges, runs a controversy that will change edu leading from a comfortable home to the Sodom and Gomorrah of the cation at this level forever. In several sessions on this cam university. They are learning more pus, there have been some spirited than just how to take notes at a lec debates on distance learning, a com ture, write a paper and allocate time, puter based learning program. This they are learning about dating and debate involves instruc tors and administrators of this and other colleges, as well the governments of several western states, whose governors a few years back piled a bunch ROBERT SCHOENBERG of taxpayers’ money into Editor-In-Chief promoting the distance dorms, beer drinking and sports and learning programs. For the most part, the students how to bet on them. The college ex have not taken much part in this de perience is a social event that should bate, one way or the other. That is not be passed by. because they aren’t where the fear This is all fine for those who need is: students will seek out the educa to pass this gauntlet, but the non-tra- tion where they can get it no matter ditional student is already beyond whether it is traditional lecture/class- that game, they want the steak right room or distance learning. No, the now and forget all that stuff about fear is with the instructors—fear of sizzle. interviewed by the Oregonian, sadly a change that is taking place with The non-traditional student rep sums up this attitude well: “I always no real guarantee that they will not resents different needs for education wanted to vote. I thought it would soon be replaced by a keyboard, a and Clackamas needs to address this be fun. It’s like an adult thing to screen and a humongous network by splitting in two and developing do.” server run by computer gremlins. both methods of educating in order I hardly think that the patriots The past is familiar ground, it can to be a viable business. whose blood “refreshed the Tree pf be traversed in safety and comfort. We are in fact an economically Liberty” made their sacrifice so that The future on the other hand is a driven progression based on com Mr. Hembrick could feel like a murky path that may end up where petition and the needs of the con grown-up. Something so easily you didn’t want to go. sumer. Using distance learning is gained is too easily taken for In the past, the “delivery system,” just a recognition of that fact. The granted. as Dr. John Keyser put it recently at consumer in this case is the student I do not claim expert knowledge one such debate, was and still is who wants to get what is necessary in these matters. My study of po based on teenagers coming out of to move ahead. We will need to litical science has left me with more high school and continuing to learn serve these two masters, the tradi questions than answers. But as a in the traditional classroom/lecture tional and the non-traditional stu Christian and an American, I believe experience. This is arite-of-passage dent. The sooner we reach out to it is my responsibility to both par experience that produces a type of them the faster we also will progress. ticipate intelligently in the self-gov citizen much like ourselves. Sort of The profile of the student is erning process and to act if neces a cloning process. changing and the way that they are sary as a conscience for my coun At Clackamas there is also the educated is splitting into two meth try. non-traditional student. Looking at ods. The non-traditional student is We, the few, the proud, the 18- the demographics of the college, in looking for convenience and speed and-over, are the government. That fact, the average age of a Clacka while the traditional student is look great shepherd king, David, ruler of mas student is 35 to 37 years old: ing into the same manner of instruc Israel, declared at the end of his life, old enough to remember what it was tion they received in high school. “He that rules over men must be just, like before computers. The community college should and ruling in the fear of God. And he These non-traditional students are can react faster than the university shall be as the sunrise on a cloud also the ones to benefit most from in meeting these needs and trans less day.” distance learning, not the teenagers form themselves into a college that Government in the interest of the who have had computers strapped can meet the demands of both people will only be enacted by in to their face since discovering Game groups, both classroom lecture style terested people. I show you a more Boy. and the newer computer based in excellent way. The traditional student still needs struction. C The Sacred & The Profane t is the dawn of yet another year in his book, What’s Wrong with the for students and voters alike. It World, that “We forget that, while is ironic, then, that Associated Stu we agree on the abuses of things, we dent Government has sponsored should differ very much about the another annual campus incursion of uses of them. Mr. Cadbury and I Rock The Vote, driving nails into the respective coffins of both the insti tutions of scholarship and citizenship. I believe that Rock the JOEL P. SHEMPERT Vote, far from occupying the pedestal of heroic Copy Editor Champion of the Demo cratic Process that it claims, is det would® rimental to the sacred trust placed agree about I the bad I in the voting public. This belief was rather unfortu public- I nately confirmed in last week’s fes house. It || I The Altar of an Unkown God tivities, in which propaganda mated with ignorance to produce an off spring of oppression. Why do I consider Rock the Vote harmful? After all, it raises politi cal awareness among young citizens and encourages them to vote and thus take part in the political pro cess through voting, right? I say thee nay—political awareness is the one thing Rock the Vote doesnoi encour- age. An ASG officer may have told the Oregonianin the Wed. Oct. 7 issue that “we are trying to educate [stu dents] so they are voting intelli gently,” but the only “educational” material I found during the three days of vote rocking were campaign pamphlets either arguing for candi dates’ individual sainthood or de monizing their opponents. There was nothing available that could not be gained through viewing a TV soundbite. The various speakers were no bet ter, their presentations consisting of little more than the usual I-feel-your- pain snowjob. When Bill Sizemore spoke in the Gregory Forum on Tuesday, he didn’t ask us what our concerns were; he as much as told us what they were. He controlled the discussion. Mr. Sizemore may indeed be the better candidate. How would I know? The information dissemi nated was more surface than sub stance. “I think taxes are too high,” insists Sizemore. Big deal. Any one can say that; we all recognize the disease. It is the cure which gives cause for debate. In 1910, G. K. Chesterton wrote would be ® precisely in front of the good pub lic-house that our painful personal fracas would occur.” In other words, we all agree (to some extent) what the problems are. It is because we disagree on solu tions that a political debate exists at all. And by and large, very few solu tions were discussed last week. The skills of politicians are persuasive rather than informative. They may be able to convince you that black is white, but that doesn’t leave you better educated. The architects of this great experi ment to reconcile Liberty with Law established not a democratic, but republican system of government, since they believed that the common man given true democratic control would surrender his liberty to the ones with the biggest pockets and most honeyed tongues. The solution of Madison and Jefferson (Hamilton was far less charitable) was education— teach them to be citizens, and they will rise to the occasion. Political education is the true calling of our First- Amendment-protected television and print media, and of the public education system. Rock the Vote is countereducational because it fo cuses on a single instant in the po litical process—the ballot box—and ignores the years in between where actual governing takes place. Furthermore, it treats lightly a prize gained by the blood and tears of Americans throughout history. A new voter and Clackamas student, Editor in Chief: Robert Schoenberg (x2576) The Clackamas Print aims to report the news in an honest, unbiased, profes sional manner. The opinions expressed in The Clackamas Print do not neccesarily reflect those of the student body, college administration, its faculty, or The Clackamas Print advertisers. Products and services advertised in The Clackamas Print are not neccesarily en dorsed by anyone associated with The Clackamas Print. The advertising rate is $4.75 per column inch. All signed let ters to the editor should be 300 words or less and will be considered for publi cation if submitted by 1 pm the Friday prior to publication. The Clackamas Print is a weekly publication and is dis tributed every Wednesday except dur ing Finals week. Feature + A&E Editor: Jeremy Stallwood Sports Editor: John Thorbum Business Manager: Kristina Brooks (x2578) Staff Writers: Kara Alexis Kevin Naumann Angie Daschel James Khosravi Mandi Lindstrom Eric Eatherton Staff Photographers: Copy Editor: Joel P. Shempert Photo «Editor: Toni McMichael Amy Parrish Timothy A. Bell Graphic Design: Advisor: Linda Vogt (x2310) Karl Katzke Advertising Design: Megan Oldenstadt Secretary:- JoAnne Gale Cartoonist: Joel "Israel" Gunderson Announcements: Leah Chapin 19600 S.M o I a IL a A ve . O reqon CiTy, O regon 97045 (505) 6 57-6958 ext 2509 • cccpRiNT@eLAckAMAs.cc. or .us
