I The Behrend Beacon
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or
the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. - The First Ammendment to the U.S. Constitution
Beacon Thumbs Up
Numerous halloween activities on
campus.
- Greek Sing
Ken Miller's support of the "Thumbs Up,
Thumbs Down" section.
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"Music At Noon" parking congestion.
Lack of student/faculty letters to the
Beacon Opinion Page.
Diet and regular soda mixing together in
Bruno's fountain drinks. •
Have a "Thumbs Up" or "Thumbs Down" ?
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Quote of the Week
"Remember,
lasts long.
exhausts, and murders itself.
There is never a democracy that
did not commit suicide."
The Behrend Beacon
Published Weekly by the students of Pcnn State Eric
BrHfi 8111 RI ND
eacon Assistant News Editor
Patrick Webster
Penn State Erie,
The Behrend College Contact the Beacon at:
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Justin Plansinis
opiNloN
two bacon double
cheeseburgers one large
order of french fries a
fish sandwich with extra
mayo a dozen chicken
nuggets with ketchup
Dude, please don't be "that guy"
I'm sure you have seen the cliché figure that has
become the typical stereotype for all men. Maybe you
fit the mold of the type of guy that I am going to
describe. By either seeing this characteristic on tele
vision or encompassing the traits personally, you
know that the whole demeanor of the average male is
changing into something not worth bragging about,
and it's giving the whole male species a bad name.
A few weeks ago, I was watching an episode of
MTV's Cribs and I noticed a startling trend. When
the show and its crew take a tour of a female celebri
ty's house and entered the bedroom, the woman would
always sit on her bed and describe it as a place to
relax and get all the sleep that was necessary. On the
contrary, during an episode featuring a male celebrity,
the bed was always referred to as "the place where all
the magic happens" or the host would always blatant
ly shake the bed to prove its sturdiness in a "time of
need. - This deliberate display of primitive behavior
is the main factor of the promiscuity epidemic facing
this country: this world.
Almost every weekend I encounter a similar situa
tion dealing with sexually-focused males. When I ask
my guy friends T , what they're doing over the weekend,
without hesitance, each of them answer, "Getting
wasted and finding chicks!" This may be a common
lifestyle for a majority of guys at Behrend or around
the country, but, for me, this is absolutely disgusting.
Using sex as the only criteria for a healthy relation
ship could be the unhealthiest ideal when it comes to
dating and relationships.
Leave behind No
The No Child Left Behind Act, passed a few
ago, has recently started coming under scrutiny yet
again as more false reporting is being unearthed, and
school and administration officials admit to taking
steps that make the program seem more successful
than it really is.
I know of a good many teachers who do not much
like NCLB. For one, it fuels the current attitudes in
America of "It's not my fault." I've been through high
school--I know why the kids there fail. It's not usu
ally for lack of intelligence or opportunity, but
because those kids put absolutely no effort into their
schoolwork. The kids get bad grades, and instead of
blaming their kids or themselves, it's much easier for
parents to blame the schools.
My father is a teacher. He'd occasionally get phone
calls, and some parent would rail at him because their
kid got a bad grade and how it was obviously his fault
because their kid was perfect. Usually, it would take
nearly a half hour of explaining why the kid in ques
tion got such a bad grade before the parent would
leave him alone.
Sixteen percet of my graduating class did not grad
uate. Why? High school is not hard. I knew many of
these people, and most usually, it was because these
kids were too "cool" or lazy to do enough work to sat
isfy even the simplest curricula. School was an impo
sition on their life, not a valuable experience in which
to learn and succeed.
Changing everything over to private schools cer
tainly won't change this. It will still be the same kids
-now on vouchers--failing at the same subjects for the
same reasons, unless the guaranteed money they bring
in with them ensures their passage regardless of aca
demic success.
Many people think teachers are overpaid. This is
the most blatantly false thing I have ever heard. Not
only are their wages below what they should be for an
occupation of their importance but also for the sheer
Submission Guidelines
The Beacon welcomes readers to share their views on this page. All submissions must include the writer's year in school, major
Letters and commentary pieces can be submitted by email to opin- and name as The Beacon does not publish anonymous letters.
ion@psu.edu or directly to the Beacon office, located in the Reed Deadline for any submission is 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon for inclu-
Building. sion in the Friday issue. All submissions are considered, but because
Letters should he limited to 350 words and commentaries should of space limitations, some may not be published.
be limited to 700 words. The more concise the submission, the less All submissions must include consent to be edited before they can
we will he forced to edit it for space concerns and the more likely we be edited for publication.
are to run the submission.
By Chris LaFuria
,poriseditor(fi , psti.edu
Torts editor
By Pat Webster
newseditoro psu.cdu
lssktant news editor
/0= MIIIII6
I am not placing the blame solely on the male gen
der, but it seems as if the promiscuity epidemic is
plaguing males for the most part. Every now and
then, you encounter a female sex-fiend looking to get
her action, but, as displayed on television, in movies
and almost every weekend on campus. the men are the
ones looking for the "quick hit" or the "easy tail," as
I've come to realize.
According to the Official White House website, sta
tistics were taken and it was found that 70% of the
people infected with AIDS or HIV are male.
Although this statistic has sexual orientation and
other methods of receiving the virus factored into the
percentage, sexual promiscuity must play some role
in the percentage being rather high in favor of men.
It is my opinion that this attitude towards women is
basically a lack of respect for the female counterpart
and for oneself. Sophomore English major Kara
Hesch said, "It's very unattractive to see a guy who
has a big head and is only out to get girls. I am more
into the !?.asygoing type." Many women concur with
Kara. While the "bad boy" image is somewhat desir
able, the sensitive and decent type of male with a gen
uine respect for the opposite sex is what is needed for
a successful relationship.
Ladies, next time you see a guy approach you and
before you even exchange names, he tries to get phys
ical with you, my advice is to try and get away as fast
as you can. Gentlemen, be gentlemen. This isn't
directed towards all men in general, but show some
respect. I promise that with a little admiration and
compassion, your relationship will be much more suc
cessful.
Child Left Behind
amount of work they must do for their classes. Be it
elementary or secondary, teachers put in several hours
of work each night beyond the 8 hours they work
every day, planning lessons, grading tests and papers
and filling out school paperwork, besides any
research that they may wish to do. NCLB has only
increased this paperwork. Teachers aren't evil
demons that live in closets and try to think up new
and brilliant ways to fail kids out of school. School
has been like many other things in life--you only get
out of it what you put into it.
Why do kids become this way? It starts at home. If
their parents have a no-touch attitude toward their
kids' work, kids will right off lower it on their list of
importance. If their parents don't care, why should
they? Furthermore, their parents may not be able to
take interest in their child's schoolwork due to the
ever-increasing problem of lower incomes in
America, struggling just to make ends meet. In either
case, the children will come away with the impression
that school and the associated work are not important,
either for lack of interest or the belief that it is more
important to just get a job and start earning money.
Since public school funding is based on and taken
from property taxes, it's no wonder that schools with
the wealthiest students and families do the best.
Further stripping struggling schools of yet more fund
ing is hardly a sensible solution. Judging schools by
using standardized tests that do not take into account
geography, socioeconomic status and actual intelli
gence is not helping. Instead, schools have to take
more resources from education and put them towards
specific classes teaching how to take these tests.
If education in this nation is to be changed, the
change must start in the homes of those attending.
Cutting funding to strapped schools and imposing
new standards that are impossible to keep without the
attendant support will not help. What we have here is
a system that, instead of making children better edu
cated, simply makes them better at taking standard
ized tests and avoiding responsibility for their aca
demic careers.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Congress stopped letting us
sue fast-food places for
making their customers obese
ZACK MENTZ