Friday, February 4, not.

levine, Woods Discuss inconsistency
In Policy on Restrictions, Freedom

To the Editor:

it appears to us that there are
A number of inconsistencies in
regard to certain social rules at
Gl'lllnell. On the one hand the coir
loge purports to develop respon-
sibility in its students and on the
other hand shows a distrust of
their own Judgment by imposing
lnany unwarranted restrictions

For example, we are regularly
allowed open dorms for only three
hours on Sunday afternoons. Why
so infrequently? We regard open
dorms as not only an occasion for
couples to be alone but also as an
opportunity for groups of friends
to get together informally. More
open dorms would permit freer
interaction between men and
women,

Another example oi the col-
lege's failure to treat students as
mature individuals is the policy
or hours for women, reinforced by
the nightly locking of the loggia.
It' a girl is to learn to be respon-
sible in her actions she must be.
gin by determining her own re-
strictions as she has to away from
Gi‘inllell. We recognize the con-
cern for the saioty of the female
population. However, the locking
out of ‘undesirahles' should not
necessitate the locking in of the
women. Therefore we suggest
some sort of system whereby the
women are given keys to at least
one door of the loggia, so that
they may come and go at their
own discretion.

These are the most prominent

SCARLET AND BLACK

Question Letter

To the Editor:

Questions:

Could someone please tell me
what a beatnik is? Has anyone ev»
er seen a beatnik? At Grinnell
College? Has anyone ever realized
that the only beatnik was the ﬁrst
(me? Which means, of course, that
it there is a beatnik on this camp
us, we have the first beatnik west
of the Mississippi?

Why do so many people use
words that don't mean anything?

Paul R. Jones

among many rules which evidence
a failure on the part of the col-
lege to respect the students as
responsible members of the com-
munity. We feel that the college
should alter either these restric-
tions or the stated goals of a Grins
nell education.

Sue Levine

Laurie Woods

David Lighthourne

trains and rivers

I was both heartened and appalled by Sandy Mc»
Cortney Ehlers’ letter in the January let 5&3. it
was all about Grinnell as a place to “face your-
self,” but Mrs. Ehlers seems to have Grinnell con-
tused with some curiously idyllic combination of
both troglodytlc and pastoral ieatures. Thurtun
wilder once said that “the price one pays lor a love
that cannot integrate its hate is sentimentality";
think this may be the problem,

It's possible to talk about SAGA load with a can
tall] bemusemeiu, and it’s possible to look beyond
the architectural Catastrophe Called Norris Hall to
the North and see a “barn dotted Countryside." But
if this is your preoccupation, you won’t really be
facing the important issues; all you'll be facing
Wlil be some petty considerations about an institu-
tion which all too often has a penchant tor pettiness.

Mrs. Elllers writes of spending ”four years
tucked away , . . iinding what makes you tick”
and my real quarrel is this “tucked away” business
~ as if the process toward maturity were a bed-
time story told at length and at leisure, amidst a
rustle but dainty privacy out in the sticks. Shades
of Thoreau we then must be, full grown as freshmen
With nothing beiore us but the ruminations at our
sensitive hearts and introspective intellects. Mrs.
Elllers end wilbur Jenks ought to get together.

The trouble is that growing up is a definition of
oneself, is convincement of being and sexuality by
the process of mutual exclusion. We ﬁnd ourselves
by eliminating other possibilities. Fortunately or un-
fortunately, this process has become so protracted
is our socidpsycholugical time that the administra-
tion's alternative is calling a halt and allowing the
student to pout about it in a suspended state or ado-
lescence. But a committment to the process of mu-
tual exclusion is a committment to action, to an ex-
pansive son of exploration through a certain inevit-
uble amount of chaos and confusion. Resolving per-
sonal issues means the “exercise of human faculties

Photo Credits
page i: ul., b., sturgis; on, \voll
Page 3 Butt
Page a. ul., l-lodleme; u.r., willieliu
Page 5: Sturgls
P’toe e- Storms

Step Up To

m

CLOSE YOUR EYES IF YOU MUST!

This may h. the mat [honking motion piotun you have "or count

at large", with passion and lust - getting on with
the whole hassle of Selfrdeflnltlon in an active, vital
way.

Consequently, anyone who has the nerve to ad-
minister a modern college must have the nerve
to tolerate conﬂict and disparity. Educatinn is no
more a function of grace and gentility than it is a
function of boredom and denial, The process of
maturatlon is, traditionally, too much for ordinary
society to take, because ordinary society, especially
in our time, usually ignores or procrastinates issues
which impatient. impulsive, garrulous youth simply
must resolve.

If this all sounds like quite a strain on your more
neat, orderly kinds oi people, the process has its cer-
tain advantages, To echo Dwight MacDonald, “The
past cultures 1 most admire have mostly been pro-
duced by communities, and remarkably small ones
at that. Also remarkably heterogeneous ones, riven
by (action, stormy wuh passionate antagonisms.”
Out of dlsparlty and multiplicity you get a contlnu-
ing atmosphere of vitality, productivtty, creativity
and fulﬁllment.

Mrs. Ehlers speaks for “the odd ones" and on
poses Mr. Schifi, but i wonder which of them knew
Grinuell oddly, as an exciting, stimulating place. I
can imagine both, perhaps, but i wonder what each
would think of a relum visit and a current impres-
sion of the Grinneli atmosphere, an atmosphere
which professors explicitly name as their reasons for
imminent departures, an atmosphere with apathetic
acceptance of a rigid social structure and a same-
ness among students. It's always been curious to
me how the more exciting and stimulating, Vital
student always manages to eventually disappear;
I've heard that the Burling boys provide free lifts
to the bus station. Meanwhile, it i may be permitted
to speak of the absurd, 3 large segment of the
faculty seems to be horrified because the institu-
tion’s inmates have a hostile attitude toward their
cages.

SUN. Thru WED.

Continuous Sun. from 2:00

Pogo “VS

Sill-Year Thai Scholar
Writes of Spirit Cult

To the Editor:

As school in Thailand draws to
a close for another year, 1 wish
to relate to the Grinnell students
some of my experiences during
the past year and a half. During
this time I have been teaching
English at The Prince Royal‘s
College in Chiengmai. l teach 9th
grade boys. and llth and 12th
grade coeducational classes. The
teaching is quite frustrating at
times because of the poor English
foundations of some of the stu-
dents. At P.R,C., English is
taught from the second grade on,
and is a required subject. The Stu
dents study from five to eight
hours a week. The program looks
good, but the Thai educational
system allows students to pass a
whole year's work on an over-all
average. Therefore, if a student
does well in Boy Scouts, agricul-
ture,_and art, and fails English,
he still passes on to the next grade
with no foundation for the next
year’s English work.

Aside from this problem, how-
ever, the life has been very inter-
esting. It would be impossible for
me to measure the knowledge that
I have gained. At a glance, Thai-
land seems to be a fairly well Ile-
veloped country. If one only vis-
ited Bangkok, the capitol, he’d
think that he were in any big city

tour

 

with its trafﬁc problems, bl;
buildings, and commercialization.
Even in Chiengmai we see a great
deal of Western influence. In the
Lime 1 have been here, new, modi-
ei‘n hotels h ve arisen; Honda:
and automobi es have replaced bi-
cycles; translstor radios are heard
in all of the stores blaring Amer-
ican rock ’n' roll music; television.
are coming into more homes;
Western styles in clothing are re-
placing the simple Thai dress;
and men’s and women's hair styles
are copied from the latest style
magazines.

The longer one lives in Asil,
however, the more one realized
the culture is not the same as in
the West. There is a slow, tropi-
cal pace of lile. It is quite (asb-
ionahle to be late for appoint-
ments, or not to appear at all
without notice. The students arc
not used to responsibility, and or.
ganization is very unorganized.
Their attitudes toward life, death,
and sickness are quite foreign to
our way of thinking because many
of them are Buddhists. Buddhism
is the national religion.

I recently had an opportuhltz
to attend a meeting with a “spirit
medium, Most Thai believe i-

SPIRITS—
(Contlnued on Page 7)

THAI wnlsxsv. chicken and oranges make up a typical
Thai 'spirit“ ottering, pictured above. The gilt; are given
when the spirit at a dead person is eoniaetod by the living.

 

LONGHORN

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PLEASANT ATMOSPHERE

BIZARRE!

MON.-§AT. B A.M.-1I PM.
Bar Open ‘Til Midnlte
(Closed Sundays 'Til April I)

"COME lN AND SEE US"

The Longhorn

STARTLINGI

JD‘S RESYAURANT
Elevated — in my. Main, Grlunell

I ‘ -.
pioneer Bynwmuw calm nnd nears ROUSYANG rwinca EyTuM oowr
Diluted a, Enou/tﬁu iocearau -coioa ov EASTMANCULOR

 

 

 

