“Mamie i £19695". "

’ unvaried“ OF PRINCE EDWARD lSLAND

. By God you know, it’s ' hard to know just how it is you are supposed to be- have on the far side of thirty. I mean, like, how to you relate to that old business about being “as young as you fee ”.

There’s just no contempt like the sneer of some skinny twenty year old as

- he pokes his chick in the ribs and points out your middleaged girth back and forth as you stumble around to the Boo— galoo or whatever.

Just where inhell does the far side of thirty (that’s- before you get to be forty and really anc- ient) generation b el on g anyway.

A lot of the trouble was that damn Mrs. Robinson. really gorgeous middle aged broad hopping into thesack all the time with a runty guy who really turned heron.

How you react to being called Mister is a dead giveaway of course. I re- member when I was twen- ty~five and some kid call- ed me Mister it was just great. Like I still had that great confidence. Som e kid would say “Yes Sir, Mister, Right away Mis- ter”, and I’d sneak off to look at myself in the mir- rbr for ten minutes.

The Far Side of Thirty...

Then I got over thirty. That’s when you begin to- wonder whether a kid is being snotty or respectful when he calls you sir or mister. Either way you are a loser though.

Clothes are another pro- blem of course. Seems like they make everything now for guys with twenty two inch waists. You walk in- to Henderson and Cudmore and ask for a certain pair of pants and the clerk gives you one of those averted! glances. Then he suggests that he put the old tape measure around the belly.

But you aren’t having any of that crap. You know what your waist is. You can remember from

’ the last time you bought a

pair of pants. And when you come back out of the changing room you can al- ways say it’s the lousy tail- oring that won’t get the damn things around your waist.

What you get to be, on the far side of thirty is a great rationalizer. A f t er you practice awhile y ou find there is practically nothing you can’t ration- alize if you only put your mind to it.

This is known as being very reasonable 1n your

attitude. Very often you can combine the “either or’ syndrome with ration- alization, and when you’ve really got something going for you.

All this is caused by the fact that there seems to be fewer and fewer abso lutes on the far side of thirty. There seems to be a lot more on the other side of thirty and! the far side of forty or fifty.

Now all of this is by way of introduction to this column, which will sally forth each week to give vent to the ambilvalent at- titude which exists on the far side of thirty.

It’s all really a dirty trick on the part of the editor of this journalistic masterpiec e. He’s got space to fill and these col- umns are being written for nothing.‘ Monetarin that is. I

But you probably deserve it anyhow. You got the bomb, pollution and a lot of other things already. You might as well know something about how it’s going to be when. you reach the far side of thirty.

That is ——- choose one — if you are lucky ( )

unfortunate ( ) enough to get there.

GENTLEMAN’S DEGREES

Until relatively recently, most universities — includ- ing some of the most fam- ous —— gave “gentleman’s degrees”, degress that were so easy to obtain that any- one who could aflford to at- tend university couldl get one. Little harm was done because the people who took such de- grees never used them as passports to jobs, respectal» ility, etc. Such \a degree en- abled a student to pursue ex— g actly what he Wanted to pur- sue at university: women, footballs, d rin k, gambling, foxes- —— ‘ and occasionally knowledge for its own sake. He could pass the formal re- quirements for the” degree with no effort at all and de- vote his energies to some- thing thzat Wasn’t even re- cognized as a respectable aca- demic subject— theatre, art, music, sociology, English and natural science. The benefits 0f such a system probably equalled its defects.

Recently, however, all pro- fessors want their subjects to be academically above re- preach. _Home economics turns into food chemistry, Phys-Mal education into kino— 31010835 and everyone adds Dre-requisites} (yo-requisites, g e neral education require- me‘nlS, and increased entrance and exit, standards. Examin- a one and grading of one Sort or another become es- S‘enl‘cial so that, students can

process-ed and pro-graded fi” “311-9 job market. Conces- Smns are made to objections 1 the, pressure and esoecial- V130 final examinations.“ The coripessions usiially take the form 0f various kinds of

“continual evaluation”, there- by increasing the subjectiv- ity of the lecturers" judg- ments and at the same time the tyranny of the individual lecturer: “study what I, set as the syllabus, be here for every tutorial, write a paper a Week, three mid-terms, a ‘takehome’ set by me, mark- ed by me, and subject to ap- peal by me. Fit into my pat- tern of processed unit-by- unit study.”

Quite rightly, those stud— _

ents who want an education for its own sake and! who do not want to be processed to fit into the status quo of the corporate society, reject the

whole system. They demand '

the opportunity to learn with- out the paraphrenal-ia.

I propose Specifically:

a) the University admit, as an experiment, fifty students

who have the normal en- ‘

trance requirements or who have been in the University for up to four semesters and who are in good standing, to a totally unstructured form of learning.

b) these students could take any course in the University, regardless of prerequisites, co-requisites, requirem e n t s for degrees. 7

c) they would be free to at-

tend lectures and seminars, ‘

write assignments, take lab- oratories, write or not write

examinations; they w 0 ul d ‘

have full student privileges of access to lecturers, the lib- rary, the gymnasium, etc.

d) no records would be kept

of their attendance or per- formance: they would simply be give-n1 the full scope of the University for their ow n learning an d development. No degrees, certificates of art— tendance, transcripts, e to. would be kept. Individual lec- ture-rs would be free to write letters of reference.

e) these students would pay I the full normal fee, so that ' they and th e University

would not be open to the charge that they are receiv- ing more than the normal subsidy from the taxpayer. Initially they would not be

eligible for scholarships and

loans. ‘

This proposal would enable the University to provide the facilities for those students

' who want an education not a training. In time it would give the University and soc- iety the opportunity to judge the results of such an educa- tion. .It would also be a test of the sincerity of those who claim that they want to opt out of the system of rewards and- to obtain an education for its own sake.

How would we judge the success or failure of such an “experiment”? It would be difficult, but after three or four years, we would have the opinions of the students themselves, of lecturers, and of other students, We might also have some visible results — books, scientific results, etc.

(Editor’s note: This article Was left on our doorstep. We do)not know who the author is.

PAGE 5

A funny thing happened in the

‘ Peruvian ” jungle

Some years ago, an adventurous individual from The Coca-Cola

Company pushed his way a hundred and fifty miles into thejungle outside Lima, Peru. His mission, for promotional purposes, was to introduce Coca-Cola to the primitive Indians.

Deep in the bush, he flushed a likely—looking woman, and, through his interpreter, explained his errand, where- upon the woman reached into a sack she was carry- ing and neatly plucked forth a bottle of Coke, and offered him a swig. Strange to think that, even in the depths of the Peruvian jungle, things go better with the taste of Coke.

Both Coca-Cola.and Coke are registered trade marks which identify only the product of Coca-Cola Ltd.

, J. & T. MORRIS LTD. 96 KENSINGTON RD. CHARLOTTETOWN. P. E. l.

ghe Restaurant.

IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS AGAIN

U. P. E. I. STUDENTS ALWAYS WELCOME

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