European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 17, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Teen finds opera fugs of her heart by Dave Walczak education writer bad k1ssingen. West Germany when 18-year-old Cindy Lykins talks about music this week George Michael. Whitney Houston or the Baslie boys won t be pan of the conversation. And when the Wiesbaden High school student belts out an aria you la know Why. Lykins along with 123 of her contemporaries has turned off to pop and tuned in to classical in a setting fit for a King. The six score and three department of defense de Pendents schools students comprise the High school honors music festival. Now in its ninth year the festival merges lop High school musicians and singers from throughout Germany for a grand night of song Ata concert Hall Huilt for the ears of King Ludwig ii of Bavaria. His majesty would have Felt right at Home listening to compositions by Handel Schubert and Vivaldi. And Lykins is just As comfortable performing them especially inc operatic Arias. Opera gives me a Chance to be another person the Soprano said. It gives me a Chance to portray what the voice is idling me. Once i got started with opera i became and the festival culminating in the wednesday performance expected to be heard by a packed House of 1,200 provides the perfect fix for Lykins 63other singers and a band of 60. It s fun to be around other Lykin said. It s serious music but it s great to gel a Chance to talk about serious music for a Lykins View echoes that of festival founder and director Bob Benson. The music coordinator for Dodds Germany Region said the purpose of the gathering is to get High school musicians out of the gymnasium and into the concert the bad kissing in concert Hall with its Cherry Wood panelling provides acoustics most festival per formers have never enjoyed. The Marble busts fountains and sculptures add to the flavor of the annual performance that attracts As Many germans As Ameri cans. The concert features eight conductors All Dodds Leader of la schools drops year round plan thursday March 17. 1988 the stars and stripes Page 9 Cindy Lykins a Wiesbaden High school student says once i got started ill opera i became teachers. Festival participants Don t always keep in tune with the sinous nature of the program. An Impromptu Tal ent contest tuesday night gave the band and chorus a Chance to show off the lighter Side of music and Impromptu quartets took up a Modem beat Between rehearsal sessions. Even opera addict Lykins displayed a lighter interpretation to Puccini Verdi and Mozart. Mozart she said laughing. Gosh i just hat Mozart s music. All that Light stuff Competition for festival membership is fierce. More than 550 students from throughout Germany applied sending tapes to a panel of 13 teachers who reviewed their talents. Some of the performers have appeared before. Lykins is making her fifth appearance As part of the Festi Val which before 1985, was held in Wurzburg Bonn Baum older and Wiesbaden. Those places will be but a Distant memory for Lykins by fall. She s already been accepted at Indiana University where she plans to major in opera. But this week her thoughts focus on the bad kiss men concert. At one time i wanted to be a Broadway Star like Ethel Merman or Julie Andrews. But opera has class about it. The first time i went on stage i said this is neat. This is what i want i can t imagine my life without music without los Angeles not a plan to put the entire los Angeles school system on a year round Calendar that Drew National attention when it was approved last october has been withdrawn by inc superintendent of schools. The Surprise action came at a meeting of the Board of inc los Angeles unified school District monday night five months after its members approved the concept igniting a political dispute that deeply divided the City along ethnic and economic lines. The Board which later tabled inc plan for further study had generally been expected to delay even longer any final decision on the proposal. With 585,000 students the los an Geles school system second largest in the country after new York s would have been the biggest school system Ever to adopt a year round Calendar. Under the plan All los Angeles schools would have been put on a single Basic Calendar in which pupils would Nave had a series of Short vacations rather than the Long summer vacation. But the amount of school Days would have been about the same. Pupils in districts with the most crowded schools would have been on class schedules that would have had the school buildings being used the year around with some pupils in classes while others were were on vacation. In All 69 school districts around the country use some variation of an All year Calendar and the concept has been under discussion in new York City and state As a Means of making More efficient use of school buildings. Many experts say it improves education by Mak ing it easier for children to retain information by eliminating the Long summer break. But the concept has drawn intense opposition in los Angel Sand elsewhere from those who say it disrupts family vacations summer jobs for students and child care arrangements. In shelving the plan until he could de Vise a new one the los Angeles superintendent Leonard m. Britton said delays caused by the debate made it impossible for the plan to be put into effect by july 1989, As intended. But sources close to the Board also said that it had become Clear to Britton that opposition in Many pans of the City rendered the plan Politi Cally impractical for now and that he wanted to avoid a destructive Bat Lewithin the Board. The seven member Board narrowly approved the plan on oct. 5, then tabled it for two weeks pending further study after a withering political assault. The strongest attack came from affluent White areas of the City on the West Side As Well As in the san Fernando Valley. The Board was to have voted again monday night but a count of the Voles showed that the measure would no carry. Pennsylvania professor is just a keyboard away state College a. A students who skip professor Gerald m. Phillips opening lecture in his course on group decision making May find themselves searching the Campus in vain for any Trace of him the rest of the semester. That s because the Penn state univer sity professor communicates with his speech communications 350 class Only through the school s computer system by electronic mail or the class gels weekly lectures from two graduate students and other graduate students sit in on group discussions As we be got a real Industrial Model said Phillips who this semes Ter has 212 students enrolled in the course. What we Vegol Here is a simulation of top management Middle management and Phillips considers himself the chief executive officer As such he monitors computer messages Between student groups and the graduate students and answers questions sent to him. Phillips 59, does t go to his office on Campus often. He prefers to stay Home Amile away working from his cramped study filled with computer equipment graduate students who have been there have dubbed his study the Ridge of the Sta ship Enterprise in reference to the spaceship on the Tele vision series Star Phillips said he is giving student a taste of the real world adding that he Ismore accessible than most professors. Last Spring in a trial run of the course Phillips said he answered3,169 questions from students you find me a professor an wherein North America that can handle 3,169 questions and they weren t stupid questions Phillips said. Students who miss Phillips lecture on the first Day of class can Only guess at the appearance of the professor known by his computer address one says she s going to track me Down to see what i look like and talk to me face to face. I said catch me i you can " Phillips said. One student said the course puts too much emphasis on compute communication. It s like email is god she said. It really should t be like that. There has to be some communication that others disagree. I Don t think we be suffered any because we Haven t seen him face to fact said Michael Guerin a senior operations management major from Rochester . He s readily Avail Able on the
