Letters - April 21, 1999
I enjoyed your March 10 cover story on Princetonians who teach in public schools, but Susan Dabney Agriopoulos '84 made a revealing commment that explains why I gave up on that kind of work. About not missing school, she said, "You owe it to the kids. If you don't come in, there will be a substitute in your chair, with spitballs and airplanes flying through the air, and good kids sitting there practically in tears because they can't learn that day."
Her statement assumes it is the absent teacher, rather than the students, who is responsible for spitballs and airplanes flying; students are not held responsible for their own behavior. This attitude -- that teachers are at fault when some students are so disruptive that no learning can occur -- is ubiquitous in schools, public and private, but it is rarely seen outside of compulsory schooling. If students misbehave and are disruptive at the college level, it is the student who is blamed, not the teacher, and at work, disruptive and uncooperative employees are fired -- that is why we rarely see paper airplanes and spitballs in university classrooms and on the job. In compulsory schooling, a teacher's responsibility is not only to teach but also to keep habitually disruptive students in line, usually through threats of punishment. Very rarely is a student actually forced to leave school for disruptive behavior.
The solution to this problem, in my view, is to abolish compulsory schooling. There is a whole body of thought on other ways that children can grow into adulthood outside of compulsory schooling -- see the writings of John Holt, Ivan Illich, Nancy Wallace, and others. This is usually known as the "home school" movement, but in its most sophisticated form it involves whole communities, where all adults are teachers of some kind. It would take a drastic restructuring of our culture to make this sort of learning possible, but in my mind it would be worth it. Anything to get teachers away from their roles as prison guards and cops, and back into actually teaching.
Shannon Stoney '76
Cookeville, Tenn.
Having a daughter who has embarked on a career in public school teaching with a passion to make a difference in young people's lives, I read with great pleasure your article on alumni who have also made this choice. This often unheralded work really does proudly exemplify Princeton in the nation's service.
Stanton D. Hale '58
Windham, Conn.
Reports of the demise of the Women's Center have been greatly exaggerated. In her On the Campus column of March 10, Kruti Trivedi '00 states that she's been "told the Women's Center ... is often as empty as it was my freshman year." Apparently she hasn't visited our office or logged on to our e-mail listserv (reaching about 500 students) or attended one of our programs since her freshman year, either. This past year, we had great success with our Women in Film series (attendance topped out at 100 people). In February, Dr. Joan Jacobs Brumberg, a professor of history and women's studies at Cornell University, addressed a standing-room-only crowd in Dodds Auditorium on "From Corsets to Body Piercing: How History and Culture Shape the Experience of American Girls." This year's student/faculty luncheons and dinners have engaged well over 150 students. February's Latina Education Roundtable brought together prominent Hispanic women in education, business, and government to spend an afternoon with students. Our alumnae mentoring program matched 30 undergraduate women with 30 alumnae for one-on-one relationships. And in March (Women's History Month) we staged Singular Women, a major theatrical production.
Many of these programs were initiated by students who have found the Women's Center to be supportive of their vision of contemporary women's issues at Princeton. The Women's Center will continue to play that role, encouraging undergraduate and graduate students to embrace their identities as women, women of color, and lesbian or bisexual women.
We invite Ms. Trivedi (and other interested alumnae and students) to join our listserv by sending their e-mail addresses to womenctr@princeton.edu. We'll show them what's happening for women on campus, help them explore what it means to be a woman at Princeton, and maybe even throw in a little of what Ms. Trivedi calls "overt feminism." The voices she cites make it clear there is room and need for Princeton women to continue to create some traditions of their own.
Susan Overton
Director, Women's Center
Princeton, N.J.
Re the March 24 Notebook article on how donor Gordon Wu '58's business problems have affected the endowment: Anyone who thinks there is no connection between Wu's $100-million pledge to Princeton and Princeton's investment in his company is showing an excess of regard for dear old P. That warm feeling of insider knowledge has led many an investor astray.
As to that investment, in a $5.6 billion endowment there will always be a number of crap shoots, but really -- $93 million! And regarding Wu's statement, "The game ain't over till it's over," everyone makes mistakes when investing, but the first lesson is to sell your losers and let your winners run. A drop from $93 million to $18 million (and now probably lower) is a big number. Was someone too embarrassed to run for the exit?
John T. Stinson '52
Baltimore, Md.
I am looking for alumni who are carpenters, builders, contractors -- or otherwise involved in the building trades -- for a future story in paw. If you are in the business or know an alumnus/a who is, please contact me: 609-258-4887; federici@princeton.edu; 194 Nassau St., Suite 38, Princeton, NJ 08542.
Kathryn Federici Greenwood
Staff Writer, PAW
Princeton, N.J.
In his January 27 Opinion piece on the controversy surrounding the faculty appointment of bioethecist Peter Singer, Professor Robert George rightly advocates fair representation. So as one of a few leftist-progressives foolish enough to continue reading paw, let me set the record straight with regard to the Singer debate. What is at stake in abortion rights is not the killing of "imperfect" babies but women's rights and the rights of the poor.
As a progressive, an academic, and a minority, I believe that George's perceived minority status as a conservative in the academy, and especially at Princeton, is illusory at best. Has he forgotten about the continuing backlash against affirmative action and last year's purging of queer faculty from Duke's English department? The real minorities continue to be women, sexual and racial minorities, and the poor -- the same people who have dropped out of this and other Princeton debates.
E. Cameron Scott '93
Austin, Tex.
The quotation from Associate Professor Miguel Centeno on the February 24 Table of Contents page misspelled his name, a mistake that was picked up and repeated in several letters to the editor that appeared in our March 24 issue; we regret the error. Also in that issue, we said that the men's lacrosse team has won six national titles since 1992; the correct number is five.
A photo caption in the January 27 issue stated that Bill Bours III '39 attended 69 consecutive Princeton-Yale football games between 1928 and 1998, allowing for the one game not played, in 1944. Of course, the correct number is 70 (sloppy arithmetic on our part).
In Michael W. Klein '87's February 24 First Person about his thesis, the writer's biographical statement should have said that his employer is the New Jersey State College Governing Boards Association.
Our December 16 article on Trustee Marsha Levy-Warren '73's course on adolescence said this was the first such course she had taught at Princeton; Hope Bodie '94 informs us that Levy-Warren had taught a similar course in the early 1990s.
Regarding a November 18 Notebook item about an exhibit of prints by Aubrey Beardsley, Henry D. Knower '54 informs us that the 19th-century artist could not possibly have enjoyed the patronage of Sir Thomas Malory, who lived in the 15th century.
Captions in our November 4 cover story misidentified the classes of novelists Jesse Lynch Williams 1892 and Frederick Buechner '47.
Our October 7 Notebook article on new trustees gave the wrong class affiliation for Janet M. Clarke '75.
The Editors
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