Page 6
Have some algebr
it's good for you
by Marl Owens
I'm unhappy. Heck,
unhappy isn't a good way to
describe how I feel. I'm talking
about a low-down, nasty,
cheesy blue funk -- and I have
no one to blame but the
American education system.
Last week The Collegian
ran a story about the expected
starting salaries of some
majors, specifically
science/engineering and liberal
arts. If you recall, chemical
engineers will make $3B, 100,
closely followed by mechanical
engineers with $34, 700. The
lowest of the
science/engineering majors was
accounting, which gets $27,
900.
The reason that I'm
unhappy is because Fm not a
science/engineering major.
Rather I have a liberal arts
major, which tends to net its
graduates the same amount of
money per week as, say, a 10-
year-old's allowance. The study
shows that a communication
major (that's me) will make
If you could
one thing at
Behrend, what
would it be?
"Behrend should offer more financial aid. Just because it
is a state school doesn't mean everyone can afford it."
"A bank should be put on campus. It would make life
much easier for everyone."
"Air conditioning in all the classrooms!"
"Fix up the dorms, make them bigger and cleaner."
"They should have a bigger variety of varsity sports here
like football and wrestling."
$22, 900 a year. And a
journalism major will make
only $l9, 500. Yikes. That
won't even buy luxury items,
like food or clothes (beer and
pizza are basic necessities --
there's always money for that).
But I didn't know this when
I was a freshman. At that time,
all I wanted was a major that
didn't have math or science in
it, kinda like a kid wanting
stuffing without the crunchy
things in it.
And that's where the
American education system
comes in. Ever since the third
grade I've had this love/hate
relationship with math and
science -- namely we loved to
hate each other. It's not that I
was dumb at it; they just
weren't fun subjects. So I went
through high school and
college, shunning the sciences
and that evil math stuff for
writing. Had I found math and
science more fun and
interesting, I think I'd be
blissfully calculating the stress
on load-bearing beams for a
PennDOT men's room today.
s Voice
Clerk
Behrend Bookstore
change
Bridget Hannon
Third semester
Nursing
Terry Speck
Jason Flesher
Seventh semester
Psychology
Ann Walsh
Third semester
Psychology
Jose Hernandez
First semester
The Collegian
Mark Owens
And that's something
education needs to do: make
the sciences interesting to
today's young people, who at
the moment are using their
math textbooks only as
something to rest a Nintendo
The
Missing
Piece
on. One thing that should be
done is to make new movies.
When I was in elementary
school we used to watch these
science films made in the early
50's. I'd sit in the back of the
room and shoot rubber bands at
Suzy Emerson while "The
Voice Of Science" droned on
and on about how volcanoes
worked. After the movie was
over my teacher, Mrs.
Geeseman (who looked an
awful lot like Karen
Carpenter), would ask me how
volcanoes were made. My
answer: "BOOM! Then the
villagers loose their huts."
Mrs. Geeseman usually left me
alone after that.
Through my long and,
we 11... long educatiorial career,
I've never seen a school film
younger than 1986. In fact,
two weeks ago I watched a film
in one of my communication
classes starring -- believe it or
not -- "The Voice Of Science."
Thursday, September 19, 1991
I can't help but think how
bored fifth and sixth graders are
watching "up-to-date" movies
older than their parents.
I really think that if schools
treated math and science the
way parents teach their children
how to eat we'd be in better
shape. Sure it may be messy at
times, but I think it would
work. Here's what I mean:
Father: Go ahead and do
your algebra, son. It may not
be tasty, but it's good for you.
See, your mother is having
some. Isn't that algebra great,
hon?
Mother: (shooting dark,
evil, I'm-gonna-knock-you-out
look at husband) Yum.
Son: Yech!
If educators follow this idea,
hopefully in a few years we'll
have more and more
enthusiastic engineers and
electricians who enjoy their
field of study so much that
they won't need to be bribed
with insane beginning salaries.
Then maybe us journalism
majors could eat once in a
while.