European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 23, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes columns Carl Rowan an hour of to at school could work miracles one of the great challenges we americans face in 1990 and the new decade is education a How to keep More children in school and How to teach them More. This is the master key to making american More peaceful and prosperous within its Borders and More competitive aboard. In thinking about How to lift the Quality of education especially for the poor Ana almost hopeless youngsters i look at my privileged grandchildren and Marvel at now much they team from television. Is Ages j. Mined to be to junkies astound me by displaying knowledge that they have three kids Ages 3 to 8, who arc not pored to be to junkies astound me Laving knowledge that they h gained from the wrongly assailed Quot Boob looking at these kids. I know that television has to be part of any cure of the problems of education a especially Public schooling a in America Over the next few years. I have a few ideas some Radical perhaps about How we ought to use television. I Start with the Assumption that the Federal government is not going to increase meaningfully its financial support of Public schools. That leads to the likelihood that school districts will not be Able to pay teachers enough to have an adequate Supply of men and women skilled in motivating children or capable of teaching mathematics and the sciences. And that leads me to the conclusion that the schools that need the Best teachers those in Urban centers and Rural America will get something less than the Honor Roll graduates. So to must be used boldly and skilfully let s Start by adding one hour to every school Day a tiny stroke or fiscal sanity since . School facilities Are now ridiculously under used. Well East that the to hour. All the students in an elementary school a Junior High or whatever would gather with a couple of into working teachers to watch something ranging from serious to very entertaining. The idea would be to let to illustrate Day after Day the use of the English language and other communications skills a the Way Oprah Winfrey handles a con David Broder the grew Man education mom. Troy ursial subject or Charles Kuralt makes Walchi no a Bunch of Birds so fascinating to is used and debated in Many school systems now but the focus is on serious slut Mike calculus and physics and How to Quot integrate to into lesson my extra hour a Day would pm Phasic the Joy and Pride of learning a of perhaps seeing a feature on history that tells kids that Columbus did not discover America during the Battle of Hastings or that Hawaii is not a foreign country 100 Miles o f the Florida coast. An hour of to facts and fun would counteract the peer pressures Laid on by the know nothings who be foul every school and would i am sure reduce the number of kids who drop out because they find school Boring that to hour would also be a a refresher course for millions of teachers who have forgotten As much As their students arc Likely to learn. Teachers assigned to the to hour would be Able to View the video cassette beforehand and look Brilliant before their pupils. One problem is that foolish lawyers and greedy producers in the to networks Are giving mostly grief to school officials who a like to Snow the kids How Charles Osgood reduces the news to poetry or How Bryant Gumbel interviews people who Are involved in the hottest issues the Quot today show perceives. Copyright red tape prevents a lot of school systems from doing what they ought to do the networks ought to emulate the Wisdom and generosity of Cable news net works Ted Turner and say that any school can use in any Way any program that a teacher believes will enlighten americans children. This extra to hour will Cost teachers perhaps a few Day s extra work Over the year but it will not cause any layoffs it will in tact enhance the respect and prestige offered to one of this society s most important professions. It would be great if the National education association and the american federation of teachers would say a a let a go Well use school facilities an hour More each Day and Well deliver All the learning to can produce to All the children of the land Quot that would be a marvelous beginning for a decade that will Challenge our Wisdom and our caring a North America sym Catl drastic changes preclude return to stalinism sometimes the most significant clues to what is going on Are hidden in obscure places. The other Day while the front Page headlines were hailing president Bush s Triumph in corralling panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega the financial pages were reporting a different Story. The Slock Market had taken its first significant dive of the new year. That was hardly a Surprise since it bobs up Ana Down All the time. But the reason was interesting. It was not the shutdown of More and More Auto plants in the face of dwindling sales though that seems important enough 10 cause to Ngern. No what upset the markets was the fact that soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev preoccupied with ethnic and nationalist unrest had cancelled his january meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries. That had to be the first time that the traders in that Citadel of capitalism. Wall Street had allowed themselves to get All Shook up by signs of trouble for a communist Leader. Such is the altered nature of the relationship Between Russia and the West. When you invest Gorbachev with the title of Quot Man of the As time Magazine did then its not surprising that every time he sniffles the world starts to shiver. There s no question Gorbachev is facing a very rough year. What can be debated is whether the whole world Nan son his Fate. Time made a plausible Case for ils designation arguing that Gorbachev a is the Force behind the most momentous events of the but alter saluting his Central role in the Reform of soviet society and the revolution of Freedom that has swept across Eastern Europe time s Lance Morrow also explained Why Gorbachev now finds himself in such a tight crack. He quoted de Toca Cuvilly s observation that. Quot the most perilous moment for a bad government is when it seeks to mend its events inside and outside the soviet Union Are outpacing even Gorbachev a ability to manage them. Politically the inc nor of glasnost and perestroika finds himself transformed from drum major of the Reform Parade to the shove brigade. The inherent contradictions in his strategy a encouraging diversity but refusing to contemplate real Power sharing at Home a arc becoming increasingly evident to both those advocating and resisting change. And he is caught in the Middle. Economically his position is even shakier. As the former satellites move toward Market economics attracting investment from the West the soviet Union inevitably loses its Power to skim off the Cream of their production for itself. And because Gorbachev has not summoned up the nerve to wrench the soviet Economy out of its collectivist rut the Standard of living for his people will continue to decline both in absolute terms and relative to ils neighbors. Does All this mean that president Bush May lose his favorite negotiating partner it May. And exactly that calculus lies behind the administrations decision late last year to accelerate the Pace of Sirale Gic arms and Sonve Lional forces negotiations. Bush desperately wants to gel Gorbachev s signature on the line while he 15 still empowered to Deal for the soviet Side. But if Gorbachev fails what happens in the soviet Union no one can know for sure. But a convincing Case can be made that developments not just in the last five years but Over a longer Span of Lime have created conditions where a return to stalinist dictatorship is impossible s. Frederick Starr president of Oberlin College and a russian scholar writes in a soon to by publish cd essay that the changes in communications technology in the .s.r. That began in the Brezhnev Era and accelerated under Gorbachev have created at least a in embryo Quot a pluralistic civil society closer to our own than to anything Russia has seen since the communist revolution. By that Starr Means that the proliferation of Smail circulation journals of photocopiers radios tape recorders Vars television sets and a to a lesser extent a personal computers has created channels of communication outside the control of the state or the communist party. Through these channels a wide variety of groups can create a composite Public opinion to which the government must respond. While Starr recognizes that Gorbachev is caught Between a Rock and a hard place his guess is that Quot tech nol Ronic glasnost Quot will outlive Gorbachev a time and those a autonomous channels of communication will impose absolute limits on absolute if that a the ease there a less need for extreme concern about Gorbachev s own Fate. E poll of up
