+zp ibat l&^ ib 







OCT. 1 2 1995 



/ 




SEP 2 



1 1**3 






\/w /SfV- 



# 



/. '<* 



WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 



REVI] 

Published by \p% O *5> 

^EORGI A C(ffi,BGE 



co 




y4 />ii7 o/ //ze University Systei^p&f G 
CARROLLTON, GEORGIA 




WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 



Fo/M/ne A'F/ 



Afay, 7954 



WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 
J* 

REVIEW 

Volume XVI May, 1984 



TABLE 

OF 

CONTENTS 



Myth, the Minataur, and Morris's The Field of Vision 
Adelyn Fullerton 1 

Population Change in the Chattahoochee-Flint Region of Georgia 
Dick G. Winehell 9 

Mind as Holographic Process: Psychic Dreams Explained 

David Ryback 16 

Symbols as 'Delirious Phenomena': 

A Short Phenomenology of Symbol Use 

Marc C. LaFountain 23 

Support Groups for Grieving Persons 

Pick Conner 29 

Understanding the Structure of Human Experience: 
Contrasting Approaches 
J, J. Barrell 35 

Abstracts of Master's Theses and Specialist in 

Education Projects 39 



Copyright  1984. West Georgia College 
Punted in U.S.A. 



\ 



Published by 
WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 



Maurice K. Townsend, President 
John T. Lewis, III, Vice President and Dean of Faculties 



Learning Resources Committee 
Daniel Juengst, Chairman 



Charles Beard 
Ozzie Binion 
Wayne Kirk 
Marc LaFountain 
Myrna Ness 



Robert Reynolds 

Elmo Roberds 

Richard Sanders 

Carole Scott 

Charles Scudder 



Jimmy C. Stokes, Editor 
Martha A. Saunders, Associate Editor 
Marc J. LaFountain, Assistant Editor 



The purpose of this publication is to provide encouragement for faculty 
research and to make available results of such activity. The Review, 
published annually, accepts original scholarly work and creative writing. 
West Georgia College assumes no responsibility for contributors' views. 
The style guide is Kate L. Turabian's, A Manual for Writers. Although the 
Review is primarily a medium for the faculty of West Georgia College, 
other sources are invited. 

An annual Bibliography includes doctoral dissertations, major recitals 
and major art exhibits. Theses and articles in progress or accepted are not 
listed. A faculty member's initial listing is comprehensive and appears in 
the issue of the year of his employment. The abstracts of all master's theses 
and educational specialist's projects written at West Georgia College are 
included as they are awarded. 



MYTH, THE MINOTAUR, AND MORRIS'S 
THE FIELD OF VISION 

by Adelyn Fuller ton* 

In 1948 Wright Morris described part of the role of the contemporary 
novelist as "an endless and heartbreaking search for an unstated myth." 1 
His own novel The Field of Vision (1956), though, is a reader's delight 
because he has found an instructive mythology and utilized it impressively. 
Critics have recognized and discussed quite thoroughly his use of the Great 
American Myths of the Frontier and the Wilderness, as well as his use of 
mythic Success figures Davey Crockett and Ty Cobb. They have neglected, 
however, two levels of myth which Morris develops extensively. The first is 
his use of classical Mycenaean mythological allusions, in particular his use 
of the tale of the Minotaur; the second is his use of the device of mythic 
location 2 which creates a mythic aura about the setting of the entire novel 
and invests it with a symbolic meaning. These two levels of myth form a 
complex aspect of Wright Morris's novel, interlacing characters, their 
moments of action, and the overall message in a stimulating fashion. 

Although Morris does not force the action, the characters, and the 
message of his book into a rigid mold based upon the Mycenaean myth of 
the Minotaur, he does allude to it often enough so that it becomes a 
prominent thread throughout the book. This tale is based upon the family 
of King Minos of Crete. 3 When Minos was trying to gain the throne, he 
asked for a sign from Poseidon to authenticate his claim upon the crown. 
Poseidon sent it in the form of a magnificent white bull which he assumed 
Minos would gratefully offer as a sacrifice to his benefactor. Minos, 
however, was so awed by the bull that he added it to his personal royal herd 
and sacrificed instead another good bull. While King Minos was away at 
war, Poseidon took revenge on Minos for this disrespectful slight and 
arranged for Pasiphae, Minos's wife, to be seduced by the bull. The 
offspring of their union was monstrous, a male child with a human body 
but the head and tail of a bull. Eventually this monster, called the 
Minotaur or Asterios, became a threat to the community and was hidden 



* Instructor of English. West Georgia College 

'Cited by David Madden. Wright Morris (New Haven: College and University Press. 1964). p. 47. 

-'Professor Da r re I Abel used this special terminology during a Hawthrone seminar at Purdue University, 
Spring 1974 For him. the term "mythic location" is a somewhat more general term which could include the 
world navel of Joseph Campbell, to be mentioned later in the paper, but would go beyond it to include any 
place w it h special properties - - that is. invested w it h or haunted by symbolic meaning - - such as a cave, a 
mountain top. a lake area, a garden, and so forth. 

'This summary of the myth of the Minotaur is based upon material from Joseph Campbell, The Hero 
With A Thousand Faces. 2d ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, Bollingen Series Paperbacks, 
1972). pp. 13-15. 2.1-25: C. Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks ( London: Thames and Hudson, 1951), pp. 109- 
II. 260-70; and Martin P. Nilsson, The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology (1932; rpt. Berkeley: 
University of California Press. 1972), pp. 169, 171, 176. 

1 



away in an incredibly complex labyrinth designed by the royal master 
craftsman, Daedalus. Children brought to Crete as spoils of war from 
other lands were used to feed the Minotaur. (The historical base for this 
part of the myth comes from the fact that Minoans were fond of the 
bullfight which had become a popular and probably profane 
entertainment  rather than a religious one as proposed by some current 
myth experts  and young captives of war were often forced to train to 
perform with and/ or fight the bulls just as Roman captives would later be 
trained as gladiators. 4 ) One day, however, Ariadne, Minos's daughter, was 
moved to bring an end to this situation. She loved the handsome youth 
Theseus who, with other Athenian youths, was headed for doom in the 
labyrinth of the Minotaur. After making him promise to take her away as 
his wife, Ariadne provided Theseus with a skein of thread by which he 
could retrace his route to the exit after he had killed the Minotaur. Some 
later versions of the story say that she provided him with a radiant crown 
by which the labyrinth was so fully illuminated that the wearer could see 
his way out. 5 Either way, Theseus, with Ariadne as accomplice, killed the 
Minotaur and escaped from the labyrinth. 

Morris primes his reader for allusions to this myth early in the book. He 
compares the bullring to the Roman Coliseum 6 which suggests 
immediately the classical world and the realm of myth. When Morris 
introduces the character Gordon Boyd, he identifies him with a family 
appropriately named "Crete" (37). In fact, Boyd even wears the hand-me- 
down "clothes of the Crete boy" (108), and Mrs. Crete shares with Boyd 
"the Gods in her pantheon" (108). And if that is not enough to implant the 
idea of mythic possibilities in most readers' minds, the word CRETE is 
emblazoned on the local hometown lumberyard fence (103). All of these 
references nudge the reader into a frame of mind which is receptive to the 
Mycenaean mythology Morris uses as lumber to construct his novel. 

Numerous direct and indirect references to the Minotaur abound in the 
book. Needless to say, the bulls which the matadors fight reflect the theme 
of the confrontation of bull and human throughout. For instance, after his 
playful confrontation with the little fawn-colored bull, Boyd compares his 
actions to those of Theseus, describing himself as "the gray haired youth 
who slew the Minotaur with a squirt of pop" (101). The heroism involved 
here is not on as grand a scale as classical mythology necessitates, but then 
that's the only kind of heroism Boyd is capable of at the time. Dr. Lehmann 
also sees a Minotaur, but his is personified by Mr. Scanlon. Lehmann 
describes himself as staring into "the sightless eyes of the Minotaur. Half 

4 Nilsson, Mycenaean Origin, p. 176. 

Mbid.. p. 175. 

Wright Morris, The Field of Vision (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Bison Book. 1974). p. 12. 
Further references to this book will be noted parenthetically in the text and will refer to this same edition. 



man, half myth, the emerging God, dream-haunted, gazed toward the light 
with eyes in which the pupils had not been drilled" (63). Here Scanlon's 
refusal to confront the modern world around him with its absence of 
frontier challenges has made him blind to reality. In the process he has 
become a frightening monster to his family, capable of subverting the 
sensibility of his small great-grandson so completely that the child risks the 
loss of meaningful life, just as the mythic Minotaur consumed the lives of 
captive children. Of course by the end of the book, Boyd, the Theseus, has 
confronted and been victorious over more than just the Minotaur in the 
form of the fawn-colored bull; he has also seduced little Gordon away from 
the M inotaur Scanlon and his frontier ethos. These two specific references 
to the M inotaur legend, then, work together and tease readers to look for 
more. 

Other allusions to the Minotaur are more metaphorical. The 40,000 
people at the bullfight, Boyd suggests, have an equal number of personal 
"monsters, half man, half beast" (59) which they must confront in their 
own version of the bullfight. Dr. Lehmann recalls his first bullfight when, 
at the moment of truth in the ritual, he wasconfouned by the "image of the 
man as part of the bull" (73). Somewhat later, he has an even more vivid 
impression of this merging of man and bull during the ritual and observes, 
". . . at that moment man and bull were one. The youth seemed to grow out 
of the bull's neck and shoulders, ... a living centaur, the archetypal man 
growing out of the beast" (113-14). These same centaur impressions are 
experienced even earlier, but less explicitly by Boyd (58). Indeed, the 
Minotaur was not a centaur; the Minotaur had a man's body with a bull's 
head and tail, whereas the centaur had the body and legs of a horse and the 
head, trunk, and arms of a man. The principle of both is basically the same, 
nevertheless: two different beings merge into one new mythic creature. The 
centaur idea, then, becomes Morris's complementary twist on the basic 
Minotaur theme. 

In addition to suggesting that Scanlon is the Minotaur and Boyd the 
Theseus figure, the novel also allows a metaphorical equation between 
Lois McKee and Minos's wife, Pasiphae. The paternity of Lois's children, 
n particular son Gordon, is figuratively open to question because the 
.-hildren seem so unlike her husband, Walter McKee. Of course the novel 
does not suggest that Lois literally had children by anyone other than 
McKee, not in the supposedly literal fashion that Pasiphae bore the 
Minotaur as a result of the consummation of her lust for the white bull of 
Poseidon. Nor does Lois's son Gordon grotesquely resemble someone 
other than McKee in the literal way that the Minotaur had some of the 
physical characteristics of his sire, the bull. Yet Lois is strongly attracted to 
Boyd, just as Pasiphae was attracted to the bull. ". . . Her body . . . knew" 
^36) strong desire, and when Boyd kissed Lois on the porch thirty years 



earlier, she was "drunk on Jove's nectar" (90) and hopelessly "bewitched" 
(92), in fact "swept off her feet, and . . . never . . . quite the same again" 
(182). Her dream, complete with collapsing bed, gives her the feeling of at 
least a spiritual consummation with Boyd, if not more than that, because 
"somewhere she had once read in the Reader's Digest of girls who thought 
that a kiss might give them a baby  but it was not at all as silly or as 
strange as some people seemed to think. Not one of them had been kissed 
by a man like Boyd" (183). 

Is "MAMA'S SLIP . . . SHOWING" (216)  that is, is Mama Lois's 
sexual indiscretion with Boyd, whatever its nature, manifest in her son 
Gordon  as McKee's postcard suggests? McKee's choice of tourist 
postcards may not have been a carefully reasoned one, but it reveals the 
workings of his subconscious mind as it drives for the truth, an inadvertent 
slip that belies his nagging fear of his wife's infidelity. Boyd himself 
interacted with Walter and Lois's children "like they were his kids" (74), 
and young son Gordon shows a passion for Gordon Boyd that he has never 
shown for anyone else (176). Walter McKee "had the damdest sort of 
feeling . . . the boy was really Gordon's after all" (174). Even the son 
Gordon seems confused about his parentage, and "right from the first he 
didn't really know who he was" (172). Of course by the end of the book, 
Boyd has figuratively proclaimed his paternity of the grandson Gordon by 
luring the boy away from the traditions of Scanlon and McKee. "'You're 
too late . . .'" he announces to the disturbed Walter. "'Whose boy you think 
he is?'" (246). Son and Grandson Gordon, like the Minotaur, are indeed a 
visible slip in the expected order. Morris teases the reader into accepting 
almost literally his description of Lois as "the chaste virginal mother of 
three sons and nine grandchildren. All by divine compensation, 
miraculous birth ..." (54). 

Boyd arouses feelings of lust in Lois, then, just as Poseidon's white bull 
aroused Pasiphae. Lois's husband McKee is a decidedly less virile man 
who tends to perpetuate his wife's usual iceberg tendencies; he is a Minos 
who stayed away at the wars too long and was not able to satisfy his wife or 
somehow prevent the conception of the Minotaur child. From the 
beginning, Boyd is the virile, phallic man who, unlike McKee, fails to be 
responsible for his unzipped fly ( 1 6). The giant Pepsi bottle in the middle of 
the bullring makes Walter only smile in recognition of its phallic 
appearance (20); a Pepsi bottle in Boyd's hands, though, becomes an 
extension of his penis, conjures up memories of childhood urination rituals 
that border on the erotic (54), and masters the fawn-colored bull. Boyd was 
the man who "got the girls in trouble" (195) while McKee stood by "like a 
wooden Indian" (34) and permitted Boyd to deprive him of the first kiss 
from Lois. 



Walter McKee 's sexual inadequacy stems from that initiation ritual 
during which Walter shot a hog for his uncle in Texas. The ear of corn, 
strategically placed in McKee's fly to attract the hog, "stuck out in the air 
like something else" (132). The onlookers "hooted" at the sight, and 
McK.ee was convinced that even the hog "laughed himself to death"( 133) 
over McKee's maize phallus. He felt as processed as the hog that day, and 
figuratively McKee's penis must have been one of the "soft parts" (132) 
boiled down with the hog's innards. Over thirty years later, Boyd's 
"amused smile" (246) sends chills through McKee's pelvic zone, for he 
realizes that Boyd and everyone else know that he is basically an impotent 
man. He can buy endless cigars and bull horns (249-50), each an artificial 
phallus, but still, when he gets back into the car with them, no one is 
impressed, least of all Lois (250). It is true that Walter McKee actually 
killed the hog while Boyd only figuratively kills a bull in the bullring, but 
then Boyd is skilled at killing "woodpeckers" (24), and a wood pecker is 
precisely what Walter McKee has. McKee is too much like his son's steers 
-"no fight," no sexual drive ( 1 30) - - completely the opposite of the mythic 
white bull sent by Poseidon. 

All of the above suggest that Wright Morris is counting on readers to 
know the main figures in the classical M inotaur myth, just as he is counting 
on them to appreciate his use of mythic locality  a deliberately selected 
setting invested with symbolic meanings because of its special properties. 
On one level, that setting suggests the Minotaur tale also because it is both 
physically and psychologically a labyrinth. The structure that houses the 
bullring is designed so that tunnels lead into the center of the arena to the 
actual bullring (53, etc.) just as tunnels led to the center of the Minotaur's 
labyrinth. I n the actual bullring, as well as more metaphorically among the 
spectators, "invisible zones . . . were meant to stylize and limit the action" 
(58); likewise, the passages of the intricate labyrinth constructed by 
Daedalus literally limited the action of any unfortunate wanderer. Even 
more overwhelming in the novel, though, are the psychological labyrinths 
which face those who would wander through the psyche. Dr. Lehmann 
expresses well Theseus's escape strategy, but in reverse, as he describes 
what any psychotherapist must do: "One had to take the ends of a frazzled 
string ... and follow them back ... to the heart of the labyrinth" (63). 
Likewise, for Lehmann, exploring the mind of Paula Kahler was a little 
ike being in a labyrinth because "these echoing corridors would go on 
mdlessly" (75). Indeed Lehmann concludes that the key to the psyche is "at 
he heart of the labyrinth" (120) of the mind. Even Scanlon had been 
werwhelmed by the labyrinth of technology that defied his early 19th 
:entury mentality and he could only turn his back on the symbol of 
echnological progress, the maze of railroad tracks that "were tangled like 
nop strings" (224). 



Other references to the labyrinth pick up on the idea of its darkness and 
the later version of the tale which suggests that Ariadne rescued Theseus by 
giving him an illuminating crown of light to see his way out. As the 
darkness of evening fills the bullring, the spectators cry out for light ( 1 79, 
206) so they can see the completion of the struggle of matador and bull. 
Lehmann describes this as "the inscrutable impluse . . . reaching for the 
light" (204). He gives as the reason for this demand an interest in self- 
preservation, for "in the fading light one could hardly be sure whether it 
was man or beast. One could not be too careful. Dusk in the windy 
labyrinth" (200). And when he envisions the incredible processes of his 
own or any human mind, he pictures it as "a labyrinth of lights ... A milky 
way in a rhythmic cosmic dance, evolving and dissolving, assembling and 
dissembling"(203). The ideal way, then, to survive the labyrinth, whether it 
is literal or psychological, is to demand, to hope for, as much light as 
possible so the intricacies of the maze or mind can be fully appreciated and 
successfully negotiated. 

In addition to alluding to the mythic labyrinth of the Minotaur, The 
Field of Vision suggests a mythic location where heroic transcendence can 
occur. In The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell calls such a 
spot "the world navel," 7 the " axis mundi, "the "Immovable Spot, ""around 
which the world may be said to revolve. " x Under the surface of this spot is 
an abundance of pro-life energies. The special realm usually includes a tree 
of life and an unceasing spring of water. Marked elevation often 
characterizes the spot. There the cosmic person, "the hero as the 
incarnation of God is himself the navel of the world, the umbilical point 
through which the energies of eternity break into time." 9 This world navel, 
existing in timelessness, becomes "the symbol of the continuous creation: 
the mystery of the maintenance of the world through that continuous 
miracle of vivification which wells within all things." 10 Campbell talks 
about a "transcendence" 11 that is beyond good and evil in the same way 
Wright Morris talks about transformation, the key word of his novel's 
message. 

At one point Morris's character Boyd echoes Campbell and calls the 
bullring "the sanded navel of the world" (59), around which 40,000 
spectators cluster for a significant experience. He calls the ring variously 
"this golden eye ... a mirror, . . . like the hub caps" of "a crazy goddam 
world" (59). Here la suerta supretna, the moment of truth (61), can be 
continually recreated. Even McK.ee knew that "if you got as many people 

Campbell. I he Hero. pp. 411-45. 
"Ibid., p 41 
"Ibid. 
'"Ibid 
"Ibid . p 44 



as there were . . . sitting around a little hole in the ground ... it just 
naturally followed that something would happen" (15). Of course, in the 
strictest sense, the bullring does not fit Campbell's specifications for a 
world navel. Despite Mexico's general elevation which causes Lois to have 
altitude sickness, the bullring itself is actually the inversion of an elevated 
spot, deep like a "wooden bowl" (9), ultimately providing the drain, the 
link to the core of the earth and its energies. There is no tree, only that giant 
Pepsi bottle, and there is no water, although McKee feels the potential for 
such is there (15). There is one hero, along with 40,000 potential heroes. 
Like all bullfighters, Morris's matador enacts a "parable of life" with 
"allegorical elements" (31, 32). Dr. Lehmann revels in its special 
properties, for here at the bullring "he saw it clearer . . . than anywhere else . 
. . A transformation ... the commonplace miracle of everyday life"(75). In 
short, the mythic properties and their transcendent potentials are 
abundant. 

Wright M orris uses two interesting allusions to describe and clarify what 
happens in the bullring world navel. On one occasion, he describes the 
young bullfighter as having "his eyes wide with the wine of astonishment" 
(114), and on a later occasion he describes the "astonished" (199) look of 
the bull who is just then piecing together what has happened to him. 
Morris suggests here Psalms 60:3 - "Thou has shewed thy people hard 
things: thou has made us to drink the wine of astonishment." 12 The 
bullring, then, is the world navel, the mythic location where difficult 
lessons are forced upon all true participants, and many times the 
enlightenment is amazing. The second allusion Morris makes is to T.S. 
Elliot's "Burnt Norton" (1943) and the poem's "still point" idea. 13 In the 
bullring, Morris notes, the matador bravely stands fast as the bull circles, 
"creating a vortex, a still point where he stood alone with himself" (1 1 1). 
Some pages later Morris abstracts that image into the partly psychological 
realm to describe "words wheeling around the still point, the dance, the 
way the bull wheeled around the bullfighter, the way the mind wheeled 
around the still point on the sand . . . "(193). The most obvious use of Elliot 
comes in the same section just noted: "The bull could understand 
movement but not its absence, the man could understand both movement 
and its absence, and in controlling this impulse to move, the still point, he 
dominated the bull. Except for the still point there would be no dance" 
(192). The still point of the bullring is synonymous with the sanded navel, 
the world navel, and all are part of the mythic locality. T.S. Elliot, Joseph 
Campbell, and Wright Morris see this mythic location as one that 



'The Oxford Annotated Bible: Revised Standard Version, Eds. Herbert G. May and Bruce M.Met/ger 
(New York: Oxford University Press, l%2). 

"See lines 64-71 and 77-SO of the poem. Also. J.C. Wilson traces the "still point" images in "Wright 
Morns and the Search for the 'Still Point'." in Prairie Schooner 49 (Summer 1975). 154-63. 



produces, as the Psalmist observed, new awareness and understanding, 
sans time and place in the usual sense, for time, including past and future, 
converge for an ultimate experience in human understanding and 
transformation. The bullring  the world navel, the still point  is the 
place for the true hero to be shown reality, the place to experience the 
astonishment of understanding. 

The bullring, at one level the Minotaur's labyrinth, is the novel's central 
mythic location, but there are others that qualify, at least to one degree or 
another, as mythic location. These include Boyd's sandpit, as well as his 
world of rainbarrels and clapboard houses (103); Paula Kahler's YMCA 
room with its "eternal moment" ( 1 18-20); the summer sleeping porch of 
Lois's earlier years (180-82); and Scanlon's Lone Tree community hotel 
(217-24). In its own way, each of these places has special properties that 
contribute to a symbolic meaning, even though it is not presented in a 
sufficiently elaborate form to qualify as a still point for the novel as a 
whole, as does the bullring. 

Ideally the message of The Field of Vision provides for the reader such a 
moment of new understanding. The message grows out of the labyrinth 
that Wright Morris has constructed. After intricately weaving the story 
together from the differing perspectives of his main characters, Morris 
allows the reader to follow threads  unifying mythic themes  through 
the maze of the novel to the heart of his ideas. The myth of the Minotaur 
pursued in his labyrinth sheds light on the message, just as the use of 
mythic location in general allows readers the opportunity to see the novel's 
meaning growing organically from the central energy of the work. By using 
these mythic elements, Wright Morris has brought light to illuminate the 
labyrinth of his book. As readers step back from Morris's milky way, out 
of which came The Field of Vision, they can only admire his evolving and 
assembling of myth. 



POPULATION CHANGE IN THE CHATTAHOOCHEE- 
FLINT REGION OF GEORGIA 

by Dick G. Winchell* 

Many rural areas of the United States have experienced renewed growth 
during the past decade, following years of population loss or stagnation. 
Studies of this growth have focussed on County population data and leave 
the impression that this growth is evenly distributed within rural areas. 
Detailed analysis of Bureau of Census information can provide a clearer 
picture of the patterns of population change in rural areas. This study 
examines population change in the Chattahoochee-Flint (Chatt-Flint) 
region of Northwest Georgia which includes Carroll, Coweta, Heard, 
Meriwether and Troup counties (Figure 1). The prupose of this study is to 
identify patterns of population change within the Chatt-Flint region, 
emphasizing changes of population in and around cities and towns of the 
region. 

The Bureau of Census provides population data for a variety of census 
units. The units selected for use in this study include: counties; 
incorporated cities and Census Designated Places (CDPs); and Census 
County Divisiosn (CCDs). County population is self-explanatory. 
Incorporated cities are municipal units incorporated under state laws, 
while CDPs are closely settled population centers without corporate 
limits. The census identifies incorporated cities and CDPs as urbanized 
areas if their population is greater than 1,000.' Although the use of this 
terminology for many of the smaller communities within the study area 
may be stretching the limits of urbanized areas, this census definition will 
be utilized. 

Georgia is one of twenty states to use CCDs. CCDs are areas that have 
been designated by the Census Bureau working with state and local 
officials. They include all urbanized areas within a county and the 
surrounding rural lands for which those urbanized areas serve as trade 
centers. 2 The use of CCD data makes possible a detailed analysis of 
population change within counties, although direct comparison with 
earlier census data (i.e., before 1970) is not possible. In addition to the 1980 
CCD data, however, the 1980 Census Reports do provide an estimate of 
subtracting the population of the city or CDP from the CCD, the changes 
in the surrounding rural areas can be determined. This population will be 
termed CCD rural portion. 



* Assistant Professor of Geography, West Georgia College 

'Bureau of Census. U.S. Census of Population, 1980, Number of Inhabitants: Georgia, Final Report 
PC80-I-AI2, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1982, p. A-2. 

-'Bureau of Census, U.S. Census of Population, 1980, Number of Inhabitants: Georgia. Final Report 
PC80-I-A-I2. Government Printing Office, Washington. 1982, p. A^l. 



FIGURE MTHE CHATTAHOOCHEE 
FLINT REGION 

i """"~1 

| VILLA RICA 



. VII L. H RIV.M | 

1 

I TEMPLE 



r 
\ 

\ 



MOUNT ZION 

_C ARROLLTON 

BOWOON 

CARROLL 

WHITESBURG 
ROOPVILLE 




\ 

\ 

1 

I 

 FRANKLIN, 




\ 



\ 



HEARD 



LAGRANGE 



\ ^JNTVILLE 



GREE NV/ILLE 



MERIWETHER 



; i_. 



s 

SCALE IN MILES 



SOURCE : CHATT- FLINT A.PO.C 



PREPARED BY: G. D. FRISBEE 



County Population Change 

The counties within the study area had an average growth rate of 6.8 
percent from 1960 to 1970 and 17.9 percent from 1970 to 1980 (Table 1). 
Carroll County had the highest and most persistant growth rate at over 
twenty-four percent in each decade. Although Coweta County and Heard 
County had slower rates of growth from 1960 to 1970, both had growth 
rates exceeding twenty percent between 1970 and 1980. Population change 
showed a dramatic turnaround in Meriwether and Troup Counties, both 
of which lost population between 1960 and 1970 but gained approximately 



10 



ten percent from 1970 to 1980. The rapid and continued growth of Carroll 
County, followed by Coweta and Heard Counties, may reflect, in part the 
expansion of Atlanta and its associated urban development. 

TABLE 1 

Population Change for Chattahoochee-Flint Counties, 1960-1980 





1960 


% Change 
1970 from 1960 


% Change 
1980 from 1970 


Carroll County 


36,451 


45,404 


24.6 


56,346 24.1 


Coweta County 


28,893 


32,310 


11.8 


39,268 21.5 


Heard County 


5,333 


5,354 


0.4 


6,520 21.8 


Meriwether County 


19,756 


19,461 


(1.5) 


21,229 9.1 


Troup County 


47,189 


44,466 


(5.8) 


50,003 12.4 


Total 


137,622 


146,995 


6.8* 


173,366 17.9* 



Percent change for the total population. 

SOURCE: Bureau of Census, U.S. Census of Population, 1980, Number of Inhabitants: 

Georgia, Final Report PC80-I-A12, Government Printing Ofc, Washington, 1982, Table 4. 



Population Change in Urbanized Areas 

Fourteen incorporated cities and census designated places are located in 
the Chatt-Flint study area which meet the census definition of an 
urbanized area. The average growth rate for these urbanized areas was 5.5 
percent from 1960 to 1970 and only 3.7 percent from 1970 to 1980 (Table 
2). These averages are less than County growth already described. 

The urbanized areas of Carrollton, Mt. Zion, Whitesburg, Franklin and 
Greenville were the group having the most rapid growth rates between 
1960 and 1970, each with growth rates exceeding twenty percent. The 
urbanized areas of Grantville, Newnan and LaGrange actually declined in 
population during this period. 

For the decade from 1970 to 1980 only Mt. Zion and Temple 
experienced rapid population increases at rates exceeding seventy percent, 
but these large percentage increases no doubt reflect their small initial 
populations. Most urbanized areas during this decade experienced no 
growth or only slight growth. Villa Rica lost population during this period, 
declining 1 1 .7 percent, as did Grantville, Moreland, Senoia and Franklin, 
each of which experienced a slight decline of less than two percent. 
Urbanized areas within the study area essentially stopped growing at a 
time when county populations were rapidly expanding. 



11 



TABLE 2 
Population Change For Chatt-Flint Urbanized Areas, 1960-80 









% Change 




% Change 




1960 


1970 


from 1960 


1980 


from 1970 


Carroll County 












Bowdon 


1,548 


1,753 


13.2 


1 ,743 


0.6 


Carrollton 


10,973 


13,520 


23.2 


14,078 


4.1 


Mt. Zion 


211 


264 


25.1 


445 


68.6 


Roopville 


203 


221 


8.9 


229 


3.6 


Temple 


788 


864 


9.6 


1,520 


75.9 


Villa Rica 


3,301 


3,837 


16.2 


3,389 


(M.7) 


Whitesburg 


366 


720 


96.7 


775 


7.6 


Coweta County 












Grantville 


1,158 


1,128 


(2.6) 


1,110 


(1.6) 


Moreland 


329 


363 


10.3 


358 


(1.4) 


Newnan 


12,169 


1 1 ,205 


(7.9) 


1 1 ,449 


2.2 


Senoia 


782 


910 


16.4 


900 


(I.I) 


Heard County 












Franklin 


603 


749 


24.2 


711 


(5.1) 


Meriwether County 












Greenville 


726 


1,085 


49.4 


1,213 


11.8 


Troup County 












LaG range 


23,632 


23,301 


(1.4) 


24,204 


3.9 


Total 


56,789 


59,920 


5.5* 


62,124 


3.7* 



* Percent change for the total urbanized area population. 

SOURCE: Bureau of Census, U.S. Census of Population. 1980, Number of Inhabitants: 
Georgia, Final Report PC80-I-AI2, Government Printing Oft. , Washington, 1982, Table 4. 



Population Change in CCDs 

The CCD populations in the study area had an average growth of 
twenty percent from 1970 to 1980 (Table 3). Only the Grantville Division 
lost population, while major city areas (Carrollton, Newnan and 
LaGrange) all increased at more than twenty percent. 

Change in population has varied within the study area for cities, 
counties and CCD's. Perhaps the most useful data is the CCD rural 
portion, which identifies the population in the rural areas immediately 
adjoining the urbanized areas (Table 4). These CCD rural portions have 
grown rapidly between 1970 and 1980, with a total growth rate of 38.2 
percent. All but four CCD rural portions (Bowdon, Roopville, Grantville 
and Greenville) experienced rates of population growth greater than 
twenty-five percent. 

12 



TABLE 3 
Population Change for Chatt-Flint Census County Divisions, 1970-80 

1970 1980 % Change 



Carroll County 


7,180 


7,948 




Bowdon Division 


7,180 


7,948 


10.7 


Carrollton Division 


23,004 


28,672 


24.6 


Mt. Zion Division 


2,786 


4,068 


46.0 


Roopville Division 


1,676 


1,690 


0.8 


Roopville Division 


1,676 


1,690 


0.8 


Temple Division 


2,590 


3,891 


50.2 


Villa Rica Division 


6,410 


7,449 


16.2 


Whitesburg Division 


1,758 


2,075 


18.0 


Coweta County 








Grantville Division 


2,273 


2,207 


(2.9) 


Moreland Division 


1,452 


1,847 


27.2 


Newnan Division 


24,845 


30,504 


22.8 


Senoia Divison 


3,740 


4,710 


25.9 


Heard County 








Franklin Division 


1,582 


2,198 


38.9 



Meriwether County 
Greenville Division 2,556 2,829 10.7 

Troup County 

LaGrange Division 31,810 36,307 14.1 

Total 113,662 136,395 20.0* 

* Percent change for the total CCD population 

SOURCE: Bureau of Census, U.S. Census of Population, 1980, Number of Inhabitants: 
Georgia, Final Report PC80-I-AI2. Government Printing Ofc., Washington, l982,Table4. 

TABLE 4 
Population Change for Rural Portion of (CDs 

1970 1980 % Change 

Carroll County 
Bowdon 
Carrollton 
Mt. Zion 
Roopville 
Temple 
Villa Rica 
Whitesburg 



13 



5,427 


6,205 


14.3 


9,484 


14,594 


53.9 


2,522 


3,623 


43.7 


1,455 


1,461 


0.4 


1,726 


2,371 


37.4 


2,573 


4,060 


57.8 


1,038 


1,300 


25.2 



1,145 


1,097 


(4.2) 


1,089 


1,489 


36.7 


3,640 


19,055 


39.7 


2,830 


3,810 


34.6 



Coweta County 
Grantville 
Moreland 
Newnan 
Senoia 

Heard County 

Franklin 833 1,487 78.5 

Meriwether County 

Greenville 1,471 1,616 9.9 

Troup County 

LaGrange 8,509 12,103 42.2 

Total Rural Area 

Population 53,742 74,271 38.2* 

* Percent change for total rural section of CCD 

SOURCE: Bureau of Census, U.S. Census of Population, 1980, Number of Inhabitants: 
Georgia, Final Report PC80-I-AI2, Government Printing Ofc., Washington, !982,Table4. 



Comparison of urbanized area growth with that of the CCD rural 
portion demonstrates that the most rapid growth within the region is 
clearly occuring in the adjoining rural areas. CCD rural portion 
population has increased at almost forty percent, while urbanized area 
populations with the exception of Mt. Zion and Temple have increased 
only slowly or, in some cases, lost population. 

The total new growth within the CCDs between 1970 and 1980 was not 
divided equally among rural and urban areas. Growth in the urbanized 
areas accounted for only 13.2 percent of all new growth in the CCDs, while 
the growth of the rural portion accounted for 86.8 percent of the total CCD 
population change (Table 5). All the rural areas except Roopville and 
Temple grew at a faster rate than the urbanized areas. Those rural areas 
surrounding the larger urbanized areas (Carrollton, Newnan, and 
LaGrange) showed the greatest proportion of CCD rural growth 
compared to urban growth. Here, the amounts of growth attributable to 
CCD rural portion were 90. 1 percent, 96.0 percent, and 79.9 percent of the 
total, respectively. In addition, CCD rural growth rates exceeded 90 
percent of the total CCD growth in the smaller urbanized areas of 
Bowdon, Whitesburg, Moreland, Senoia and Franklin. 

Conclusion 

This study has identified a more precise pattern of population growth in 
the rural areas outside the large metropolitan areas of Georgia. Than new 
growth is occuring most rapidly in rural, unincorporated portions of the 
study area and not within urbanized areas in a phenomenon which has 

14 



TABLE 5 
Comparison of Population Change Rates for 



Incorporated 


Cities and Censn 


is County D 


ivisions, 1970-1980 




Percent 


Urbanized 




Rural 




Change in Area Percent 


Percent 


Percent 




Urbanized 


of CCD 


Change in 


of CCD 




Area 


Change Rural AReas 


Changes 


Carroll County 










Bowdon 


0.6 


(1.3) 


14.3 


101.3 


Carrollton 


4.1 


9.8 


53.9 


90.2 


Mt. Zion 


68.6 


14. 1 


43.7 


85.9 


Roopville 


3.6 


57.1 


0.4 


42.9 


Temple 


75.9 


50.4 


37.4 


49.6 


Villa Rica 


(11.7) 


43.2 


57.8 


56.9 


Whitesburg 


7.6 


5.8 


25.2 


94.2 


Coweta County 










Grantville 


(1.6) 


27.3 


(4.2) 


72.7 


Moreland 


(1.4) 


(1.3) 


36.7 


101.3 


Newnan 


2.2 


4.0 


39.7 


96.0 


Senoia 


(I.I) 


1.0 


34.6 


101.0 


Heard County 










Franklin 


(5.1) 


6.2 


78.5 


106.2 


Meriwether County 










Greenville 


(H.8) 


46.9 


9.9 


53.1 


Troup County 










LaG range 


3.9 


20.1 


42.2 


79.9 


Total 




38.2 




86.8 



SOURCE: Bureau of Census, U.S. Census of Population, 1980, Number of Inhabitants: 
Georgia, Final Report PC80- 1 -A 12, Government Pringing Ofc., Washington. 1982, Table 4. 

received little attention by planners and demographers who usually 
concentrate on either rural, urban, or suburban fringes of metropolitan 
areas. The growth of the rural portions surrounding smaller urbanized 
areas may be attributable to the inability of those cities to expand their 
boundaries through annexation, to the preferences of local residents for a 
more rural life-style, or to fewer restrictions on building and development 
in these areas. Additional research is needed to identify the reasons for this 
concentration of growth in unincorporated areas and to evaluate the 
impact of such growth upon the region. 

1 would like to thank Dr. C. Gerald Sanders for his review and 
comments during the preparation of this manuscript. Funding for a 
portion of the research for this study was provided by a Faculty Research 
Grant from West Georgia College. 

15 



MIND AS HOLOGRAPHIC PROCESS: 
PSYCHIC DREAMS EXPLAINED 

by David Rvback* 

Telepathy as Holographic Transmission 

According to Karl Pribram the best model for the brain as a frequency 
analyzer is the storage of frequency information on photographic film as is 
done in holography. 1 A hologram is different from a conventional 
photograph in that a hologram contains all the information about the 
visual picture on all parts of the film. A conventional photograph portrays 
different parts of the picture on correspondingly different parts of the film. 

Of paramount importance here is a clear understanding of the 
holographic process. The following explanation by Pribram serves to 
provide an excellent overview. 

Implemented in the early 1960's, the hologram is an engineering device 
based on a mathematical invention by Dennis Gabor, who wanted to 
improve the resolution of electron microscopy. For this purpose, he 
developed a new technique of storing on film what was not the intensity of 
reflected light or transmitted light, but actually the square of the intensity 
and the relationship of a particular beam with its neighbors. It is called the 
complex conjugate of the intensity. If 1 drop a pebble into a pond, ripples 
emanate out from the place where the pebble was dropped. If 1 drop two 
pebbles, two sets of ripples form and these ripples interfere with each other. 
If 1 throw in a whole handful, there are many such ripples, and the pond is 
perturbed in a complex way that appears quite irregular. If I take a movie of 
someone throwing pebbles into a pond, and then play the movie backwards, 
I would find that 1 could reconstruct from this set of ripples the location and 
the actual image of the pebbles as they entered the water. 2 

You may need a computer to help you in this reconstruction, but by 
analyzing the movie, an exact replication of all the pebbles and the exact 
distances among them can be recreated. The intersecting ripples will look j 
like a blurry meshing of lines and curves. These are known as interference i 
waves. In order to see the image of the pebbles entering the water, the 
information in the interference waves will be decoded and represented 
through some conversion process. 

The main points to remember are, first, that since the interference 
pattern in spread out over the entire surface of the pond, any portion of the 
pond surface will give us the necessary information and, second, that the 



* Clinical Psychologist in private practice, Atlanta, Ga. 

'Karl H. Pribram. "The Holographic Hypothesis of Brain Function." In S. Grol ( Ed.) Ancient Wisdom 
and Modern Science. Albany. NY: SUNY, 1984. 167-179. 

Tbid. pp. 169-170. 

16 



movie gives us information on all events occurring in all parts of that pond 
at the moment the film was taken. 

Point one can be described by referring to the information on the film as 
being distributive, and point two by referring to the fact that a three- 
dimensional account of events is captured on a two-dimensional film. 

This second point can be seen more clearly if you imagine that at the 
moment the pebbles were tossed in the water, a frightened fish lurched 
away. 

The waves created by the fish's movement also contribute to the 
interference wave pattern on the film. And if one fish, why not two or three 
or 83? So you can see that quite a complex 3-dimensional picture can be 
obtained from a 2-dimensional film. 

If the brain does function according to the holographic principles, as 
Pribram suggests, then what significance does this haVe to the psychic 
dream process? There are actually two points of significance here. The first 
has to do with the nature of brain-to-brain transmission and the second has 
to do with the potential of the brain to process information heretofore 
considered unavailable to it. 

First, if we accept the brain as functioning according to a frequency 
modality, then it is reasonable to accept that it has the potential to function 
as a radio transmitter-receiver. This would account for mental telepathy 
except that the brain differs from an actual radio signal being transmitted 
in that the brain lacks a powerful transmitter to beam its electromagnetic 
signals. 

Carl Jung, who wrote in highly mystical terms, explained psychic 
dreams as occurring through the process of synchronicity, a form of 
coincidence shared by individuals with close psychic ties (such as family 
members). But that doesn't help us understand the process at the brain 
level. And it is that more concrete, scientific level that we are interested in 
explaining here. We want to know: What actually happens in the brain? 

Even Sigmund Freud, author of the most respected tome on dream 
interpretation, suggested the possibility of a stage of man's development 
prior to the attainment of linguistic abilities when he was able to 
communicate with his fellow man through some sort of telepathic brain- 
to-brain process in the absence of language. As language developed, mused 
Freud, this telepathic ability became overridden by speech. But it may be 
the means by which telepathic and other psychic processes take place. 
Certainly this psychic ability is not part of our culture at this point, 
therefore making it difficult for those having such experiences to find 
acceptance. 



17 



This conceptualization of modules in the brain which Eccles- 1 compares 
to radio transmitter-receiver units is not mere idle speculation. In a 
Stanford University laboratory, B. Bridgeman 4 , among others, has been 
able to simulate the precise operation of such modules on computer. The 
electrical currents produced by the firing of these modules in the brain are 
the depolarizations and hyperpolarizations (more of the latter than the 
former) that occur among the synaptic connections among hundreds of 
neurons firing in a symphonic patterned array, according to Pibram. 5 
Eccles refers to these as microstructures, while yet another researcher 
(Szentagothai) has referred to them as integrated microcircuits of 
electronics, only vastly more complicated. That these modules function as 
described here, whether they are called microcircuits or microstructures, 
has been demonstrated in the research laboratory by Rail 6 and Shepherd. 7 

Not only has Pribram 8 made a convincing argument for such periodic 
activity in the neuronal microstructure of the brain, but so have others 
such as Campbell and Robson 9 who demonstrated how the eye analyzed 
the periodic fluctuations of the intensity of light over space. 

Precognition as Intra-Cerebral Holographic Reflection 

So far we have explained the telepathic process in which brain-to-brain 
transmission and reception has been considered. This helps us to 
understand the process of psychic dreams of a telepathic nature. What 
about the process of precognitive dreams? To explore this we will need to 
change our focus for a while from brain neurophysiology to the physics of 
time and space. 

I'd like to begin this part of the discussion by quoting directly from 
Fritjof Capra's book, The Tao of Physics. 

According to relativity theory, space is not three-dimensional and time is not 
a separate entity. Both are intimately connected and form a four- 
dimensional continuum, 'space-time'. In relativity theory, therefore, we can 
never talk about space without talking about time and vice versa. 
Furthermore, there is no universal flow of time as in the Newtonian model. . . 
All measurements involving space and time thus lose their absolute 



'K. R. Popper & J. C. Eccles, The Self and Its Brain (NY: Springer-Verlag. 1977). 

4 B. Bridgeman. "Metacontrast and Lateral Inhibition", Psychological Review, 78 (1971), 528-539. 

5 KarI H. Pribram, Languages of the Brain, (Monterey. CA: Brooks/Cole. 1977, 2nd ed). 

h W. Rail, "Dendritic Neuron Theory and Dendrodentritic Synapses in a Simple Cortical System", in 
The Neurosciences Second Study Program (NY: Rockfellcr, 1970), 552-565. 

7 G. W. Shepherd, The Synaptic Organization of the Brain: An Introduction (NY: Oxford University 
Press, 1974). 

"Karl H. Pribram, Languages of the flra//7,(Englewood, Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 1971. 1st ed). Chapter 
8. 

*F. W. Campbell and J. G. Robson, "Application of Fourier Analysis to the Visibility of Gratings" 
Journal of Psysiology, 1 97 ( 1 968), 55 1 -566. 

18 



significance. I n relativity theory, the Newtonian concept of an absolute space 
as the stage of physical phenomena is abandoned and so is the concept of an 
absolute time. Both space and time become merely elements of the language 
a particular observer uses for his description of the phenomena. 10 

Now what is so interesting about this relativistic view of time is that it 
gives birth to the possibility of viewing time as travelling in either a forward 
or backward direction. 

Recall the holographic movie of the toss of pebbles into the pond from 
the First Section. Recall two other things as well: one, that an individual 
sophisticated in such matters (or a computer) could read the "movie" of 
squiggly lines and curves and read backwards in time to tell what had 
preceded the event recorded in the "movie", i.e., how many pebbles, their 
size and distance from one another. 

Two, recall that even small fragments of the "picture" would provide 
most of the information, although in a fuzzy manner. Hence, if at some 
microscopic level, some particles traveled backwards in time in some way 
originating from a holographic point of information (such as a frame from 
the movie), then this information would be carried back in time if there 
were a brain to recognize it at that earlier point in time. 

A brain is in a state most receptive to this kind of information when 
there are fewest competing stimuli, when the possessor of the brain is 
asleep. 

During sleep sensory input is minimal. The eyes are shut, the 
surrounding noise level is usually low, and the body is moving very little. 

At the cerebral cortex of the brain there is some activity, but less than in 
the waking state. Some of this activity results in dreaming. I suggest two 
sources of stimulation for dreams. One is the random firing of neurons in 
the brain in the absence of external stimulation. Just as the muscles of the 
body twitch occasionally during sleep, so will neurons and micro-circuits 
in the brain discharge spontaneously from time to time. 

The second source of stimulation for dreams comes from indications of 
strong drive from various parts of the body during sleep. If you're very 
hungry when you go to sleep, stomach contractions may be sufficiently 
active to enter the brain's subconscious until a dream brings it into 
consciousness. If you go to bed angry at your boss, the remaining tension 
in your back and arms may similarly provide sufficient stimulation to enter 
the subconscious until a dream brings it into consciousness. Ordinarily, 
these are two areas of stimulation for dream content. 

Rarely, however, a third source of stimulation may come into play. And 
that is a holographic reflection traveling backwards in time. Since there are 

'"Frit.jof Capra. The Tau of Physics, (Boulder. CO: Shambhala. 1975). 

19 



a good number of neurons and microcircuits in the brain discharging 
spontaneously these microcircuits are unusually receptive to an 
informational energy at that point of disposition to discharge. It is as if the 
hammer of the gun is cocked and the trigger becomes extremely sensitive, 
at times sufficiently sensitive to pick up minute bits of information from 
holographic reflection travelling backwards in time. 

Now a very important question is: What is the source of this holographic 
reflection? What is its point of origin? If a person dreams of her husband's 
sudden death 2,000 miles away a week before it happens, must the 
informational energy make that 2,000 mile trip? In geographical distance 
as well as time? How is it possible that such a small, fragile piece of 
information can survive such a long trip? 

The amazing answer is that the informational energy in question never 
makes that geographical trip. It only makes the trip backwards in time, but 
not in space. How is that possible? The answer is as simple as it has been 
evasive up to this time. 

The source of the informational energy is within the very brain that 
receives it. 

The woman learns of her husband's death at point B (let us say March 
20, for example), when it actually occurs. This is such a blow to her that it 
results in a great deal of emotional upset and nervous energy. Her mind or 
brain is overwhelmed and she may even go into shock. 

At this point the excess amount of nervous activity in her brain may 
provide for an occasion for some information of a holographic nature 
leaping backwards in time. It is as if the micro-circuits are overloaded (at 
the exact moment she learns of his death) and it is at this moment that a 
holographic reflection may take place. 

The information travels backwards in time until point A (March 6) when 
the woman experiences a dream of her husband's death exactly as it will 
occur two weeks from the night of the precognitive dream. 

Hence the holographic information travels backwards in time (2 weeks) 
but no distance in space (it remains within the context of her brain, 
possibly in the very same micro-circuits). 

That would help me understand how it came about that I had a very sad 
dream about my own father (about whom I very rarely dream) a few days 
before I learned of his death. As well as I could recall, the feeling emanating 
from my memory of the dream was extremely similar to my emotional 
reaction upon hearing the sad news for the first time. 

At the moment of learning of my father's death a holographic reflection 
lurned information back in time, providing sufficient stimulation to affect 
a dream a few days earlier. Those bits of information travelling backwards 

20 



in time may have remained stationary in space, perhaps within a particular 
micro-circuit of neurons, or configuration of micro-circuits. 

The implication here is that the particular micro-circuit or neuronal 
configuration in question has the capability of receiving information from 
future or past events in unlimited fashion. Even more dramatic and 
incredible is the corollary that any neuronal configuration of micro- 
circuits within the brain has that potential. This is not a novel 
consideration. In the 17th century, the man who discovered integral 
calculus, Leibnitz, proposed such a function in what he referred to as 
"monads", which were elemental aspects of nature which contained 
incorporated information about all of the universe. Like the tiny human 
cell, which incorporates genetic information about the whole body of 
which it is part within its even tinier nucleus, the monad contains within it 
the characteristic information of the universe of which it is part. This 
concept is an integral part of the holographic model. 

The micro-circuit or configuration of micro-circuits is monad-like in 
that it is the smallest configuration of neurons/ microcircuits which can 
still contain the information comprising a percept, a complex stimulation 
of the brain leading to a recognized, meaningful mental experience of 
awareness. Any less information than that might provide a feeling or an 
unclear hunch about something, but not a recognized percept. 

On occasion, a "perceptual monad" or cerebral configuration, 
sufficiently organized to provide meaningful informtion can span the 
barriers of time by capturing a holographic reflection travelling backwards 
in time, within its own structure. Although this precognitive process is 
often characterized as mystical, that is only because there is no 
understanding of the underlying process. There is no currently accepted 
model of precognition within the culture of science. As Pribram puts it: 

If we get ESP or paranormal phenomena  or nuclear phenomena in 
physics  it simply means that we are reading out of some other dimension 
at that time. In our ordinary way, we can't understand that." 

The explanation of psychic dreams in terms of the holographic process is 
decidedly a pioneering effort at this point. It is, in fact, in violoation of 
both our common sense and our conventional understanding of the laws of 
j physics. But it stretches our imagination to allow us to explore the 
unfamiliar aspects of our world and to widen the scope of possibilities of 
our understanding. 

As Professor Charles Tart of the University of California remarked on a 
nationally broadcast documentary on ESP, 



'Marilyn Kcrguson. "Karl Pribram's Changing Reality". Human Behavior, (May. 1978). 31. 

21 



The majority of the scientific community doesn't believe in the existence of 
psychic phenomena. . . The exciting thing about Psi is that, while it appears 
to violate some of our known physical laws. . . it. . . will mean we'll have a 
greatly expanded and more effective understanding of the ordinary physical 
universe. That's the challenge. That's what really is exciting. 12 



'^Charles Tart, interviewed on NOVA. PBS. January 17. I9K4. 

22 



SYMBOLS AS DELIRIOUS PHENOMENA': 
A SHORT PHENOMENOLOGY OF SYMBOL USE 

By Marc J. LaFountain* 

We dwell in what is currently referred to as the 
"information/ communication age." We know that in these times 
information and knowledge are intimately related to freedom 
(opportunity, possibility) and to power. We also know we are symbol 
users, and that symbols are central to information, knowledge, 
communication and interaction. In our typical, routine assumptionsabout 
ourselves as symbol users, however, we tend to forget or gloss over a 
variety of problems and paradoxes inherent in their use. What follows is a 
description/ inventory of some essential features of symbols in the life- 
world. 1 

On the surface, most of us realize certain problems with symbols. For 
instance, all of us have experienced the difficulty of creating or choosing 
the appropriate symbols to express ourselves, whether they be words for a 
sentence, names for an organization, or a gift for another. And likewise, we 
have all encountered the problems of interpreting the meanings of 
another's expressions. And especially in an information-based society, 
where "scientific" studies of others" attitudes and feelings abound, many of 
us have grappled with the problem of "objectively" understanding other 
people. For example, what do the Nielson Ratings actually say? What can 
statistics really say about emotions? What does one product's being 
"significantly more effective" than another product really mean? 

Beyond the surface lies another realm of more obscure and perhaps even 
more profound features of symbols and their use. In fact, one could say the 
surface problems mentioned above are constituted, in one way oranother, 
by the inventory that follows. There is no particular significance to the 
order of the presentation. Discussed are 1) the tendency of symbols 
simultaneously to express and hide phenomena, 2) an inherent distortion 



* Associate Professor of Sociology. West Georgia College 

'The "lite-world" (l.ebenswell) is a central concept in phenomenology, which concerns itself with 
desci ihing and understanding! the features and life ol consciousness, the lived-body, and human existence 
in general. In the natural attitude ol everyday life the lollowing are taken for granted without question: 
a.) the corporeal existence ol others. 

h.) that these bodies are endowed with consciousness essentially similar to my own. 
c.) thai the things in the outei world included in m\ en\ irons and that ol others are the same lor us and have 
lundamcnlally the same meanings. 

d.) that I can enter into interrelationships and reciprocal actions with others, 
e.) that I can make myscll understood to them. 

I.) that a stratified social and cultural world is historically pregiven as a frame of reference for me and 
others, indeed in a manner as taken for granted as the "natural world", and 

g.) that therefore the situation in w Inch I find myscll at any moment is only to a small extent purely created 
by mc. ( The Structure of the Life- World. A. Schut/and I . I uckmann. Evanston: Northwestern University 
Press. I97.V p.5l. 

23 



or "falseness" in symbolic communication, 3) the essential incompleteness 
of symbolic constructions, 4) the tendency of symbols to "turn into each 
other" in what Salvador Dali referred to as the "delirium of 
interpretation", and 5) a tendency of symbolic systems to "de-center" 
subjectivity by dispersing it throughout the structure of that system. 

First, symbols possess the unique and paradoxical feature of both 
expressing and hiding that which they seek to display. (The latter does not 
refer to intentional efforts to conceal.) Symbols are intended to be vessels 
that transport or threads that string together meanings, and by so doing, 
give us a glimpse of the things they represent. They are taken to be 
translucent, even in their most complex forms. They are also opaque. 
Aspects of the phenomenon symbolized seep through the symbol, as if 
substances being transferred across a semi-permeable membrane. Yet to 
look back through the symbol to the phenomenon itself is to find that one 
surface of the window obscures one's vision. 

Hiding and expressing exist in a dialectical relationship. For instance, in 
reading a literary text, such as Hamlet, or a social text (i.e., treating social 
reality as a text to be interpreted), such as the VietNam War, one perceives 
the existence of an array of meanings that become clearer with each 
reading. Beholding one's national flag summons a sense of community, 
nationalism, and belonging, but it also shadows immoralities and 
atrocities. Literary, art, and social criticism all acknowledge that texts are 
constituted by various levels of meaning. They take as their task 
establishing the basic and most abstract system which, through a series of 
transformations (whose workings often are not at all obvious), generates 
the text as it presents itself. 

It is often said that reality and life possess an "essential" ambiguity and 
unintelligibility. The latter stem from a realization that existence is 
synonymous with expression, which sediments layer upon layer of 
signification, leaving consciousness/ perception always open to a variety 
of interpretations of different layers of meaning. Nevertheless, and quite to 
the contrary, lived-experience, in its very breathing and moving, is 
poignantly and vividly clear. It is our processing of lived-experience that 
introduces haze and indeterminancy. Too often we confuse the clarity of 
the mystery of life with the obfuscations of thought. 

Closely related to the dialectic of concealing and revealing is the "false" 
nature of symbols. In that symbols are designed to embody experiences or 
meanings, they are treated as incarnations of invisible, intangible realities. 
Ironically though, those same experiences and meanings, as they are lived 
out by individuals in the moments of their lives, are actually the 
incarnations. Symbols are merely representations of them. The gap 
between what is lived and what symbolizes it necessarily engenders a 
falseness. Rather than representations, symbols are misrepresentations. 

24 



For instance, when I tell you that I feel "joy" or that "I love you", the 
symbol and the experience can not be treated as isomorphic. And it is 
important to realize this is not simply a matter of the fact that each of us 
possesses a unique set of sedimented experiences. Symbols in a way may be 
the flesh of the invisble, but they inhabit a realm quite different from what 
is lived. 

In sociology, symbolic interaction theory suggests that interaction is a 
process in which individuals display themselves to each other as symbols. 
Of course, as we encounter each other face-to-face we concretely 
experience each others' bodies, movements, utterances, etc., and we tend 
to take these as the "reality" of the situation. While in the natural attitude 
we treat appearances as synonymous with reality, symbolic interactionists 
point out such appearances are in fact the external style of inner life. The 
late Erving Goffman made a career of illuminating the "con-artist" in each 
of us. He exposed not just the side of us that incessantly intends, 
consciously or unconsciously, to influence others, but more basically, that 
in using symbols we are moving between private, internal, and 
intersubjective, external realities, and in so doing, our communications are 
essentially "false". It is not as if we have a choice to be otherwise - as symbol 
users it is our fate. Is it any wonder misunderstanding is perhaps a (the?) 
dominant feature of our interactions, or that being misunderstood is one of 
our greatest fears? When we observe another's symbols, what are we really 
seeing? 

Ever so intimately related to shrouding/ exposing and to falseness, 
symbolic constructions exhibit an "essential incompleteness". An insight 
into this notion was suggested by Martin Heidegger, who noted that being 
is time, i.e., whoever is, is in the process of becoming. All efforts at 
capturing "what is" in symbolic form must necessarily also be incomplete. 
Furthermore, Gabriel Marcel noted that our status as beings is grounded 
in a "mystery". By this he meant that any efforts we make at understanding 
ourselves always remain problematic, for we are caught up in what we 
want to understand, we are dependent upon and are "in" what we want to 
know. This being so, we cannot place ourselves outside or before ourselves 
to gain a vantage point for viewing ourselves. 

This is dramatically illustrated in a relatively new perspective in 
sociology known as ethnomethodology. Among other things, 
ethnomethodologists point out that each particular aspect of a situation is 
dependent upon its context for meaning, but the context that gives 
meaning to the particular is, in part, formulated by that particular. Indeed, 
this is a circular motion, but it is more. It is also an awareness that what we 
know presupposes a more fundamental stratum of knowing already there. 
As we strive symbolically to represent what is already there, it inevitably 
recedes, and the symbol catches only a glimpse or moment of that thing. 

25 



There is always an "inexhaustible more", an "infinity of the unsaid". A set 
of symbols never fully manifests a world. Rather, it makes visible its own 
incompleteness. 

As instances of the above we may consider our common use of such 
phrases as "et cetera" or "you know what I mean". The et cetera principle 
openly acknowledges there is more, and that it would be futile to continue 
to add more, for not only would it not be practical, it would never be done! 
In fact, ethnomethodologists have noted an interesting feature about rules, 
formal or informal, linguistic or social. While on the one hand rules are 
necessary, on the other, there can be no rules for all situations, and any 
efforts to provide them tend only to magnify the senselessness of the 
situation. Consider the notion of "law and order" and its incessant 
generation of loopholes and additional deviance. Or consider a simple 
statement we make to each other, "How are you feeling today"? Aside from 
our typical responses, which are as much an effort not to answer the 
question as they are one to answer it, think how long it would really take to 
answer that question. Symbols are incorrigibly incomplete. 

Thus far, we have seen in a variety of ways that symbols are not clearly 
defined, discrete phenomena that always correspond to an objective 
reality. Were we to continue to assume so, as is typical at the surface level 
referred to earlier, we would be haunted by the ideas of Freud and the 
images of Salvador Dali. It is on Dali that we focus now, particularly one 
of his major contributions to surrealism - - the paranoiac-critical method. 
Succinctly, this approach commences with a feature of paranoiac reality, 
the tendency to see multiple images ("delirious phenomena") in discrete 
images. Dali points out, however, that he is not mad, and that by 
developing the critical-paranoiac method as an experimental technique, 
one is able to enter a "delirium of interpretation" where one gains 
knowledge by interpreting/ articulating "delirious phenomena". The latter 
are spontaneous, irrational associations of objects and meanings. The 
critical-paranoiac method subjects outer reality ("natural necessity") to the 
inner necessity (mental) experienced by the artist (viewer). 

Surrealists generally stressed the inner representation of the image 
present in the mind. They turned objective reality inside out. While in our 
typical daily activities we do not do so intentionally, nevertheless we do 
frequently experience the delirium of interpretation and a variety of 
delirious phenomena. Symbols are delirious phenomena. They are objects 
that rather than yielding a single discrete image/ interpretation, instead are 
delirious in that they often readily "turn into" other symbols. This is not 
just to say that symbols have different meanings. It is more. It is to 
recognize that a single symbol often becomes many things. The delirium of 
interpretation generated by delirious phenomena replaces the taken-for- 
granted-world-out-there-for everyone with spontaneous, irrational 

26 



associations of possibilities and variations at the level of the "lived 
imagination". 

Symbols are delirious phenomena, thus they are not just objects whose 
meanings are open and transformable, but more basically, objects whose 
very natures are mutable. Of course, it is the mind's grasp of or interpretive 
(spontaneous, irrational) association of objects that contributes to the 
delirium (what Dali referred to as the 'paranoiac ability' of the author), but 
the fact remains it is the reality of the object that is mutable. The significant 
insight is that objective reality is not discrete and determinate, and that a 
certain frenzy inheres in the mind's use of symbols. 

As instances we may contemplate the following: are skyscrapers Liberal 
Capitalism's monuments to its ego? its Towers of Babel? Are exercise and 
fitness television programs, where attractive young men and women 
(usually women) gyrate and sweat in revealling apparel, a true interest in 
fitness, and/ or is it institutionalized eroticism? Are the water towers that 
everywhere dot the horizon functional objects, and/ or are they unwanted 
intruders (as were the towering machines in H.G. Wells' "War of the 
Worlds") from the negative side of Industrialism, who, wherever they 
appear, bring with them the degredation of Nature? Or what of this 
interesting comment, heard over the solemn silence at the scene of a 
terrible automobile accident, where there were numerous onlookers, 
police, towing trucks alnd ambulances: "You know, everytime I'm in one of 
these situations, I feel those ambulances are vehicles ordered by Death to 
collect its offerings". 

As a closing observation on symbols, we may consider an irony, 
thematized most clearly in an approach referred to as "semiotics (eg., 
writers such as Lacan, Derrida, Barthes, and Althusser). The irony that 
this perspective reveals is that that authors symbols and their meanings 
(i.e., subjectivity, consciousness) in the first place subsequently must 
search for the meanings it intended by looking through what it created so it 
can find them! The essence of the irony is the production of subjectivity 
and meaning by structure. By this is meant that consciousness or 
subjectivity, rather than being the source of meanings, is "de-centered" or 
diffused throughout a symbol (sign) system such that it is the structure that 
possesses the meanings. Writing and language are not simply a 
reproduction of an objective reality, but rather are the production of a new 
and different reality. Subjectivity then is not a predicating subjectivity, but 
rather is constituted by the signifying or structuring activity of the symbol 
system ( i.e., structure). Subjectivity thus is no longer a center, and meaning 
lies outside of subjectivity. This "outside" continually produces what that 
subjectivity thinks it means. 

This idea becomes clearer if we consider such notions as alienation, 
estrangement and meaninglessness, which have become prevalent 

27 



concepts in the past 100 years. At their core is the recognition that the 
complex system or structure of symbols and signs that is the world we 
inhabit is something we indeed created (and recreate individually in our 
daily lives), but it is also something that confronts us. We must search 
through it to find the meanings we identify as the realities of our lives. For 
example, many of us acknowledge money to be an important resource (as 
opposed to goal), but how do we determine our priorities if by not looking 
at what we have become and then deciding what we think we want to 
become? In becoming successful or accomplished, i.e., "arriving", we must 
often stop and ask, "what is the meaning of this? just where have I arrived '7 
What is the meaning of a planetary civilization that had developed the 
ability to obliterate itself? Do our identities lie inside us or somewhere out 
and around us? Do we read them from the text that is society, and like the 
meaning scattered through the pages of a novel, not ever quite certain of 
their sense until the pages have passed by? These are not simply 
dichotomus questions of whether or not society creates me or I it, but ones 
concerning the contingent and changing nature of who and what I am as I 
am dispersed in the "out-there" in which I participate. We, as subjects, are 
decentered, positioned in a text that has no certainty, only movement and 
continual revelation. Symbols are all around, taking their meaning from 
each other and from their contingent positioning, and we are in them. 

What we have considered in this brief piece is the nature of symbols and 
their use. We have seen that beyond what we take for granted, symbols are 
indeed intriguing, often mysterious phenomena. But then again, this is 
perhaps true of anything once we pass beyond the shroud of the routine. 



28 



SUPPORT GROUPS FOR GRIEVING PERSONS 
by Pick Conner* 

Support groups for grieving persons are relatively new, but they are 
being organized all over the country. Many are local chapters of national 
organizations, like the four Atlanta area chapters of the Compassionate 
Friends, which has its national headquarters in Oak Park, Illinois. Some 
are simply local responses to a tragic event, which is also the way 
Compassionate Friends started. 

A support group is a small group in which the members provide support 
to each other, usually in the face of a chronic or severe problem. The 
support groups referred to here will be even more specialized in definition. 
They are groups in which the members support, encourage, and assist each 
other in learning to deal effectively with their grief. 

A distinction is made between "self-help" groups and support groups. 
"Self-help" groups (i.e. Alcoholics Anonymous or Parents Anonymous) 
have the primary purpose of trying to change the dysfunctional behavior of 
members. The support group's primary purpose is to provide support, 
encouragement, and assistance to each of its members in learning to cope 
with the problem or situation they all share. 

Support groups have existed since the beginning of human history. The 
first support group was probably the tribe or clan in which members 

il shared food and shelter, as well as everything else that belonged to the 
tribe. Later, individual families formed their own support units, providing 

I those kinds of support not offered by the tribe or larger society. Natural 

| support systems include families (both nuclear and extended), friends, and 
sometimes neighbors and co-workers. It is obvious that human beings 

I could not exist without support, that support groups are part of what 
makes us a human society. As our society grows more and more complex, 
so does the need for support in our efforts to deal with this complexity. As 
our lives become more stressful, there is an increased need to find more 

| successful ways to cope with the ever-increasing stress of our environment. 

lit is in this context that people have begun to recognize the need for more 

[support groups to help them deal with specific shared problems or needs. 

What does a support group do? How does it help individuals to cope 

with the stress of a family member who is chronically or terminally ill? 

How does it help a person in his/her day-to-day functioning as the adult 

hild of an aging parent? How does it help a person to face the loss of those 

who are dying or to recover from the loss of one who has died? There are 



* Associate Professor of Sociology, West Georgia College 

29 



some functions that most support groups have in common (i.e. they all do 
certain things). Members of a support group: 

 validate each other's experience 

 console and comfort each other 

 support each other 

 encourage each other by example of successful coping 

 educate each other by sharing their individual experiences 

 accept each other as fellow human beings with similar problems 

 protect each other, sometimes, from well-meaning others who often 
inflict pain without realizing it. 

There is considerable evidence that support groups also alleviate stress 
among members and that membership in a support group enables 
members to cope with greater stress that they otherwise might. 

The information detailed herein will provide some idea about the need 
for support groups and how to go about organizing such groups. There are 
some basic, very simple guidelines for organizing such a group: 
(1) Members must share a common interest, problem, need, or life 
situation. This common interest does not have to be too narrowly defined 
at first, but it may have to be narrowed later. In this case, the common 
interest/ problem is grief. (2) The group should grow out of an 
individually expressed need, expressed by a person with the problem. It is 
not enough for a social worker to recognize the need and start to organize a 
group. If the group is to be independent and continue to function on its 
own, it should originate with an individually felt need. (3) Decision- 
making is the group's function and not the function of the social worker. 
Any and all decisions should be made by the group  from the beginning. 
(4) Usually a social worker serves in a consulting function, not as a fully 
functioning member of the group. However, if the social worker also 
shares the common problem of the group members, he/ she may become a 
full-fledged member of the group. The problem, then for the social worker 
is which hat to wear  consultant or group member. 

Grief groups may be appropriate for working with any or all of the 
following: 

 terminally ill persons, who need to grieve over their own impending 
death 

 divorced persons  the loss of a marriage, of a valued role, and often, of 
children is sometimes overwhelming 

 parents of a handicapped child  often accompanied by sense of loss, 
frustration, of dreams unfulfilled 



30 



 person who has lost a lover  loss of valued and needed relationship 

 women who have given up a child for adoption  a loss which the 
person may not be able to understand or express. 

All of these may be thought of as needing some help with their grieving, 
with understanding and expressing their feelings or loss. However, the 
primary concern here is with the grief of those who have lost a significant 
other (spouse, parent, close friend, or relative, etc.) and who, for whatever 
reason, do not feel they have resolved (or are resolving) their grief 
satisfactorily. 

Grief occurs when human beings suffer loss. As a general rule, the 
greater the loss, the more intense the grief. When a human being with 
whom we are involved dies, we must grieve over our loss. The closer the 
relationship, the more intense our grief. 

Some people fail to grieve appropriately or to grieve adequately when 
they suffer a significant loss, such as the death of a parent, or a close friend, 
or a child. For whatever reason  perhaps they feel it is not consistent with 
their religious beliefs, or their role in the family (as husband, father, wife, 
mother), or other professional role (as minister, doctor, nurse, funeral 
director), they do not achieve the therapeutic effects of grief. Because it is 
natural for people to grieve and because grieving is a natural process, a 
healthy grief relieves much of the stress felt by survivors. 

The high mortality rate and the high incidence of illness, both physical 
and emotional, occuring among recently widowed persons demonstrate 
the costs of unresolved grief. Unrelieved stress has been shown to be 
related to the onset of a wide variety of illnesses and disabilities. 

"High grief" deaths are generally more stressful than "low-grief' deaths. 
Sudden deaths, death by accident or violence, or the death of a young 
person by any means, are usually "high grief" deaths. The family members 
are seldom prepared and often have to deal with their previous denial that 
such a possibility existed. The shock of the death is often so traumatic that 
some survivors have not worked past the first stage in the grief process. 
This has an effect on their behavior at home and at work, and often a 
negative effect on their health. Those persons who have lost a spouse, a 
parent, or a child need to grieve in proportion to the extend their lives were 
involved with the deceased person. 

The grieving process is a healing process which takes time to complete, 
even when it is allowed to progress naturally. If the process is deliberately 
avoided, blocked or prolonged, the time involved may be increased and a 
deliberate and continuous effort may be required to complete the process. 
The person who experiences a loss will grieve, must grieve, regardless of 
how long it takes. In a natural healthy grieving process, the tasks of 
grieving are accomplished with the help of others in the supportive 

31 



network. When this process is interfered with, the grieving person may 
ignore the needs of others or may hurt others, especially those who are 
dependent on him/her, such as small children. He/she may neglect others 
who are in his/ her care or may neglect him/ herself. It is for this reason that 
grief support groups may be helpful. 

Some of the benefits members can expect to derive from belonging to 
such groups a 1 . The group provides "permission to grieve"; says it's O. K. 
to have feelings, no matter how intense, that grieving is natural, a human 

response to the pain or loss. 

2. The interaction with other group members will help to expose myths 
and fears about death that interfere with healthy, normal grieving. 
Once the myths are exposed, once the fears are brought out, the 
individual can work on them and overcome them with the support of 
the group. 

3. Any group, to be effective, must provide a supportive, non-threatening 
atmosphere in which the individual can feel free to talk about emotions 
and problems of a private, personal nature if he/she wishes. Members 
of the group will provide support for each other in trying to work 
through their grief feelings. The group leader can encourage this by 
assuring members of confidentiality, and encouraging them to respect 
each other's feelings. 

4. The social worker will encourage members to involve persons of their 
own supportive networks (family, close friends, pastors, counselors, 
others) in working on their problems. The group leader will himself 
serve as a temporary member of that support network, providing the 
transition from group to network for those who need it. Where 
appropriate and necessary, the group leader will help individual 
members strengthen their supportive networks and involve significant 
others in working through the grief process. 

After the group of five-ten persons has been selected, the first group 
sesson will be scheduled at the convenience of the members (evenings are 
usually more convenient). The process might be as follows: 

Step One - Introductions establish trust (exercise), explanation of the 
group process (ground rules), contracting, and plans for future 
meetings. 

Step Two - First working group meeting (not more than one week after the 
initial meeting). Each person tells what grief work he/she has to do, or 
in some way gives some of the history of his/ her loss. Discussion centers 
on feelings, understanding the loss, etc. The social worker uses support, 
reassurance, insight, and encourages members to participate in offering 
support, insights, and reassurance to fellow members. 



32 



Step Three - Regular group meetings, weekly for 8-10 weeks, 2 hour 
sessions. 

Step Four - Termination. Depending on the wishes of the group, this may 
be a social event, planned by group members and away from the regular 
meeting place (possibly a member's home). 

Step Five - Individual sessions may be scheduled with those members seen 
as needing further help. In such sessions, referrals may be made, plans 
for continuing counseling, or plans for continued self-help. 

It is important that the group leader have a clear understanding of the 
basic concerns of grief work, and that he/she has worked on his/her own 
reactions to grief and loss and his/ her own fears of death which may be 
brought to the surface during the group process. The group leader in this 
process does not function in the role of expert, but as an enabler, 
supporter, encourager, and when the occasion demands it, taskmaster. 
He/she uses skills in empathy, clarification, reassurance, and occasionally 
confrontation. He/she is accepting, non-judgmental, and supportive. In 
addition, to be an effective group leader, he/she must have a working 
knowledge of group dynamics. 

For persons who are already experienced in therapy/ counseling/ 
casework with individuals, but not in groups, additional reading and 
perhaps training in group dynamics/ group work will be needed. For the 
person who does not have experience in working with grief and loss, or 
who still has a significant loss (such as a divorce) to work through, 
additional training will probably be needed. Ideally, such training will take 
place in a group setting by participating in a grief group or by participating 
in a seminar/ study group with professional colleagues (peers). In any case, 
the group should be structured loosely enough to permit free expression of 
feelings, and should also include work with a competent group leader. 

It is anticipated that most of the persons with multiple problems or 
major psychological problems other than grief will be screened out 
through the group process. However, other stresses may develop during 
the course of the group's life which cause the participant additional 
problems and which may require specialized professional help. Or, a group 
member may have other problems not specifically associated with the 
grieving process which he/she may uncover during grief work, and which 
are of a more long-term nature. Since the group leader is usually not 
engaged in individual therapy, he/ she should not attempt to deal with this 
person on an individual basis, but should refer him/her to a competent 
professional counselor/ therapist/ clinical social worker. 

For this reason, the social group worker should maintain a file of such 
professionals, with appropriate information, such as fees, office hours, 
specialty or orientation, location, and credentials. Such information may 

33 



be provided to the client when making such a referral, but only if the client 
requests the referral. In no case should the client be referred to the group 
leader's own private practice. To do so would be clearly unethical. 

Many people are not prepared for the strength of their grief or the depth 
of the emotions that need expression during the grief process. Support 
from others who are experiencing (or have experienced) grief themselves 
may be most effective during this very stressful period. Social workers and 
others can organize support groups to assist grieving persons in coping 
with the loss of a significant other, but such group leaders need special 
training or experience in grief work and group work. Support groups have 
been shown to be effective in helping people work through grief and in 
relieving the stress of the grief process. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

'Abel, Charles M. and Carter, Irl "Self-help Groups for the Terminally III", Social Work and 
Thanatology. Edited by Ben A. Orcutt, et al. New York: Arno Press, 1980 

2 Albercht, Terrance L. Irey, Karen V.and Mundy, Ann K. "Integration in a Communication Network as 
a Mediator of Stress", Social Work. vol. 27. No. 3 May, 1982. pp. 229-234 

'Collins, Alice H. and Pancoast, Diane L. Natural Helping Networks: A Strategy for Prevention. 
Washington: NASW 1976 

4 Engel, G. L. "Grief and Grieving", American Journal of Nursing. 64: 93-98. Sep. 64 

5 Katz, Alfred H. and Bender, Eugene I. The Strength in Us. New York: New Viewpoints, 1976 

'Kropotkin, Petr. Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Boston: Extending Horizons Books, 1955. 

'Nelsen, Judith C. "Support: A Necessary Condition for Change", Social Work, Vol. 25 

"Powell, Thomas J. "Impact of Social Networks on Help-seeking Behavior", Social Work. Vol. 26. #4, 
July, 1981. pp. 335-337 

"Silverman, Phyllis R. "The Widow-to-Widow Program", Mental Hygene. Vol. 53, 1969, pp. 333-337 

'"Silverman, Phyllis R. Mutual Support Groups. Beverly Hills: Sage 1980 

"Silverman, Phyllis R. Helping Women Cope With Grief. Beverly Hills. Sage Publications, 1981. 

l2 Switzer, D. K. The Dynamics of Grief. New York: 1970. Abingdon Press 

l3 Toseland, Ronald W. and Hacker, Lynda "Self-help Groups and Professional Involvement", Social 
Work Vol. 27, No. 4, July, 1982, pp 341-347 

l4 Toth, Andre and Toth, Susan "Group Work with Widows", Social Work. Vol. Jan. 1980, pp. 63-65. 

"Wilson, Stephen, Informal Groups: an Introduction, Engle Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1978. 

'*Worden, J. William, Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy, New York: Springer Publishing Co., 1982. 

->4 



UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE OF 

HUMAN EXPERIENCE: 

CONTRASTING APPROACHES 

by J. J. Barrell* 

Studies of human experience can include a variety of target areas. Such 
areas can range from thoughts and feelings to the perception of others, the 
world, etc. Experiential and phenomenological approaches attempt to 
understand the structures of experiences across this broad range. In the 
following work, we shall first explore the structure of human experience in 
general and then contrast both these approaches by way of example. The 
example which has been selected for study is active anxiety. 

The Structure of Experience 

Our lives consist of a steady flow of experiences, one after the other. Let 
us attempt to slow this flow for the purpose of studying the structure of a 
single experience. Structure suggests that a single human experience 
includes "parts" which are to be distinguished from physical parts of a 
machine or body. Rather the term here refers to psychological aspects of 
an experience. These parts are embedded in the experience. Although these 
"parts" are inseparable from an experience, they can however, be separable 
in the sense that they could be found in other experiences. 

Let us take the example of desire as a "part" of experience. To want is to 
want something. However, although this desire always aims toward a 
target, it is also separable from that target. For example, if I am thirsty and 
reach for a glass of water, it is clear to me that my desire (urge) "belongs to 
me" and the water is "out there" in the world. I want what I do not have. 
Although desire requires a target, it is also separable from that target 
because it has its own meaning and does not require any specific target. I 
must want something, but it could be anything. Desire does not depend on 
any specific target and can be found in many different experiences with 
different targets. Desire is, therefore, inseparable from a target, but 
separable from a specific target. 

Is there a quantitative dimension in direct experience? Certainly most of 
us have had the experience of disappointment related to a previous desire 
and expectation of success. Upon reflection, we can verify how one 
experience can influence the other. For example, the higher our desire and 
expectation for a successful outcome, the greater our later disappointment 
should we not achieve it. Although this quantitative relationship is not 
given in any single experience, it is obviously present when reflecting on the 
relationship of both experiences. 

Associate Professor of Psychology, West Georgia College 

35 



Even in the case of a single experience, quantity can be implied, For 
example, the experience of desire is directly related to intensity. In fact, the 
meaning of desire refers to intensity. However, it is a desire within a certain 
range of significance. For example, if a goal loses some of its significance to 
us, we may still like to have it but no longer want it. In contrast, should 
significance increase, a want could become a need. All experiences, such as 
"I must," "1 should," "I need," "I want," "I like" can be understood on an 
intensity continuum of significance rather than being treated separately. It 
is certainly true that there is a qualitative distinction between such 
experiences as "I have to" and "I want to;" however, this distinction can 
also be treated quantitatively. Therefore, the "parts" of experience can be 
treated both quantitatively and qualitatively. 

Phenomenological and Experiential Approaches 

At this point, we can suggest that a given experience is made up of 
separable and necessary "parts" that are (1) embedded in the structure of 
that experience and are (2) quantifiable at least in an ordinal sense. Next, 
experiential and phenomenological approaches for the purpose of 
discovery of these necessary "parts" will be contrasted. 

A study of active anxiety will provide a basis for this contrast. First of 
all, description is important for both phenomenological and experiential 
approaches. The following is an example of a description of active anxiety: 

I feel tense. A fluttering in my stomach appears. 1 tell myself to calm down. 1 
picture myself failing  people laughing at me. My hands feel clammy. Can I 
do it? I don't know. 

Using these kinds of descriptions and a phenomenological approach, we 
would wish to create an accurate picture of the experience, to describe 
what it is like to be in the experience of active anxiety. 4 Such an approach 
focuses on capturing the aesthetic, the richness of experience. The account 
is to include the necessary "parts" of an experience, but their 
embeddedness in experience argues against separating them out of their 
context. The following is an example of a phenomenological analysis of 
the above description. It is meant to go from the single instance to the 
general description. 

A threat to my way of being emerges on the horizon of my experience. The 
threat appears to demand a response. I feel I must respond or be 
overwhelmed by this threat. Although my world appears fragmented, part of 
this fragmentation includes bits and pieces of possibilities. Possible 
alternative actions emerge. The correct choice of action is uncertain. This 
uncertainty brings body tension  a shaky, unsteady tension. There is 
neither a surrendering to the situation nor the awareness of a single clear 
course of action. 



*Giorgi, A., Psychology as a Human Science: A Phenomenologically Based Approach. Harperand Row 
Publishing, New York, 1970. 

36 



In contrast, the aim of an experiential approach is to discover and clarify 
the necessary and sufficient "parts" of a specific experience 1 , 3 . With an 
experiential approach, the emphasis is on clarification. It is not that 
accuracy or faithfulness to the "lived" experience is not important; rather, 
this approach suggests that clarification must go beyond accuracy to a 
level that is practical. It must give one the ability to increase the incidence 
of positive experiences and decrease those that are negative. This is why 
clarification is the aim. The following is a hypothetical listing of the 
necessary "parts" of active anxiety. Similar to the phenomenological 
paragraph, these listed "parts" must be implicit or explicit in the single 
instance; and are intended to capture the general experience of active 
anxiety, that is, to apply to all experiences of active anxiety. In other 
words, they represent an attempt to discover the common core of this 
experience. The "I" statements are not meant to refer to only a single 
person but to facilitate a process whereby each person tests the conclusions 
within his or her own experiences. 

1. 1 feel that I must act (could be an internal preparation, attitude, etc.) to 
avoid a negative consequence. 

2. 1 feel uncertain about the appropriate action to avoid this negative 
consequence. 

* As an aside, if 1 feel certain about the only thing that can be done now or 
feel certain that 1 cannot do anything to affect the outcome, no anxiety 
results. In the case of passive anxiety, the uncertainty is directed toward 
consequences rather than one's action. An example would be watching 
your favorite football team on a fourth down on the one yard line with a 
chance to win or lose on the last play of the game. 

These two "parts" represent an attempt to discover necessary and 
sufficient conditions of active anxiety, that is to suggest if only these two 
"parts" are experienced then active anxiety will naturally occur. 
Conversely, the removal of one or both of these "parts" abolishes the 
anxiety. Each of these "parts" is necessary and together sufficient to 
consciously or unconsciously create the experiential structure of active 
anxiety. Although active anxiety which includes the generalizable 
description, autonomic responses, etc., is more than the sum of these two 
"parts", the aim here is simply to discover the most fundamental "parts" 
required to elicit the experience. This simplicity and clarity is particularly 
useful for those persons interested in (I) taking responsibility for 
transforming their own lives, and (2) facilitating an integration of the 
personal growth process with the social sciences. 



'Barrell. J. .1. and Barrell. J. E.. "A Self Directed Approach fora Science of Human Experience,"/ of 
Phenomenological Psychology. 1975. Fall, pp.63-73. 

'Price. D. D. and Barrell. J. J.. "An Experiential Approach with Quantitative Methods: A Research 
Paradigm."/ oj Humanistic Psychology, Summer. 1980, 20, (3), pp. 75-95. 

37 



Summary 

Each human experience has a structure. This structure includes "parts" 
which make up the whole of that experience. Some of these "parts" 
represent the necessary conditions for that particular experience to occur. 
These necessary "parts"can also be found in other experiences. In this way, 
each of these "parts" can be independent of as well as dependent upon an 
experience as a whole. For example, the two different experiences of envy 
and jealousy both possess the following necessary "part": the perception or 
imagination of someone having an experience that I desire 2 . This "part" is 
independent of a specific experience but depends on some experience for 
its existence. 

The structure of any given experience can include quantitative as well as 
qualitative dimensions. In fact, the quantitative can be found in such direct 
experiences as that of wanting something. Wanting or desire involves 
intensity which can be represented as a measurable dimension. Therefore, 
the relationship of "parts" within experience can be stated quantitatively. 

Finally, there are two possible aims for understanding the structure of 
human experience: (1) a desire to discover an accurate picture of the 
experience, and (2) a desire to discover the necessary and sufficient 
conditions of that experience. Some phenomenologists stop at the first 
while an experiential approach includes both, with the emphasis on the 
second aim. 



-'Barrell, J. J. and Richards, A, "Overcoming Jealousy: An Experiential Analysis of Common Factors," 
The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 1982, 61, (I), pp. 40-47. 

38 



ABSTRACTS OF MASTER'S THESES AND 
SPECIALIST IN EDUCATON PROJECTS 



AN ANALYSIS OF THE RECREATIONAL READING PRACTICES 

OF FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH GRADE STUDENTS AT 

SWAIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

Carolyn S. Allen 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education and Reading, August, 1983) 

This study was designed to evaluate the voluntary, recreational reading 
practices of students in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades at W. L. Swain 
Elementary School in Gordon County, Georgia and was completed in 
conjunction with a literature program (Project L.l.T.) being conducted in 
the school. Student reading participation was analyzed based on sex, 
ownership or non-ownership of video games, and by fiction or non-fiction 
book selections by the participants. 

The subjects of this study were students in grades four through six at W. 
L. Swain Elementary School during the school year 1982-83. Two hundred 
sixty-four students participated in the study. 

Weekly record sheets of recreational reading were completed by the 
students to determine fiction or non-fiction book choices, student attitudes 
toward books, and number of book completions. At the end of the study, 
students and parents completed questionnaires. Student questionnaires 
provided the following information: a) student estimate of frequency of 
reading, b) reasons for book choices, c) ownership or non-ownership of 
video games, and d) student's favorite author and book. Parent 
questionnaires provided insight as to their general feeling toward the 
reading practices for their children. 

Data from the students' weekly record sheets were compiled. An 
analysis was computed by the West Georgia computer center for each 
hypothesis. 

Hypothesis one stated that there would be no significant difference in 
the number of fiction and non-fiction books chosen by the students when 
compared with the actual book collection of the school library (43% fiction 
and 57% non-fiction). The factor of chance was ruled out by a high rate of 
check-out of fiction books. Null hypothesis one was rejected with a chi 
square value of x 2 =24.80, d.f. (1), at the .05 level of significance. 

Hypothesis two stated that there would be no significant difference in 
the number of books read by students who did or did not own a video 
game. The computed t ratios for the fiction and non-fiction groups were 



39 



not significantly different from chance and it appears that ownership or 
non-ownership of video games does not influence the check-out rate of 
books in either category. Null hypothesis two was not rejected. 

Hypothesis three stated that there would be no significant difference in 
the number of books read by boys and the number read by girls. Computed 
t ratios for the fiction and non-fiction categories indicated that girls did 
read significantly more than boys. Boys read significantly more non- 
fiction books while girls tended to choose more fiction books. 

It appears that sex was a determining factor in the process of selection of 
books, as well as the frequency of reading books. The ownership or non- 
ownership of video games had no influence on the number of books being 
read. On the whole, more fiction books are being chosen from the school 
library which contains 43% fiction and 57% non-fiction books. 

A STUDY OF THE CORRESPONDENCE OF COLOR SELECTION 
AND MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR RESULTS 

Robert Glenn Allisat 
(MA, Psychology, December, 1983) 

This thesis attempted to determine whether or not color selection is 
capable of reflecting psychological typology as proposed by Jung. Subjects 
selected two out of a number of colors (the colors used were taken from 
source materials which phemenologically paralleled Jung's theoretical 
constructs). Each color had a predicted typological value (for example: 
blue = introverted sensation; red = extraverted feeling; etc.). The type 
predicted by color selection was compared to results on the Myers-Briggs 
Type Indicator (MBTI) a personality inventory widely held to measure 
Jung's typology. No correspondence was observed between selection 
among the colors in this study and results on the MBTI. Further 
investigation was suggested. 

A STUDY OF TEACHER LEVEL OF CERTIFICATION AND ITS 

EFFECT ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT ON THE GEORGIA 

BASIC SKILLS TEST 

Carolyn P. Amburn 
(EdS, Secondary Education, December, 1983) 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether significant 
relationships exist between student's scores in the reported areas of total 
score, concept, component, and problem solving on the Georgia Basic 
Skills Mathematics Test and the following four factors: level and area of 
the teacher's certification, experience of the teacher, mathematics 
background of the student, and sex of the student. One school system in 



40 



the Atlanta metropolitan area provided information by completing a 
questionnaire designed for the study. Four four-way analyses of variance 
were used to interpret the data. Two factors were significantly related to 
the student's score on the mathematics section of the BST: teacher level 
and area of certification (p=.014) and mathematics background of the 
student (p=.001). 

The teacher level and area of certification and the mathematics 
background of the student area significant factors on student scores on the 
Georgia Basic Skills Test. The mathematics courses which a student elects 
at the high school level and the teacher's level and area (mathematics) of 
certification appear to relate positively to student scores. The sex of the 
student and the teaching experience of the teacher do not seem to relate 
significantly to scores on the mathematics portion of the BST. 

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FIRST - GRADE 
REPEATERS AND FIRST - GRADE NON - REPEATERS 

Mary Alice Ballard 
(EdS, Early Childhood Education, August, 1983) 

This study was designed to investigate promotion and retention of first- 
grade students by comparing the students in terms of mean scores on a 
reading readiness test and in terms of reading achievement levels, family 
background, and personal habits and attitudes to determine if there were 
any significant differences between first-grade repeaters and first-grade 
non-repeaters in relation to their academic and personal development. The 
students in the study were from 17 elementary schools in a large 
metropolitan area school system. The student sample consisted of 3 1 6 non- 
repeaters and 56 repeaters. 

The t test for determining the significance of the difference between two 
independent means was used to test the difference in the mean scores on the 
reading readiness test of the two groups. A two-way analysis of variance 
was used to locate mean differences on test scores when divided by sex. Chi 
Square was used to test the remaining data which was in the form of 
frequency counts occurring in two or more mutually exclusive categories. 

The results showed that there was a significant difference between the 
mean scores of repeaters versus non-repeaters in the areas of visual 
discrimination and relationships and on the classification factor. The 
study also showed that there was a significant difference between first- 
grade repeaters and first-grade non-repeaters on the measures of: exhibits 
self-confidence, uses good listening skills, completes work on time, and is 
quiet and well-behaved. All other variables were not significant at the .05 
level. 



41 



LIGHT AND ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC OBSERVATIONS OF 
IN VITRO MAINTAINED NERVE-MUSCLE CELLS IN A 
CHEMICALLY DEFINED MEDIUM AND ON DEFINED 

SUBSTANCES 

Arthur Chandler Beall (MS, Biology, March, 1984) 

Primary cultures of dissociated chick 1 1 -day embryonic pectoral muscle 
and 4-day embryonic spinal cord were established in a chemically defined 
medium and on defined substrates: polystyrene and solid fluorocarbons. 
This chemically defined serum-albumin free (SAF) medium consisted of 1:1 
Ham's F-12 medium/ Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented 
with 20 ug/ml bovine insulin, 17 ug/ml putrescine, and 5 ug/ml human 
transferrin. This SAF medium supported neuronal cultures for 2-3 weeks 
and differentiated muscle cultures for 4-7 days. Moderately-high density 
muscle cultures maintained in SAF medium containing 10- 5 M 
arabinofuranosylcytosine (ara-C) produced low-density muscle cultures, 
virtually devoid of fibroblasts, which survived for 3-4 weeks. Four-day 
embryonic spinal cord neurons were plated on five day ara-C treated 
muscle cultures and maintained in SAF medium containing ara-C for 3-4 
weeks. Transmission electron microscopic observation of nerve-muscle 
cocultures revealed primitive neuromuscular junctions comparable to 
those grown in undefined serum-supplemented media. The solid 
fluorocarbon-coated glass slides not only provided a suitable substratum 
for cellular adhesion, but also aided in the separation of epoxy embedded 
specimens from these glass slides to produce thin plastic wafers of the 
monolayer cultures. 

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE BACKGROUND VARIABLES 

OF BELOW-GRADE LEVEL READERS AND ON-GRADE LEVEL 

READERS IN THE SECOND GRADE 

Alice Evelyn Black 
(EdS, Early Childhood Education, December, 1983) 

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship among 
certain factors of children's family backgrounds and their reading levels. 
These factors included whether or not parents read to their children, the 
amount of time spent reading to children, parents modeling reading 
behavior, parents' education levels, children's sex, the amount of time 
children spent reading independently, and parents' and/ or children's 
memberships to book clubs or subscriptions to magazines. 

The population for the study consisted of students attending a public 
elementary school, kindergarten through grade five, in a suburban 
community located in the northwestern portion of Georgia. The school 
was located in a middle-income, mainly white collar neighborhood. The 

42 



sampling consisted of 69 second grade students. Thirty-seven of the 
subjects were male and 32 of the subjects were female. 

A questionnaire was sent to the parents of each second grade student in 
May of 1983. The survey form was devised for the sole use of this study and 
was written in an objective format. The parents were asked to respond to 
questions which related to their child's reading background at home. The 
Chi square statistical analysis was used to test each hypothesis. The level of 
significance for rejection of the null hypotheses was .05. 

The results of the data from this study have shown that there was a 
relationship between some factors of children's family background and 
their reading levels. Those factors which appeared to affect the children's 
reading levels included the parents'educational level, the parents' 
membership to book clubs or subscriptions to magazines, whether or not 
children enjoyed reading, the frequency of children's readig at home, and 
the amount of tiem spent by children reading at home. The children's 
reading level did not appear to be affected by their sex, the frequency of the 
parents' reading, the children's subscription to a magazine or membership 
to book clubs, the amount of time parents spent each week reading to their 
child, or the frequency with which parents read to their child weekly. 

PROJECT LIT: 

THE EFFECTS OF STUDENTS' READING ATTITUDES AND 

READING ACHIEVEMENT OF A SCHOOL-WIDE PROJECT TO 

PROMOTE READING AND LITERATURE 

Sharon Blakenship 
(EdS, Reading, August, 1983) 

This study was undertaken to ascertain the effectiveness of a special 
reading/ literature program called Project LIT which was conducted at W. 
L. Swain Elementary School in Gordon County during the school term 
1982-1983. The problem of the study was to determine the effect the 
program had on students' reading attitude and reading achievement. Data 
from a total of 287 students from grades two through six were analyzed. 
This data consisted of pretest and posttest scores on A Reading Attitude 
Inventory for Elementary School Pupils by Lewis and pretest and posttest 
scores on the reading test of the Metropolitan Achievement Tests. The 
reading/ literature program called Project LIT consisted of nine months of 
special school-wide reading activities which were designed to present 
reading as an enjoyable activity which should be indulged in for the 
pleasure derived from it. Students were encouraged to read independently 
and share what they read in various ways. They participated in TV video 
workshops, puppetry, dramatics, Balloon Launch Day, Character Dress- 
up Day, and listened to visiting authors. They were treated to special 

43 



reading centers that were arranged in various locations in the library. The 
results of this study, tested at the .05 level of significance, indicated that a 
small but significant difference existed between posttest and pretest 
reading attitude inventory scores. There was also a significant difference 
between scores of the posttest reading achievement test and pretest scores. 
These findings indicate that a program of varied and interesting reading 
activities will significantly improve reading attitude and achievement of 
students. 

A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF THE TITLE I MATHEMATICS 

PROGRAM ON THE ACADEMIC PROGRESS AND 

REMEDIATION OF STUDENTS AT THE EASTBROOK MIDDLE 

SCHOOL DRUING THE 1980-81 SCHOOL YEAR 

Priscilla Sample Bonner 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1983) 

Purpose 

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant 
difference between pretest and posttest mean achievement scores in 
mathematics with respect to sixth- and seventh-grade Title I Students at 
Eastbrook Middle School during the 1980-81 school year. 

Methods and Procedures 

This study was conducted at the Eastbrook Middle School in Whitfield 
County. There were 26 sixth grade students and 7 seventh grade students 
served in the Title I mathematics program. The program was conducted by 
one professionally certified teacher and one teacher aide. 

During the fall of the 1 980-8 1 school year, students were selected for the 
program on the basis of criteria developed at the system level. The SRA 
Achievement Series, levels C and D, was administered to the students as a 
pretest. Using data from CRT results and pretest scores, individual student 
needs were assessed and programs of instruction were designed to meet the 
needs of each student. The actual instruction time covered in seven months 
of the school term. The same level SRA Achievement test was 
administered in the spring as a posttest to measure the level of achievement 
or student progress in mathematics. The t test was the method used to test 
the null hypothesis to determine whether there was a significant difference 
in the pretest and posttest mean scores for each group. 

Results 

Findings of the study were: 

1. There was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest 
mean scores for sixth graders beyond the .01 level. 

2. There was a significant difference between th pretest and posttest 
mean scores for seventh graders beyond the .05 level. 

44 



Conclusions 

Based on analysis of the data it was concluded that: 

1 . The academic progress and remediation of sixth grade students in the 
Title I mathematics program was positively affected by instruction in the 
program. 

2. The academic progress and remediation of seventh grade students in 
the Title I mathematics program was positively affected by instruction in 
the program. 

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ACHIEVEMENT IN 

SUBSEQUENT MATHEMATICS BETWEEN STUDENTS WHO 

STUDIED ALGEBRA I IN THE EIGHTH GRADE AND THOSE 

WHO STUDIED ALGEBRA I IN THE NINTH GRADE 

Barbara A. Bookhardt 
(EdS, Secondary Education, December, 1983) 

The point of this study was to determine whether there is a difference in 
achievement in the subsequent mathematics courses taken by those 
students having the first year of algebra in the eighth grade as compared to 
the achievement in subsequent mathematics courses taken by those 
students having the first year of algebra in the ninth grade. 

It was hypothesized that there would be no significant difference 
between students who took Algebra I in the eighth grade and those who 
took Algebra 1 in the ninth grade with respect to their subsequent 
achievement in (a) Geometry A, (b) Geometry B, (c) Geometry C, (d) 
Algebra II A, (e) Algebra II B, (f) Algebra II C, (g) Trigonometry, (h) 
Advanced Mathematics Concepts, and (i) Analytical Geometry. It was 
further hypothesized that there would be no difference between girls and 
boys with respect to their subsequent achievement in the above courses and 
that there would be no interaction between the grade in which Algebra I 
was taken and the sex of the student with respect to their subsequent 
achievement in the above courses. To test these null hypotheses, the 28 
ninth graders who had Algebra I in the eighth grade and the 146 tenth 
graders who had Algebra I in the ninth grade, both groups of whom were 
enrolled in Geometry A for fall quarter of 1979, were chosen as the 
subjects. 

The data collected were the final numerical averages recorded for the 
students at the end of each quarter for each subsequent mathematics 
course taken. These data determined the measure of achievement in each 
of the subsequent mathematics courses. A multi-factor analysis of variance 
was used to analyze the numerical data from each of the subsequent 
mathematics courses using the sex of the student and the grade in which 
Algebra I was taken as independent variances. 

45 



The findings revealed that the students who took Algebra I in the eighth 
grade scored significantly higher in each subsequent mathematics course 
than did those students who took Algebra I in the ninth grade. The findings 
also revealed that females scored significantly better than did males except 
in Geometry C. 

Therefore, based on the findings, the conclusion of the study was that 
those students chosen to take Algebra I in the eighth grade scored 
significantly higher in subsequent mathematics courses than did those 
students who took Algebra I in the ninth grade. 

It is recommended that further studies be done with a much larger group 
of students and more than one high school. 

USING BIBLIOTHERAPY AS AN AID IN IMPROVING 
SELF-CONCEPT IN THIRD GRADERS 

Snow B. Brehm 
(EdS, Early Childhood Education, December, 1983) 

The purpose of the study was to determine if there was a significant 
difference between the mean score of third grade students receiving 
bibliography and the mean score of third grade students not receiving 
bibliotherapy as measured by the Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept 
Scale. 

The population for the study consisted of approximately 250 students in 
kindergarten through sixth grade. The school has been identified as a 
middle- to Lower-income school located in a rural area of northwest 
Georgia. The subjects used in the study were a group of third grade 
students who varied in academic ability and accomplishments. The 
students were divided into two heterogenous classes with 25 students in 
each class. Both classes were administered the Piers-Harris Children's Self 
Concept Scale as a pretest and posttest. 

The treatment group completed a six-weeks bibliotherapy program 
during which the teacher read and led discussions concerning selected 
books and stories which would help the students attain a better insight into 
themselves and their environment. The control group continued in their 
regularly scheduled activities. 

Analysis of covariance was used to test the null hypothesis. The null 
hypothesis was rejected at the .001 level of significance. The results of the 
study showed that there was a significant difference between th mean score 
of pupils receiving bibliotherapy and the mean score of pupils not receiving 
bibliography as measured by the Piers-Harril Self Concept Scale. 



46 



THE IDENTIFICATION OF INSTRUMENTS USED FOR 

SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL ASSESSMENT OF BEHAVIORALLY 

DISORDERED CHILDREN IN SELECTED RURAL SCHOOLS IN 

WEST GEORGIA AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE 

ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS 

Betty Boone Buice 
(EdS, Special Education, August, 1983) 

This study was conducted as a survey of special education teachers of 
behaviorally disordered students in the West Georgia CESA area. An 
original questionnaire identified the social/emotional assessment 
instruments used by special education teachers to evaluate students who 
had been referred to them for suspected behavior disorders. The efficacy of 
the assessment tools that were identified was also examined. Statistics 
compiled from the eighty schools included in the study revealed that the 
frequency of students identified as behaviorally disordered was 1.48% of 
the total enrollment. Of the eighty teachers surveyed, 73.75% (59 teachers) 
returned the questionnaires with information concerning tests used to 
identify students with behavior disorders. Tables depict the specific 
behavior checklists and rating scales most widely used in primary, middle, 
and secondary schools, and their effectiveness. The criteria for identifying 
behaviorally disordered students were cited by the special education 
teachers who responded to the questionnaires. 

DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN THE 

CREATIVE WRITING PROCESS: 

KEYS TO BECOMING AN EFFECTIVE MODEL 

FOR THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM 

Patricia W. Carter 
(EdS, Early Childhood Education, June, 1983) 

This study was concerned with the processes involved in becomming an 
effective model for the teaching of creative writing skills to first graders at 
Maple Street School, Carrollton, Georgia. 

To accomplish this goal, recent related literature was reviewed to 
provide a background of understanding about the developmental stages 
necessary for this creative skill and to provide information concerning the 
philosophies of teaching creative writing. The research shown depicted 
those methods deemed most valuable in working toward that end. 

Research of the related literature on creative writing noted that to bean 
effective model for creative writing, the teacher must have experienced 
those stages involved in the production of creative writing from conception 
to finished product. To fulfill that requirement of experience this study 
presented six original short stories written by this author. These stories 

47 



afforded the author the opportunity to participate in the creative writing 
process and, in turn, share that gained knowledge with primary students. 

THE EFFECTS OF PEER EVALUATION ON ENGLISH 
COMPOSITION FOR EIGHTH-GRADE GIFTED STUDENTS 

Ellis E. Couch, III 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, December, 1983) 

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of teacher 
evaluation and peer evaluation on writing achievement and apprehension 
toward writing. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant 
difference between the effect of peer evaluation and that of teacher 
evaluation on either the student's writing achievement or apprehension 
toward writing. A secondary hypothesis stated that there would be no 
significant difference between the sexes with respect to writing 
achievement or apprehension. It was further hypothesized that there 
would be no significant interaction between the sex of the student and the 
type of evaluation with respect to writing achievement or apprehension. 

The experimental population of thirty-three gifted eighth-grade 
students was randomly scheduled by the computer into two writing classes. 
During a twelve-week period, both groups were presented the same course 
content; however, teacher evaluation of student papers was used in the 
control group while peer evaluation was also used in the experimental 
group. 

Two writing samples were taken at the beginning of the experimental 
period and two at the end. These were assessed by trained raters using the 
Diederich Rating Scale. The Miller and Daly Apprehension Survey was 
given at the end of the experimental period to both groups, and the results 
were compared to determine the effects of the two methods on student 
apprehension. The data from the four writing samples and the 
apprehension survey were analyzed at the West Georgia Computer Center. 
For rejection of the null hypothesis, the .05 confidence level was used. 
Based on the analysis of the data, none of the null hypotheses were rejected 
at the .05 confidence level. 

Conclusions drawn from the analysis of the writing sample data indicate 
that peer evaluation is at least as effective as teacher evaluation as a 
method of teaching writing to eighth-grade gifted students. The data from 
the Miller and Daly Survey indicated that the peer evaluation group did 
not differ significantly from the teacher evaluation group with respect to 
apprehension toward writing; therefore, neither can be said to.be superior 
in reducing writing apprehension. 



48 



A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF THE EARLY CHILDHOOD 

GRADUATE EDUCATION PROGRAM AT WEST GEORGIA 

COLLEGE ON GRADUATES IN THE TEACHING PROFESSION 

Victoria R. Cribb 
(EdS, Early Childhood Education, August, 1983) 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Graduate 
Education Program of the Early Childhood Education Department at 
West Georgia College had positive effects on graduates in the teaching 
profession. The study involved 112 graduates who earned a Master of 
Education degree in Early Childhood Education and 10 graduates who 
earned the degree of Specialist in Education in Early Childhood Education 
at West Georgia College from January 1981 through March 1983. These 
graduates and their supervisors completed and returned questionnaires 
which had been designed by the Early Childhood Education Department. 

The hypothesis stated in Chapter I was supported by the positive results 
obtained from the completed questionnaires. These results were presented 
by using raw scores, percentages, and mean scores. From a comparative 
analysis of the data, the study indicated that the Graduate Education 
Program of the Early Childhood Education Department had positive 
effects on graduates in the teaching profession. 

A PLAN FOR THE UTILIZATION OF VOLUNTEERS AS 

PARAPROFESSIONALS AT W. L. SWAIN ELEMENTARY 

SCHOOL IN GORDON COUNTY, GEORGIA 

Carol Davis 
(EdS, Early Childhood Education, August, 1983) 

The media has severely criticized educators for graduating students who 
did not learn skills that should have been mastered in public schools. It is 
obvious, that in many cases, students' individual needs have not been met. 
For a variety of reasons, classroom teachers can no longer adequately meet 
each child's needs without having additional help. Due to the economy, 
funds have been drastically reduced and the additional trained help such as 
aides, that teachers once had at their disposal, are no longer available. 
There is an emphasis, at the state level, for implementing individualized 
instruction and remediation in order to increase academic achievement. 



Funds in Gordon County, Georgia have been drastically reduced, thus 
an alternative to increasing the number of paid professionals needs to be 
considered. The purpose of this study was to develop a plan for the 
utilization of volunteers as paraprofessionals at W. L. Swain Elementary 
School in Gordon County, Georgia. 



49 



A questionnaire was developed to be distributed among the faculty at 
W. L. Swain Elementary School in order to ascertain the teachers' needs. A 
handbook was designed for teachers in order to familiarize them with 
effective methods of recruiting and instructing volunteers and in order to 
familiarize them with methods of giving recognition to volunteers who 
work in the program. 

Another handbook was designed for the volunteer. The purpose of this 
handbook was to allay any fears a volunteer might have in regard to 
qualifications for the job. The handbook also attempted to answer many of 
the questions that a volunteer might ask. 

A STUDY TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE 

CURRICULUM OPINIONS HELD BY YOUNG ADULTS 

CONCERNING HANDWRITING INSTRUCTION TO EACH OF 

THE VARIABLES OF SEX, EDUCATIONAL LEVEL 

AND OCCUPATION 

Faye Davis 
(EdS, Early Childhood Education, August, 1983) 

Handwriting is one of the most important means of communication. 
Since it is a tool that is useful throughout life, perhaps more emphasis 
should be placed on handwriting instruction in the schools. The purpose of 
this study was to determine the relationship of the curriculum opinions 
held by young adults concerning handwriting instruction in the elementary 
school to each of the variables of sex, educational level and occupation. 

The population for this study was comprised of graduates of Chattooga 
County High School in Summerville, Georgia. The sample included 200 
young adults who graduated in June, 1973. A questionnaire using a Likert 
Scale was devised and mailed with a letter explaining the project. The 
participants were asked to circle the responses which most accurately 
reflected their opinions and to return the questionnaire in a pre-addressed, 
stamped envelope which had been included. There were 89 questionnaires 
returned. 

Results of the study indicated that: 

1. There was no significant difference between young male and female 
adults and their curriculum opinions concerning handwriting, 

2. There were no significant differences among the educational levels of 
young adults and their curriculum opinions concerning handwriting 
instruction, and 

3. There were no significant differences among the occupations of 
young adults and their curriculum opinions concerning handwriting 
instruction. 

50 



Results also indicated that the respondents were of the opinion that 
formal handwriting programs should be included in the elementary school 
curriculum and that both cursive and manuscript should be taught, with an 
emphasis placed on cursive writing. 

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF READING ACHIEVEMENT OF 

FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADE STUDENTS USING THE 

REMEDIAL READING PROGRAM IN ADDITION TO THE 

BASAL READING PROGRAM AND THOSE USING ONLY 

THE BASAL READING PROGRAM 

Phyllis H. Davidson 
(EdS, Reading, June, 1983) 

A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of total reading 
achievement as a result of students receiving supportive instruction in a 
reading resource room. Forty fifth and sixth grade students from West 
Haralson Elementary School were selected to participate in the study. The 
experimental group and control group consisted of subjects who had 
scored a minimum of one grade below grade level on the California 
Reading Achievement Test. Both groups were placed in Level 12 of the 
basal reading program according to their scores on the Hold Basal 
Reading Placement Test. Twenty subjects in the experimental group 
received assistance in reading instruction in a reading resource room in 
addition to their regular reading instruction. Twenty subjects in the 
control group received instruction in their regular reading class only. 

The California Reading Achievement Test was administered before and 
after a period of fifteen weeks to both groups, and served as pretests and 
posttests. The Analysis of Covariance was the procedure used to ascertain 
any significant statistical difference between the total reading achievement 
of the two groups. According to the statistical computation used to 
evaluate the null hypothesis, there was no significant difference in total 
reading achievement at the .05 level of significance. Therefore, the 
following null hypothesis was not rejected: 

There will be no significant difference between the posttest scores of the 
experimental group and the posttest scores of the control group (after 
adjustment for pretest differences). 



51 



A CORRELATION STUDY OF GRADE POINT AVERAGES, 

NATIONAL TEACHER EXAMINATIONS SCORES, AND 

GEORGIA TEACHER CERTIFICATION TEST SCORES FOR 

UNDERGRADUATES AT WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE FROM 

NOVEMBER, 1980 THROUGH MAY, 1982 

Janice Haynes Dixon 
(EdS, Early Childhood Education, June, 1983) 

The purpose of this study was to correlate the grade point averages and 
the scores of West Georgia College undergraduates on three instruments: 
the National Teacher Common Examination, the National Teacher Area 
Examination in Early Childhood Education and the Georgia Teacher 
Certification Test. 

The hypothesis tested stated that there would be no significant 
correlation between the grade point averages and the scores of West 
Georgia College undergraduates who took the National Teacher Common 
Examination, the Georgia Teacher Examination in Early Childhood 
Education, and the Georgia Teacher Certification Test in Early Childhood 
Education. A four-variable correlation coefficient analysis statistical 
procedure was used in determining the correlation coefficients. All 
coefficients were statistically significant at the .001 level. The study was 
limited to the time period between November 1980 and May 1982. 

The results of this study indicated that there is a correlation between 
each of the variables of National Teacher Common Examination score, 
National Teacher Examination in Early Childhood Education score, 
Georgia Teacher Certification Test score in Early Childhood Education, 
and grade point average. However, there was considerable variation in the 
coefficients of the variables, with those of the National Teacher Common 
Examination score and the Georgia Teacher Certification test score in 
Early Childhood Education being moderately high while the coefficient of 
the National Teacher Area Examination in Early Childhood Education 
was in the low (but significant) range. The null hypothesis was rejected in 
each case. It was concluded that the grade point average of a student can be 
employed in the prediction of his/her score on the National Teacher 
Common Examination, National Teacher Area Examination in Early 
Childhood Education and the Georgia Teacher Certification Test in Early 
Childhood Education. 

The recommendation was made to replicate this study using new data 
and to correlate the scores on the Georgia Teacher Performance 
Assessment Instruments (TPAI) with the grade point average and scores 
on the Georgia Teacher Certification Test. 



52 



A HISTORIC STUDY OF GEORGIA HISTORY TEXTBOOKS 

Kenneth Leroy Dodd 
(EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1983) 

This is a three part study of the Cherokee Indians in Georgia. The first 
part, consisting of chapters 2-13, is a history of the Cherokee Indians in 
Georgia. It begins with the earliest accounts of the Cherokee in the area of 
present day Georgia, and includes the profound changes wrought on 
Cherokee society by the steadily intensified contact with the white man's 
culture. 

The tragedy of the Cherokee involvement in the Revolutionary War and 
their futile attempts at reconciliation with the whites through their costly 
involvement in the Creek Indian War of 1813 is discussed. This is followed 
by an account of the agitation by Georgia politians to have them removed 
from Georgia. 

The history of the Cherokee in Georgia began to close with the discovery 
of gold and the election of President Andrew Jackson. The desperate 
struggle of the Cherokee to remain in Georgia is discussed along with the 
efforts of Georgia politicians to have them removed. The narrative 
includes several tragic scenes that occurred while the Cherokee were being 
removed from Georgia. 

The second part of this study, consisting of chapter 14, is a survey of the 
manner in which the Cherokee Indians have been treated in Georgia 
history textbooks. Fifteen textbooks used from 1900 to 1977 were chosen. 
Each reference to the Cherokee is noted and compared to the historical 
record for accuracy and "Cracker Bias." Included is a chart (pp. 148-150) 
which indicates the number of paragraphs in each textbook that specific 
topics on Cherokee history are discussed. 

The third part of the study, consisting of chapter 15, is the conclusion. In 
it are suggestions for improvingGeorgia history curriculum to help abolish 
the "Cracker Bias" against the Cherokee Indians. 

AN ANALYSIS OF BASIC SKILLS TEST 

MATHEMATICS SCORES OF ATLANTA-AREA SCHOOLS 

WITH RESPECT TO PREPARATION MODELS AND 

OTHER SELECTED SCHOOL FACTORS 

Dorothy Robison Fielder 
(EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1983) 

Purpose 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether significant 
relationships exist between the school mean score on the Georgia Basic 
Skills Mathematics Test and the following six school factors: remediation 

53 



course model, educational certification of the teacher, school 
socioeconomic level, racial composition, size, and classification of the 
demographic area served by the school. 

Procedures 

Seventy-six of the 97 high schools in the Atlanta metropolitan area 
elected to provide information via questionnaires. Two three-way analyses 
of variance were used, with a .05 level of significance. 

Results 

Two school factors were significantly related to school mean 
mathematics score on the BST: remediation course model at .036 and 
classification of demographic area at .003. 

Conclusions 

Suburban schools seem to have little difficulty preparing mathematics 
students for the Georgia Basic Skills Test. The most effective models for 
remediation in all schools appear to involve individual or small group 
work. Other school factors do not seem to be significantly related to 
school's success on the mathematics portion of the BST. 

THE EFFECTS OF A UNIT ON TEST-TAKING SKILLS ON 

READING COMPREHENSION SCORES OF EIGHTH-GRADE 

STUDENTS AT CARTERSVILLE MIDDLE SCHOOL 

D. Virginia Garrison 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, December 1983) 

This study was designed to determine the results of exposure to a unit 
relative to test-taking skills on reading comprehension scores of eighth- 
grade students. 

Subjects for the study were eighth-grade students at Cartersville Middle 
School. The subjects were randomly selected from the entire eighth-grade 
population. The control group was composed of 31 students, and the 
experimental group was composed of 34 students. 

The study was conducted over a 10-day period with the Stanford 
Diagnostic Reading Test administered as the pre- and post-tests. The mean 
gain scores were analyzed using t-tests for independent means. 

The results indicated a significant difference at the .05 level for two of the 
groups compared. The mean gain of the total experimental group was 
significant when compared to the total control group, and the mean gain of 
the black experimental group was significant when compared to the white 
experimental group. The outcome of the analyses of the data resulted in 
the rejection of two of the five hypotheses. 

Recommendations and implications of the study are discussed in 
Chapter V. 

54 



THE EFFECTS OF STUDENT TEAMS-ACHIEVEMENT 

DIVISIONS OF THE SELF-CONCEPT ACADEMIC 

ACHIEVEMENT, AND CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR OF 

BEHAVIORALLY DISORDERED JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

STUDENTS 

Dianne C. Green 
(EdS, Special Education, December, 1983) 

This study assessed the effects of Student Teams-Achievement Divisions 
(STAD) on the off-task behavior, self-concept, and mathematics 
achievement of behaviorally disordered junior high students in a junior 
high school in Peachtree City, Georgia. Twenty-one students were 
randomly placed in the control group (N=9) or the experimental group 
(N= 1 2). Prior to treatment, baseline data for off-task behavior was charted 
for each student. The students also completed the Piers-Harris Childrens' 
Self-Concept Scale and the Mathematics Subtest of the Peabody 
Individual Achievement Tests, which served as pretest scores. The 
treatments consisted of a traditional teacher-centered class for the control 
group and the STAD technique for the experimental group. Analysis of 
the posttest data yielded the following results: the mean off-task behavior 
was highly significant at the .001 level in favor of the experimental group; 
the overall posttest data was not significantly different between the two 
groups on self-concept even though the mean total was higher in four of the 
six factors of the Piers-Harril Children's Self Concept Scale for the 
experimental group; and the posttest data were significant at the .005 level 
in favor of the experimental group in mathematics achievement. The study 
concluded that the STAD technique may be more successful in decreasing 
off-task behavior and in increasing academic achievement than traditional 
teacher-centered strategies. 

A HANDBOOK OF LEARNING ACTIVITIES 
FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN 

Sandra McAfee Hall 
(EdS, Early Childhood Education, August, 1983) 

The purpose of this study as to prepare a handbook of learning activities 
for parents to use with preschoolers. Literature on early child development 
was reviewed to strengthen background of understanding and to 
substantiate a reason for developing the handbook. 

The handbook included learning activities and experiences in the areas 
of language development, listening skills, motor skills, self-help skills and 
number skills. The activities and experiences were selected to promote the 
social, emotional, personal and academic growth and development of the 
young child. 

55 



THE RELATIONSHIP OF SELECTED JOB-RELATED FACTORS 
WITH JOB SATISFACTION AMONG TEACHERS ENROLLED 
IN GRADUATE PROGRAMS AT WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

Joanne B. Harwell 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1983) 

The subjects involved in this study were graduate students enrolled in 
courses at West Georgia College during the spring quarter, 1983. During 
the month of April, 165 students completed the Job Satisfaction Inventory 
and questionnaire; 106 students completed a Teacher Weekly Diary of 
time spent on clerical duties and non-instructional tasks. 

Eight null hypotheses were stated: 

1. There will be no significant correlation between time spent daily in 
clerical duties and the total score on the Job Satisfaction Inventory (JSI). 

2. There will be no significant correlation between time spent daily in 
non-instructional tasks and the total JSI score. 

3. There will be no significant correlation between the combined time of 
clerical duties/ non-instructional tasks and the total JSI score. 

4. There will be no significant correlation between the years of teaching 
experience and the total JSI score. 

5. There will be no significant difference in the total JSI score among 
teachers who hold different kinds of teacher certificates. 

6. There will be no significant difference in the total JSI score of male 
and female teachers. 

7. There will be no significant difference in the total JSI score among 
teachers who teach one to nineteen pupils per week, twenty to thirty-nine 
pupils per week, forty to seventy-nine pupils per week, and above eighty 
pupils per week. 

8. There will be no significant difference in the total JSI score among 
the five age classifications of teachers listed on the questionnaire. 

Results of the study indicated a low negative correlation between time 
spent daily on clerical duties and the total JSI score; a low negative 
correlation between time spent daily on non-instructional tasks and the 
total JSI score; a low negative correlation between the combined time of 
clerical duties/ non-instructional tasks and the total JSI score; and no 
significant correlatioin between the years of teaching experience and the 
total JSI score. The study also indicated no significant difference in the 
total JSI score among teachers who hold different kinds of teacher 
certificates; no significant difference in the total JSI score of male and 
female teachers; no significant difference between the total JSI score 
among teachers who teach one to nineteen pupils per week, twenty to 

56 



thirty-nine pupils per week, forty to seventy-nine pupils per week, and 
above eighty pupils per week; no significant difference in the total JSI 
score among the five age classifications of teachers listed on the 
questionnaire. 

While the study showed that as clerical duties and non-instructional 
tasks increase, job satisfaction decreases, further research is needed to 
determine the job satisfaction of a more representative teacher population. 

MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS AND THE GROWTH OF 
DEPENDENCY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND 

ECONOMY 

Julie Hastings (MA, History, December, 1983) 

The subject matter of this master's thesis is an analysis of dependency 
theory as originally expounded by Prebisch (1950) and Frank (1967) 
among others, and its particular relevance when applied to Northern 
Ireland with regard to the influx and subsequent withdrawal of the 
multinational corporation. The thesis is of a theoretical nature, using 
secondary data, as it was impossible to carry out such a piece of work using 
first hand information when studying so many miles from Northern 
Ireland. 

In this thesis, I have chosen to concentrate on industry in Northern 
Ireland, which prospered after World War II, but has severely declined 
since 1970, and as a result, unemployment has hit record levels in the 
United Kingdom. These changes in the Northern Ireland economy can 
only be seen in the context of the influx of the multinational corporation 
worldwide, for example, the New International Division of Labour, 
discussed in chapter 2, which refers to the way the division of labour within 
a firm has been increasingly extended over international boundaries, and 
the historical changes in the Northern Ireland state. The 
internationalization of capital and labour after 1945, signified by the 
growth of the multinational corporation and branch plant economy has 
drawn the Irish periphery into the orbit of metropolitan capital. Now, the 
growth centres of Irish industry are foreign-owned and orientated for 
export. The Irish factory is merely a staging post within an 
underproductive system. Because of this, I wish to examine how Northern 
Ireland fits into Prebisch's 'centre and periphery' analysis of the world 
economy, because I believe the Northern Irish economy has remained on 
the periphery, subject to the changes in the centre (England) and in world 
capitalistic enterprises. 

Furthermore, since the 1970's, Northern Ireland has been gripped by a 
severe crisis. I have set out to examine the effect the unstable political 
situation has had on industry, and if this has led to further dependence on 

57 



Britain. Factories have been forced to close, and now foreign investment is 
at a low ebb. At times of recession, it is usually those firms on the periphery 
which are the first to close, and Northern Ireland has been no exception. 
Contributing to this situation, the armed conflict in cities such as Belfast 
and Londonderry has tempted many multinationals to shift location to the 
Irish Republic or mainland Britain. Thus, the Northern Ireland economy 
has remained peripheral. This has led I will try to show, not only to mass 
unemployment, but to the reinforcing of sectarian division, with 
discrimination still taking place against Catholics, shown also by 
government policy to locate incoming firms in the mainly Protestant 
eastern half of the Province, and most importantly to a much greater 
dependency on the British Government. The British state has now assumed 
absolute economic and political centrality in the Northern Ireland 
economy, and the decisions affecting it. It provides incentives to attract 
more firms, and unemployment benefit to those out. of work. These are the 
major hypotheses I have set out to test in this thesis. 

I feel such a study is important because Northern Ireland is not a unique 
country, but this dependence goes on throughout the third world. 
Dependency theory stressed the fact that industrialization did not bring 
with it expected development benefits, but instead the developing 
countries have become even more dependent on the industrialized 
countries of the 'centre', and on the multinational corporation. It is 
possible to generalize trends in the third world and in Northern Ireland as 
identical, as conditions differ greatly, for example, with wages and the size 
of the labour force involved, it is still of importance to me to compare and 
contrast the two. 

Finally, I give an overview of industrial relations in domestic and foreign 
firms, and compare Britain and Northern Ireland. It is interesting to note 
that strikes and walk-outs are much less prevalent in the multinational 
corporation. It seems apparent that the movement of Northern Ireland 
into the dominance of world capitalism can only be to its disadvantage, 
with most of the benefits flowing to the 'core' countries, and the overall 
strategy of the multinational corporation can only be seen to have ill effects 
on the governments and workforce of both third world countries, and 
countries of 'peripheral' Europe such as Northern Ireland. 

THE EFFECTS OF CLASSROOM DISCUSSION UPON MORAL 
JUDGMENT IN FIRST YEAR CHILDREN 

Elaine Jocobi 
(EdS, Early Childhood Education, June, 1983) 

Purpose 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an attempt to 
develop the first-year child's moral reasoning ability through the use of 

58 



Piaget-type classroom discussions. The Piaget-type measure was used to 
determine if there was a difference in the change in moral reasoning 
between the experimental and the control groups as reflected by an 
increase in the number of intentional responses from the pretest to the 
posttest. 

Methods and Procedures 

The study was conducted in an elementary public school during the 
1982-1983 school year. The sample included 28 first-year subjects who 
attended the public school. There were two heterogenous groups. The 
experimental group was 14 subjects who discussed 70 problem stories. The 
control group was the 14 subjects who did not participate in the discussions 
of problem stories. 

Following a procedure suggested by Piaget's theory, the subjects were 
interviewed using Piaget's clinical method. The pretest and posttest 
experiment was designed to test the salience of intentions and 
consequences on the subjects' moral judgments in Piagetian tasks. For 
comparison, the pretest score was used. This provided the initial level of 
moral development in the area of intentionality. At the termination of 70 
discussions of moral dilemmas a posttest was administered to determin the 
percentage of preference for considering the intentions of the story 
character rather than a preference for consideration of consequences of 
actions. 

Results 

Findings of the study were: 

1. The control group's percentage of growth represented an 
improvement of 26% between pretest and posttest results. 

2. The experimental group made a 28% increase in intentional moral 
judgment responses. 

Conclusions 

Based on analysis of the data it was concluded that: 

1 . Although the training of the two groups differed significantly, there 
was no appreciable difference between the two groups in their 
development of a preference for intentional judgments on the Piaget-type 
posttest. 

2. The null hypothesis was not rejected. 



59 



SELF-DECEPTION PRACTICED BY INTELLECTUAL MISFITS 
IN FOUR FLANNERY O'CONNOR STORIES 

Linda Jean Watson Kaufman 
(MA, English, August, 1983) 

After giving a brief review of four Flannery O'Connor short stories: 
"Good Country People," "The Enduring Chill," "Everything That Rises 
Must Converge," and "The Comforts of Home," this paper attempts to 
deal with the concepts of deception, self-deception, and the importance of 
the eternal search for truth. In each story, the reader discovers that the 
forms to which the protagonists pay homage  education, art, 
materialism, and comfort  cannot sustain them. Furthermore, a tension 
between faith and the grotesque exists in O'Connor's works. Because 
O'Connor's concern is always for spiritual gain and because her works 
developed as her theological understanding grew, the reader sees a 
glimmer of hope even in her most despairing short story. Finally, the 
movement in this paper is from the comic to the tragic. It also shows a 
movement from the loss of limb to the loss of life. Always the concern is for 
truth and for the characters to discover themselves  LIKE 1 AM. 

THE EFFICACY OF TEACHING GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES 
TO FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS 

Klaus Langkilde (EdS, Middle Grades Education, March, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to determine if a specifically designed unit 
developing selected factors about global perspectives would have an 
influence on fifth-grade students' attitudes toward global perspectives. 

The subjects who participated in this study were from one fifth-grade 
class at Bill Arp Elementary Schol in Douglasville, Georgia. A Global 
Attitude Scale designed by the investigator measuring acceptance, 
ethnocentrism, attitudes towards foreign nations and ethnic groups, and 
attitudes towards international relations and co-operation was 
administered to students before and after the treatment to measure a 
possible change of attitudes towards a global perspective. 

Pre-test and posttest scores were compared for the entire group, for the 
boys, and for the girls. A significant decline occurred in the mean negative 
score on the inventory over the treatment period for both the boys and the 
total group. There was no significant increase in the mean positive score 
for the total group or any of the subgroups. 

It is recommended that more material regarding global perspectives 
should be produced and incorporated into the already existing curriculum. 
Also, more research on the effect of long term educational programs 
emphasizing a global perspective must be conducted. 



60 



THE MALE ARTIST'S TREATMENT OF 
TWO FEMALE STEREOTYPES 

Debra Newell Martin (MA, English, August, 1983) 

Male artists have displayed an ambivalent attitude toward two common 
female stereotypes of their own making, the sensuous woman and the 
virtuous woman. These artists are attracted to the vibrant, sensuous 
woman, yet uphold the virtuous woman on moral grounds. 

This thesis examines the origin and validity of these two stereotypes and 
their development from works of Greek literature to the novels of 
Hawthrone, Thackeray, and Hardy in the nineteenth century. In the works 
of Greek literature, women are categorized as monsters, sensuous women 
who take life and embody evil, and mothers, who represent virtue. The 
concept of the dark temptress and fair angel is evident in the works of 
Hawthorne. While his dark woman is far more talented and successful 
than the pale, fair woman, the dark one is destroyed  a situation which 
recurs in novels as these male artists attempt to end their works in 
accordance with traditional values. Hardy's dark women are vain and 
crafty, and his fair ones are simple and natural. While Hardy categorizes 
his female characters in terms of weak and strong, appearances do not 
always reveal reality, for the strong have weaknesses, and the weak have 
fundamental strengths. Thackeray's female characters seem to be judged 
by different standards; Thackeray regards the inability to love as a serious 
character flaw. His strong women are often appealing in many respectes 
character flaw. His strong women are often appealing in many respects but 
lack the need to be truly loved and the willingness to give love which 
characterize the weaker females in is novels. 

Although these stereotypes do not present complete and sometimes even 
accurate portrayals of feminine character, they remain valid and worthy of 
study because of the truths they reveal about the male artists who create 
them and their ambivalent attitudes toward these stereotypes. 

HERE AND NOW: ESSAYS IN PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION 

Bruce Linwood Mills (MA, Psychology, August, 1983) 

Religious man embodies questioning. As a questioner this man asks: 
what am I? W ho am 1? Through his sciences man may determine to answer 
the prior question with excellence. It is the latter question which concerns 
us herein, however. In man's quest for God, his instinctive journey toward 
meaningfulness, he seeks to discover and sustain meaning for his subjective 
presence in existence: the 'who' of his own, personal being. This process is 
his religion. He seeks to know, and his reason delivers him to the threshold 
of faith where science can find no agreement, no objection. If, in the god 
around which the religion of this man annulates, there is meaning, then this 

61 



is a task of man's reason. In his personal quest for blessedness, forr 
authenticity, for individuation, for eternal life, man finds meaning. Here 
we address religious man for it is he who truly concerns himself with the 
questions most deeply rooted in history: who am 1? What am 1? 

CONTEMPORARY THEORY AND METHODOLOGY IN THREE 
BODY-CENTERED, EXPERIENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPIES 

Eric G. Rosen (MA, Psychology, August, 1983) 

The field of body-centered, experiential psychotherapies has developed 
over the last fifty years through a wide range of disciplines. This field 
originated as an alternative to the psychological mainstream formed by the 
psychoanalytic and behaviorist traditions; its existence can be seen as part 
of a general paradigm shift occurring on all levels of society. A new 
generation of therapies has evolved which have synthesized elements of 
earlier disciplines with recent innovations and new information. These 
contemporary approaches are exemplified by the psychotherapies 
developed by Albert Pesso (Psychomotor Therapy), Eugene T. Gendlin 
(Experiential Psychotherapy) and Ron Kurtz (Hakomi Method). The 
discussion of these works will focus on the theoretical principles common 
to all three and the specific methodology of each. A research study by the 
author will demonstrate the connections between five emotional states and 
their corresponding patterns of somatic expression. A case study by the 
author will demonstrate the practical application of the Hakomi Method. 

CUSTOMS OF BLACKS IN TROUP COUNTY, GEORGIA, FROM 
1900 TO 1950: AN ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION 

Louis H. Russell (EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1983) 

This study was undertaken to collect factual historical data of the 
customs of Blacks in Troup County, Georgia, from 1900 to 1950. The 
study was also undertaken to substantiate the fact that oral history is an 
invaluable instrument for gathering actual historical data and preserving 
the historical data for future generations. 

A list of questions which were relevant to the subject to be studied was 
devised. The interviewees were selected and interviewed by the researcher. 
Eight of the ten taped interviews were transcribed, and the remaining two 
tapes were summarized. 

The data collected were examined for accuracy. The data appear to be 
historically accurate. This study supports the contention that oral history 
is an invaluable instrument for collecting and perserving factual historical 
data. 



62 



A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF AN ALGEBRA CLASS TAUGHT 
FROM A NON-TECHNICAL PRACTICE-ORIENTED TEXT 

Edward R. Sears, Jr. (EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1983) 

This study was designed to determine what effect, if any, the use of a 
non-technical practice-oriented text would have on the mathematical 
achievement of first-year algebra students. 

Subjects used in this study were 28 ninth graders at Mount Zion High 
School in Mount Zion, Georgia. The students were assigned randomly to 
one of two algebra classes. The only difference in the treatment of the two 
classes was that they used different texts. The control group used Algebra: 
Its Elements and Structure, Book /, by Sobel and Banks, while the 
experimental group used Algebra 1, An Incremental Development, by 
Saxon. 

The Cooperative Algebra I Test was used in the study as both the pretest 
and the posttest. The pretest was given to both groups at the beginning of 
the 1982-1983 school year. The experimental process lasted for the entire 
school year. During the last week the posttest was given. At the end of the 
experiment, mean scores for the posttest were computed. 

An analysis of covariance procedure was used to test for difference in 
mean gain scores between the experimental and control groups in subject 
matter knowledge. The null hypothesis was rejected at the .10 level of 
significance. 

It was concluded in this study that the use of a non-technical practice- 
oriented text does significantly improve the knowledge of subject matter 
for first-year algebra students as measured by test scores. Due to the small 
number of students in this study, it is recommended that further studies be 
made in this area to determine if the findings hold true. 

THE STUDY OF STUDENT AND SUPERVISOR ASSESSMENTS 

OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MIDDLE GRADES 

EDUCATION (ELEMENTARY EDUCATION) SPECIALIST IN 

EDUCATION DEGREE PROGRAM IN THE SCHOOL OF 

EDUCATION AT WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE FROM 

1972 THROUGH 1980 

Joyce Anne Steelmon (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1983) 

Since its inception in 1971, the Specialist in Education degree program 
in Middle Grades (Elementary) Education at West Georgia College had 
not been formally evaluated as to effectiveness by its graduates. By 1980, 
96 students had completed the program, a sufficient number of degree 
recipients for a follow-up evaluation to be attempted. 



63 



Two questionnaires were utilized, each having seven items whicl 
corresponded to the seven program objectives/ components. On 
questionnaire was used to assess the graduates'opinions of program 
effectiveness, while the other was used to assess professional supervisors 
opinions of progrm effectiveness with respect to graduates' jol 
performance. Subjects were asked to choose one of five scaled responses t< 
each item; in addition, they were invited to record any comments the; 
wished on the reverse side of the questionnaires. 

Statistical analysis of the data revealed that supervisors, in eight of tei; 
instances, rated the program significantly higher than did degrei! 
recipients. In three of ten instances, graduate responses and supervisor 
responses proved to have statistically significant correlation coefficients j 

Response tabulation disclosed that both program graduates and thei 
professional supervisors maintained that the program was effective ill 
achieving its stated objectives, individually and overall. Examination o 
comments, however, did not consistently support the findings of th< 
statistical analysis or the tabulation of questionnaire responses. 



A COMPARISION OF CAREER AWARENESS BETWEEN BOYS 

AND GIRLS IN THE FOURTH GRADE AS DETERMINED BY THE 

GEORGIA CRITERION REFERENCED TEST 

Sharon Dianne Tatum (EdS, Middle Grades Education, March 1984) 

This study was a comparison between fourth year boys and girls as to 
whom would be more career aware. The 1981 Georgia Criterion- 
Referenced Test on Career Development was used as the measurement for] 
the study. 

The hypothesis was that there would be no difference in the achievement 
of the twenty objectives and the total of these objectives in four areas 
between boys and girls. The statistical analysis used for the comparisom] 
was chi square with a .05 level of rejection of the hypothesis. 

It was determined that there was no statistical difference in thirteen of 
the objectives. There was a slight statistical difference on the remaining) 
seven. Boys scored slightly higher on two of the seven, girls scored slightly; 
higher on five of the seven. Boys scored significantly higher on one area of 
Form I. Girls scored significantly higher on three areas on Form II. There 
was no significant difference on the remaining areas. 

Girls at the fourth year tend to have a clearer view of the world of work- 
and their place in it. 



64 



rHE EFFECTS OF A SELF-CLAIMED PSYCHIC HEALER ON THE 
ROOT GROWTH OF CORN SEEDS 

Joseph Michael Wallack (MA, Psychology, August, 1983) 

A self-claimed "psychic healer" was studied in three experiments for the 
possibility of a healing effect on plants by the "laying on of hands." The 
lealer treated a sealed petrie dish containing germinating root growth- 
etarded corn seeds. The first experiment pre-soaked randomly drawn 
:orn seeds for twelve hours in a 2% NaCl solution. The seeds were then 
andomly assigned to three treatment groups in prepared petrie dishes: 
lealing, control and a control for the temperature of the healer's hands, 
loot growth was measured after 96 hours. The second experiment tested 
or a possible transitory healing effect following the same procedures as 
:xperiment one but measuring the roots after 48 hours. The third 
fxperiment reduced the pre-soaking period of the corn seeds to 8 hours to 
[est the possibility that the 12 hour pre-soaking period was too severe to 
dlow a "healing effect" to manifest. The roots were measured after 96 
liours. Using a Kruskal-Wallis (Non-Parametric) One Way Analysis of 
Variance allp values were found to be greater than .05. Implications for 
urther research suggest further studies are needed to avoid a Type II error 
- ruling out any possibility of a healing effect on plants by the laying on of 
iands. For the present set of experiments the null hypothesis remains 

tact. ' 

THE EFFECTS OF PEER EVALUATION ON ENGLISH 
COMPOSITION FOR REGULAR EIGHTH-GRADE STUDENTS 

udie Nix Witherow (EdS, Middle Grades Education, December, 1983) 

. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of peer evaluation 
nd teacher evaluation on the writing achievement and apprehension 
)ward writing of regular eighth-grade students. It was hypothesized that 
fiere would be no significant difference betwen the effect of peer 
Valuation and that of teacher evaluation on either the student's writing 
chievement or apprehension toward writing. A secondary hypothesis 
ated that there would be no significant difference between the sexes with 
aspect to writing achievement or apprehension. It was further 
iypothesized that there would be no significant interaction betwen the sex 
If the student and the type of evaluation with respect to writing 
chievement or apprehension. 

The forty-six students involved in the study were randomly scheduled by 
Dmputer into two composition classes of twenty-three students each, 
uring the twelve-week course both groups were presented the same 
ourse content with the exception that peer evaluation was used with the 
tperimental group and teacher evaluation was used with the control 

65 



group. Two writing samples were taken at the beginning of the study and 
two at the end. The four writing samples, coded with student numbers, 
were mixed before they were evaluated by a team of trained raters who 
used the Diederich Rating Scale. Also, the M iller and Daly Apprehension 
Survey was used to measure writing apprehension. 

Based on the analysis of the data, the experimental (peer evaluation) 
group showed a highly significant gain (p=.002) in writing achievement 
over the control (teacher evaluation) group; therefore, the corresponding 
null hypothesis was rejected. Other data relative to apprehension toward 
writing, the sex variable, and the interaction effect showed no significant 
difference between the two groups; therefore, the remaining null 
hypotheses were accepted. 

Conclusions from this study indicate that for regular eighth-grade 
students peer evaluation is superior to teacher evaluation as a 
methodology for the teaching of writing since the students in the 
experimental (peer evaluation) group improved their writing achievement 
significantly more than did the control (teacher evaluation) group and 
showed no significant difference in apprehension toward writing. A 
recommendation ased on this study is that a similar study be conducted on 
other grade levels. It is also recommended that a similar study be 
conducted involving students of varying abilities and learning styles. 

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF READING ACHIEVEMENT IN 
FIRST GRADE USING MASTERY LEARNING AND NON- 
MASTERY LEARNING 

Kathy B. Young (EdS, Early Childhood Education, June, 1983) 

The purpose of this study was to compare the reading achievement of 
first-grade students in ECRI (Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction) 
mastery learning classrooms to first-grade students in non-ECRI 
classrooms in terms of the following: 

1. total reading achievement 

2. phonic analysis 

3. vocabulary 

4. comprehension 

5. language expression 

The population of this study consisted of first-grade students attending 
Maple Street School during the 1982-1983 school year. Students enrolled 
in first grade were randomly assigned to classes in equal allotments by sex 
and race. The sample was randomly drawn from the population using the 
same strata of sex and race. The experimental group consisted of 30 
students from ECRI classrooms taught by mastery-trained teachers. The 



66 



control group consisted of 30 students from non-ECRI classrooms taught 
by teachers having no mastery training. 

The California Achievement Test, Level C, Form 1 1 was used to collect 
data for testing the null hypotheses, the statistic used to test the null 
hypotheses was the analysis of covariance. The level at which the null 
hypotheses would be rejected was set at .05. None of the null hypotheses 
were rejected. 

The results of the data from this study have shown that ECRI students 
scored higher in each subtest and total reading score. The differences were 
not statistically significant, however, chance probability levels were low 
enough to indicate a strong possibility that the difference might have been 
significant had the sample been greater. 



67 



u 



WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 



REVIEW 



Published by 

WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

A Unit of the University System pf/S^Ptgui 

CARROLLTON, GEOR^GM C^V^T' 



- .-, 



A i 



**2W  ' 



'^^ 







<-^S r 



q$: 



WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 



Volume XVII 



May, 1985 



, ; 



1 * 
/ \ 



/ 






WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

REVIEW 

Volume XVII May, 1985 

TABLE 

OF 

CONTENTS 



THE ANN /MAR: A Mannersit Archeological  
Anthropological Art Exhibition 
Dorothy Joiner 1 

Atlantans and Halley's Comet  

B.E. Powell 5 

The Great Transformation of Rural Landscapes: 

Changes of Form and Community in Rural America  

Dick G. Winehell 11 

Status and Social Distance in the Faculty Office: 
A Replication 
Carole L. Seyfrit and Jacqueline P. Martin 21 

Abstracts of Master's Theses and Specialist 

in Education Projects 28 

Annual Bibliography of West Georgia College 

Faculty as of January 1 , 1 985 62 



Copyright  1985, West Georgia College 
Printed in U.S.A. 



Published by 
WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

Maurice K. Townsend, President 
John T. Lewis, III, Vice President and Dean of Faculties 

Learning Resources Committee 
George McNinch, Chairman 



Sherry Alexander 
Charles Beard 
Ozzie Binion 
James Gay 
Richard Guynn 



Wayne Kirk 



Marc LaFountain 

Lewis Larson 

Joe Mann 

Elmo Roberds 

Charles Scudder 



Jimmy C. Stokes, Editor 
Martha A. Saunders, Associate Editor 
Mark J. LaFountain, Assistant Editor 



The purpose of this publication is to provide encouragement for faculty 
research and to make available results of such activity. The Review, 
published annually, accepts original scholarly work and creative writing. 
West Georgia College assumes no responsibility for contributor's views. 
The style guide is MLA Handbook, Second Edition. Although the 
Review is primarily a medium for the faculty of West Georgia College, 
other sources are invited. 

An annual Bibliography includes doctoral dissertations, major recitals 
and major exhibits. Theses and articles in progress or accepted are not 
listed. A faculty member's initial listing is comprehensive and appears in 
the issue of the year of his employment. The abstracts of all master's theses 
and educational specialist's projects written at West Georgia College are 
included as they are awarded. 



THE ANNIMAR: A MANNERIST ARCHEOLOGICAL- 

ANTHROPOLOGICAL ART EXHIBITION 

"/ can escape despair only through imagination. " 

-Camoes 

by Dorothy Joiner* 

Any art exhibition genuinely novel in theme and form spurs the observer 
to search for kindred antecedents in the tradition. This quest for parallels 
between contemporary art and works from the past, moreover, is not mere 
intellectual dilettantism. On the contrary, understanding modern art in the 
light of earlier works serves to illuminate the meaning and the style of both. 
Such an endeavor reinforces our sense of tradition, reminding us that our 
cultural legacy is still developing. As T.S. Eliot has said, each new work 
modifies in some way the entire heritage. With these considerations in 
mind, 1 will outline several stylistic parallels between Mannerism, a 16th- 
century European movement in the visual arts, and Bruce Bobick's lastest 
exhibition entitled The Annimar: Recently Unearthed Artifacts from an 
Imaginary North American Pre-Columbian Culture. 

As an art movement, Mannerism is generally defined as that period 
between the apogee of the Renaissance at the beginning of the sixteenth 
century, when Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael were working, and 
the advent of the Baroque period characterized by the style of Bernini and 
Rubens. During this time frame in Europe  from about 1520 to 1600  
artists deliberately violated the esthetic canons of their predecessors during 
the Renaissance, rejecting their scrupulously cultivated classical principles 
of harmony, clarity, and simplicity. The Renaissance artist had for the 
most part accepted the discipline of objective reality, aiming at 
compositions that imitated the ways things actually looked. His human 
figures were correctly proportioned and placed in natural, graceful poses; 
the illusion of space created in his pictures convincing reproduced a corner 
of the world as it is generally experienced; and the scale of the objects he 
depicted was similar to that of nature. In short, the Renaissance artist 
worked in a realistic though beautiful style. 

The realism of Renaissance art, laboriously acquired during the course 
of the fifteenth century, however, was purposively inverted by the 
Mannerist, who, though he often continued to employ the forms of the 
Renaissance, delighted in thwarting the expectations of his viewer. He 
freely distorted the proportions of his figures, often twisting them into 
exaggerated and contorted poses; he constructed irrational and sometimes 
disturbing space; and he ignored realistic scale. 

A closer look at the term "mannerism" offers greater insight into this 
provocative period. The Italian word maniera, meaning manner or style, 

* Associate Professor of Languages, West Georgia College 

1 



from which Mannerism derives, is borrowed from the world of human 
deportment. It connotes a savoir-faire , an ease and polish of speech and 
conduct. Said to be demanded by Lorenzo di Medici in his women, 
maniera refers to courtly sophistication antipodal to rustic boorishness 
and naivete. First applied to the art of his contemporaries by the sixteenth- 
century artist and commentator, Vasari, maniera meant the characteristic 
manner of an individual artist or of a national or historical style. But, more 
importantly, for Vasari, maniera referred to that essential quality whereby 
art provided an ideal imitation of nature. 

In Vasari's view, great art was created not by copying reality as it 
appears to the eye but rather by imitating an Idea of perfection born in the 
mind of the artist. Following contemporary Neoplatonic thinking, Vasari 
believed that a metaphysical ideal rather than the objects that one sees 
must determine artistic forms. For Vasari, the artist must saturate his mind 
with only the most beautiful elements, hands, heads, bodies, legs; and from 
this study he might then create figures which are more beautiful  since 
more ideal  than any found in nature. 

Vasari's conception of art often seems loftier than many of the works his 
century actually produced. Whereas some Mannerist works reveal a 
seriousness of purpose, even an anguished sensibility, many others now 
seem somewhat frivolous to the modern taste, as, for example, Cellini's 
elaborate gold and ceramic salt cellar, made for Francis I of France. The 
ornate oval base of the cellar does indeed support containers for salt and 
pepper, but the object's function as a dispenser of seasonings is secondary 
to its playful symbolic complexity. Because it is derived from the sea, salt is 
stored in a boat-shaped container under the aegis of Neptune, who lounges 
in lanquid ease appropriate to a god. Coming from the land. Pepper, is 
kept in a miniature triumphal arch, with a personification of earth nearby. 
The bent leg of each figure represents mountains and the straight leg 
plains. 

Both the Mannerist anguish as well as its paradoxical frivolity, however, 
are understandable in view of the century's Neo-Platonic, world-denying 
mindset. The Mannerist unreined his imagination in a cavalier stance 
toward objective reality because he considered the ideal, a creation of his 
own mind, to be beyond the level of common experience. And because he 
devalued reality as it is usually lived, he took pleasure in causing his 
observer to question what is normally thought to be solid and actual. To 
this end he cultivated ambiguity and illusion. This inganno (illusion) and 
disinganno (disillusion) became fundamental to the Mannerist esthetic. 

What then is the similarity between the courtly, abstracted art of 
Mannerism and Bruce Bobick's Annimar exhibition? Though seemingly 
disparate and distanced from each other in time, these works are much 



alike in their relationship toward the real and the ideal and this kinship of 
mind manifests itself in analogous techniques. 

Bobick's unusual collection of art works consists of objects and 
fragments said to derive from a Pre-Columbian white culture centered in 
the Upper Ohio River Valley. Actually, however, the artist has created 
these "artifacts" himself. From handmade paper he has made a series of 
pouches, turtle skulls, shells and vertebrae, pot fragments, layered 
garments, a surgical dome, and what he terms a "broken plevis icon." He 
has carved symbolic writing  as yet undeciphered  onto several granite 
"petroglyphs." And one of the most striking works of the exhibition, the 
"Wrapped Ceremonial Blade Form," is a long wooden pole, which he has 
partially covered with human hair and has carved into a blade at its lower 
end. The artist uses these simulated "artifacts" as points of departure for a 
detailed anthropological account of the Annimar culture, its beliefs and 
practices. 

Pivotal to the enjoyment of this exhibition is its whimsical "sleight of 
hand." The viewer is presented with what seem to be the "real" remains of 
an ancient civilization. The pot shard, for instance, is "cracked" to look 
authentic. The granite pieces have been buried in the ground to make them 
look old. Many of the "artifacts," futhermore, are displayed in plexiglas 
cases much like those of a museum. In his commentary, moreover, the 
artist asserts that the Annimar had a special process for preserving paper 
(now lost, of course), thus explaining why this normally fragile material 
has survived in its present excellent condition. To enhance verisimilitude 
even further, the artist locates the center of the Annimar culture in what is 
now Pennsylvania, citing specific locations, such as "Two Lick Creek"and 
"Dixon Run," as former Annimar strongholds. He describes the 
complex divorce procedures of the Annimarand even their ritual food, the 
royal turtle soup. And with pseudo-scientific exactitude, he employs Latin 
terms like Tsuga Canadensis for Eastern Hemlock. This wealth of detail 
concerning the Annimar people and their lifestyle serves to persuade the 
viewer that what he sees is authentic. 

That this elaborate fabrication seems genuine was confirmed by the 
query of the printers who typeset the exhibiton catalog. They wanted to know how 
the artist knew so much about the Annimar without being able to read 
their language. 

Together with his solicitude for the appearance of reality, however, the 
artist at the same time teases the viewer, including hints  often 
humorous- of his dissembling. In the title, he uses the word "imaginary." 
He also parodies the titles of scholarly publications: The Art Bulletin 
becomes "The Bulletin of Art." And the names of authorities cited are 
often scramble versions of real ones. Lars Loosen, an archeologist 



mentioned, for instance, is suspiciously like Lew Larson of the WGC 
faculty. The viewer who initially accepts this masterful counterfeit and 
then perceives the hoax is forced  in Emily Dickinson's phrase  to "earn. 
. . [his] own surprise." 

Bobick's playful cultivation of an illusion that almost simultaneously 
dissolves into disillusion recalls the Mannerist inganno and disinganno, 
which I mentioned earlier. The Mannerist took great delight in creating 
ambiguous natural and artificial forms. One 16th-century master of 
illusion, Bernard Palissy, constructed outdoordiningareas termed topiary 
cabinets, which imitated solid architecture made of wood and stone. 
Beside his sculptured greenery, Palissy placed deceptively detailed animals 
fashioned of faience. His ideal garden included a pool with ceramic fish in 
bold relief. When the water stirred, the fish seemed to move. The artist 
boasted of the exactitude with which he imitated the scales and fins of 
aquatic creatures. This predilection for ambiguity and its correlative 
surprise stem from the Mannerists' highly subjective, often whimsical 
attitude toward outer reality. 

And is not Bobick's playful parody of modern archeology and 
anthropology also analogous to the Mannerist's free distortion of nature 
and of classical forms? Just as the Mannerist contorted the human figure to 
conform to his personal ideal, so too, does Bobick "twist" scientific 
commentary to convey his own perception of desirable human behavior. 
His Annimar are a benevolent people who have overcome not only their 
own violence but that of their enemies as well. They do not kill an intruder 
but rather ensnare him on one of their elaborate traps. Retaining the 
invader's bellicose spirit in a special pouch, the Annimar thereby render 
him peace-loving. They then send the converted warrior home with a gift of 
maize seeds, symbolizing his new pacifism. 

These fundamental characteristics common to Bobick's Annimar 
exhibition and to sixteenth-century Mannerist art suggest analogous 
sensibilities. It is generally agreed that the Mannerist contortion of 
classical principles and forms was evidence of haunting anxieties. Their 
rejection of the world stemmed from fear and consequent unease. Their 
seemingly playful whimsy was the paradoxical obverse of deep 
disquietude. Similarly, just beneath the Annimar exhibition's drollery lies 
a painful questioning of human violence and evil. The exhibition 
represents the artist's imaginative solution to this most fundamental 
problem of human existence. 

The parallels which 1 have discerned between Bobick's Annimar 
exhibition and Mannerist art  their cultivation of illusion together with 
surprise at its dissipation, their fanciful turning of forms from their 
original intent, and their underlying disquietude  might all be more fully 
elaborated. I have merely suggested an outline for further speculation. 



ATLANTANS AND HALLEY'S 
COMET IN 1910 

by B.E. Powell* 

Georgians are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Halley's comet in 1986. A 
few people who saw it in 1910 are still living and may have an opportunity 
to see Halley's comet in two successive appearances. Many other people 
recall their parents or grandparents telling about the comet. 

Large numbers of comets probably exist in the fringes of the solar 
system. A comet has a nucleus (which is only a few miles in diameter) made 
of a mixture of frozen gases and solid particles. If a comet comes 
sufficiently close to the sun, some of the frozen gases will melt to form a 
diffuse envelope (known as the coma) about the nucleus. If the comet 
comes even closer to the sun, the solar wind (high speed particles which 
have escaped from the sun) blows some of the vaporized particles to form a 
tail, which always points away from the sun. The tail of a comet may be 
millions of miles long, and the head (coma and nucleus) may be thousands 
of miles across when a comet is near the sun. 

At least a dozen comets are seen each year by astronomers using 
telescopes. Some of these comets are periodic and are seen at regular 
intervals. Others are seen for the first time as a newly discovered periodic 
comet or one which is making its only journey through the inner part of the 
solar system. Perhaps one comet per decade is bright enough to be seen 
easily with the unaided eye. Halley's comet is probably the best known of 
these celestial visitors. 

It is necessary to know some of the history of the study of comets to 
understand public reaction to Halley's comet in 1910. Comets had been 
considered to be messengers of disaster for thousands of years. 
Earthquakes, deaths of rulers, diseases, and military defeats were 
associated with comets. People were frequently terrified when they saw a 
comet. 

These ancient fears should have been eliminated in the seventeenth 
century when additional scientific information about the nature of comets 
was acquired. Edmond Halley saw a bright comet in 1682 and began to 
study comets. His searches of old records revealed that a similar bright comet 
had been seen at intervals of about 75 years. Halley also used the recent work 
of Isaac Newton to calculate orbits of comets to demonstrate that periodic 
comets revolve around the sun in elliptical orbits. He predicted that the 
I comet he saw in 1682 would return in 1758. The reappearance of the comet in 
1758 confirmed Halley's model of comet orbits. 

* Professor of Physics, West Georgia College 

5 



Halley's work indicated comets were members of the solar system and 
should not be feared any more than a planet, moon, or asteroid. However, 
the ancient superstitions were believed by many people, even as more 
scientific studies were conducted on comets. 

By the twentieth century, advances had been made in astronomical 
instrumentation. Telescopes had been improved and accessories had been 
developed. Cameras and spectrographs, for example, could be attached to 
telescopes to photograph and determine the composition of comets. 

In 1910, two recent scientific discoveries probably contributed to some 
concern about the imminent passage of Halley's comet. The orbit 
calculated from the position of the comet on photographs made in August, 
1909, indicated the earth might be sufficiently close to the comet on May 
18, 1910, to pass through the tail of the comet. Secondly, early 
spectroscopic studies detected cyanogen gas in the tail of the comet. These 
discoveries reinforced the beliefs of poorly informed and superstitious 
people that the comet would surely destroy life on the earth. 

The comet was observed in the Atlanta area for several weeks in 1910. It 
was visible in the eastern sky before sunrise from late April until May 18. 
It was then visible in the western sky after sunset until June. 

The Atlanta Constitution printed much information about Halley's 
comet in 1910. Reports of scientific studies from astronomical 
observatories, suggestions about observing the comet, and reactions of 
people to the comet were featured in these articles. Even though this 
coverage was extensive, some things which were featured in other 
newspapers were not printed. The Constitution did not publish 
photographs of Halley's comet made at major observatories in May, 1910, 
or illustrations showing the position of the comet against the background 
stars. Only one drawing, showing the orbits of the earth and the comet, was 
included in the Constitution's coverage. 

Some of the first coverage on the celestial visitor consisted of general 
information. Mrs. CJ. Haden presented a "brilliant paper on the subject 
of Halley's comet" to a meeting of the Atlanta Woman's Club (/, 2). A 
series of articles entitled "Halley's Comet" by Frederic Campbell, President 
of the Department of Astronomy at the Brooklyn Institute, described 
comets, the current study of Halley's comet, and the history and legends 
associated with the famous comet (2). 

In early May, 1910, several other people described the comet. Using the 
headlines " Have You Seen the Comet? How the Sky Tramp Looks", a 
reporter stated he had seen the comet at 3: 1 5 a.m. He described the comet's 
tail as being hazy (even on a clear morning) and not as big as a cart wheel. 
He also said people in the same neighborhood were having "comet parties" 



by awaking to sec and discuss the celestial visitor (3, 5). Such comet parties 
continued over a number of days, as people in many sections of Atlanta 
were "busy setting their alarm clocks." W.L. Fain described his 
observations of the comet very precisely in a letter to the editor. He 
indicated how close the comet was to the morning star (Venus), its height 
above the horizon, and the length of its tail. "Those who wish to see it will 
be well repaid for their trouble in rising early and looking toward the 
eastern horizon" (4, 3). 

As more people became aware of Halley's comet, the "sky tramp" was 
blamed (at least jokingly, in some instances) for many mishaps during the 
viewing season of 1910. The comet was said to be responsible for the record 
cold weather in late April, for soft-shelled eggs being laid by hens, and for 
the failure of cotton seeds to germinate properly. Romances were spoiled by 
the comet, and one marriage ceremony was delayed until after the comet's 
closest approach on May 18. An oculist suggested the comet was 
responsible for increases in the number of people needing glasses. 
Similarly, physicians blamed the comet for patients' ills that could not be 
disgnosed as gout, heart failure, or other disorders. Trains were said to run 
late because of the comet (5, 4). 

Despite additional assurances from the astronomers that the world 
would not be harmed by the comet (<5, I), people thought otherwise. 
Hundreds of Atlanta Negroes refused to work during the week of May 18. 
("What's the use of working, if the comet is going to do things to us?") 
Special church service with prayers for deliverance from the comet were 
held. These fears may have been reinforced by unusually cool weather 
which might have suggested the comet was affecting the earth (7,1). 

Weather forecaster Von Herrmann stated emphatically that "comet or 
no comet, the weather would be the same." He was credited with the 
following remarks: "Halley's comet has been charged with a good many 
sins, but the man who blames Atlanta's weather upon the wayfarer of the 
skies is almost as heartless as the man who waylaid the babe on the way to 
Sunday school and robbed it of its contribution penny at the point of a 
piece of lead pipe"(5,4). 

On May 18, readers of the Constitution were informed that Atlanta 
would be "saved" by clouds. Weather forecaster Mr. Von Herrmann 
predicted that the sky would be cloudy when the earth was passing through 
the tail of the comet. Observers would be deprived of seeing any unusual 
effects. For the concerned people, this had even more meaning  the clouds 
would serve as a blanket to prevent the tail of the comet from touching the 
earth (9, I). 



Comet stories were told on the day of the closest approach. City 
Councilman Harrison's facetious resolution inviting Halley's comet to 
visit Atlanta was tabled. Likewise, the parents of a newly-born baby 
rejected a suggestion to name the infant "Comet." The mayor's executive 
secretary, Harvey Johnson, said that if things became too serious that 
night "a fellow might take four fingers of rye and trust to the Lord. "Other 
city officials had additional stories of people being afraid the comet would 
set the world on fire, praying and sitting in the "amen corner" at church 
services, using money to have a good time instead of paying rent due before 
the world might end, and worrying about having suitable clothing for 
burial (10, 3). 

One well-known Atlanta businessman who was also a member of the 
city park board used the comet as an excuse for not going to work on May 

1 8. He sent the following note to his office. "Dear , If I come to work at 

all today it will be late. Nervous members of my family insist that I stay at 
home until the comet danger has passed. Yours,  " (//, 7). 

Reactions to the comet on the city, state, national, and international 
levels were reported on May 19. On the local level, the headlines were 
"COMET CAME! BUT THAT'S ALL!" The article continued, "The 
comet has come and gone, and nothing more serious has happened than a 
spell of bad weather, if that can be charged up to the celestial wanderer. 
With all the fears and misgivings the comet has caused, he left us as he 
found us, and we are still doing business at the same old stand . . . And 
when Halley's comet passed, and neither the heavens fell nor the earth was 
rent in twain nor any other hair-raising phenomena of similar dire 
character was exhibited, the somewhat skeptical and pessimistic 
inhabitants of this mundane sphere breathed a long, sweet sigh of relief 
and then went back to sleep and dreams ... It was the tail of the thing that 
interested Atlantans, just as it will be the tale of the thing that will interest 
coming generations when the oldest inhabitant brazenly declares that he 
saw the comet itself and had his hair singed while diving into the coal bin or 
the storm cellar" (//, 7). 

Many comet parties had been held on May 18. "In fact, it is very 
doubtful if any appreciable degree of the population slept any at all until it 
was apparent that there would be nothing more doing in the way of a comet 
for the next 75 years. People stood on housetops and in the streets and 
watched the heavens for hours . . ." (J I, 7). 

Pranks were played on participants at some of the comet parties. Youths 
released balloons attached to burning materials. "Carousing comet parties 
Wednesday evening and Thursday morning were temporarily suspended 
and petrified, as to speak, by the spectacle of flaming bodies sailing blithely 



8 



through the heavens. It is said that in the neighborhood of deeper Decatur 
Street a few of the more susceptible brethern have not yet returned to 
their homes" (12, 5). 

Atlantans were also encouraged to see the comet in the northwestern sky 
during late May. A table of viewing times was given (13, 1). 

Some advertisements tried to capitalize on the comet. One such ad was 
printed in the personal section. "Halley's comet visible at Five's, corner of 
Marietta and Spring Streets (14, B9). Hastings' on Mitchell Street 
advertised while the comet was visible before sunrise: "SEEING THE 
COMET is the latest thing in early moring stunts. If you get up to see the 
comet, why not stay up and finish the plantings in that unfinished garden 
that you began a couple of months ago?" (15, 10). Finally, a "COMET 
WEEK SALE" was used by one Atlanta store (16, Dl). 

Humor was also featured in the newspaper reports. Some cartoons were 
printed depicting the comet and interactions with the comet in various 
forms. For example, a cartoon with the caption "Never Touched Her!" 
showed Mother Faith (wearing a dress and an old gray bonnet) saying 
"Well! It's past and I'm still here!" as the comet was shown receding in the 
background. Short, witty remarks were frequently given in an editorial 
column. For example. "The comet has the big head, but no tail of woe"and 
"The comet has made the noisy alarm clock popular" described the rising 
of Atlantans in early May to see the celestial visitor (15, 8). "The 
astronomers would have us believe the comet is sort of a celestial gas trust" 
(16, 6). The editor's concern about the mishaps blamed on the comet was 
reflected in the question "Who will be the goat after the comet disappears" 
( 18, 4)7 The entire experience with the comet was summarized in two final 
remarks. "Cheer up! It will be seventy-five years before you'll have to rise 
at 2:30 a.m. to witness the return of Halley's comet. The comet made the 
whole world the rising generation" (19, 6). 

This is the way it was 75 years ago. In a few months, the current 
generation will have its opportunity to see Halley's comet. During this 
apparition, the famous comet will be studied more extensively than ever by 
astronomers. Since 1910, optical telescopes and accessories have been 
improved. New tvpes of telescopes, such as radio and infrared, 
have been developed. For the first time, space probes will be sent out to 
studv the comet. Hopefully, inhabitants of the earth will not feel the same 
fear and dread that was experienced by some people during the last visit. 
Although the conditions for seeing Halley's comet in 1986 will not be as 
favorable as in 1910, impressions will be formed to pass on to children and 
grandchildren. 



WORKS CITED 

1. "Paper on Halley's Comet Read by Mrs. C.J. Haden." Atlanta Constitution, 13 March 

1910:2. 

2. Frederick Campbell. "Halley's Comet." A tlanta Constitution. I April 1910:10:3 April 

I9I0M7; 5 April 1910:7; and 6 April 1910:7. 

3. "Have you seen the Comet?" Atlanta Constitution, I 1 May 1910:5. 

4. "Comet Parties Are Quile the 1'hing These Mornings." Atlanta Constitution. 14 May 

1910:3. 

5. Tom Bryson. "Luckless Comet the 'Goat' of Season's Many Mishaps." Atlanta 
Const it ui ion. 15 Ma\ 1910: 4. 

6. "Comet Will Hit I his Old World. Hut Do No Harm." Atlanta Constitution. 16 Mas. 

1910:1. 

7. "Negroes Refuse to Stas at Work." Atlanta Constitution, 17 May 1910: I. 
.X "Denies the Cornel Is Responsible ." Atlanta Constitution, 17 May 1910: 4. 
9. "Atlanta Sa\ed b\ the Clouds." Atlanta Constitution, 18 May. 1910: I. 

10 "Some Comet Stones that Are Being I old." Atlanta Constitution. IS May 1910: 3. 

11. "Comet tame. But I hat's All." Atlanta Constitution. 19 May 1910: 1.7. 

12. "loll ol Comet Humor I xaeted bs Sk\ r ra m p." A tlanta Constitution, 22 May 1910:5. 

13. "Cornel Came. Bui Dial's AW." Atlanta Constitution. 19 May 1910: I. 

14. Atlanta Constitution, < May 1910: B9. 

15. Atlanta Constitution. 12 May 1910: H. 10. 

16. Atlanta Constitution. 15 May 1910: 6. Dl. 

17. "Ncvci touched Her." Atlanta Constitution. 19 May 1910: I. 
IS. Atlanta Constitution. 16 Mas 1910: 4. 

19. Atlanta Constitution. IS Mav 1910:6. 



10 



THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION OF RURAL TOWNSCAPES: 
CHANGES OF FORM AND COMMUNITY IN RURAL GEORGIA 

by Dick G. Winchell* 

American rural townscapes have traditionally been dominated by 
unique visual imagery associated with community form and design. 
Architects, planners, builders and craftsmen created buildings and spaces 
with distinct identities. Although styles were often copied from one place 
to another, their modification, combination and relation to the unique site 
of each town created visually distinct rural communities. 

The focus of this pleasant townscape was the Central Business District 
(CBD). The initial hub of commercial activity has gone through radical 
change in recent decades, however, and for commercial land a totally 
different land use pattern has evolved. There has been a transformation in 
land use from commercial facilities located in concentrated town centers to 
locations along auto-oriented strips or in shopping centers. Although the 
downtowns or CBD's of most small towns remain, the visual imagery of 
rural America is now influenced as much by McDonald's arches and 
convenience market signs as it is by Victorian facades. 

This is the great transformation of rural townscapes from the pedestrian 
oriented town centers at the turn of the century to today's auto dominated 
strips and shopping centers. This paper traces two themes in the 
transformation of commercial lands. The first theme is the result of 
innovations which initially occurred in construction to make the old 
CBD's possible, and later innovation and use of the automobile as the 
major mode of transportation in rural communities. The second theme is 
the transformation in investment strategy and control of finances in rural 
communities from local control to a dominance of metropolitan interests 
and influences. The result is a radical change in the physical form of rural 
communities, and a change in rural values and sense of community. After 
describing the transformation to a new form of rural town, this paper will 
examine the impact of change on the social fabric of the community and 
will assess the implications of such change for the future. 

Background 

Initial settlement of the rural South and most of rural America is a 
Nineteenth Century phenomenon. Its design was essentially Victorian, and 
Maas suggests: 

Nineteenth century Victoria, USA, had no unity of 
architectural style but it was a pleasant and successful ensemble 
of warmth, color, dignity and good cheer, quite as good in its 

* Assistant Professor of Geography, West Georgia College 

11 



own way as Old World towns. The business blocks were 
remarkably well integrated; their storefronts did not clash with 
the nearby homes and the beautifully lettered signs enlivened 
Main Street facades (139-140). 

Victorian architecture came about from the invention of the balloon- 
frame system of construction which eliminated the need for heavy 
timbered frameworks and skilled carpentry. Prior to the 1870's multi- 
stories construction required heavy timbers which had to be pre-cut and 
connected with wooden dowells in pre-drilled holes. Extreme skill in 
engineering and construction was required, and multi-storied buildings 
were extremely expensive. The balloon-frame was dependent upon the 
introduction of cheap, factory-made iron nails, and required little in the 
way of construction skills for multi-storied buildings and facades. This 
offered small towns the opportunity to construct large, attractive buildings 
which could copy the designs of Europe without the capital investment. 
The result was the Victorian era small town CBD. which typifies rural 
Georgia. Construction of these CBD buildings date from 1870 to 1910 
(Mass 140). 

Economics also contributed to the construction of attractive Victorian 
CBD's. Cotton production in the rural South led to "gin towns" and "mill 
towns" which were at first self-sufficient rural communities which 
produced goods for exchange with other parts of the country. As in other 
rural regions, local financing was established and greatly contributed to 
the unique designs of rural communities. Small town banks were formed 
by successful farmers and industrialists, speculators, or patrons with 
money who moved into the areas. Successful initial development created a 
pool of capital which was reinvested into the local economy through the 
construction of commercial businesses, industry and homes, but especially 
businesses in the CBD. These decisions to make major investments and 
to emphasize the attractive design of buildings were made by local 
businessmen. 

The evolution of unique townscapes was the result of the plans or 
concepts for development held by these local businessmen or proposed by 
prospective entrepreneurs. Loan requests for different types of businesses 
and different building designs were reviewed by loan committees based on 
local needs and desires. The regional availability of building materials and 
local skills of builders were also considered in financing decisions. 
Generally each town had some initial townsite plan, centered around a 
town square or main street and a few initial buildings. Infill and expansion 
were based upon expediency of merchant loan requests and whatever 
business leaders felt was needed for their community. All of the initial 
financial decisions were controlled bv local businessmen, and extensive 



12 



capital investment was made not simply for profit, but to create a unique 
and impressive town center for the community. 

Southern agricultural economies quickly became dependent upon a 
crop lien tenancy system in which farmers were advanced funding for the 
next year's crops by local banks, which led to increasing dependency upon 
the region's cash crop, cotton (McLaurin 4). In some cases outside capital 
was borrowed from Northern investors to establish businesses and 
maintain Southern banks. This began a system of exporting profits being 
produced in the South through an increasing reliance upon outside capital. 
Although Northern interests soon dominated the timber industry. 
Southern investors maintained control of textiles and agriculture 
(McLaurin 5). The "heyday" of Victorian CBD's in the rural South was 
limited to a short period of successful cotton expansion 

between initial settlement and the collapse of the cotton industry by the 
1920s. Southern townscapes were restricted by the influence of outside 
Northern capital and a regional dependency following the war unlike rural 
areas in other parts of the country (McLaurin II). Local financial 
institutions remained important to the development of downtowns and to 
the expansion of the local economy and the built environment, but were 
limited by available capital. 

The Great Transformation of Rural Townscapes 

The advent of the automobile to the rural American landscape brought 
about the greatest changes in land uses, and in the South exacerbated the 
failure of cotton based agricultural communities. Land use changed not 
only internally within towns to accommodate the new machines, but also 
radically altered the regional framework within which rural communities 
had evolved, .lust as Karl Polanyi identified the great transformation from 
national economies to a new order of multi-national corporations which 
dominate world capital and world order (Polyani). so too can we identify 
the great transformation of relatively autonomous rural economies into 
regionally dependent extensions of metropolitan centered investment 
capital. 

The automobile made transportation between rural and urban centers 
easy and led to a concentration of capital and a flow of goods from rural 
areas to metropolitan centers. Combined with crop failures and "push" 
factors forcing people to leave rural communities, the attractions of city 
life and urban employment caused large scale migration and resultant 
large scale investment which was concentrated in urban centers. Many 
rural areas of the South experienced population decline or stagnation 
beginning in the 1920's. The only exceptions were towns which had some 
unique linkage to urban centers or served as regional markets for goods. 



13 



Just as the automobile promoted initial expansion of urban centers, its 
increased use led to congestion and the eventual desire to escape from the 
city to areas adjoining urban centers. The result was a large scale exodus 
from cities and the "suburbanization" of the population. In these suburban [ 
settlements individuals could own their home and a small plot of land away 
from city congestion, yet be within a short commute to urban workplaces 
and activities. The auto first led to concentration of capital investment in 
urban centers, and then to its reinvestment on the urban fringe. 

Suburban investments featured the conversion of agricultural lands to 
urban land uses and were tremendously profitable. It was this profitability, 
the demand for increasing markets, and the potential for low risk 
investment that made suburban development attractive for investment in 
the late 50s and 60s. These forces created new forms of commercial land 
uses. Highway strips of commercial facilities grew along major highways. 
Each business had access by automobile and the replication of successful 
businesses through franchise stores, especially fast food and convenience 
markets, took place throughout suburbia. These facilities emphasized auto 
access and convenience. Shopping centers which provided major 
department store shopping with easy auto access were also built and 
flourished. The development of highway strips and shopping centers was 
unique from a design standpoint because there was no precedent for design 
of human values and place. Instead, utility and concerns of the auto 
overshadowed any concern for human beings. The only concern in dealing 
with people in this new landscape was attracting them to the businesses, 
generally accomplished with large signs along the street and the assurance 
of maximum speed and efficiency in the delivery of goods and services. 

The success of these strips and shopping centers in suburban 
communities led to an examination of rural environments as potential 
investment areas. The same features that led to suburban investment in 
prior decades, notably the demand for increasing markets and the 
influence of mass media advertising by franchise businesses, combined 
with the relative lack of investment in rural America and the 
underdevelopment of rural economies and led to a new boom of invest- 
ment in rural communities in the 70's and 80's. 

The recent resurgence in rural development is in part a 
response from metropolitan-centered capital to recognize the investment 
or market potential of rural areas. Urban land values increased 
dramatically during the 50's, 60's, and 70's, making relatively low-cost 
rural lands attractive to urban investors. The rural areas as marketplaces 
were also underdeveloped as a result of limited capital investment prior to 
the 60"s. Metropolitan-centered capital investments were made to capture 



14 



these markets by financing fast food establishments, fast service 
^convenience" markets, and small shopping centers. National advertising 
and marketing stimulated patronage of these "franchise" stores in rural 
communities. The careful marketing, proven product lines and service of 
these franchise operations nearly guaranteed successful return on 
investment. Local financial institutions responded by financing their own 
franchise or local "convenience" facilities. Traditional rural forms of 
investment in unique buildings and shops, expansion or redevelopment of 
downtowns, and maintenance oi unique districts became a less viable, 
more risky investment. The result of these investment strategies is the 
financing of suburban and urban based franchise commercial businesses 
along highway strips or in shopping centers in rural communities. This has 
created a great transformation of the physical form of the rural landscape. 

1 he Human Impact of the Great Transformation 

These newly transformed landscapes have resulted in a loss of a unique 
sense of place, since the emphasis of the new designs is on standardized 
buildings for auto convenience and service efficiency. Each franchise store, 
both from the outside and from the inside, looks more or less alike. There is 
no unique visual identity for persons driving by or using such stores. Yi- 
Eu-Tuan suggests that "When space feels thoroughly familiar to us, it has 
become place (73), and it is this unique sense of place which dominated the 
CBD's of rural America. The transformation of the rural townscape 
removes this unique sense of place, substituting mass-culture artifacts for 
unique or distinct buildings. Especially transformed is the role of small 
towns as a "homeland", which Tuan identifies as having landmarks of high 
visibility and public significance which "serve to enhance people's sense of 
identity and encourage awareness and loyalty to place" (159). 

Peet suggests that loss of place is "creating increasingly homogeneous 
adherents to an American based 'ultraculture' out of the previous mosaic 
of regional and local consciousness" (1 10). Steele in The Sense of Place 
says: 

In many instances, modern society is tending to destroy the rich 
variety of places, replacing them with homogenized "efficient " 
settings that have no variety, surprise, or traces of their own 
history or development. They may indeed be efficient for 
certain tasks .... but they offer minimal returns compared with 
the traditional impact of places as providers of many levels of 
meaning and experience (8). 

The transformed rural landscape produces changes in the culture and 
community toward a portrayal of ourselves as members of ultra-cultures. 



15 



This great transformation of the rural landscape has critical 
implications for town planners and rural citizens who might ask "Is there a 
place for architecture and design within this transformed landscape?" and 
if so, "What should the role of planners and architects be?"The infusion of 
capital investment into highway oriented strip commerical or shopping 
center facilities provides little opportunity for planners to create more than 
minor site variations in standardized designs. The context for such 
development beyond an individual parcel of land is extremely limited, and 
planning regulations beyond minor streetscapingand auto access concerns 
are unlikely. As strips and shopping centers expand, the imagery of rural 
America becomes more and more standardized. 

Academicians suggest that problems may exist with the development of 
ultra-culture and the great transformation of rural towns. Steele states: 

When people are unaware or unappreciative of the ways in 
which place experiences affect their lives, for better or worse, 
the places tend not to have much conscious influence on the 
nature of the experience. People seem to he willing to overlook 
a poor setting . . . Yet the actual human costs to us of bad place 
experience can be enormous when accumulated over a lifetime 
(4). 

What planners and citizens need to seek, yet what the current trend in 
rural development is moving away from, is the creation of unique and 
identifiable townscapes. As Tuan states: 

Place is an organized world of meaning. It is essentially a static 
concept. If we see the world as a process, constantly changing, 
we should not be able to develop any sense of place (179). 

Traditional rural townscapes have been static, not changing in nearly a 
century. The introduction of change alone detracts from this sense of 
place, and leads toward placelessness, or landscapes which fail to create 
any unique identity (Relph, Place and Placelessness). This placelessness in 
our rural landscape may simply be the result of our transformed image of 
reality where through the influence of television we can bring images into 
our homes from anywhere in the world, and where our imagery and values 
are in constant flux. Why not have change within the visual images of rural 
communities to reflect such realities? 

Modern rural landscapes, like their urban and suburban counterparts, "are 
the result of a fusion of technical methods of analysis and construction 
with philosophies which promote improvements in the efficiency and 
material conditions of life" (Relph, Rational Landscapes 15-16). People 
become less than human in such a context, and are simply a means to an 
end  profit. Relph describes this process succinctly: 

16 



/// the exclusive newness of suburban development, leisure 
(enters, fast-food outlets, shopping malls, international 
airports, and geometric office blocks, people are treated less as 
autonomous beings than as pets  they are housed, exercised, 
fed, cajoled, moved and used. All this, needless to say, is for 
their own welfare (Relph, Rational Landscapes 16). 

The efficiency of last food and convenience markets in rural communities 
is traded lor the visual quality of the built environment. 

I he modern rural landscape reflects a change in values, but also a 
change in regional economic models. of the transformation of rural 

America is that regional metropolitan interests rather than local capital 
now dominates the types of development which occur. Change or 
development in small towns is dependent upon the initial resources of 
CBD structures and the influence and extent of metropolitan based capital 
in local economy. As new development increases in rural areas there is 
additional pressure tor auto oriented convenience facilities. Relph states: 

So modern landscapes, as probably all former ones, are a 
dynamic and constantly changing expression of competing 
interests following more or less conventional strategies which 
are governed by limiting rules. Modern landscapes are above 
all an expression of the growing authority of those who hold 
the largest stakes, namely governments and large corporations. 
Individuals and communities are allowed only a minor role 
(Relph, Rational Landscapes 57). 

This is the contemporary setting for planning in rural America. The 
strategies for action are limited and are most dependent upon a critical 
understanding of the problem. 

Assessing the Impact of Change 

To understand the impact of this change and the potential role of 
planners and local citizens in dealing with change, the framework within 
which development occurs must be examined. Maxine Greene suggests: 

There must be critical understanding of the post-industrial 
society, run as it is by technical men and women "committed to 
functional rationality and technocratic modes of operations. " 
Individuals must be equipped to reflect upon the knowledge 
structures we provide, to identify themselves with respect to 
them, to penetrate their mystiques. They must be equipped as 
well to reflect upon the erosion of community in this society 
(122). 

One new approach to design taken by Venturi is to redefine what is 
pleasant or interesting about a landscape from people's popular notions 

17 



rather than to apply specific criterion imposed by designers. As Denise 
Scott Brown writes in her forward to the second edition of Learning from 
Las Vegas: 

. . . (architects should) reassess the role of symbolism in 
architecture, and, in the process, learn a new receptivity to the 
tastes and values of other people and a new modesty in our 
designs and in our perception of our role as architects in 
society. Architecture for the last quarter of our century should 
be socially less coercive and aesthetically more vital than the 
striving and bombastic buildings of our recent past (Venturi 
XVII). 

Such a redefining of values according to function may lead to 
a continuation in the process of constructing more and more efficient 
buildings without really considering the humanity of the people being 
designed for. Relph states that such an approach has some benefits in that 

it: 

. . . also encourages the development of a greater sensitivity to 
our visual surroundings, and can offer design proposals to 
enhance and make more attractive existing landscapes by 
means consistent with what is there now. Not avenues of trees 
along commercial strips, but better designs for fast-food outlets 
and shopping malls and service stations (Rational Landscapes 
52). 
This seems to be the direction taken by rural planners and communities. 

Such an approach may salve the conscience of planners, but leaves their 

designs and the future of rural America placeless. 

Relph suggests a further alternative to the Venturi approach, that of 
adopting an attitude of environmental humility. Environmental humility 
is a way of thinking and doing that which respects what exists in the world 
without denying its essential character or right (Rational Landscapes 19). 

Environmental humility is marked by a concern for the 
individuality of places, and this requires a careful and 
compassionate way of seeing that can grasp landscapes as 
subtle and changing, and as the expression of the efforts and 
hopes of the people who made them. To learn this way of seeing 
we must allow ourselves to be appropriated by environments 
and situations (Relph, Rational Landscapes 20). 

Such an effort would have planners and community members become 
sensitized to localism and regionalism of the built environment. 



18 



. . . it is necessary to teach ourselves to look at what is local and 

often commonplace before allowing ourselves to become 

infatuated with exceptional landscapes and grand proposals for 

their reconstruction. We need to be able to see in detail what 

people have made of their lives here, and how this has been 

claimed as a distinctive place (Relph, Rational Landscapes 195). 

To embrace environmental humility in rural communities means an 

acceptance of the transformed landscape for w hut it is, an important part 

of the form and function or rural life. This is not.an unvalued acceptance, 

however, and within the context of each rural community, designers and 

citizens must go beyond the landscape of ultra-culture and convenience in 

an effort to create unique places and community identity as part of 

development and redevelopment. 

Conclusions 

Rural communities are in a great transformation. A unique rural sense 
of place is to some degree being lost, but rural traditions and values are also 
changing. All citizens have a stake in determining the extent to which we 
maintain a unique rural identity through the built environment, and to 
what degree we maintain senses of place in our daily lives. How to preserve 
or even create this sense of place for the future is not clear. To do this 
within our modern "ultra-culture" where rural areas are influenced by 
mass media and franchise development will be difficult. The metropolitan- 
satellite dominance of urban capital and the influence of mass media 
creates little room for places, yet when places have been created or 
preserved they are hailed as the epitome of planning. Somehow the rural 
American townscape needs to represent the preservation of unique places, 
not as museums or historical artifacts, but as symbols of our own identity. 
Even within "ultra-culture" we remain human, linked to only a limited 
spatial realm, tied but lor a short time to places and experiences which may 
or may not make our lives worth living. 

The incorporation of new images and the maintenance of old in creating 
place represents the relationship between change and changelessness in the 
rural landscape. Rural America has gone through many changes in form 
and function, yet it has maintained unique institutions and symbols of 
place. The great transformation of the rural townscape poses a threat to 
the unique visual experiences and values of each rural community. 
Designers, architects and planners as well as the general public must 
recognize the impact of this transformation and do more than simply build 
new spaces without a unique identity. We must instead recognize the 
importance of space which becomes place when it is expressed locally in 
commonplace forms. Only an attitude of environmental humility can lead 
to a unique and significant role for rural America in forming the values and 
symbols of our future. 

19 



/ would like to thank Miss Charlotte Entrekin for her assistance in the preparation of this 
manuscript. 

WORKS CITED 

Maas. John. The Gingerbread Age: A View of Victoria America. New York: Rinehart and 
Company. Inc., 1957. 

McLaurin, Melton A. and Michael V. Thompson. The Image of Progress: Alabama 
Photographs, 1872-1917. University, Alabama: I he University of Alabama Press, 1980. 

Polanyi. Karl. The Great Transformation. Boston: Beacon Press. 1957. 

Yi-Fu-Tuan. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of 
Minnesota Press, 1977. 

Peet, Richard. "Introduction: The Global Geography of Contemporary Capitalism." 
Economic Geography 59.2 (1983): 1 10. 

Steele, Fritz. The Sense of Place. Boston: CBI Publishing Company, 1981. 

Relph. Edward. Place and Placelessness. London: Pion, Ltd. 1976. 

Relph. Edward. Rational Landscapes and Humanistic Geography. London: Croom Helen 
Ltd.. 1981. 

Greene. Maxine. Landscapes of Learning, 1978. with quotation from Daniel Bell, The 
Coming of Post-Industrial Society. New York: Basic Books, 1973. 

Venturi. Robert. Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. Learning from Las Vegas: The 
Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form. Cambridge. Ma: The Mil Press, 1977. 



20 



STATUS AND SOCIAL DISTANCE IN THE 
FACULTY OFFICE: A REPLICATION 

by Carole L. Seyfrit* and Jacquelyn P. Martin** 

A recent study, by Zweigenhaft, concerning personal space in 
faculty offices used faculty member's choice of desk placement as an 
indicator of social distance in the faculty-student interaction. Conducted 
at a small private school, the study indicated that, regardless of sex, 
professors with higher status (measured by academic rank) would be more 
likely to create social distance between themselves and their students. The 
purpose of this study was to partially replicate Zweigenhaft 's work using as 
subjects the faculty of a larger state school and using the variable tenure 
status in addition to some of those used by Zweigenhaft (529-532). 

Although classroom environments have been the focus of 
experimentation and discussion, little attention has been given to the 
faculty office environment. Zweigenhaft argued that the type of student- 
faculty interaction which takes place on a one-to-one basis can be 
influenced by the environment provided in the faculty office. It is by 
definition home territory for the professor and alien territory for the 
student. 

According to Sommer and Ball, architectural barriers in the social 
environment can promote or impede human interaction. Some physical 
barriers are used as territorial boundaries and indicators of status and 
power. Korda's examination of the power indicators in the executive office 
environment suggested that the desk is the ultimate indicator of social 
distance (36-44). The size, design, and placement of an executive's desk is a 
broad indicator of prestige, power, and status. 

Zweigenhaft indicated that such associations of power and status can be 
applied to the faculty office as well. Specifically, he hypothesized that 
faculty members who placed their desk between themselves and their 
students, thus creating social distance, would be more distant from their 
students in other ways such as age and status. 

Zweigenhaft 's study was conducted at a small, private school. Data were 
collected by asking the 74 faculty members to make sketches of the way 
they arranged the furniture in their offices. This resulted in an 85 percent 
response rate. The other 1 5 percent were eventually sketched by a research 
assistant. After omitting those faculty members who shared offices, those 
whose offices doubled as classrooms and those sketches in which desk 
placement was indecipherable, analysis was conducted on diagrams from 

* Instructor of Sociology, West Georgia College 

** Undergraduate student in Sociology, West Georgia College 

21 



63 faculty offices. These diagrams were coded based on where the faculty 
member's desk was placed in relation to the professor's chair and student's 
chair(s), i.e., either between the teacher and student chairs or not between 
the teacher and student chairs. 

The two groups (desk-between, desk-nut-between) were compared 
across five variables: age, sex, department, status, and student evaluations. 
No differences in desk placement were found for sex or department, but 
significant differences were found for status and age. The older professors 
with higher status (based on academic rank) were more likely to use the 
desk-between design in their offices. However, faculty members using the 
desk-not-between design were generally evaluated more highly by students 
than those using the desk-between design. 

Based on the social distance and territoriality literature and the results of 
Zweigenhaft's work, it was hypothesized that this study, using a larger 
sample, would produce similar findings. That is, the higher one's status 
(measured by academic rank and tenure status) the more likely one is to 
create social distance (as determined by desk placement) in the student- 
faculty interaction. Comparisons by sex, race, department, school, and 
whether or not one shared an office were made, but differences in desk 
placement were not hypothesized. 

Method 

The 244 full-time faculty members of academic departments ( I ) at West 
Georgia College were contacted by letter through campus mail. This letter, 
from the senior author, explained that a study concerning the use of space 
in faculty offices was being conducted by sociology students and requested 
the faculty's cooperation. Professors were told that a student researcher (2) 
would visit them in their offices during scheduled office hours to ask 
permission to make a diagram of the office furniture placement. During 
the following two weeks visits were made to each faculty office where, with 
permission, a diagram was sketched and researchers noted the sex and race 
of each professor. 

Using Zweigenhaft's procedure, professors were divided into two groups 
depending on the desk placement in relationship to teacher and student 
chairs in the diagram. A diagram showing the professor's chair and 
student's chair separated by the professor's desk was coded 
as "desk-between". A sketch indicating the desk placed so the student's 
chair was adjacent to the professor's chair was coded as "desk-not- 
between." In addition, the variables of sex, race, department, school 
(Business, Education, Arts and Sciences), tenure status (tenured, not 
tenured), academic rank (instructor, assistant, associate, or full professor), 
and number of people sharing the office were coded for each professor. 



22 



Of the 244 lull-time faculty members included in this project, 199 were 
successfully contacted and sketches made of their offices. Five faculty 
members declined participation and forty were not contacted after four 
attempts. One professor was dropped from the analysis because there was 
no desk in the office. This left a final sample of 1 98 or eighty-one percent of 
the original 244 faculty members. 

Results 

The sample contained two few minorities to draw any conclusions based 
on race. No significant differences were found for schools (Business, 
Education, Arts and Sciences) or departments. Those sharing offices were 
less likely to use the desk-between arrangement, probably due to space 
restrictions. However, significant differences in the sharing of offices were 
not found across department, rank, or tenure status. Therefore, although 
Zweigenhaft excluded office shaftrs from his study, they were included in 
this analysis. 

Significant differences were found based on both status variables. 
Professors with higher academic rank were more likely to use the desk- 
between arrangement. Table I indicates that nearly half of the full 
professors put their desks between themselves and their students while 
significantly fewer associate professors, assistant professors, and 
instructors did so. The difference is also striking when based on tenure 
status. As shown in Table 2, thirty-seven percent of tenured faculty as 
opposed to less than eleven percent of nontenured faculty used the desk- 
between arrangement. 

Although both tenure status and academic rank produced significant 
differences in desk placement. Tables 3 and 4 indicate that these results 
held only for males. Higher ranking and tenured male professors were 
more likely to arrange their offices in the desk-between style than were 
lower ranking and nontenured male professors. However, for female 
professors, there were no significant differences in desk placement based 
on academic rank or tenure status. 

Discussion 

It was hypothesized that the higher one's status, the more likely one 
would be to create social distance between oneself and one's students. 
Social distance was measured by placement of the desk in the faculty 
office. Placing the desk between the faculty and student chairs connoted 
more social distance than placing the desk to allow the chairs to be 
adjacent to each other. As predicted, those with higher academic rank and 
those with tenure were more likely than lower ranking, nontenured faculty 
members to place a physical barrier, the desk, between themselves and 
their students, thus creating greater social distance when interacting within 
the territory of the faculty office. Although physical features of an office 

23 



such as the location of doors, windows, and telephones, may affect 
decisions about desk placement, the diagrams indicated a random 
distribution of such features. Therefore, as Zweigenhaft concluded, there 
is some relationship, although not necessarily a causal one, between 
faculty members' status and the furniture arrangement in their offices. 

In opposition to Zweigenhaft's finding of no sex differences in this 
relationship, this study showed clear differences. Status of female faculty 
members was unrelated to desk placement. Regardless of status, the 
overwhelming majority of female professors, like the lower ranking and 
nontenured male professors, used office arrangements that did not 
indicate the creation of social distance in student-faculty interactions. 
Although the status variables in this study were related to faculty status, 
i.e., academic rank and tenure status, status in our society is also assigned 
on the basis of sex, i.e., women are accorded lower status than men 
(Stockard and Johnson). 

According to Richardson, people interact with a woman in ways that 
make this lower status more salient than any higher status she may have 
such as academic rank or tenure. Studies of nonverbal behavior focusing 
on the use of space consistently find that women occupy less space in terms 
of body space, territory, and personal space (Frieze and Ramsey 133-141, 
Henley). Women may internalize societal cues and, by the way they occupy 
space, unconsciously communicate low status in social interactions ( Frieze 
et al. 

In an effort to understand the sex differences found in this study, the 
sketches which were coded as desk-not-between were reexamined. 
Although the> clearly lit Zweigenhaft's criterion ol allowing adjacent 
interaction between professor and student, the desk-not-between sketches 
fell into two distinct groups. The arrangement in the majority of the 
diagrams showed the desk flush to the wall creating no barrier at all 
between faculty member and student. However, thirty-three professors 
arranged their desks in such a way that they gave some indication of a 
barrier, but the chairs were still arranged to allow adjacent interaction. 
That is, the desks were either perpendicular to the wall or pulled 
completely away from it so the faculty chair was behind the desk. 
However, the student chair was still to the side of the desk and therefore fit 
Zweigenhaft's definition of desk-not-between. 

Twenty-three of the professors with this arrangement were men (15.4 
percent of the men in the sample) and ten were women (20.4 percent of the 
women in the sample). The striking characteristic about these ten women 
was that seven of them (or 70 percent) were associate or full professors 
while only nine (or 39 percent) of the twenty-three men were of the same 
ranks. 

24 



As a means of interpreting these findings, informal conversations were 
conducted with several female professors. After first denying there was any 
"reason" for their particular arrangement of office furniture, most of the 
women began talking about how they perceived themselves and how they 
were perceived by students. One woman summed up the most common 
sentiment by saying that she did not want to act like the stereotypical, high- 
status male by sitting behind her desk, but that she wished students would 
not treat her quite so casually. Another felt students were apt to describe 
female professors who set themselves apart from their students as more 
rigid and intolerant than men who did so, and that this prejudice was 
apparent in student evaluations. Several professors noted that they were 
less likely to be addressed as "Doctor" or "Professor" by their students 
than were their male colleagues, even those without doctorates. One said 
when it comes to deciding how to address professors, students are more 
likely to assume males have doctorates and assume females do not. Many 
of the women contacted told stories of sitting in their offices (with their 
doors clearly labeled) and having students ask if they were the 
departmental secretary. One women reported feeling "damned if she did 
and damned il she didn't." If she took a more assertive, more distant stance 
with her students she was seen as "bitchy", but if she were less assertive and 
distant she was treated as less competent. 

Women in academia, like women in other male dominated professions, 
are faced with the conflict of not wanting to take on the aggressive, status- 
oriented stereotypes of successful males, but, if they do not, are treated in 
terms of their femaleness and not their accomplishments. The number of 
higher ranking female professors using a desk arrangement which allows 
them to sit behind their desks, while still allowing adjacent interaction with 
students, may indicate an effort, be it conscious or unconscious, to resolve 
this conflict. 

In summary, males with higher academic rank or tenure communicate 
their status by creating greater social distance from students when 
interacting in the faculty office. However, for women, tenured professors 
and those with associate or full professor rank may reinforce their lower 
"female" status by the way they arrange their office furniture. 

This study makes no conclusions about the quality of interaction based 
on desk placement. However, it is clear that higher status is related to 
social distance between professors and students in the faculty office for 
males and not for females. 



25 



Table 1. Desk Placement by Academic Rank 



Academic Rank 





Full 


Associate 


Assistant 


Instructor 




Professor 


Professor 


Professor 




Desk Placement 


X 


X 


X 


X 


Desk Between 


48.3 


24.0 


12.7 


20.0 


Desk Not Between 


51.7 


76.0 


87.3 


80.0 


Total 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 


(N) 


(35) 


(55) 


(50) 


(35) 



Chi Square (df=3)-19.97 



p<.001 



Table 2. Desk Placement by Tenure Status 





Tenure 


Status 




Tenured 


Not Tenured 


Desk Placement 


% 


X 


Desk Between 


37.1 


10.8 


Desk Not Between 


62.9 


89.2 


Total 


100.0 


100.0 


(N) 


(124) 


(74) 



Chi Square (df-l)-14.84 



p-.OOOl 



Table 3. Desk Placement by Academic Rank Controlling for Sex 



Academic Rank 



Males 
Full Assoc, Ass't. Inst. 
Prof. Prof. Prof. 



Females 
Full Assoc. Ass't Inst. 
Prof. Prof. Prof. 



Desk Placement 



X 
55.1 



Desk Between 

Desk Not Between 44.9 



X X 

30.0 15.4 
70.0 84.6 



X 
23.8 
76.2 



Total 
(N) 



100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 
(49) (40) (39) (21) 



X X % % 

11.1  6.2 14.3 : 

89.9 100.0 93.8 85.7 

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 

(9) (10) (16) (14) 



Chi Square (df-3)-17.10 
p<.001 



Chi Square (df=3)-1.77 
n.s. 



26 



Table 4. Desk Placement by Tenure Status Controlling for Sex 









Tenure 


Status 






Tenured 


Males 

Not Tenured 


Females 
Tenured Not Tenured 


Desk Placement 


% 


% 




% 


% 


Desk Between 


41.7 


15.2 




14.3 


3.6 


Desk Not Between 


58.3 


84.8 




85.7 


96.4 


Total 
(N) 


100.0 
(103) 


100.0 
(46) 




100.0 
(21) 


100.0 
(28) 




Chi Square (df=l)= 
p<.01 


8.88 


Chi Sqi 


aare (df=l)=.69 
n.s. 



NOTES 

(1) Administrators, part-time faculty, and faculty not listed in academic 
departments (e.g. librarians) were not included in this study because it was 
felt that interaction between these faculty members and students would 
differ in both frequency and type. 

(2) In addition to the second author, student researchers working on this 
project included M. Wade Holland, Samantha J. Thomoson, and Veleta 
P. Porter. 

WORKS CITED 

Ball, Donald W. Microecology: Social Situations and Intimate Space. New York: Bobbs- 
Merrill, 1973. 

Henley, Nancy M. Body Politics: Power, Sex, and Nonverbal Communiction. Englewood 
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1977. 

Korda, Michael. "Office Power-You Are Where You Sit." New York, 8 (1975): 36-44. 

Frie/e, Irene H. and Sheila J. Ramsey. "Nonverbal Maintenance of Traditional Sex Roles." 
Journal of Social Issues. 32( 1 976): 133-141. 

Frie/e, Irene H., Jacquelynne E. Parsons, Paula B. Johnson, Diane N. Ruble, and Gail L. 
Zellman. Women and Sex Roles: A Social Psychological Perspective, New York: W. W. 
Norton, 1978. 

Richardson, laurel Walum. The Dynamics of Sex and Gender: A Sociological Perspective. 
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981, 2nd ed. 

Sommer, Robert. Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: 
Prentice-Hall, 1969. 

Stockard, Jean and Miriam M. Johnson. Sex Roles: Sex Inequality and Sex Role 
Development. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1980. 

Zweigenhaft, Richard L. "Personal Space in the Faculty Office: Desk Placement and the 
Student-Faculty Interaction," Journal of Applied Psychology, 6I( 1976):529-532. 



27 



ABSTRACTS OF MASTERS THESES AND 
SPECIALIST IN EDUCATION PROJECTS 



THE EFFECTS OF MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT ON ACADEMIC 
ACHIEVEMENT OF FIFTH AND SIXTH-GRADE STUDENTS 

Mary Jean G. Adams (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1984) 

The study was conducted to ascertain any effects of maternal 
employment on achievement of fifth and sixth-grade students at Alabama 
Street School in Carrollton, Georgia. Five hypotheses were proposed. 
Data regarding race, sex, achievement score, and maternal employment 
status for 408 students were analyzed using the Analysis of Variance. 

No significant differences in achievement were found for the total 
population whose mothers were employed as compared to the total 
population whose mothers were not employed. Futhermore, no significant 
differences in achievement were found when comparing white students, 
male students, or female students in terms of their mothers' employment 
status. The only significance revealed was for black students. Black 
students whose mothers were employed achieved significantly higher than 
black students whose mothers were not employed. 

THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING PROBLEM-SOLVING 

STRATEGIES IN CONJUNCTION WITH CALCULATOR USE ON 

THE MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING ABILITY OF 

FOURTH-GRADE STUDENTS 

Debbie B. Alexander (EdS, Middle Grades Education, December, 1984) 

The purpose of the study was to determine if there is a significant 
difference between the problem-solving ability of students taught 
problem-solving strategies in conjunction with calculator use as compared 
to students taught problem-solving strategies without calculator use and 
students receiving no specific instruction in problem solving. 

The subjects of this study consisted of the entire fourth grade at White 
Elementary School in Bartow County. The treatment consisted of a six- 
week period during which the treatment group was taught specific 
problem-solving strategies while using calculators during their instruction 
and practice. The control group was taught the same strategies, but 
without calculator use. The comparison group was given no specific 
instruction in problem solving. 

The Metropolitan Mathematics Test was administered to all subjects as 
both the pretest and posttest. Scores from the problem-solving and 

28 



computation sections were analyzed. The level at which the null 
hypotheses would be rejected was set at .05. Both the first null hypothesis, 
which dealt with problem-solving ability, and the second null hypothesis, 
which dealt with computational ability, were rejected. 

The results of the data from this study indicated that specific problem- 
solving strategies taught in conjunction with calculator use did result in 
gain scores that were significantly higher when compared to the gain scores 
of students only given regular classroom instruction with no emphasis on 
problem solving. Even though those students who were taught specific 
strategies had higher gain scores than those given no instruction in 
problem solving, and those students who used calculators in their 
instruction has higher gain scores than those taught only the strategies, it 
was the combination of calculator use and the teaching of specific 
problem-solving strategies that made the significant difference. 

THE EFFECTS OF A PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGY UNIT 

ON THE PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS OF 

FOURTH-GRADE STUDENTS 

Judy Gaulding Anderson (EdS, Middle Grades Education, 
December, 1984) 

This study was designed to determine the results of exposure to a unit 
relative to problem-solving strategies on the problem-solving skills of 
fourth-grade students. 

Subjects for the study were fourth-grade students at Cartersville 
Elementary School. The subjects were grouped according to their reading 
levels and considered to be nearly equivalent in their reading levels. The 
experimental group was composed of 25 students and the control group 
was composed of 25 students. 

The study was conducted over a four week period. The test designed by 
the mathematical Problem Solving Project constructed at Indiana 
University was administered as a pretest and posttest. The mean scores 
were analyzed by analysis of variance. 

The results indicated a significant difference at .001 level for the two 
groups compared. The mean of the total experimental group was 
significantly higher than then mean of the total control group. The mean of 
the correct responses in the experimental group was significantly higher 
than the mean of the correct responses in the control group. The outcome 
of the analyses of the data resulted in the rejection of both of th 
hypotheses. 



29 



A COURSE OUTLINE FOR THE TEACHING OF MODERN 

RUSSIAN HISTORY AND COMMUNIST IDEOLOGY FOR 

SECONDARY STUDENTS 

Barbara Baldwin (EdS, Secondary Education, June, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to write, and to give supporting evidence 
that a need exists for the development of a one quarter course outline for 
teaching recent Russian history and Communist ideology. 

Following a research of the literature dealing with recent Russian 
history, course content for a one quarter elective course on recent Russian 
history for social studies students on a secondary level was researched and 
developed. Preceding the content section is a list of specific objectives. 
Following the content area is a suggested vocabulary and suggested 
activities. 

Data were gathered to compare the opinions of teachers, parents, and 
students by asking them to respond to ten statements concerning various 
aspects of Russian history and Communist ideology on their level of 
agreement or disagreement with the statements. 

Chi squares were computed to determine whether or not actual 
differences existed among the ratings of the three groups. The results 
revealed that significant differences existed in the ratings among all these 
groups in nine of the statements. 

Conclusions reached as a result of this study indicated that: ( I ) although 
there were significant differences in the manner that each of the three 
groups responded to the ten statements, no definite pattern was found in 
these responses, (2) the inconsistency and differences in the responses of 
the three groups to the ten statements concerning modern Russian history 
and Communist ideology probably indicated a lack of definite knowledge 
in this area, (3) a guide was needed, and was developed, for a one quarter 
course in modern Russian history and Communist ideology. 

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF COMPREHENSION 

ACHIEVEMENT OF THIRD-GRADE STUDENTS TAUGHT 

THROUGH A LEARNING MODALITIES APPRAOCH VERSUS 

A TRADITIONAL APPROACH 

Hellen J. Brown (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1984) 

This study was conducted to determine differences in reading 
comprehension achievement between a group of students taught through 
individual learning modalities. Group 1 was the control group and Group 
II was the experimental group. The students were taught the skills of cause 
and effect and drawing conclusions for a period of two weeks. 



30 



The students were given a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest to 
determine the amount of achievement. The t-test for independent means 
was used to analyze the results of the posttest and delayed posttest. The 
results of the comparisons revealed that there was no significant difference 
at the .05 level of the two groups. The null hypotheses were not rejected. 

THE INCLUSION OF FINE ARTS IN THE MIDDLE 
SCHOOL CURRICULUM 

Y. Davis Broun (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1984) 

Fine arts are considered to be a valuable portion of an educational 
program. The problem of this study was to display the importance of the 
inclusion of the many facets of a fine arts program in the middle school. 
The study includes a review of the literature and a video tape which 
displays examples of using the arts to aid a middle school student in 
interrelating the academics, new-found skills, and interests with the 
development of self. 

The subjects of this study were the four-year fine arts program in Purks 
School, Cedartown. Georgia; and in an expanded two-year program 
sponsored by the Cedartown Civic Arts Commission. The program existed 
for six years. 1976 through 1982. 

The experience of the Purks Fine Arts Program and thcCedartwon Fine 
Arts Program were used in creating a video tape to encourage, inspire, and 
give ideas to those interested in including the fine arts in the middle school 
curriculum. 

A COMPARISON OF SEVERLY DISTURBED ADOLESCENTS' 

CONCEPTION OF THE "PERFECT MOTHER" VERSUS THEIR 

CONCEPTION OF THEIR ACTUAL MOTHER 

Joan A. Fuhro (EdS, Special Education, June. 1984) 

This study determined if sevcrly disturbed adolescents in a psycho- 
educational center showed significant difference in their conception of the 
perfect mother when compared to their conception of their actual mother. 
Seventeen subjects, ages 14 to 18, from the Burwell Adolescent Program 
at Central High School. Carrollton, Georgia, were administered the Elias 
Family Opinion Survey (Elias, 1952), an instrument which measures 
attitudes towards family. The subtest from the Elias Family Opinion 
Survey ( Elias. 1952) "Attitudes Towards Mother" was used to determine if 
there was a significant difference. The instrument was administered twice. 
The first time the subjects were asked to respond in a manner which 
reflected their idea of the perfect family. The second time the subjects were 
asked to respond in a manner which described their actual family. Only the 

31 



subtest "Attitudes Towards Mother" was scored. A t-test was used to 
determine if there was a significant difference in the subjects conception of 
the perfect mother when compared to their conception of their actual 
mother. 

Analysis of the data revealed that severly disturbed adolescents in a 
psychoeducational center showed no significant difference in their 
conception of the perfect mother when compared to their conception of 
their actual mother. 

A SURVEY OF ATTITUDES OF SECONDARY REGULAR 

CLASSROOM TEACHERS TOWARD MAINSTREAMED 

HEARING IMPAIRED STUDENTS 

Jane Ford Chapman (EdS, Special Education, June, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of secondary 
regular classroom teachers concerning the mainstreaming of hearing 
impaired students into their classrooms, and to analyze the attitude score 
of the regular secondary teachers surveyed with respect to type of school 
program, subject area tuaght, age, sex, number of special education classes 
taken, degree level obtained, perceived success with hearing impaired 
students, and perceived availability of support services. 

A questionnaire was developed to measure the attitudes of regular 
secondary classroom teachers toward mainstreamed hearing impaired 
students. The instrument was in three parts: background information, 20 
Likert-type questions related to teachers' attitudes toward mainstreaming 
hearing impaired students, and additional comments or concerns to the 20 
questions. The respondents indicated their response on a scale from 
"strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree, strongly disagree." The 
questionnaire was sent out to 105 regular secondary teachers. 

Sixty-six percent of the questionnaires were completed and returned. 
The results of the study indicated a positive attitude on behalf of the 
regular secondary classroom teachers toward mainstreaming of hearing 
impaired students into regular classrooms. There was no significant 
difference indicated in the teachers' attitude scores with respect to type of 
program, subject area taught, age, sex, number of special education classes 
taken, degree level obtained. However, significant differences with respect 
to perceived success with hearing impaired students and perceived 
availability of support services were revealed. This indicated that the 
higher the perceived success with hearing impaired students and/or 
perceived availability of support services, the more positive the attitude. 



32 



THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MATHEMATICS 

ACHIEVEMENTS FOR SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS 

ENROLLED IN INDIVIDUALIZED AND TRADITIONAL 

MATHEMATICS CLASSES AT WESTSIDE MIDDLE SCHOOL 

Patricia M. Chenard (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to compare the mathematics 
achievements of seventh-grade students in an individualized mathematics 
program to seventh-grade students in a traditional mathematics program. 

The population of this study consisted of the seventh-grade students 
attending Westside Middle School during the 1983-84 school year. The 
subjects of the study were the 83 nontransfer students from the four 
average and high-average mathematics classrooms. There were 48 students 
in the individualized group and 35 students in the traditional group. The 
teachers with similar experience and background each taught a class using 
the traditional style and one using the individualized program. 

The Scott Foresman Achievement Test, Level II, Form A, 1 980 edition, 
was used as the covariate for the analysis of covariance. The Scott 
Foresman Achievement Test, Level 12. Form A. 1980 edition, was used to 
collect the data to test the null hypotheses. The level at which the null 
hypotheses would be rejected was set at .05. The first null hypothesis which 
deals with methods of instruction was not rejected. The second null 
hypothesis which deals with instructional preference style was rejected. 

The results of the data from this study indicate that there is no significant 
difference in achievement between students who are in an individualized 
mathematics program and students who are in a traditional mathematics 
program. The results sis indicate, however, that students who were placed 
in the type of program that they prefer, either individualized or traditional, 
had significantly higher achievement test scores. This seems to indicate a 
strong possibility for improv ing achievement by matching students to the 
program style that they prefer. 

A COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF MATHEMATICS GRADE 

EQUIVALENT SCORES ON THE PIAT AND WRAT OBTAINED 

BY ELEMENTARY LEARNING DISABLED STUDENTS 

Barbara Griffin C lemons (EdS, Special Education, June, 1984) 

This study compared mathematics grade equivalent scores to the 
Peabody Individual Achievement lest (PIAT) and the Wide Range 
Achievement 1 est (WRAT) obtained by 32 learning disabled students in a 
public school setting in grades four through eight. Subjects ranged in age 
from 10-0 to 15-8 with a mean age of 13-0. WISC-R Full Scale IQ scores 
ranged from 75 to III with a mean IQ of 90. 

33 



Differences in the means (X = 2.1) of the two subtest scores were 
computed (PI AT X = 6.2; WRAT X-4.1). At test for nonindependent 
samples was employed to test the significance of the differences (t = 7.32. p 
< .05). The null hypothesis was rejected since scores on the PI A 1 were 
significantly higher than scores on the WRAT. A Pearson product 
moment correlation coefficient (Pearson r) was calculated to determine the 
correlation between the two subtests scores(r = + .50. p - .05). Even though 
the correlation met statistical requirements of significance at the .05 level 
of confidence, it was not high enough to meet the requirements of 
prediction. 

In view of the findings of this study, it was concluded that there is a 
significant difference in the PI AT and WRAT mathematics subtests scores 
among learning disabled students at the elementary level. Even though the 
correlation of the two tests was statistically significant, the correlation was 
not high enough for prediction: therefore, it was also concluded that the 
mathematics subtest scores of the PI A I and WRAT at these grade levels 
should not be used interchangeably. 

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, 

COGNITIVE SKILLS, AND SELF-CONCEPT OF HANDICAPPED 

AND NONHANDICAPPED THIRD AND FIFTH GRADERS 

Ann Coughlan-Ruote (EdS, Special Education, August, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were a significant 
relationship between self-concept and four specific areas of academic 
achievement: ( I ) reading. (2) spelling. (3) language, and (4) mathematics. A 
second purpose was to determine if there were a significant relationship 
between self-concept and four specific areas of cognitive skills: (I) 
sequence, (2) memory. (3) analogies, and (4) verbal reasoning. A third 
purpose was to determine the degree of relationship between all areas, each 
with the other. 

The sample consisted of 42 third grade students and 26 fifith grade 
students. There were 21 handicapped and 21 non-handicapped third 
graders; 13 handicapped and 13 nonhandicapped fifth graders. The 
handicapped students had been identified and placed in the least restrictiv e 
environment by the school system. 

In order to measure academic achievement, all students were 
administered the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (McGraw-Hill. 
1981). The Test of Cognitive Skills(McGraw-Hill, 1981) was administered 
to measure cognitive skills. All students were administered the Piers- 
Harris Children's Self Concept Scale (Piers & Harris, 1969) to measure 
self-concept. 



34 



Data was analyzed with analyses of variance and Pearson coefficient 
correlations. Data indicated significant relationships between self-concept 
and all academic achievement areas and only the cognitive skill of 
analogies for nonhandicapped third graders. No significant relationships 
between self-concept and any area for handicapped third graders, 
nonhandicapped or handicapped fifth graders were found. 

A STUDY COMPARING ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION 

OF LAB AND NONLAB STUDENTS IN A POSTSECONDARY 

AREA VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL SCHOOL 

Michael ./. Coition (EdS, Secondary Education, March, 1985) 

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of 
developmental studies on academically disadvantaged students who 
majored in a business occupation program at a postsecondary area 
vocational technical school during 1977-1982 academic sessions. Two 
major questions were asked in the analysis of data: 

1 . How do business education majors' English grades differ in 
percentage rankings for lab students compared with those of 
nonlab students? 

2. How do business education major lab students compare with 
nonlab students in percentages of students completing their 
business occupation programs? 

A total of 710 students was included in the study with lab students 
accounting for 13 percent of the population and nonlab students 
accounting for 87 percent. The grades for all students who took English A 
and English B were gathered and arranged according to groups. An 
analysis of the grades was made on the basis of percentages receiving 
grades A, B, C, D, and F. In addition, a comparison was made of the 
percentage of each group receiving a grade of Cor better. Finally, totals of 
completers and noncompleters were calculated for lab and nonlab 
students, converted to percentages, and compared. 

Analysis of the data indicated that nonlab students tend to attain higher 
grades as a group than do the lab students but that the lab students tended 
to pass their English courses at rates comparable to those of nonlab 
students. Analysis of completion data indicated that lab students 
completed regular programs at rates comparable to those of nonlab 
students. 

Conclusions drawn from the analysis of the data suggest that 
developmental education is effective in helping the academically 
disadvantaged student achieve educational goals, i.e., completion of 
regular occupational programs. Although as a group their grades may not 

35 



be as high as those of nonlab students, lab students pass English courses at 
high rates and come within a few percentage points of achieving the same 
completion rates as those of nonlab students. 

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY AS APPLIED IN THE LIFE 
OF THE CHURCH 

John F. Cox (MA, Psychology, August, 1984) 

The question arises today, are the different components of life ready for 
Humanistic Psychology and all that implies, or how well is the humanistic 
approach assimilated into education, business, Christianity, social 
services, other psychologies, etc? 

I will show Humanistic Psychology at work within the framework of my 
parish. My own expansion in thought, religious ideals, and good human 
relationships hopefully will be evident in this paper. The acceptance of my 
humanistic appraoch will be determined by the evaluation of the parish 
response. My thesis will show that Humanistic Psychology can be 
effectively lived and used in the life of the church, but possibly not without 
resistance. Even if resistance is encountered, I cannot evade what I'm 
perceiving as personal development and a good educational, spiritual 
model for others. 

CASE STUDIES OF GIFTED EARLY READERS: A SEARCH FOR 

COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE, AND ENVIRONMENTAL 

CHARACTERISTICS WITHIN THE INDIVIDUAL 

AND THE GROUP 

Nancy Chesser Cr icier (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to identify cognitive, affective, and 
environmental charactersitics of a group of students who were certified to 
be preschool readers and who have also been identified as being gifted. 
Eight students were interviewed. Their classroom interactions were 
analyzed by sociograms. They were given test to rate their behavior 
profiles, personality types, and their attitudes toward reading. Their 
parents were interviewed to find out what effect their parents had on their 
learning to read. The family structures, family interactions and parental 
opinions of the gifted early reader's attitudes, abilities and behaviors 
were ascertained by both interview and written questionnaire. 

The study showed that most of the children had common traits, but 
there were exceptions to every trend. Some particularly outstanding 
findings were: ( I) all of the children were read to starting at an early age. (2) 
the mother was the family member most influential in the child's 

36 



acquistion of reading skills, (3) all of the children had appropriate reading 
materials available at an early age, and (4) siblings reared in similar 
environments did not acquire reading skills early. 

A CORRELATIONAL STUDY OF SELECTED FACTORS 
RELATED TO BIOLOGY GRADES 

John D. Dunn (EdS, Secondary Education, December, 1984) 

Screening of students for an advanced Biology I course is a current 
problem at Central High School in Nevvnan, Georgia. This study is an 
attempt to identify those factors in a student's record which will make it 
possible to predict his chances of success in a Biology 1 course for 
accelerated students. The subjects are 101 Biology 1 students in Central 
i High School in the Coweta County School System during the spring 
semester of 1984. The Biology 1 semester grades of students were 
correlated with five selected factors. These were the eighth grade 
mathematics grade, eighth grade science grade, the mathematics and 
verbal scores on the eighth grade Georgia Criterion Referenced Test, and 
the score on the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test. The null hypothesis 
stated that there would be no significant correlation between each factor 
and the Biology I grades. The factors were correlated with the subjects' 
Biology I grades using a six variable multicorrelational analysis. The level 
of significance at which the null hypothesis would be rejected was 
established at the .05 level. The correlation coefficient at which the 
correlation was considered useful for predictive purposes was established 
at .4. 

The null hypotheses were rejected in two cases. The eighth grade science 
grade and the eighth grade mathematics grade were found to be 
significantly correlated for science was .5467 at p = .001. The eighth grade 
mathematics grade had a coefficient of correlation of .4499 at p = .001. 

An analysis of variance was computed for the mathematics and science 
grades by the Biology I grades using the intelligence scores as a covariate. 
This showed significant relationship between the variation in mathematics 
and science grades in the eighth grade and variations in the Biology I 
grades. 

A multiple classification analysis showed that the mathematics grade 
accounted for 239? and the science grade accounted for 33% of the Biology 
I grade. 

For this sample, the eighth grade science and mathematics course grades 
were found to be useful predictors for determining the scores of students in 
a high school Biology I course. 



37 



EVALUATION OF A PROGRAM TO CHANGE NONHANDI- 

CAPPED FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS' ATTITUDE TOWARD 

THE HANDICAPPED 

Cynthia M. Estes (EdS, Special Education, June, I9H4) 

This study assessed the effectiveness of the program. Understanding 
Handicaps, in changing the attitudes of nonhandicapped fourth grade 
students toward their handicapped peers. Eighty-three students in Troup 
County Georgia schools participated in the study. Prior to treatment, 
students were administed the Peer Attitudes Toward the Handicapped 
Scale (PATHS). Students then participated in the program. 
Understanding Handicaps, developed by the investigator. Following three 
weeks of treatment, students were again administed PATHS. Analysis of 
the posttest scores yielded the following results: attitude measures toward 
students with physical handicaps increased to the ,000 level of significance; 
change in attitude toward students with behavioral problems was 
significant to the .039 level; and the increase in total test scores was 
significant to the .003 level of significance. The study concluded that 
the program Understanding Handicaps may be used with students to bring 
about more positive attitudes toward their handicapped peers. 



RESTRICTIVE-UNRESTRICTIVE 
AN IDENTIFICATION OF SELF 

Gregory C. Gurley (MA, Psychology, December, 1984) 

Questions have arisen regarding the ambiguity of the usage of the term 
Energy within this paper. It has been suggested that I be more specific in 
my defining of this word Energy. Energy has the capacity for a number of 
diversified functions, e.g., mechanical, physical, emotional, biological, 
philosophical, and spiritual, etc., but the term Energy can not be seen 
particularly as any one of these. Energy as a concept can only be 
understood in terms of what it is not, in terms of the undefined. Perhaps, as 
study develops, we of the western world can find better terminology to 
suit our concepts, but until that time I am at a loss regarding the 
redefinition of the concept behind my usage of the term Energy. It is best 
suited for this attempted description of the process of creativity. When 
reading this work your reading may be facilitated by substitutingthe word 
Energy with the following terms which I consider to be synonymous with 
Energy; Self and Essence. 



38 



A COMPARISON STUDY OF THE FORMAL DEDUCTIVE AND 

GUIDED DISCOVERY METHODS OF INSTRUCTION FOR HIGH 

SCHOOL GEOMETRY 

Frank Hall (EdS, Secondary Education, June, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a difference 
in achievement of students being taught geometry by the formal deductive 
method as compated to the guided discovery method. 

It was hypothesized that students taught by the discovery method would 
achieve at the same level as would students taught by the formal deductive 
method. 

The subjects for this study were the two intact geometry classes at 
Fairmount High School. These classes included 27 tenth graders and 14 
eleventh graders. The only difference in the treatment of the two classes 
was that one was taught by the formal deductive method, while the other 
was taught by the guided discovery method. 

The Comprehensive Assessment Program, High School Subject Tests, 
Geometry was used in the study as both the pretest and the posttest. The 
posttest data were analyzed using the analysis of covariance to test the null 
hypothesis. The null hypothesis was not rejected at the .05 level of 
significance. 

It was concluded in this study that geometry students would achieve at 
the same level using either the formal deductive method or the guided 
discovery method. 

THE EFFECTS OF TWO TEACHER DELIVERY MODELS IN THE 

READING AND MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT OF MIDDLE 

GRADE REMEDIAL STUDENTS 

Phyllis Hart (EdS, Special Education, August, 1984) 

This study compared the effects of two teacher delivery models, (I) 
team-teaching and (2) resource room, on the reading and mathematics 
achievement of middle grade remedial students. 

Four groups of fifth and sixth grade remedial reading or remedial 
mathematics students (90 students in all) from a rural area in mid-western 
Georgia were the subjects. The study extended over a three-year period. 
The first year all subjects were given remedial instruction using the team- 
teaching delivery model. The second and third years all subjects were 
taught using the resource room delivery model. A reading or mathematics 
achievement test administered at the beginning of each school year as a 
pretest and again at the end of each school year as a posttest. The pretest 
and posttest scores of all students were subtracted to determine 

39 



achievement for each school year. The achievement scores of all students 
under the two delivery models were compared using the t-test, analysis of 
paired variates. 

The results of the study indicated that reading achievement was not 
significantly affected by delivery model. Mathematics achievement was 
significantly improved for one group and approached significance for the 
other group. When delivery model remained constant, no significant 
difference in achievement was noted. 

THE EFFECTS OF ECRI GRAMMAR TECHNIQUES ON THE 

NUMBER OF GRAMMATICAL ERRORS MADE BY 

ELEMENTARY STUDENTS 

Charlotte R. Hester (EdS, Reading, December, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to determine if elementary students at 
College Street SChool who were taught grammar for five minutes a day 
using Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction(ECRI) techniques made 
fewer grammatical errors in creative writing than did elementary students 
who were taught grammar by conventional methods for 15 minutes daily. 

The treatment variable in this study had two levels, the control and the 
experimental. A pretest and posttest, each consisting of a 20 minute period 
of time in which every student did creative writing on a topic of his choice, 
was administered to all students involved in the study. 

The control group was taught grammar using conventional methods in a 
time frame of 15 minutes of instruction daily. ECRI grammar techniques 
were used with the experimental group in a time frame of five minutes of 
instruction daily. 

Two dependent variables (capitalization and end-of-sentence 
punctuation) contributed to the total errors which served as the third 
dependent variable. Then 15 t-tests were computed on the dependent 
variables for the control group and experimental group. The purpose of 
the t-tests was to determine whether there were or were not significant 
differences between the percentages gain between pre-test and posttest 
errors for the two different groups. The t-tests also compared the 
experimental groups boys with the control group boys, the experimental 
group girls with the control group girls, the experimental group black 
students with the control group black students, and the experimental 
group white students with the control group white students. 

The results showed that there are significant differences between some of 
the dependent variables of the experimental group and the control group. 
Overall, the experimental group made a significantly greater percentage of 
errors in the areas of punctuation and total scores than did the control 

40 



group. Specifically, the experimental group (boys) made a significantly 
greater percentage of errors in the areas of punctuation and total scores 
than did the control group (boys). The experimental group (white 
students) made a significantly greater percentage of errors in the areas of 
punctuation and total scores than did the control group (boys). The 
punctuation and total scores than did the control group (white students), 
and were the only group to show significance in the area of capitalization. 
The experimental group (white students) made a greater percentage of 
capitalization errors than did the control group (white students). 

Based on the .05 level of significance, six of the 15 hypotheses were 
rejected. The hypotheses for percentage gain in errors in punctuation and 
total scores for the experimental group, the experimental group (boys), 
and the experimental (white students) were significantly higher than they 
were lor the corresponding control groups. The percentage gain in errors 
for capitalization and total scores for the experimental group (white 
students) was significantly higher than it was for the corresponding control 
group. Further studies in this area are strongly recommended. 

AN ATTITIDINAL STUDY MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF 

TEAMS-GAMES-TOURNAMENTS AT THE FIFTH GRADE 

LEVEL UPON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN AND INTEREST 

TOWARD THE SOCIAL STUDIES 

Jo Ann H. Huggins (EclS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1984) 

This study was designed to determine the effect, if any, the Teams- 
Games-Tournaments appraoch would have on social studies achievement 
and attitude. 

Subjects used in this study were two heterogeneous fifth-grade classes in 
Chatsworth. Georgia. During the two-month instructional period, the 
experimental group was taught social studies using the TGT appraoch, 
while the control group was taught social studies using the traditional 
method only. The treatment period was 45 minutes each school day for 
both classes. Each group comprised 28 students giving a total of 56 
participants completing the experiment. 

The pretest and posttest for social studies achievement was the fifth 
grade standardized test from the text. The United States and the Other 
Americas. The pretest and posttest for social studies attitude were written 
by the investigator based on the Dutton Scale (Stright's Modification). 
The acheivement testing for the experimental group was administered by 
the investigator, while the testing for the control group was administered 
by the control group teacher. The social studies attitude test was 
administered to the two groups by the assistant principal. 

41 



The Analysis of Covariance was used to analyze the data for the 
achievement test while the Analysis of Variance was calculated between 
the two groups in order to determine the difference in attitude. Two null 
hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance. Both were rejected 
by data collected in this study. The significance of the F ratio in social 
studies achievement and attitude did indicate a significant difference, with 
the experimental group having a higher mean. 

From this study it was concluded that Teams-Games-Tournaments is a 
valuable new approach worthy of consideration by educators. 

It was recommended that further research be conducted using TGT 
under varying conditions to see if the same relationships exist. 

PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL 
IMPLICATIONS OF VICTIMIZATION BY AIDS 

Don R. Hughey (MA, Psychology, June, 1984) 

The phenomenological experience of being victimized by acquired 
immune deficiency syndrome was investigated. It was hypothesized that 
victimization of AIDS patients is a labeling and not necessarily a lived 
experience of the individual's eigenwelt (own world body experience). 
Subjects were selected on the basis of volunteer referral from AIDS-help 
groups in the United States (San Francisco/ Atlanta). All subjects were 
Caucasian homosexual males between the ages of 23 and 30, held mean 
incomes of $18,000/year prior to AIDS, reported average of 700 
anonymous sexual contacts prior to diagnosis, and had been aware of their 
immunodeficient condition from 2 weeks to 3 years. One 
immunosuppressive patient was included as a control measure of "the 
before." Their world experience was determined by means of the 
phenomenological qualitative analysis of contextualized clinical 
interviews, which lasted about an hour and a half, and were condcuted in a 
Rogerian-like reflective milieu. Data were interpreted following the 
general outlines for phenomenological empirical research as described by 
Giorgi (1975) and Wertz (1983). It was found that "secondary 
victimization" in AIDS patients is the result of an outside 
agency/ community and not an accepted world of their eigenwelt. Three 
basic types of AIDS patients were distinguished, namely the "AIDS- 
apathy", "AlDS-eager", and "AlDS-defensive", existing in a hierarchical 
paradigm of adaptivity. Most notable was the observation that sex is 
perceived as the predominate agency of victimization by AIDS patients 
from this group and that a thematic unawareness predominates their 
coping strategies. It was also observed that AIDS patients have an 
extended and lengthy retreat phase in their coping response to terminality. 
The theoritical implications of these data were also discussed. 

42 



A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PERSONALITY PROFILES OF 

A SAMPLE OF ADULT PRACTICAL NURSING STUDENTS 

VERSUS A SAMPLE OF ADULT COSMETOLOGY STUDENTS 

Stephen J. Jennings (EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1984) 

Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire was administered to 
25 licensed practical nursing students and 22 cosmetology students 
enrolled at Carroll County Area Vocational Technical School during 
spring quarter, 1984, to determine whether differences in personality 
profile exist between adult students enrolled in the respective occupational 
programs. Literature revealed the belief that personality is a changing 
phenomenon and that maturation and other life processes affect changes 
in personality. Consequently, in order to determine whether differences in 
personality profile exist between younger and older students, the total 
sample was divided into a group of students over 29 years of age (n = 19) 
and a group of students under 29 years of age (n = 28). Multivariate 
analysis with group as independent variable and each of the sixteen 
personality factors as dependent variables was utilized to statistically 
analyze the data in each instance. 

Findings indicated that the practical nursing students were significnatly 
more self-sufficient than were the cosmetology students and that younger 
students were significantly more conscientious, were less self-sufficient, 
and had less undisciplined self-conflict than did their older school mates. 



A STUDY OF THE PERSONALITY DISTRIBUTION OF 

LEARNING DISABLED STUDENTS AT PEPPERELL 

HIGH SCHOOL 

Charles Wallace Kelley (EdS, Special Education, August, 1984) 

This study was conducted in order to determine if there was a significant 
difference in the personality distribution of the learning disabled students 
and the regular students of Pepperell High School. The personality factor 
strength of each group was determined by administering the Junior-Senior 
High School Personality Questionnaire, commonly referred to as the 16 
P.F. Personality Inventory. Fourteen factor scores were interpreted and 
evaluated in accordance with established procedures using sten score 
averages and individual profile sheets. There were 57 subjects involved; 29 
learning disabled and 28 regular students. The results showed that while 
the study group averaged just below the normal group, the scores were not 
in the significance level defined by the test itself. The below average scores 
may be correlated to certain substandard behavioral tendencies but not at 
the level which distinguishes them from the normal student. 



43 



A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF 
SELECTED EDUCATORS FROM FIVE COUNTIES OF WEST 

CENTRAL GEORGIA TOWARD THE ROLES AND 
RESPONSIBLITIES OF THE RESOURCE ROOM TEACHER 

Alice Wilkinson Kirby (EdS, Special Education. August, 1984) 

This study was conducted to determine the perceptions of principals, 
classroom teachers, and resource room teachers from elementary schools 
in the West Georgia CESA area toward the roles and responsibilities of the 
resource room teacher. An original questionnaire containing 25 
statements regarding the duties and responsibilities of the resource teacher 
was mailed to 52 principals, 52 resource room teachers, and 1 56 classroom 
teachers. Forty principals, 33 resource room teachers, and 103 classroom 
teachers completed and returned the questionnaire. The results were 
analyzed by an ANOVA analysis of variance to determine if a significant 
difference existed in the perceptions of the three groups of slelected 
educators. Results indicate that significant difference exists in perceptions 
toward six of the 25 stated duties of the resource room teacher. These 
duties pertained to the functions of referral and placement, assessment and 
evaluation, and communication. 

A COMPARISON USING CLOZE PROCEDURES AND 

TRADITIONAL TEACHING METHOD WITH 

FOURTH GRADE SCIENCE STUDENTS 

Linda Dukes Kiser (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, J 984) 

The two-fold purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship 
existed between measured science achievement and two instructional 
systems for delivering science concepts and to determine the readability of 
the science textbook by the students using it. 

It was hypothesized there would be no significant difference between the 
science posttest scores of those students taught science using the cloze 
procedures with discussion and those scores of students taught by the 
traditional method. It was hypothesized there would be no significant 
difference between the science posttest scores of those students at the 
frustrational level in the experimental group and the scores of those 
students at the frustrational level in the control group. It was hypothesized 
there would be no significant difference between the science posttest scores 
of those students at the instructional level in the experimental group and 
those scores of students at the instructional level in the control group. It 
was further hypothesized there would be no significant difference between 
the posttest scores of the female students in the experimental group and 
control group nor would there be any difference in the posttest scores of 
the male students in the experimental group and control group. 

44 



The sample used in the study consisted of 43 fourth-grade science 
students randomly selected for two fourth-grade baseroom classes for the 
1983-1984 school year. The subjects were divided into a control group 
receiving science instruction by the traditional method, and an 
experimental group receiving science instruction by the use of cloze 
procedure with discussion. 

The data gathering instruments were a pre-posttest, a cloze test 
constructed from a passage from the students'science textbook and a cloze 
test battery. The t-test for independent means was used to test the posited 
hypotheses. The .05 level of significance was used as the criterion for 
testing all hypotheses. 

The analysis of the data from the experiment which generated five 
hypotheses using the cloze procedure yielded the following results. Two 
hypotheses were not rejected. There was no significant difference between 
the science posttest scores of those students reading their textbook at the 
frustrational level in the experimental group and those of the students at 
the frustrational level in the control group. There was no significant 
difference between the posttest scores of the male students in the 
experimental group and those of the male students in the control group. 

Three hypotheses were rejected. There was a significant difference 
between the science posttest scores of the students in the experimental 
group and those of the students in the control group. There was a 
significant difference between the science posttest scores of those students 
at the instructional level in the experimental group and those of the 
instructional level in the control group. There was a significant difference 
between the posttest scores of the female students in the experimental 
group and those of the female students in the control group. 

It appeared that a negative relationship existed between the use of the 
cloze procedure for science instruction and measured achievement gain in 
science for the sample used in the study. 

IDENTIFICATION AND PREVALENCE OF SECONDARY 

HANDICAPPING CONDITIONS OF RUBELLA-DEAFENED 

YOUTH AND NON-RUBELLA DEAFENED YOUTH IN THE 

COBB COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

Gail Bennett Meacham (EdS, Special Education, June, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the secondary handicapping 
conditions of rubella-deafened youth and non-rubella-deafened youth in 
the Cobb County School System. 

A questionnaire was sent to parents and teachers of the 126 hearing 
impaired students enrolled in the Cobb County School System's Imapired 

45 



Hearing Program requesting information regarding cuase of deafness and 
any secondary handicaps that might accompany the diagnosed hearing 
impairment. A study of each student's case history was also completed to 
determine the cause of deafness and any accompanying handicaps. The 
data were determined by a Chi-square analysis of the frequency of the 
occurrence of additional disorders in the rubella-deafened subjects versus 
the non-rubella-deafened subjects. The probability of .05 was utilized as 
being significant. 

The results of the study indicated that the presence of secondary 
handicapping conditions in rubella-deafened youngsters was found to be 
significant in emotional disturbance, visual problems, physical problems 
and other miscellaneous problems. Secondary handicapping conditions 
did not appear to be significant in regard to rubella-deafened subjects in 
the areas of behavioral disorders, mental retardation, learning disabilities 
and blindness. 

It can be concluded from the study that secondary handicapping 
conditions occurred more frequently in rubella-deafened subjects in four 
of the disabilities investigated. Further analysis of the data would be 
necessary to determine implications regarding severity of the secondary 
hanicaps and the significance of the additional handicap(s) on educational 
achievement and daily living skills. 

THE EFFECT OF A THERAPEUTIC HORSEBACK RIDING 

PROGRAM ON THE SELF-CONCEPT OF FEMALE 

ADOLESCENTS WHO ARE MODERATELY 

MENTALLY RETARDED 

Susan Michael (EdS, Special Education, December, 1984) 

This study was conducted in order to determine the effect of a 
therapeutic horseback riding program on the self-concept of moderately 
mentally retarded, female adolescents. There were 20 subjects in the study. 
The ten subjects in the treatment group received therapeutic horseback 
riding instruction. The ten subjects in the control group received no 
instruction. Self-concept was measured by administering the Piers-Harris 
Children's Self-Concept Scale and the Primary Self-Concept Inventory. 
The data was analyzed and interpreted through an analysis of covariance. 
No significant difference was found in self-concept between the control 
group and the treatment group was measured by the Piers-Harris 
Children's Self-Concept Scale. A significant difference was found in self- 
concept between the control group and the treatment group as measured 
by the Primary Self-Concept Inventory. 



46 



A STUDY OF THE IMPACT MADE BY EARLY EDUCATIONAL 

INTERVENTION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG 

CHILDREN 

Ellen Marie Moore (EdS, Early Childhood Education, December, 1984) 

The Preschool Development Program is operated by the Dade County 
School System of Dade County, Georgia, for children from birth to five 
years of age and their parents. The program serves both average and 
handicapped children in this school system of twenty-three hundred 
students. The handicapped children receive one home visit a week and 
come to the Parent-Child Center if possible. The average children come 
with their parents to the center once a week. A demonstration lesson is 
provided and parents after evaluating their child choose the lesson they 
will teach their child during the week. 

In this study the children who participated in the Preschool 
Development Program were the experimental group. The control group 
was a random sample of children in the school system's kindergarten, first, 
and second grades who were not in the program. The instruments used in 
the study were the M EM PH IS Comprehensive Development Scale used as 
pre and post test for children in the Preschool Development Program, the 
Denver Developmental Screening Test as the pre kindergarten assessment, 
the Georgia Kindergarten Criterion Reference Test as the post 
kindergarten evaluation, and the Georgia First and Second Grade 
Criterion Reference Tests for post evaluations. 

The study had four purposes: first, to investigate the effect of Preschool 
Development Program has on reducing the number of children that 
qualify for the Improvement Program (remedial program in 
Reading Language Arts and Mathematics); second, to research the effect 
the Preschool Development Program has on the readiness of children to 
enter kindergarten at an adequate developmental level; third, to study the 
gains made by the children in the Preschool Development Program to 
determine if the gains are sustained through kindergarten, first and second 
grades; and fourth, to compare the development of the children entering 
the Preschool Development Program at one month to thirty months of age 
compared to the children entering at thirty-one to sixty months of age. 

Descriptive analysis showed that the control group (children not 
attending the Preschool Development Program) required significantly 
more remediation in the area of mathematics compared to the 
experimental group (children who attended the Preschool Development 
Program). In the Denver Developmental Screening Test the experimental 
group had significantly fewer developmental delays in the areas of 
personal-social, line motor, language, and gross motor skills than the 
control group. The children in the experimental group obtained a 

47 



significantly greater number of objectives on the Georgia Kindergarten 
Criterion Reference Test compared to the children in the control group in 
the areas of speaking, reading, writing, and numbers and numeration. In 
the Georgia First Grade Criterion Reference Test the experimental group 
obtained significantly more objectives in both reading and mathematics 
than the control group. The number of objectives obtained in reading on 
the Georgia Second Grade Criterion Reference Test was significantly 
greater for the experimental group entering the Preschool Development 
Program between the ages of one month to thirty months did not show 
significantly greater developmental gains than those experimental children 
entering the program between thirty-one to sixty months of age. 

The educational leaders of today in the fast changing stage of 
"schooling" should be knowledgeable about the impact made by the early 
intervention with parents and children in the positive development of 
young children. Curriculum should be developed, teachers trained and 
environments planned to provide experiences where children and their 
parents can develop to their greatest potential. Further research is 
recommended to investigate three areas: first, the effect the program has 
on the parents; second, the extension of the longitudinal study; and third, 
the effects of early entry into preschool programs using standardized 
instruments administered by the teacher. 

THOMAS HARDY: MUSIC IN THE MAN AND HIS NOVELS 

Bonnie W. Nipper (MA, English, June, 1984) 

Thomas Hardy was a writer whose lifelong appreciation of music 
enriched not only his life but found an expression in his major novels as 
well. References to music of all types, from the ballads of his native 
Dorchester to Italian operas, were used extensively in his novels. Musical 
terminology was employed frequently to describe characters, nature, and 
even to establish moods. Hardy's expert knowledge of instruments was 
illustrated in each of the seven novels studied and used not only as a means 
of description, but also as a very real part of the Wessex culture which 
provide the novel's setting. 

A study was done of his life through several biographies and other 
references to his musicianship to establish the extent of Hardy's musical 
background. The musical references in each novel were catalogued to 
discover how Hardy used music to enrich his novels. Novels used in this 
study included Under the Greenwood Tree ( 1 872), Far From the Madding 
Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of 
Casterbridge (1885), The Woodlanders (1887), Tess of the D'Urbervilles 
(1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). 

48 



HH 



Following is the plan of my thesis: 

1. The importance of music in Thomas Hardy's life 

2. His use of musical terms in describing the physical appearance of 
Wessex 

3. His use of the musical culture of Wessex 

4. His use of musical terms in the characterization of his major 
and minor characters 

THE EFFECTS OF AUDITORY AND VISUAL LEARNING STYLES 

OF HEARING IMPAIRED CHILDREN ON VOCABULARY 

ACQUISITION 

Gayle Couch Owen (EdS, Special Education, June, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of auditory and visual 
learning styles of hearing impaired children on vacabulary acquisition. 

Nine hearing impaired students from the Total Communication 
Impaired Hearing Program of the DeKalb County School System 
participated in the study. Selection criteria for the subjects included: (I) 
Presence of a hearing loss which interferes with the acquisition or 
maintenance of auditory skills necessary for the development of speech, 
language, and academe achievement (Georgia Department of Education, 
1983). (2) A hearing loss which was congenital. (3) Chronological age 
between 9.0 years and 14.0 years (4) Visual acuity in the normal range of 
functioning. (5) No evidence of previous consideration (including testing) 
of student's preferred learning style in reference to instruction. 

A Self-Inventory and Teacher Observation Checklist were used to assess 
the auditory or visual learning style of each subject. The subjects were 
given a pre-test for word meaning and word usage of ten vocabulary 
words, given instruction on these words using visual methods, and given a 
post-test at the completion of the instruction. The procedure was repeated 
using auditory methods of instruction. The gains in word usage and word 
meaning for each method of instruction were compared to the assessed 
learning style of each subject to determine if the subjects acquired 
vocabulary more efficiently through instruction matched to their assessed 
learning style. 

An analysis of the study revealed that 50% of the auditory learners did 
acquire vocabulary more efficiently through auditory instruction, and 30% 
of the visual learners acquired vocabulary more efficiently through visual 
instruction. The results pointed to the necessity for individual assessment 
for hearing impaired students. Instruments need to be developed which 
will accurately assess the preferred learning style of young hearing 
impaired children. Teacher training programs and inservice programs 



49 



must take the responsibility for making teachers aware of the importance 
of individual assessment and program planning. 

THE EFFECT OF COMPUTER BASED INSTRUCTION WITH 

TEACHER-MADE SOFTWARE VERSUS TRADITIONAL 

METHODS OF EDUCATION ON THE ACADEMIC 

ACHIEVEMENT OF SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS 

Martha P. Ramsey (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1984) 

This study was designed to determine if computer based instruction with 
teacher-made software would produce significantly higher test scores on 
post tests by special needs students. A comparison was made between 
students utilizing the computer and students being taught by the 
traditional method of pencil and paper. 

Subjects used in this study were fifth and sixth-grade special needs 
students from the self-contained remedial class of Fayetteville Elementary 
School. The 24 students were divided into two groups. The two groups 
were assumed to be equivalent in regard to race, sex, age and 
socioeconomic background. All 24 students were achieving one or more 
years below grade level. 

The first group of special needs students received the first three units of 
instruction concerning "Universe and Greek Myths" utilizing computer 
and teacher-made software. The second group receives the exact same 
lessons through the traditional method of pencil and paper. The two 
groups were swapped for the last three units of instruction. Group one then 
received instruction by pencil and paper while group two used computer. 
Each of the six units was followed by a 10 question post test with multiple 
choice answers. 

The mean score was determined for each unit of instruction, for the total 
of units I, 2 and 3 as well as the total of units 4, 5, and 6 for each of the two 
groups. The t-test was used to analyze the data. The null hypothesis was 
tested using the .05 level of significance. No significant difference was 
found in favor of computer based instruction. However, the mean scores of 
six of the eight results showed computer based instruction to have been 
more effective for special needs students than the traditional method of 
instruction. 

AGE AS A RELATIVE FACTOR IN MASLOWS CONCEPT 
OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION 

Harold Restein (MA, Psychology, March, 1985) 

An ex post facto research study was carried out in South Africa during 
1982 utilizing the Shostrom Personality Inventory (P.O.I.) to determine 

50 



the self-actualizing tendencies of Doctors and Pharmacists. 

100 Doctors and 100 Pharmacists were requested to complete the 
Shostrom Personality Orientation Inventory (P.O.I.) to determine their 
degree of self-actualization. 

58 Doctors and 47 Pharmacists completed the questionnaire, and the 
results were analysed using the BMDP (6R) computer package. 

The age categories of the responding Doctors and Pharmacists were 
classified into 

(a) Under 30 years old 

(b) 5 year groupings between 30 and 64 years old 

(c) Over 64 years old 

Since the Inner Directed (I) score of the P.O.I, is considered by 
Shostrom and shown by Damn to be the best predictors of an overall 
measure of self-actualizing tendencies, the above age categories were 
tabulated against the mean Inner Directed (I) scores of the respondents. 
This analysis revealed an anomaly in that, as the Doctors age increased 
their (1) scores decreased, while in the case of the Pharmacists, as their age 
increased, so did their (I) score. 

This result is not consistent with Maslow's stated view that self- 
actualizing should be confined "very definitely to older people." It is 
suggested that perhaps what is meant by full maturity does not necessarily 
depend on chronological age, but that one can be seen to mature in 
differing environmental roles at differing times. 

This conclusion tends to support Mischel and the lnteractionist view of 
personality, that is is more important to relate environmental changes to 
behavioural changes than it is to attempt to establish general rules that will 
apply to all circumstances. 

THE EXPERIENCE OF INCEST: CHILDHOOD VICTIMS 
IN LATER LIFE 

Ruth B. Skaggs (MA, Psychology, December, 1984) 

Incestous sexual activities are not a new social phenomenon, but it is 
only within the last decade that they have begun to receive widespread 
attention. State reporting laws have contributed to greater disclosure by 
victims. At any rate, as the secrets come out ot hiding, we are beginning to 
realize that incest is, and has been, occurring at alarming rates. Previous 
estimates of incidence are now considered by most to be highly 
underestimated. The Child Assault Prevention Project of Women Against 
Rape ( 1 983) estimates that one out of every four girls and one out of every 
seven to eleven boys are sexually assualted at least once before the age of 

51 



18. Of these assaults 75% of the victims are attacked by someone they know 
and trust. 

A study carried out by Rosenfeld (1979) among 18 female psychiaric 
patients disclosed incest history in one-third of the patients. Forward and 
Buck ( 1978) report a 1969 study showing one in every 10 women victims of 
incestuous molestations. This is based on reported cases. It is believed by 
most researchers that underreporting has kept the estimates lower than 
actual numbers of incidence. 

It can no longer be denied that incest is a major problem in 
contemporary society. This study is not an attempt to prove rate of 
incidence, other studies have documented the statistics; rather, this 
research is designed to explore the experience of incest as it is lived by its 
victims, to elucidate the experience, to determine the meanings from the 
experience itself. Such a study is needed precisely because it is this 
perspective that has been neglected by traditional research. "Little 
empirical research has been conducted to determine the psychosocial 
effects of incest or to elucidate treatment models for women who were 
incestuously abused as children/adolescents" (Buskirk & Cole, 1983, p. 
503). The authors of that statement recognize the need for research on 
women who were incest victims; however, they express the need as being 
from the perspective of the observer. This study is designed to explore 
incest from the perspective of the primary victim. How was it for her? How 
did she experience her world of incestuous abuse? 

The subjects for the study are women in midlife who were victimized by 
incest as children and who had not reported it or sought treatment until 
now. Thus, it contributes to the meaning of the experience of incest at the 
time that it was being lived, and it follows through by extracting the 
essential meaning of the experience as lived by the subjects many years 
after the abuse. 

In studying the experience it seems important to arrive at an 
understanding of what incest is. Webster defines it as "sexual intercourse 
between persons too closely related to marry legally." That definition, 
however, is thought by many researchers and therapists to be too narrow. 
Other forms of sexual activity are defined as incest, such as genital fondling 
(Rosenfeld, 1979; Herman & Hirschman, 1981). Herman and Hirschman 
(1981) also include masturbation and oral genital contact in their 
definition of incest. For this study incest is defined as sexual contact 
between a child/adolescent and another member of her family of close 
relatives. 

The purpose of this study is to explore the women's experiences as felt by 
them, in the hope that it will provide meaning for all incest victims, for the 



52 



individual primary victim, for the family constellation which is a victim, 
and for the constellation of the family of man. For if we are to accept the 
growing belief that all living organisms are inextricably linked, then we 
must accept the possibility that victimization which occurs to the one 
occurs to the whole of us. 



ADVENTURES IN BECOMING 

Sharon Solfvin (MA, Psychology, June, 1984) 

The title of this thesis is Adventures in Becoming. It is comprised of two 
main sections entitled, "Adventures in Becoming" and "Jamie: Adventures 
in the Land of Becoming". The former is a philosophical, theoretical 
discussion encompassing many stages of growth while the latter is an 
illustrated book for adults and children depicting early developmental 
issues in philosophical and psychological growth. A third minor bridging 
section clarifies the relationship between the two main sections. 

Section I, "Adventures in Becoming", is based on readings in 
philosophy, therapeutic and experimental psychology, religion, and 
anthropology. The topics covered are authenticity, relevancy, the Self, 
action, differences, and the relational. Time and its experience are a 
continual theme in both sections. Section II, "Jamie: Adventures in the 
Land of Becoming", explores through color, movement, symbols, and 
characterization the journey of Self-discovery, not only for the individual, 
but also potentially for the collective. 

AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF FORMAL 

REASONING ABILITY TO GENERAL INTELLIGENCE SCORES 

AND ACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORES OF HIGH SCHOOL 

CHEMISTRY STUDENTS 

Melissa W. Smith (EdS, Secondary Education, March, 1985) 

This study was designed to investigate whether there is a significant 
positive correlation between achievement in a high school chemistry 
course and abstract reasoning ability as measured by Piagetian-styled 
formal operational reasoning tasks. Chemistry, as taught today, contains 
many abstract concepts which require the use of formal operational 
reasoning skills. A strong positive correlation would indicate that students 
who have not made the transition to the formal operational reasoning level 
cannot be expected to succeed in chemistry courses as they are taught 
today. 

The study also included an investigation to determine whether there is a 
significant positive correlation between intelligence test scores and 

53 



abstract reasoning skills as measured by Piagetian-styled formal 
operational reasoning skills and the NSTA 1983 Chemistry Exam did not 
require abstract reasoning to arrive at solution without explanations. 
Piagetian-styled tasks require abstract reasoning to arrive at solutions and 
explanations of those solutions. 

The study was conducted at Temple High School, Carroll County, 
Georgia. The subjects were 33 eleventh- and twelfth-grade students in an 
introductory high school chemistry class during the school year 1983-84. 
The study was conducted in May, 1984. 

Three test instruments were administered to the subjects during the time 
of the study by the same teacher: (1) the National Science Teachers 
Association Form 1983 Examination in High School Chemistry (NSTA 
1983 Chemistry Exam), (2) the Otis-Lennon Advanced Level Mental 
Ability Test, and (3) Piagetian-styled tasks of formal operational 
reasoning skills. Pearson correlation coefficients were determined. The .05 
level of significance was established for acceptance of positive correlations. 

Results indicated a significant positive correlation between scores on ( I ) 
formal operational reasoning skills and the NSTA 1983 Chemistry Exam 
(Pearson coefficient = .3973), (2) formal operational reasoning skills and 
the Otis-Lennon Advanced Level Mental Ability Test (Pearson coefficient 
= .4814), and (3) the NSTA 1983 Chemistry Exam and the Otis-Lennon 
Advanced Level Mental Ability Test (Pearson coefficient = .6980). 
However, only the Pearson coefficient of the NSTA 1983 Chemistry Exam 
and the Otis-Lennon Advanced Level Mental Ability Test met the .50 or 
greater level necessary to be used for group predictive purposes. 

These results imply that students with high intelligence scores also score 
higher on subject matter achievement tests than their peers with low 
intelligence scores. Although the Pearson coefficient of .3973 of the formal 
operational reasoning skills and the NSTA 1983 Chemistry Exam sis not 
meet the .50 or greater level to be used for group predictive purposes, 
implications of this study suggest that the regular classroom teacher may 
need to adapt his/her teaching strategies and approaches to the subject 
matter to accommodate the reasoning levels of some of his/ her students. 

CARROLL COUNTY, GEORGIA: RESOURCES FOR 
TEACHING LOCAL HISTORY 

Jody Elizabeth Talley (EdS, Secondary Education, December, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to identify and selectively compile 
resources for the teachers of Central Primary School, Carrollton, Georgia 
to use in preparing a unit of instruction on the history of Carroll County. 
Specific purposes which contributed to the achievement of the primary 

54 



goal were (a) to describe historical sites located in Carroll County, (b) to 
describe depositories of information about Carroll County, (c) to list 
available resource people who are knowledgeable about various areas of 
County history, (d) to record an audio tapes interviews with selected 
resource people and make these tapes available at Central Primary School 
and Neva Lomason Library in Carrollton, and (e) to create and make 
available a slide presentation about Carroll County and its history. 

A list of historically significant sites located in Carroll County was 
compiled after the researcher read available printed information about 
Carroll County and spoke with members of the communities in the 
County. Selected sites were visited and available authorities were 
interviewed. 

Slides were made of those historic sites that were determined to be 
visually and historically interesting. An audio tape describing the sites was 
made to enhance the slide presentation. 

The researcher visited or telephoned persons in places in the County that 
contained information about the history of Carroll County. Questions 
about available information were asked of employees and elected officials. 
Any printed material was obtained and read by the researcher. 

After corresponding with and interviewing leaders in each County 
community, the researcher compiled a list of persons having useful 
information about Carroll County history. The names were listed by areas 
of expertise after permission to use each individual's name was obtained. 

From the list of resource individuals, persons were selected to be 
interviewed on audio tape. A list of questions was prepared taking into 
account the individual's area of expertise. The interviews were conducted, 
taped, and then summarized for this project. 

A STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A READING LAB 
APPROACH IN TEACHING SECONDARY READING SKILLS 

Ramona R. Teal (EdS, Reading, June, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not an 
individualized reading lab approach to teaching reading skills to 
secondary students was effective. Significant differences between the 
posttest scores oh vocabulary, comprehension and rate of reading as 
measured by the Nelson-Denny Reading Test were investigated. 
Additionally, any differences in the scores of boys and girls were analyzed. 
One hundred fifty-nine students in the tenth grade acted as subjects. 

A factorial analysis of covariance was used on the data. Rate of reading 
did show significant differences after the treatment (P.K. Yonge Reading 



55 



Lab participation); however, vocabulary, comprehension and the 
difference in the sexes did not show a significant difference after treatment. 

Reading rate can be increased significantly when secondary students are 
exposed to rate technique. 



A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF READING REGRESSION OR 

GAIN OF THIRD-GRADE STUDENTS AND THEIR LEARNING 

EXPERIENCES SUCCEEDING A SUMMER BREAK 

Trudy Wages (EdS, Early Childhood Education, August, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a regression or 
gain of students' reading achievement scores over an intervening summer 
with its related experiences. Reading test scores were obtained in May and 
compared to those reading test scores in September. Specifically, this 
study sought to determine if there was a significant relationship between 
the degree of regression and/ or gain in reading and the types of learning 
activities experienced by the students during the summer break. 

The sample involved in this study included children of various socio- 
economic backgrounds. The study sample consisted of students attending 
a public elementary school, kindergarten through grade six, in a 
metropolitan area located approximately 15 miles from a large inner city. 
The housing included single family dwellings, both owned and rented, and 
multi-family complexes. 

The children were tested with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills the first week 
of May. A questionnaire was constructed and sent home to the parents of 
each child in the third-grade group. The parents were asked to record their 
child's activities on the questionnaire. At the beginning of the following 
year, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills was given ans the scores were compared 
to the spring scores. Finally, all data which were obtained through testings 
and questionnaires were categorized and mean score differences were 
calculated using the t test comparison for independent means. The level of 
significance for rejection of the generated null hypotheses was .05. 

The results of the t tests showed that there was a significant difference 
between the mean scores between the spring and fall testings of third-grade 
students as measured by the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The students were 
inclined to gain in reading achievement over the summer. However, the 
study did show that there was no significant difference between reading 
gain scores based upon the number of books read, the number of hours 
spent watching television per week, the number of trips made to the public 



56 



library or bookmobile, the number of books bought or received through 
book clubs, the number of educational magazines received, the number of 
books read to child, whether or not they attended Vacation Bible School, 
whether or not they attended a Summer Library Program, or whether or 
not they experienced an educational trip over the summer break. 

THE EFFECTS OF LABELING UPON ACCEPTANCE FOR 

SOCIAL INTERACTION OF MENTALLY RETARDED 

ADOLESCENTS BY NONHANDICAPPED ADOLESCENT 

PEERS IN A JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Sandra E. Whit more (EdS, Special Education, August, 1984) 

The effects of the label "mentally retarded" upon the acceptance for 
social interaction of mentally retarded adolescents by nonhandicapped 
adolescents were reviewed in this study. Two hundred middle-to-low 
socio-economic level, 12 to 14 year old adolescents from the seventh grade 
1983-84 class of Murray County Junior High School in North Georgia 
were divided into four groups of 50 with each group consisting of 25 males 
and 25 females. Each respondent was asked to read a description of either 
an hypothetical, labeled or nonlabeled, mentally retarded female and 
decide if they would attend a sporting event with that subject. Data were 
analyzed using a Chi square to determine a .05 level of significance. 
Significant differences in response were evidenced by the female 
respondents toward both the labeled and nonlabeled male and female 
subjects. A significant difference in response was also evidenced by the 
male respondents toward the labeled and nonlabeled female subject, but 
no significant difference in their response to the labeled and nonlabeled 
male subject was noted. Conclusions imply that labeling a retarded female 
adolescent was detrimental to her acceptance for social interaction by 
nonhandicapped adolescents of both genders. Retarded male adolescents 
appeared to have benefited from the label when being considered for social 
interaction by nonhandicapped females. Retarded males were not 
significantly advantaged or disadvantaged by the label assignment when 
being considered for social interaction by nonhandicapped male peers. 



A COMPARISON OF THE SELF-CONCEPTS OF BEHAVIORALLY 

DISORDERED AND REGULAR CLASS MIDDLE SCHOOL 

STUDENTS IN WHITFIELD COUNTY SCHOOLS 

Donna Wilburn (EdS, Special Education, June, 1984) 

An important factor in any student's educational experience is their self- 
concept. The purpose of this study was to compare the self-concepts of 
behaviorally disordered and regular class middle school students in 



57 



Whitfield County Schools. The null hypothesis tested stated that there 
would be no significant difference between behaviorally disordered 
students and regular classroom students in terms of self-concept as 
measured by the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. 

The subjects in the study were a group of 20 behaviorally disordered and 
20 regular class middle school students. The regular class students were 
matched to the behaviorally disordered students on the basis of sex and 
age. All subjects were administered the Piers-Harris Children's Self- 
Concept Scale in groups of five. A t-test was used to determine if the two 
groups differed significantly on total raw scores as well as any of the six 
factors derived from the items on the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept 
Scale. 

Highly significant differences, at the .001 level, were obtained between 
mean scores for the behaviorally disordered group and the regular class 
group on total raw scores, as well as on cluster scores, for Factor 1, 
Behavior, and Factor 2, Intellectual and School Status. Significant 
differences at the .0 1 level were obtained on Factor 3, Physical Appearance 
and Attributes, and Factor 6, Happiness and Satisfaction. No significant 
differences were found on Factor 4 Anxiety, and Factor 5, Popularity, but 
the behaviorally disordered group did continue to demonstrate lower 
mean scores. The t-values from the total raw scores, as well as the scores on 
Factors, 1 ,2, 3, and 6 indicated that the null hypothesis should be rejected. 

A SURVEY OF THE ROLE OF COMPUTERS IN MATHEMATICS 

CLASSES AND IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION IN STATE 

SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF 

Linda Meyers Williams (EdS, Special Education, August, 1984) 

The purpose of this paper was to survey the role of computers in 
mathematics classes and in classroom instruction in state schools for the 
deaf. Computers can be the object of instruction or the vehicle for 
instruction. Computers offer job opportunities for deaf young people that 
are current and viable. A Survey of Computer Usage in State Schools for 
the Deaf form was sent to 106 independent public programs serving the 
hearing impaired. A total of 69 surveys were returned, of which 55 were 
from state supported schools to be included in the survey. Data were 
collected to show the types of usage of computer equipment by schools, the 
percentage of faculty trained for computer usage in each program, the 
types of computer hardware available at each location, and the location of 
computers for mathematics classes at each facility. Schools for the deaf 
need to place more emphasis on computer skills if graduates are to be 
competitive in the job market. More software needs to be developed for 
hearing impaired students, and more classroom teachers need training in 
the use of computers for classroom instruction. 

58 



A COMPARISON OF ATTITUDES TOWARDS MATHEMATICS 

BETWEEN MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN AN 
INDIVIDUALIZED SETTING AND A TRADITIONAL SETTING 

Melanie S. Wilson (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to determine if a more positive attitude 
exists in students in an individualized setting or in a traditional setting. The 
relationship of attitudes toward mathematics in relation to sex and grade 
level was also evaluated. 

The population of the study consisted of the regular education 
mathematics students at Westside Middle School during the 1983-1984 
school year. The only regular education mathematics students not 
included in the study were those in the eighth-grade algebra class. 

The test used to collect the data for the study was the Dutton Scale 
(Stright's modification) attitude test. The statistic used to test the null 
hypotheses was the analysis of variance. The level at which the null 
hypotheses would be rejected was set at .05. 

The results from the data showed a significant difference in favor of the 
students in the individualized setting as opposed to those in the traditional 
setting. There was also a significant difference in favor of the females' 1 
attitude when compared to the males' attitude. The two-way interaction 
between grade level and class setting revealed that sixth-grade students in 
an individualized setting had significantly more positive attitudes toward 
mathematics than any other group of students. 

THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUALIZED INSTRUCTION IN 

MATHEMATICS ON ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTITUDE 

OF FIFTH-YEAR STUDENTS 

Annie Louise Winton (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1984) 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the individualized 
method of instruction in mathematics at the fifth-grade level resulted in 
greater achievement than the traditional whole-class method of instruction 
and whether mode of instruction significantly affected attitude towards 
mathematics. 

The subjects for this study were two fifth-grade classes in an elementary 
school in a large metropolitan county known for its excellence in 
education. The classes were presumed equivalent in sex and initial 
mathematics achievement. Twenty-five students in each group completed 
the experiment. 

The experimental group received individualized instruction and the 
control group received traditional whole-class instruction. Both groups 

59 



were taught Level 1 6 of the county methematics skills program for a period 
of 12 weeks. The county Mathematics Criterion Referenced Test and an 
attitude test were administered as a pretest before the experiment and 
again as a posttest upon completion of the experiment. 

A M ultifactor Analysis of Variance was used to test the null hypotheses 
at the .05 level of significance. No significance differences in achievement 
or attitude were found with regard to sex or mode of instruction. 

It is recommended that similar studies be conducted in other elementary 
schools to see whether the results are similar. 

THE REASON BEHIND PARENTAL CHOICE OF 
PRIVATE EDUCATION 

Susan D. Wood (EdS, Middle Grades Education, March, 1985) 

The study was designed to explore the reasons which motivate parents to 
send a child or children to private school. The study sought to determine if 
superior social climate and academics were the najor reasons parents cited 
for choosing a private school as research indicates, and if parents with a 
higher level of education would differ in their reason for choosing a private 
school from parents with a lower level of education. 

The participants of the study were 1 5 1 families with a child or children 
enrolled in Oak Mountain Academy, a private non-sectarian school in 
Carrollton, Georgia. 

Information for the study was gathered through a survey. The survey 
information included the number of children in private school and their 
grade levels, the educational level of the parents, and a list of eight reasons 
for sending a child to private school, which the parents ranked in order of 
importance. The surveys and a letter of explanation were taken home by 
the oldest child in each family and then returned in an attached enevelope 
to the homeroom teacher. This survey was administered in early May over 
a one week period of time. 

Data from the surveys were compiled by computer. A rank order of the 
reasons for sending a child to private school was tabulated for the 
population as a whole and for the two groups with different educational 
levels. 

Hypothesis one stated that parents would consider academics and social 
climate as the two most important reasons for sending a child to private 
school. The rank order of choices for the total population supported the 
idea of academics as the number one reason parents cited, but social 
climate was not ranked second in importance. Parents viewed class size 
and individualization as the second most important reason for choosing a 
private school. On the whole, parents ranked social climate fifth in order of 
importance. 

60 



m\ 



A rank order for the two educational levels was obtained. The rank 
order supported the second hypothesis. Parents with a bachelor's degree or 
more and parents with less than a bachelor's degree agreed when ranking 
reasons for choosing a private school. 

The third hypothesis stated that for each reason to be ranked, the 
parents would view the reason as either a high priority concern or a low 
priority concern with no even distribution over high priority and low 
priority on any item. Chi square was used as the test at a level of .05 
significance. The hypothesis proved true for six out of the eight choices on 
the survey. Academics had a chi square value ofX 2 = 1 02, d.f. (1), class size 
and individualization has a chi square value of X 2 = 74.02, d.f. (1), 
integration had a chi square value of X 2 = 65.6, d.f. ( 1 ), parents educated 
privately had a chi square value of X 2 = 9 1 .34, d.f. ( I ), parental involvement 
had a chi square value of X 2 = 44.75, d.f. (1), and student interest and 
achievement had a chi square value of X 2 = 15.72, d.f. (I). All of these 
reasons were significant at a level of .05. However, social climate had a chi 
square value of X 2 = 16, d.f. ( 1 ), and faculty had a chi square value of X 2 = 
1 .58, d.f. ( I ). These two items were not significant at the .05 level. Thus the 
hypothesis was rejected. Parents did not view every reason on the survey as 
being a high priority or a low priority item. There existed some mixed 
feeling on two of the choices. 

From the study, it appears that parents have definite reasons for sending 
a child or children to private school, and basically agree on which reasons 
are of major importance. The educational level of the parents did not seem 
to affect the rank order of reasons for school choice. However, for this 
population, there was not a wide range in educational level as there may be 
with a larger sample. Parents held some items such as academics and class 
size as high priority concerns, whereas integration held a very low priority 
of concern. On items such as faculty and social climate, parents had mixed 
levels of concern. As long as private education continues to be a part of the 
education framework in America, the question of why parents choose to 
pay for a service that is otherwise free will continue to be asked. 



61 



JONATHAN GOLDSTEIN 
Publications: Books 

Goldstein, Jonathan. Philadelphia and the China Trade, 1682-1846. 
Commercial, Cultural, and Attitudinal Effects. University Park and 
London: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1978. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. The China Trade from Philadelphia, 1682-1846: A 
Study of Interregional Commerce and Cultural Interaction. Ann Arbor: 
University Microfilms, 1974. 

Goldstein, Jonathan, ed. Philadelphia's China Trade. Catalogue of 
Loan Exhibition, University Hospital Antiques Show, Philadelphia, 
1972. 

Goldstein, Jonathan, ed. "Georgia's East Asian Connection, 1733-1983," 
vol. 22 of West Georgia College Studies in the Social Sciences. 

Other Scholarly Publications 

Goldstein, Jonathan. "Early Amerian Image of the Chinese Through 
Artifacts and Chinoiserie." Asian Culture Quarterly (Taipei), 9, No. 1 
(Spring, 1981), 1-5. Article abstracted in: Society for Historians of 
American Foreign Relations Newsletter, 11 (1980): 22-23. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. "A Romantic Vision of Cathay: The Decorative Arts 
of the Old China Trade and Their Influence in America up to 1850." 
American Studies (Academ\ca Sinica, Taipei), 10.3 ( 1980): 1-13. Article 
abstracted in: Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations 
Newsletter, 10.1 (1979): 43-44. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. "The Decorative Arts of the Old China Trade 
and Their Influence in America up to 1850." Bulletin of the Chinese 
Historical Society of America, 14.7 (1979): 2-6. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. "Resources on Early Sino-American Relations in 
Philadelphia's Stephen Girard Collection and the Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania." Committee on East Asian Libraries Bulletin, 60 
(1979): 16-23; Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i (Journal of the Society for Ch'ing 
Dynasty Studies), 4.3 (1980): 114-129. Article abstracted in: Society 
for Historians of American Foreign Relations Newsletter, 10.4 (1979): 
23-24. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. "The Continuing Romance of Old Cathay and Early 
America." Old China, 4.4 (1979): 20-24. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. "Chinese Art Comes to Washington." Korea Focus, 
4.1 (1975): 60-63. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. "The China Trade From Philadelphia." Dissertation 
Abstracts International, 34.12 (1974): 7675. 

62 



inBHHnHH 



Goldstein, Jonathan. "The China Trade From Philadelphia," Ch'ing-shih 
wen-t '/(Journal of the Society for Ch'ing Dynasty Studies), 2. 10 ( 1973): 
60-62. 

Pre-publication reviews of: Robert F. Oaks' Merchants and Politics: The 
Revolutionary Movement in Philadelphia, 1765-1776; Norman 
Pendered's Edward Teach- Master Pirate; and Donald Adams Jr,'s 
Stephen Girard, Banker. 

Peters, Gayle; Goldstein, Jonathan; and Kirk, Merlin. "Historical 
Documents Relating to Asian-Americans and to East Asia in the 
Atlanta Regional Archives Branch." West Georgia College Studies 
in the Social Sciences, 22 ( 1983): 3-12. Article abstractes as: Checklist 
of Records Available for Research on the Far East. East Point, Georgia: 
Atlanta Regional Archives Branch, 1984. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. "Indochina War on Campus: The Summit/ Spice- 
rack Controversy at the University of Pennsylvania, 1965-67." A nnals 
of the Association for Asian Studies, 5 (1983): 78-99. Article abstracted 
in Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Newsletter 14.4 
(1983): 27-28. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. "Vietnam Research on Campus: The Summit/ 
Spicerack Controversy at the University of Pennsylvania, 1965-67." 
Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 15.4 (1983): 26-38. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. Review of Curtis Henson, Commissioners and 
Commodores: The East India Squadron and American Diplomacy in 
China, in The Journal of American History 69.3 (1982): 702-03. 

Pre-publication review of John McKay, Bennett Hill, and John Buckler's 
A History of World Society. 

Goldstein, Jonathan. "Philadelphia's China Trade." American 
Philosophical Society Year Book (1977): 235. 



63 



BE. POWELL 

Publications 

"Nonlinear Elastic Effects in Bismuth Whiskers," B.E. Powell and M.J. 
Skove. Journal of Applied Physics 54 ( 1983): 1636. 

"Linear and Volume Compressibilities and Isothermal Third-Order 
Elastic Constants," B.E. Powell and M.J. Skove, Journal of Applied 
Physics, 56 (1984): 1548. 

"Photometric Changes and Spot Motion in Lambda Andromedae," 
B.E. Powell et al.. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 139 (1985): 25. 

"The Application of Eibonacci Numbers to Spiral Galaxies," C.A. 
Hallman and B.E. Powell, Georgia Journal of Science, 41 (1983): 30. 

"Photometric Studies of Stars with Extended Atmospheres." D.M. 
Edwards and B.E. Powell, Georgia Journal of Science, 41 (1983): 30. 

"An Introduction to a General Astronomy Course Using Slides," B.E. 
Powell, Jerry Mock, and Martha Boone, Georgia Journal of Science, 
41 (1983): 30. 

"H alley's Comet and Georgians in 19 10," Doug Nunnally and B.E. 
Powell, Georgia Journal of Science, 41 (1983): 39. 

Bridgman's Pressure Measurements and Third-Order Elastic Constants," 
B.E. Powell and M.J. Skove, Bulletin of the Southeastern Section of the 
American Physical Society, 15 (1984). 



64 



1/ 



WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

REVIEW 



Published by 

WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

A Unit of the University System of Georgia 
CARROLLTON, GEORGIA 




WEST CEORCIA COLLEGE 



Sm 



%^ 



.Vfc/**, . '' *3X 



Volume XVIII C( \ '  . 



>&&/{ 



*6 



May, 1986 



/ 



MM 



WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

REVIEW 

J Volume XVIII May, 1986 

I TABLE OF CONTENTS 



In Search of Happier Times: Horton Foote's 
"The Trip to Bountiful" 
by Glenn D. Novak 1 

[The Expansion of Metropolitan Area in Georgia 

by Gerald Sanders and Dick G. Winehell 11 

Is Secular Humanism a Religion Again? 

by David J. Higgins 17 

Taxation in the Developing World and the International 
Group Effort  The Case of Chile 
by Lisa Martin and Bill Schaniel 23 

Critical Viewing Skills: Educating About 
Television and Through Television 
by Charles F. Aust , 31 

The Death of Man and the Birth of Writing 

by John Micheal Crafton 39 

Pragmatism, Argumentation, and the Post- 
Philosophic Culture 
by Steven Meredith Garmon 46 

Abstracts of Master's Theses and Specialist 

in Education Projects 52 

Annual Biography of West Georgia College 

Faculty as of January 1 , 1986 69 

Copyright  1986, West Georgia College 
Printed in the USA 



Published by 
WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

Maurice K. Townsend, President 
John T. Lewis III, Vice President and Dean of Faculties 



Learning Resources Committee 
George McNinch, Chairman 

Charles Beard Richard Guynn 

Joe Doldan Spencer Hamada 

Leticia Ekhaml Lewis Larson 

Mary Erickson Fred Parsons 

James Gay Elmo Roberds 

Jimmy. C. Stokes, Editor 
Martha A. Saunders, Associate Editor 
Marc J. LaFountain, Assistant Editor 



The purpose of this publication is to provide encouragement for faculty 
research and to make available results of such activity. The Review, 
published annually, accepts original scholarly work and creative writing. 
West Georgia College assumes no responsibility for contributor's views. 
The style guide is MLA Handbook, Second Edition. Although the Review 
is primarily a medium for the faculty of West Georgia College, other 
sources are invited. 

An annual Bibliography includes doctoral dissertations, major recitals 
and major exhibits. Theses and articles in progress or accepted are not / 
listed. A faculty member's intitial listing is comprehensive and appears in \ 
the issue of the year of his employment. The abstracts of all master's theses ! 
and educational specialists projects written at West Georgia College are 
included as they are awarded. 



IN SEARCH OF HAPPIER TIMES: 
HORTON FOOTE'S THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL 

by Glenn D. Novak* 

At the awards ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and 
Sciences held on March 24, 1986, Geraldine Page accepted her Oscar for 
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. That role was Mrs. 
Watts, and the film was The Trip to Bountiful. Ms. Page's acceptance 
speech was emotional, which is common; it was also brief, which is not. 
Yet, several times she expressed gratitude to a man whose name is not 
widely known outside of television and film circles. It was the name of a 
man who, more than thirty years earlier, had written the lines that Mrs. 
Watts would say to her confused and frustrated family. Ms. Page 
praised  and thanked  Horton Foote, the author of The Trip to 
Bountiful. 

This paper will discuss live television drama of the early 1950's with 
special focus on Horton Foote's simple and perceptive teleplay, The Trip 
to Bountiful. It will look at the author, his original play, and its live 
performance on television in 1953. No attempt is made to compare the 
original teleplay with its modern film descendant, but only to provide a 
critical and historical context to assist today's filmgoer in assessing the 
merits of the story, and the impact of the characters. 

Live Television Drama 

Much has been written concerning the "Golden Age" of television 
drama, that luminous period from about 1952 to 1957 during which some 
of the most inspired and memorable short plays were written and produced 
on live network television. Their names and authors are well-known: 
Requiem for a Heavyweight, Patterns, and Noon on Doomsday by Rod 
Serling; Marty, Bachelor Party, and The Mother by Paddy Chayefsky; 
Thunder on Sycamore Street and Twelve Angy Men by Reginald Rose; 
Visit to a Small Planet by Gore Vidal. The familiarity of these author's 
names today is due both to the quality of their early television writing and 
to the fact that many of them received later recognition in other artistic 
endeavors, namely television series, novels, Broadway, and motion 
pictures. To a great many Americans today, Rod Serling means Twilight 
Zone or Night Gallery, Chayefsky 's "claim to fame" is his screenplay for 
Network, and Gore Vidal was William Buckley's opponent in a hostile 
television discussion almost two decades ago. 

The 1950's, of course, produced other fine television writers, less active 
or less conspicuous in later years than their afore-mentioned colleagues, 
but nonetheless well-known and well-respected in their time. These are the 

*Assistant Professor of Mass Communication, West Georgia College 

1 



men who, along with Chayefsky, comprised Fred Coe's fine stable of 
writers, making NBC's Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse the most 
popular live television dramatic program in its first four seasons on the air 
("Grownups' Playhouse"). These writers include David Shaw {Native 
Dancer), N. Richard Nash ( The Joker), Robert Alan Aurthur {Spring 
Reunion), Tad Mosel {The Lawn Party), and Horton Foote. 

A "Texas Chekhov" 

Horton Foote was born on March 14, 1916, in the small town of 
Wharton, Texas. A fifth-generation Texan, Foote felt a strong affinity for 
the land and the people in and around his hometown. He later created the 
imaginary towns of Harrison and Bountiful, modeling them closely after 
the characteristics and people of Wharton. Foote has written: 

From the beginning, most of my plays have taken place in the 
imaginary town of Harrison, Texas, and it seems to me a more 
unlikely subject could not be found in these days of Broadway and 
world theatre, than this attempt of mine to recreate a small Southern 
town and its people. But I did not choose this task, this place, or these 
people to write about so much as they chose me, and 1 try to write of 
them with honesty. ("Foote" 210) 

Educated at the Pasadena Playhouse (1933-35) and the Tamara 
Darkarhovna Theatre School (1937-39), Horton Foote began his 
theatrical career as an actor, appearing in minor roles on Broadway 
through 1942. He operated Productions, Inc., in Washington, D.C., where 
he taught play writing and acting and managed a semi-professional theatre. 
Like the majority of the new talent soon to enter television  writers, 
actors, directors  Foote first gained considerable experience in legitimate 
theatre. 

Foote had written two stage plays before turning his attention to 
television: Only the Heart { 1 944) and The Chase { 1 952). H is first television 
play, The Travelers, was produced on NBC in 1952. This was followed by 
The Trip to Bountiful, A Young Lady of Property, John Turner Davis, 
The Tears of My Sister, The Death of the Old Man, Expectant Relations, 
and The Midnight Caller, all produced in 1953 on either the Philco- 
Goodyear Playhouse or the Gulf Playhouse. Foote's The Dancers and The 
Shadow of Willie Greer were produced by NBC in 1954; Flight by NBC in 
1956; Members of the Family by CBS in 1957; The Shape of the River by 
CBS in 1960; and The Gambling Heart by NBC in 1964. 

Foote has described a devise he uses in the writing of his television play; 
I keep a journal of each play's progress as I work, with the problems I 
feel need to be worked out, but when I finish the play, I can't bear to 
read or study any of these notes. Partly, 1 suppose it is because I will 
be reminded of many things 1 failed to do that my talent and 
technique were not ready to do. (Burack 148) 



Apparently, Foote felt that his talent and technique were becoming well- 
suited for motion pictures. He wrote several screenplays, among them 
Storm Fear (United Artists, 1956), To Kill a Mockingbird (Universal, 
1962), \ The Chase (Columbia, 1965), Baby, the Rain Must Fall (Columbia, 
1965 ), 2 Hurry Sundown (Paramount, 1966), The Stalking Moon (Warner 
Brothers, 1968), and Tomorrow (Filmgroup, 1971). 

In the preface to his anthology of eight television plays, entitled 
Harrison, Texas, Foote identifies several characteristics common to his 
plays: (1) they share the same general locale; (2) the central characters are 
almost always either very young or very old; (3) one of two common 
themes are explored in varying ways, "an acceptance of life or a preparation 
for death" (viii). The Trip to Bountiful is an excellent example of Foote's 
writing that clearly demonstrates all these characteristics. 

Foote's ability to depict the inner turmoil and deep motivations of 
common, ordinary people has led critic Henry Hewes to call him a "Texas 
Chekhov" ("Trips, Pleasant and Unpleasant" 49), a term especially 
appropriate to the rural-urban dichotomy expressed in The Trip to 
Bountiful. Sturcken sees Foote as the rural counterpart of Paddy 
Chayefsky, dealing with the middle-class citizens of the typical, small 
Southern town rather than the congested neighborhoods of the Bronx or 
Brooklyn (144). Foote's emphasis is always on character over plot; the 
characters are interesting, fully developed, and always human, while the 
plots are typically simple and often sentimental. NBC Playhouse producer 
Fred Coe explained in 1954: "If anyone else used one of Horton's plots, he 
would probably come out with a soap opera. But he writes with great craft 
and know-how, especially about problems of youth and old age ("Bright 
Galaxy"). 

Bus Ride to the Past 

The problem of old age is evident in The Trip to Bountiful. Act One 
establishes the unhappiness of the elderly central character, Mrs. Carrie 
Watts, who, forced by economic necessities to live with her son and 
daughter-in-law in a cramped, two-room apartment in downtown 
Houston, longs for the day when she can return to the open air and the 
spacious farmhouse she grew up in years ago in the town of Bountiful. 
Making life more difficult for her is the daughter-in-law, Jessie Mae, a 
"denatured specimen of the humanity which the city produces"(Clurman). 
She is a vain, selfish woman with an insatiable appetite for Coca-Colas, 
movie fan magazines, and beauty parlors, apparently paid for with Mrs. 
Watts' pension check, confiscated each month by Jessie Mae. The old lady 
conceals the check this month and proceeds to purchase a bus ticket to 
Bountiful to realize an old dream. Later, Jessie Mae and her husband, 
Ludie, "a failure who is torn between two loyalties" ("Trip to Bountiful" 
Newsweek), arrive at the bus depot, unsuccessful in their attempt to track 



down Mrs. Watts. The bus pulls away as Jessie Mae, angry and militant, 
shouts out her intention to call the police. 

Act Two is an excellent example of skillful expository writing. The 
audience thus far is aware only of Jessie Mae's badgering personality and 
the awesome determination of Mrs. Watts to reach her goal. The 
conversation on the bus between Mrs. Watts and a young lady named 
Thelma provides the audience with the necessary understanding of why 
Bountiful is so important to the old lady. Edgar Willis praises this scene as 
a natural and motivated presentation of facts, facts essential to the 
understanding of the play: 

The conversation that takes place between the two is a completely 
natural one. Utter strangers are constantly meeting and talking in 
bus stations, and the fact that Thelma is a stranger means that she 
does not know what is going on. As she finds out what is happening, 
so does the eavesdropping audience. It is also completely natural for 
Mrs. Watts to pour out her heart to Thelma during the bus ride, for 
we often find it easier to talk to strangers about intimate matters than 
we do to close friends. By means of this scene Foote lets us know the 
intensity of Mrs. Watts' desire to return to Bountiful, a feeling we 
must understand to appreciate her desperate struggle to reach it. 
(145) 

At the end of the act, M rs. Watts has reached the town of Harrison, close to 
Bountiful. As she sits alone in the bus depot, hoping to get a ride in the 
morning to Bountiful, she learns from the sheriff that Ludie and Jessie 
Mae are on their way to retrieve her, and she experiences a fainting spell. 

Marya Mannes said in 1954 that "television is the place for the poet, the 
master of mood and of word. It is the place for implication, for simplicity, 
even for silence." Implication and mood play a large role in Act Three, 
which opens on Mrs. Watts standing on the front porch of her dilapidated 
old home. She seems at peace, contented with the world and with herself. 
The brief visit "gives her back the sense of personal dignity which Jessie 
Mae had trampled upon"(Wyatt). Her happiness is interrupted, however, 
by the arrival of Ludie and Jessie Mae. Ripping up her pension check in 
front of her disbelieving daughter-in-law, Mrs. Watts seems to be renewed 
and invigorated, willing to return to Houston with her son, but equipped 
with her dignity and her strength: "I've had my trip. That's more than 
enough to keep me happy the rest of my life" (Foote 262). It is an emotional 
ending to a play which explores the theme of what happens to people who 
lose a sense of their roots in the transition to an industrialized, over- 
crowded society. Such a transition is especially difficult for the old, and for 
Mrs. Watts it is poignant and painful. Richard Hayes states that "Mr. 
Foote conveys the sure, genuine emotion of his theme not by coldly 



4 



parading disaster, but by permitting life slowly to accumulate until at the 
last  cleanly and with great strength symapthy takes us prisoner." 

Anatomy of a Coke Drinker 

Horton Foote is a writer with a fine ability to delineate and express 
character. As such, it is not difficult to see why he would fit in well with the 
NBC Playhouse, whose philosophy was discussed in 1954 by its guiding 
force, producer Fred Coe: "The TV approach, as opposed to the theatre or 
movies or radio, is an approach to the understanding of character rather 
than to the complication of the story line"(30). Virtually all of the criticism 
concerning the television drama of Horton Foote makes mention of his 
outstanding knack for characterization. Jack Gould of the New York 
Times stated that Foote's The Old Beginning "easily ranks as one of his 
better works because he delved much more deeply into the motivation of 
his characters and came to grips with them as people." Another writer 
stated that "there is still no substitute for well-defined characterizations; 
fictional people should bring a story alive through their personalities, 
traits, and actions. Some television dramas observe this fundamental; 
others don't" ("Television in Review"). Foote's Expectant Relations, the 
same writer affirms, is a good example of one that does. And, regarding 
77?? Trip to Bountiful, Hewes has stated that the various events of the 
actual plot are not terribly exciting in themselves, but "most of the drama 
comes from the conflagrations that burn silently within the characters" 
("Trips" 48). 

The character of Jessie Mae Watts is a case in point: she is an excellent 
example of Foote's skill in careful, detailed, and consistent 
characterization. She is a character whom we feel we know as well as 
Chayefsky's Marty or Serling's Mountain McClintock, though we 
certainly like her less. Jessie Mae is, in the words of Wolcott Gibbs, "a 
ferocious summing up of all the idle, discontented, and empty-headed 
women  the Coke drinkers, double-feature addicts, and juke-box 
enthusiasts  who are so often alleged to make up most of the female 
population of the desolate South" (75). 

Edgar Willis uses the character of Jessie Mae in his textbook analysis of 
repeating character qualities. Foote describes Jessie Mae briefly in his 
production directions to The Trip to Bountiful: she is an obviously vain 
woman who is hard, self-centered, and domineering (221). Her vanity is 
impressed upon us through a series of encounters that show the audience 
that she is addicted to the reading of movie magazines and that she even 
fancies that she might be successful in Hollywood. As Willis says, "the 
impression of her vanity is further developed by the revelation that she 
spends long hours in beauty parlors" (131). Her selfishness is portrayed 
again and again as the play progresses. She expects to be waited on hand 



and foot, a trait revealed in the opening scene when she asks Mrs. Watts to 
go into the kitchen and get her a coke. Later we learn that the old lady 
prepares all the meals in the house. Whatever concern Jessie Mae might 
have for her mother-in-law is shown to be motivated entirely by greed and 
selfishness. If anything happens to Mrs. Watts, it will immediately cut off 
the pension check. She seems afraid that Mrs. Watts may die of excitement 
once she arrives in Bountiful, but this concern becomes transparent as she 
bemoans in the next breath the expense involved in bringing the body back 
to Houston. And, in the final confrontation between the two women in 
Bountiful, Jessie Mae's first action is to grab ferociously for the old 
woman's pension check. 

Foote skillfully develops Jessie Mae in other related ways, and the 
overall portrait is that of a woman very difficult to like. Early in the play, 
she squelches Mrs. Watts' singing because, she claims, it gets on h&r nerves. 
To Thelma, a complete stranger at the bus depot, she describes Mrs. Watts 
as "crazy" and "spoiled rotten." Despite her husband's objections, she 
brings the police into the situation, hoping to teach the old woman a 
lesson. Although she is certainly aware of what Bountiful means to her 
mother-in-law, she delights.in characterizing it right to her face as an ugly 
old swamp. At the end of the play, she even denies Mrs. Watts a few 
moments of solitide and peace on the porch of her crumbling home by 
honking the car horn rudely and impatiently. As Willis concludes from 
these carefully chosen situations and conversations: 

Jessie Mae does and says different things as the play progresses, but 
each action confirms over and over gain her basic traits of selfishness 
and callous unconcern for other people's feelings. The range of the 
character is actually fairly limited, as it must be in a play that has to 
deal with one problem at a time, but the repeated revelation of these 
two basic traits gives an impression of character, depth and richness. 
(132). 

A Break with Tradition 

The NBC Playhouse had a tradition of casting competent but relatively 
unknown stage actors into the roles of its television plays. Through moving 
performances in one or more of the better dramas produced by Coe, these 
actors began to make names for themselves, later broadening their careers 
into motion pictures. Actors and actresses like Joanne Woodward, Rod 
Steiger, Kim Stanley, and others were thrust from relative obscurity into 
national popularity through fine performances in live television drama 
(Coe 31). Big Hollywood names were avoided, for reasons discussed by 
Associate Producer Gordon Duff in an interview in April, 1953: "If you 
have an expensive Hollywood name, more people would tune in, but I'm 
not sure more people would like the show. A name's great, but we're not in 
the business to keep the press agent happy" ("Grownups' Playhouse"). 

6 



The Trip to Bountiful represented a break with this tradition. The part 
of Mrs. Watts was played by Lillian Gish, 57 years old at the time. Her 
performance was hailed by many critics as one of the finest, if the the 
finest, of her entire dramatic career. 3 Foote dedicated the play to Ms. Gish, 
and it is so noted on the title page of the play as it appears in the anthology, 
Harrison, Texas. 

A complete list of the cast of The Trip to Bountiful, presented on the 
Goodyear Television Playhouse at 9:00 PM, EST, on March 1, 1953, 
follows: 

Mrs. Watts: Lillian Gish 

Jessie Mae Watts: Eileen Heckart 

Ludie Watts: John Beal 

Thelma: Eva Marie Saint 

Ticket Man (railway station): Dennis Cross 

Bus Driver: Charles Sladen 

Ticket Man (bus station): Will Hare 

Attendant: Larry Bolton 

Sheriff: Frank Overton 

Ticket Man (second bus station): William Hansen 
The director of the production was Vincent Donehue. Fred Coe was 
producer and Gordon Duff was associate producer. 

The Trip to Broadway 

Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful is especially significant because it 
marked a reversal of the common trend during the earliest days of live 
television drama  the reliance on successful Broadway plays as material 
for television. Not only was The Trip to Bountiful an original play 
specifically written for television (a common practice by 1953), but it 
became the first television play ever produced on Broadway (Sturcken 
143). Time magazine commented on this unusual situation soon after the 
play opened: "While seeming to throttle stage and screen with one hand, 
television generously offering help with the other" ("Friend and Foe"'). 
The stage play opened on November 3, 1953, at the Henry Miller Theatre, 
and enjoyed a run of about a month. The producer and director were 
unchanged from the television broadcast, and Ms. Gish continued in her 
role as Mrs. Watts. Ludie was played by Gene Lyons, and Jo Van Fleet 
(who would turn in a powerful performance two years later in East of 
Eden) replaced Eileen Heckart as Jessie Mae. The play marked Eva Marie 
Saint's first appearance on Broadway, as she re-created the role of Thelma 
("Trip to Bountiful" Theatre Arts). The reviews of the stage play were 
mixed, but the majority of negative comments seemed to concentrate more 
on acting and sets than on the situations or dialogue. Eric Bentley's 
criticism in the New Republic, however, did raise an interesting question 
regarding Foote's characterization of Ludie Watts: "The plot, the theme, 



the exigencies of theatre all demand that he speak, that he explain himself, 
but he is maddeningly and fatally silent, pleading some fifth amendment of 
the dramatic constitution." Critics were in general agreement, though, 
concerning the moving performance of Gish, Van Fleet, and Saint, and 
more than one expressed surprise and sadness at the fact that the play had 
such a brief run. 

Unfolding the Human Spirit 

The television writing of Horton Foote can best be described as the 
careful and sensitive exploration of the human mind and spirit. In The Trip 
to Bountiful he endeavors to portray that quality in all of us which spurs us 
on to an important goal, the attainment of which will satisfy an intense 
longing. In The Tears of My Sister, a short teleplay using the novel device 
of "camera -as-character," 4 Foote tells the story of a young girl forced to 
marry a much older and unwanted man in order to provide for her mother 
and sister. A Young Lady of Property, in which Kim Stanley gave what 
was generally considered at the time to be the best television performance 
to date (Hewes "Six Authors"), is a poignant vignette about a teen-age 
girl's dreams, loneliness, and growing pains in a small Southern town in 
1925. Throughout his many other plays, dealing as they do with the young 
or with the old, we see always the craft of a fine writer coming to terms with 
the problems and anxieties that are a part of life. And because life is 
unpredictable and uncertain, so are Horton Foote's characters uncertain 
and anxious, responding in ways that resist prediction or even rational 
explanation. He has consistently eschewed a formulaic approach to his 
depiction of the human condition. Erik Barnouw's discussion of the 
decline of live anthology drama might explain the obsolescence of 
perceptive character studies in which Foote specialized: 

It was especially catastrophic for the future of the medium that the 
"anthology series" seemed in danger of disappearing. A series of this 
sort, exemplified by Philco-Goodyear Playhouse, invites writer 
contributions without specification of required character, locale, or 
formula. The play is the thing. It is cast according to its needs. . . 
Writers responded to the open invitation of these series in a way that 
gave television for some years the initiative among dramatic media 
and made it the mecca of young writers and a major source for other 
media ... Now the door apparently was being closed on most of such 
activity. Instead came series that did not say to the writer, "Write us a 

play." They said, "Write us a vehicle for in the 

role of a private eye named Final act should 

have strong action sequence. Study our formula before making 
submissions. Submit outlines through recognized agents." (35-36) 

In view of such confining demands, it is not difficult to see why a writer like 
Horton Foote, always more interested in character and theme than in plot 

8 



or "strong action sequences," would gradually disappear from the 
television scene and turn his attention elsewhere. Like so many others of 
his time, he turned it toward Hollywood. On March 24, 1986, by awarding 
Geraldine Page an Oscar for Best Actress, Hollywood  and a watching 
world  turned its attention toward Horton Foote. 

NOTES 

'Horton Foote received an Academy Award for the best screenplay based on material 
from another medium for To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962. He also received an award from the 
Writers Guild of America for the same screenplay. 

2 The screenplay for Baby, the Rain Must Fall was based on Foote's own play entitled 
The Traveling Lady. 

'See John Mason Brown's article, "The Trip to Bountiful," in Saturday Review 
(December 12, 1953): 46^47. See also E.V. Wyatt, "The Trip to Bountiful," in The Cathloic 
World (January, 1958): 308. 

4 With this technique, the central character is never seen by the audience. All of the action 
of the play is seen through the eyes of this character, who becomes, in essence, the camera. 
Other characters speak directly to this person by addressing the camera, and the audience 
hears the voice only as this person replies. Also, the thoughts of this central character are 
heard by the audience while the other characters, of course, are oblivious to them. Foote was 
not the first to use this device. Rod Steiger was the camera's voice for the first time in a play by 
Robert Alan Aurthur entitled Cafe Society. See Variety (July 18, 1953): 35. 

WORKS CITED 

Barnouw, Erik. The Television Writer. New York: Hill and Wang, 1962. 

Bentley, Erik. "New Dramatists." New Republic 30 (November, 1953): 21. 

"Bright Galaxy of Playwrights." Life (October 25, 1954): 82. 

Burack, A.S.. ed. Television Plays for Writers. Boston: The Writer, Inc., 1957. 

Clurman, Harold. "Theatre." The Nation (November 21, 1953): 433. 

Coe, Fred. "TV Drama's Declaration of Independence." Theatre Arts (June, 1954): 29-311. 

Foote, Horton. Harrison, Texas. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1956. 

. The Trip to Bountiful. Harrison, Texas. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 

1956. 221-163. 

"Foote, Horton." Contemporary Authors vol. 73 1978. 

"Friend and Foe." Time (November 16. 1953): 94. 

Gibbs, Wolcott. The New Yorker (November 14, 1953): 73-75. 

Gould, Jack. "Radio and Television." New York Times (November 26, 1952), natl. ed.: 31. 

"Grownups' Playhouse." Newsweek (April 20, 1953): 74. 

Hayes, Richard. "The Trip to Bountiful." Commonweal (December II, 1953): 257. 

Hewes, Henry. "Six Authors in Search of a Sponsor." Saturday Review (August 14, 1954): 
22-23. 

. "Trips, Pleasant and Unpleasant." Saturday Review (November 21. 1953): 48-50. 



Marines, Marya. "TV and the Dramatist." The Reporter (February 2, 1954): 39. 

Sturcken, F.W. "An Historical Analysis of Live Network Television Drama from 1 938- 
1958." Diss. University of Minnesota, I960. 

"Television in Review." New York Times (June 24, 1953), natl. ed: 35. 

"The Trip to Bountiful." Newsweek (November 16, 1953): 61. 

"The Trip to Bountiful." Theatre Arts (January 1954): 23. 

Willis, Edgar E. Writing Television and Radio Programs. New York: Holt, Rinehart and 
Winston, Inc., 1967. 

Wyatt, E.V. "The Trip to Bountiful." The Catholic World (January, 1954): 308. 



10 



THE EXPANSION OF METROPOLITAN AREA IN GEORGIA 

by C. Gerald Sanders* and Dick G. Winchell** 

Introduction 

Georgia has recently experienced two phenomena associated with 
population growth: a 'turn around' in non-metropolitan growth and an 
expansion of metropolitan area. Non-metropolitan 'turn around' began 
after 1970, during which time rural counties, which had previously been 
declining in population, 'turned around' and began to gain population. 
Metropolitan expansion is the urbanization of previously rural counties 
adjoining urban centers and has been occuring since 1950. This study will 
examine metropolitan growth and its impact upon the fringes of urban 
areas. 

Metropolitan Areas Defined 

In 1940, the Bureau of Census recognized a need for establishing a data 
base for assessing the growth of population in and around certain large 
urban centers. In the decades that followed, criteria for defining those 
areas within which such growth was occuring have been developed, 
revised, and refined. Designations for those areas have been revised as 
well: in 1950 the designation in use was the Standard Metropolitan Area 
(SMA); in 1960, the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA): 
and, currently, the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) [U.S. 
Department of Commerce, 1953, p. xi; 1961, p. xii; 1971, p. A-4; 1982, 
p. A-4]. In addition to the MSA, the Office of Management and Budget 
created, by way of definition, the Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical 
Area (CMSA) and the Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA) 
[U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1984, p. 2]. Examples of the latter two 
designations are the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale FL CMSA, and the PMSAs of 
Ft. Lauderdale  Hollywood  Pompano Beach and Miami-Hialeah. The 
Atlanta metropolitan area is an example of an MSA. According to the 
Bureau of Census, 

The general concept of an MSA is one of a large population nucleus 
together with adjacent communities which have a high degree of 
economic and social integration with the nucleus. CMSA's are large 
metropolitan complexes within which individual components, 
designated as PMSA's, have been defined. MSA's, CMSA's, and 
PMSA's are defined by the Office of Management and Budget as a 
standard for Federal agencies in the preparation and publication of 
statistics relating to metropolitan areas. The new terms MSA, 
CMSA, and PMSA went into effect June 30, 1983, replacing the 



"Associate Professor of Geography, West Georgia College 
"Assistant Professor of Geography, West Georgia College 



11 



previous terms SMS A (standard metropolitan statistical area) and 
SCSA (standard consolidated statistical area). [U. S. Bureau of the 
Census, 1984, p. 2] 

All of the territory of the United States is classified as eithei 
metropolitan (within an MSA, CMSA, or PMSA) or non-metropolitar 
(outside those designated areas). With the exception of New England, 
where city and town units are used, all metropolitan areas are defined by 
entire county units. MS As consist of at least one central city with a 
population greater than 50,000 and surrounding central counties which 
have close economic and social relationships with the neighboring outlying 
counties. 

MSA Regions of Georgia 

Georgia has no CMSAs or PMSAs but does have six MSAs with the 
metropolitan region. These towns include Marietta, Doraville, Forest 
area includes Georgia counties, therefore, has seven MSA regions within 
its borders (Figure 1). As one would expect, the Atlanta MSA has the 
largest population and the largest percentage change since 1 980 (Table I & 
Figure 2). Two of the MSA central cities (Augusta and Columbus) have 
expanded urban influence into their respective out-of-state neighboring 
counties. One out-of-state central city (Chattanooga) has expanded its 
urban influence into northwestern Georgia. Chattanooga's MSA, 
however, is the only MSA region in Georgia to have shown a decline in 
population, attributed to a decline in the population of the Georgia 
counties of Dade (-6.0%) and Walker (  1.8%) and to a decrease in the 
"inside central city" population of Chattanooga (-3.1%). 

Georgia's Rapid-growth Counties 

Georgia has some of the most rapidly growing counties in the nation 
(Table 2). Gwinnett County ranks 5th in the nation with a 38.0% increase 
in population since 1984. Fayette is not far behind (ranking 20th) with an 
increase of 36.0%. Two counties, Camden and Long, are not among 
Georgia's MSAs currently, but both have growth rates exceeding 20% 
since 1980. Cobb, the third most populous county of Georgia, is among the 
most rapidly growing counties in Georgia with a growth rate of 19% 
between 1980 and 1984, missing the Census Bureau's listing of cities with 
growth rates of 20% or more by only one percentage point (Table 3). 
Nationally, Georgia counties do not rank very high in terms of population, 
but Georgia has ten counties with populations exceeding 100,000. 

Growth & Expansion of Georgia MSAs 

In Georgia, the number of MSA counties has increased from nine in 
1950 to thirty-eight in 1984 (Figure 3). The greatest growth has been within 
the Atlanta MSA counties whose numbers increased from five in 1950 to 
eighteen in 1 984. The fact that Athens (Clarke) has become an independent 



12 



MSA as of 1970 creates a barrier of sorts preventing further eastward 
encroachment of the Atlanta MSA which now includes (as of 1984) 
Barrow County. Currently, Atlanta's MSA counties of Barrow and 
Walton are contiguous to Athens' MSA counties to Oconee, Clark, and 
Jackson. Counties located along the north-west-south crescent (the so- 
called 'fringe' counties) of the Atlanta MSA are likely to become classified 
as part of the Atlanta MSA in the near future (Figure 4). It is likely that 
Hall County, with its 385-connector and other economic ties to Atlanta, 
will ultimately be included as part of the Atlanta MSA. 



METROPOLITAN 
COUNTIES 




Figure 1 



13 



RANK OF GEORGIA METROPOLITAN STATISTICAL AREAS 
BY PERCENTAGE CHANGE: 1980-34 



GA Rank 
1 


US 


Rank 
40 


2 




99 


3 




115 


4 




129 


5 




170 


6 




203 


7 




245 



Atlanta, GA 
Augusta, GA-SC 
Savannah, GA 
Athens, GA 
Albany, GA 
Columbus, GA-AL 
(Chattanooga, TN)-GA 



1984 Pop(est) 



2,380,000 
368,300 
232,900 
136,000 
116,700 
244,500 
422,500 



Change 



5.6 
5.1 
3.8 
2.1 
-0.9 



(Source: U.S. Dept. o-f Commerce, Patterns o-f Metropolitan Area and County Population 
Growth: 1980 to 1984 , pp. 48-51) 



Georgia MSA Population 1984 




1 S Atlanta GA 

2  Augusta GA-SC 

3  Savannah GA 

4  Athens GA 

5  Albany GA 

8  Columbus GA-AL 

7  ( Chattanooga TN ) - GA 



Figure 2 







RANK OF GEORGIA 


Table 2. 
COUNTIES GAINING 


20+ PERCENT 












1980-84 






GA Rank 


US Rank 

15 
20 
43 
65 
84 
97 




County 


MSA 1 


'84 Pop(est) 

230,300 
39,500 
16,800 
49,500 
62,800 
5,400 




'/. Chanoe 


1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 




Gw i n n e 1 1 

Fayette 

Camden 

Col umbi a 

Cherokee 

Long 


(Atlanta) 
(Atlanta) 
( - ) 
(Augusta) 
(Atlanta) 
( - ) 


38.0 
36.0 
25.8 
23.3 

21.4 
20.4 


(Source: U.S. 


Dept. of 
to 1984 . 


Co 
PP 


nmerce, Patt 


ems o-f Metropol 


tan Area and 


Coun 


ty Population 


Growth: 1980 


. 52) 





















Table 3 
















RANK 


OF GEORGIA 


COUNTIES POPULATION EXCEEDING 100 


000 










1984 










GA Rar 


k 


US Ra 

69 


nk 


County 


1984 


1980 


Number 
24,900 


'/. Chanoe 
4.2 




1 


Ful ton 


614,800 


589,904 




2 




93 




DeKalb 


501 ,900 


483,024 


18,800 


3.9 




3 




130 




Cobb 


354,300 


297,718 


56,600 


19.0 




4 




200 




Gwi nne 1 1 


230,300 


166,815 


63,500 


33 . 




5 




218 




Chatham 


212,400 


202,226 


10,200 


5.0 




6 




240 




Richmond 


187,600 


181 ,629 


5,900 


3.3 




7 




251 




Muscogee 


175,700 


170,108 


5,600 


3.3 




8 




276 




CI ayton 


162,600 


150,357 


12,300 


8.2 




9 




290 




Bibb 


156,800 


150,256 


6,600 


4.4 




10 




420 




Dougher ty 


103,100 


100,710 


2,300 


2.3 




(Source 


U.S 

1980 


. Dept. o-f 
to 1984 . 


Commerce , 
pp. 53-56) 


Patterns o-f 


1e tropol 


tan Area anc 


County Pocula 


1 1 on 


Growth : 













Hi 





MSA Counties in 


Georgia 












































m 


- 1 










1 


1 II 








1 


1 I 








1 


1  




H 


m m 


 1 


1  


H 


H 


1  M m 



Figure 3 

The expanding Atlanta MSA refelcts the extension of Metro Atlanta's 
influence. Freeways have reduced travel time from cities and towns 
surrounding Atlanta, encouraging people to work in Atlanta to commute 
to the city from greater distances. Development at the fringe of Atlanta has 
engulfed towns that once were separate cities, but are now part of the 
metropolitan region. These towns include Marietta, Doraville, Forest 
Park, Douglasville, and others. Continued growth at the edges of the 
metropolitan area further expands the urban area boundary, bringing the 
city closer to previously rural communities. Proximity to metropolitan 
areas, increases in the number of persons who commuting to those areas, 
and expansion of urban development types (e.g:, subdivisions, shopping 
malls, office parks) into rural areas are factors which demonstrate the 
rapid expansion of urban influence on nearby rural counties. These 



15 



developments are accurately reflected by the Census Bureau's 
redesignation of these previously rural counties into Metropolitan 
Statistical Areas. 

Findings 

Georgia's MSAs have expanded to outlying counties and, no doubt, will 
continue to do so. These urban areas are exerting great influence upon the 
economics and activities of adjoining rural counties, especially those 
surrounding Atlanta. Four new counties have been designated as part of 
MSA populations since 1980, and additional rural counties adjoining 
MSAs will more than likely be incorporated into those regional census 
categories in the future. Residents of non-MSA counties and towns, 
including Carroll County and Carrollton, should recognize the continuing 
expansion of urban influences and prepare for the economic benefits and 
liabilities which accrue as a result of qualifying for the designation of 
Metropolitan Statistical Area. 

[Acknowledgements: The authors express their appreciation to Randy 
Manino, geography major, for cartographic assistance and to the Learning 
Resources Center and Chuck Ormsbee for assistance in graphics 
development.] 

WORKS CITED 



U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 976. Patterns 
of Metropolitan Area and County Population Growth: 1980 to 1984. Washington, D.C.: 
U.S. Government Printing Office. 1985. 

Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1985. (105th Edition). Washington. D.C.: U.S. 
Government Printing Office. 1984. 

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. City and County Data Book, 1952. 
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1953. 

General Population Characteristics. United States Summary. PC (I)  IB. U.S. Government 
Printing Office. 1961. 

U.S. Census of Housing: I960. Georgia. HC (1)-12. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government 
Printing Office. 1961. 

1970 Census of Population. General Population Characteristics. Georgia. Washington, D.C.: 
U.S. Government Printing Office. 1971. 

1980 Census of Population. General Population Characteristics. Georgia. (PC80-1-B12). 
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1982. 



16 



IS SECULAR HUMANISM A RELIGION AGAIN? 

by David J. Higgins* 

As social groups move from the idealism of their beginnings into the 
main fabric of political life self-definition becomes a critical issue. For 
example, the early Christians would have eased into the Roman Empire 
with scarcely a frayed thread had they been willing to define themselves as 
a Jewish sect. The Jews were exempt from the presciptions to worship the 
emperors; Christians were martyred because they would neither worship 
nor accept self-definition as Jewish. 

In our own time Secular Humanism is experiencing an analogous 
fraying. The issue is whether or not Secular Humanism defines itself as a 
religion. Class action suits are being brought in at least two states, Texas 
and Alabama, against school boards in an attempt to prevent the teaching 
of tenets of Secular Humanism in the public schools. If Secular Humanism 
is a religion, it cannot be taught. This essay highlights the inconsistencies in 
Secular Humanism's self-definition across time. Further progress for 
Secular Humanism in the political order depends on facing these 
inconsistencies and either re-defining itself or accepting the modern 
equivalent of martyrdom  exile from the schools and loss of federal 
funding. Thus the question: "Is Secular Humanism a religion again?" 
Again! 

AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING 

"Humanism is a philosophical, religious, and moral point of view as old 
as human civilization itself." So does Paul Kurtz begin his presentation of 
two working papers entitled: Humanist Manifestos: I and II. 

The first manifesto appeared in 1933 and was signed by 34 prominent 
inquirers of whom Lester Mondale and John Dewey were the most 
memorable from today's perspective. They made fifteen affirmations "so 
that religious humanism may be better understood." They "regard the 
universe as self-existent and not created." Modern science is said to make 
"unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values" 
(HM I 7). 

Eight of the fifteen propositions specifically refer to the words "religion" 
and "religious." Two others address worship and deism. 

No one reading Manifesto I could miss the point that it is a religious 
document dealing with religious issues. It sees the modern world as having 
created a situation which "requires a new statement of the means and 
purposes of religion." The focal points in the restructuring of religion 

*Professor of Philosophy, West Georgia College 

17 



consist of creation, the supernatural, the grounding of morals in anything 
other than human experience, prayer and worship. A debt to traditional 
religion is acknowledged  but what is needed for that present day is a 
vital, frank and fearless religion which can be a synthesizing and dynamic 
force for today. It will also be characterized by creativity, joy and hope. 
"To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present. "Such is the 
purpose which grounds the affirmations of Humanist Manifesto I (8). 

IS NOW 
Humanist Manifesto II appeared in 1973. It was signed, and continues 
to be signed, by many people whose names are in the media. It too deals 
with specifically religious issues; it eschews "faith in a prayer hearing God" 
(HM II 13); it can "discover no divine purpose or providence for the 
human species" (HM II 16). Traditional religions are now seen as an 
obstacle (HM II 17) and a source of intolerant attitudes (HM II 18). 

Based on HM II, there is no longer an explicit recognition that 
humanists are asserting themselves from a perspective that is itself 
religious. The interest in establishing a religion has disappeared. In its 
place are many proposals in the direction of world community, freedom of 
discourse, education, and the rights of the disadvantaged  not including 
the unborn. A survey of bio briefs indicates that the authors of 
humanistically oriented articles are often involved in programs which are 
reconstructing society with recognizable allegiance to the ideals of 
Manifesto II. 

Humanists seem not quite sure whether these Manifestos are to be 
quoted by their opponents as representative of Secular Humanists 
generally. In later exchanges, religious writers who disagree with the 
Secular Humanists are somehow diminished because they have taken the 
Manifestos as a source. That is unfortunate, for what is needed at the very 
beginning of fruitful dialogue is clarity  and that the Manifestos certainly 
have. They are concise and available as well. No one expects that any 
adherent to any set of propositions would affirm each without 
qualification. Clarity facilitates dialogue, whereas with even the best of 
good will, obscurantism is an unfortunate block to dialogue. 

In retrospect it is possible to locate a precise event in time wherein 
Secular Humanism made the transition from an idea to be discussed and 
advocated to a movement to be confronted with countervailing political 
power. Dialogue became politicized with the Conlan amendment to the 
National Defense Education Act of 1976. "No grant, contract, or support 
is authorized under this Act for any educational program, curriculum 
research and development, administrator-teacher orientation, or any 
project involving one or more students or teacher-administrator involving 
any aspect of the religion of secular humanism" (Cong. Rec. 13531). 
Conlan referred to the 1961 Supreme Court decision (Torcaso vs. 

18 



Watkins): "Among religions in this country which do not teach what would 
generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, 
Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and others" (13532). 

This clear identification of Secular Humanism as a religion stands 
behind current Moral Majority efforts to control public school teaching. 
Again, if Secular Humanism is a religion, it cannot be taught in the public 
schools. In spite of their founding statements, Secular Humanists quickly 
denied such a narrow interpretation of the meaning of religion. "The 
attack on humanism as a secular religion infiltrating the schools in 
defiance of the First Amendment has no rational justification whatsoever" 
(Hook 7). Further, there was no possibility of establishing Secular 
Humanism as a religion: ". . . the organizational activities of secular 
humanists have no role in the schools; hence they are in no way leading to 
the establishment of a religion (Kurtz 1976, 5). 

In 1980 Paul Kurtz and others promulgated A Secular Humanist 
Declaration. Democratic secular humanism is defined in contrast to 
religion. Although religion is acknowledged to have a value for private 
individuals and to make some contribution to social welfare, and although 
religious believers who share a belief in many secular humanist and 
democratic values are welcome to join in the defense of those ideals( 10)  
for the most part references to religion are either skeptical (17) or 
pejorative: ". . . religious activists not only are responsible for much of the 
terror and violence in the world today but stand in the way of solutions to 
the world's most serious problems" (9). 

Nevertheless, free inquiry entails recognition of civil liberties; the right 
to organize opposition parties and to join voluntary associations is 
acknowledged (11). It is to be noted that this is just what Fundamentalists 
today are doing, to the consternation of Secular Humanists who are 
encouraging each other to themselves organize into political action 
groups, subscribe to sympathetic journals, and monetarily support their 
own ideals. 

Though we may tolerate contrasting points of view, this does not 
mean that they are immune to critical scrutiny. The guiding premise 
of those who believe in free inquiry is that truth is more likely to be 
discovered if the opportunity exists for the free exchange of opposing 
opinions. . . .(II) 

In 1982, Maxine Negri urged the support of humanism as a nontheistic 
religion: "If humanismasa philosophy orasa nontheistic religion is ever to 
be understood by the public at large, it will have to be achieved by the 
efforts and money of humanists themselves" (46). Later in the article 
occurs the traditional religious directive: 



19 



We should remember that tithing has been and is the grass-root 
support of church wealth. If you wish to spread and shed the 'light' of 
humanism to the far reaches of the world as the religion or 
philosophy you live by, you must realize that this cannot be achieved 
without adequate financial backing. (47) 

I have quoted Negri as typical of the source from which current dilemmas 
stem: that is, even when it is unnecessary to do so, Secular Humanism 
presents itself as a religion and urges typically religious acts such as tithing 
and proselytizing. Certainly one could ask for money without such urging 
 were there a merely accidental or allusive connection between Secular 
Humanism and religion. What I suggest is that the connection is really and 
effectively intrinsic. The Supreme Court of 1961 seems to have described 
things the way they were to turn out to be (Torcaso vs. Watkins, above). 

The most provocative assertions, subsequently quoted and widely 
distributed in anonymous fundamentalist literature, came from John 
Dunphy in 1983: 

I am convinced that the battle for humankind's future must be waged 
and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly 
perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of 
humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians 
call divinity in every human being. (26) 

Other Secular Humanists subsequently disassociated themselves from 
Dunphy's extremism; they merely acknowledge his right to express 
himself. 

The force and urgency in the discussion of whether Secular Humanism is 
a religion or not is centered on this issue of education, especially public 
education and the effect of political policies on it. In contrast, many other 
issues raised by Secular Humanists are of much more interest from a 
merely intellectual viewpoint  for example, the grounding of morals, 
the ideal of free inquiry, the hope for a world community  none of these 
are stirring up the fuss. Even in discussions of abortion and population 
control, religious positions are critiqued without the issue of whether 
secular humanism is itself a religion being raised. 

Some humanists have suggested letting all religions have their day in the 
public classrooms  expecting that students so educated would see the 
truth for themselves. That might be an acceptable proposal, if advocacy 
were prohibited and the pressures from grades and teachers as role models 
were obviated. U nfortunately, religion and church have become associated 
in most of the American experience; just as the church must be kept 
separate from the endeavors of the state, so too must religion. American 
pluralism has more to lose than to gain if it ever rejects Jefferson's "wall of 



20 



separation." Granted that there should be a separation, what is to be on 
either side? 

The problem might be highlighted by pointing out that there are groups 
of people who also refuse to be identified with religion, who follow what 
they call the WAY, who regard abortion and contraception as immoral, 
who care for their neighbor and engage in free, creative dialogue with 
whosoever wishes. If Secular Humanism with its values clarification is not 
a religion, and so may be taught as the basis for learning in the public 
schools  then can not also the WAY with its clear and demanding morals 
also be taught? For it also is not a religion, and somewhat more 
consistently than Secular Humanism, does not alternately claim to be and 
then not to be a religion. 

AND EVER SHALL BE 

"But through all changes religion itself remains constant in its quest for 
abiding values, an inseparable feature of human life" (HM I 7). 

To end on a rather quixotic note: In my professional lives, whether 1 am 
with secular humanists or with religious conservatives, my experience is 
much the same. In the journals of either 1 am invited to adjust my will so as 
to help carry on the work of enlightenment after I die. In either I am invited 
to subscribe my name to a list of members or supporters, to witness to my 
experience, to proselytize by writing letters and subscribing my friends to 
journals, and to tithe. 

In personal meetings the topics of discussion are the same: God, 
foundation of values, individual rights, the community of man, resistance 
to authoritarianism, hang-ups about how one was raised. There is even an 
association with eating  unleavened bread in one case, a sesame seed bun 
in the other. The difference in the here and now everyday world is beyond 
perception, transcendent. Transcendent also of the politics and polemics 
of creatures. As St. Paul indicated to the Epicurean and Stoic Athenians, 
we live within a transcendent God playing peekaboo not far from any one 
of us. 

Whether such casual dialogue, important as it is for both democracy and 
truth, can be made part of public education within the Constitution, 
remains to be seen. 

NOTES 

Kurt?, Paul. Humanist Manifestos: I and II. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1973. (Cited 
henceforth as HM I or HM II page). 



21 



WORKS CITED 

Cong. Rec. 12 May 1976: 13531-3 

Doerr, Edd. Director of Communications, Americans United for Separation of Church and 
State. The Humanist Sept.-Oct. 1976: 15. 

Dunphy, John J. "A Religion for a New Age." The Humanist Jan. -Feb. 1983: 23-26. 

Hook, Sidney. "Is Secular Humanism a Religion?" The Humanist Sept.-Oct. 1976: 5-7. 

Kurtz, Paul. "The Attack on Secular Humanism." The Humanist Sept.-Oct. 1976: 4-5. 

Kurtz, Paul. Endorsed by others. A Secular Humanist Declaration. Buffalo: Prometheus 
Books, 1980. 

Mondale, Lester. "Reaffirming Manifesto 1." The Humanist Sept.-Oct. 1983: 33-34. 

Negri, Maxine. The Humanist Sept.-Oct. 1982: 46^*7. 






22 



TAXATION IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD AND THE 

INTERNATIONAL GROUP EFFORT 

THE CASE OF CHILE 

by Lisa Martin* and Bill Schaniel** 

Introduction 

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into selected aspects of 
social change in Chile. For the past thirty years, the changes have been 
influenced by both external and internal forces. In the sixties, the emphasis 
was on a redistribution of wealth within countries. In the more recent past, 
the external pressures for change have come from new international 
ideologies of wealth equalization between nations and a concurrent 
restructuring of trade relations. 

As a result of the "New International Economic Order" and the 
"General System of Preferences" under the General Agreement on Tariffs 
and Trade that has been in effect for almost a decade, granting a wide range 
of manufactured goods imported from Third-World countries duty-free 
status, the interaction of the United States with the developing world has 
been greatly intensified. A major portion of manufactured goods 
consumed in the United States today are now produced in developing 
countries. American businesses are investing in the Third World not only 
to supply the foreign, regional markets, but also to fill the demand at 
home. The natural resources which the developing world possesses are 
now increasingly processed in the foreign countries. Yet for the remainder 
of this century, the International Labor Office (1977) has predicted that 
unemployment problems would be severe in the developing world, and 
many countries in Latin America, including Chile have provided evidence 
of this situation. 

The International Community and Chile 

The relations between the United States and Chile have been active for 
decades. The country is rich in natural resources, especially copper, iron, 
fissionable, and other minerals. During the socialist regime of Salvador 
Allende ( 1970-1973), a considerable portion of its one billion dollar foreign 
investment, three-fourth of which was held by US companies, was 
nationalized. This nationalization of foreign assets inhibited further 
foreign investment. After the overthrow of the socialist regime and under 
the successor rule of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, foreign companies 
slowly regained confidence in the country's political stability. Mining of 
most minerals, including fissionable materials, was opened up to foreign 
exploration and now accounts for the bulk of foreign investments, which 
amounted to 3.4 billion dollars at the end of the last decade (BIC, 1981). 

* Assistant Professor of Accounting, West Georgia College 
** Assistant Professor of Economics, West Georgia College 

23 



Restrictions exist only in the mining of potassium and rare earth minerals. 
United States businesses still hold the majority share of the foreign 
investment. 

Chile is of particular research interest because it has been responsive to 
the outside influence of international groups and technical assistance 
teams from the United States. As a result, the tax system has been closely 
aligned with that of the developed world. Today, the tax burden represents 
approximately one fourth of Chile's gross domestic product (GDP) and is 
among the heaviest in Latin America. It impacts upon the economy in a 
major way (Foxley, 1982; Pinto, 1982; Ro, 1981). But in studying the 
evolution of this system, an important point emerges: changes were often 
implemented too rapidly, and this has contributed in a significant manner 
to major socio-economic disturbances in Chile. 

During a brief interlude of five years immediately preceeding Allende, 
tax burdens rose from 14.6% of GDP in 1964 to a 19.7% share in 1969 
(French-Davis, 1975). This represented a 35% increase overall. Theefforts 
of income redistribution through tax or fiscal policies and other economic 
measures were also noticeably increased during the administration of 
Eduardo Frey (1965-1970), culminating in the agricultural reform. The 
political and ultimately economic implications of sharply increasing tax 
burdens and a sensitization of the population to inequities of wealth 
distribution because of greatly intensified activities to induce equalization 
became apparent when Chile transformed itself into a socialist state in 
1970. The momentum was built under international pressure in the years 
preceding Allende. It is interesting to note the initial resistance among 
Chilean government officials to the agrarian reform and the fact that 
today, ironically, most of the peasants who had received land in the reform 
have already sold it. They did not have the required skills to use the land 
efficiently and gainfully under the intense foreign competition. Jointly 
with the agrarian reform, an extensive training program for the farmers 
would have been required, but Chile could ill afford the expenditure at the 
time, the redistribution of the land itself consituting an already costly 
effort. 

Third-World Needs 

Technical assistance programs should be sensitive to vulnerabilities, 
special needs, and particularly the different value system of small 
developing nations, which tend to overreact to the economic or social crisis 
that appear to arise with relative frequency. American universities, too, 
have an awesome responsibility as they educate students from the 
developing world. These students are exposed to our complex economic, 
fiscal, tax, and management policies, but special courses that would 
reintegrate the sophisticated tools and methods with their own countries' 
needs are seldom offered. This is a serious shortcoming of the American 

24 



. 



university system. Foreign governments respect US education. Informed 
sources in Chile say that Pinochet, not being an expert in economics 
himself, relied totally on the quality of US Education when he appointed 
economists who, in this generation, were educated at the University of 
Chicago because of an exchange program between that school and the 
University of Chile. Chileans wonder whether this was simply a historical 
accident or whether the exchange program was arranged deliberately to 
expose the future government leaders to the ideas of unimpeded free 
markets of Milton Friedman (Ro, 1981). Because of institutional rigidities, 
a less extremist view is often more appropriate. 

It would probably be desirable for businesses that operate in foreign 
environments to take a more active role in the economic policy 
formulations of their host governments. As businesses provide a large 
number of jobs, they contribute to society in an important way, and a 
business leader's advice is on the whole respected. Business managers also 
tend to be more pragmatic and less dogmatic than economists, 
sociologists, missionaries, or other professionals who get involved with 
Third-World problems. The latter tend to develop ways of producing 
social change in the foreign countries, whereas the business manager seeks 
to operate in harmony with the environment. By being sensitive to foreign 
value systems, managers have the best chance of protecting their 
investments and thus tend to support economic, fiscal, and tax policies 
that are not likely to interrupt the harmony. The stability within the 
foreign country is dear to business people who invest abroad. In light if 
recent developments in Latin America, Africa, and the Near East, the goal 
of helping to preserve the social stability in a foreign country may be the 
noblest goal of all. Ultimately, a society tends to reject those measures 
which do not reflect its indigenous value system. The defeat of theagrarian 
reform might serve as an example of such a happening. 

The Painful Restructuring of the Chilean Economy 

From the time the military junta of Augusto Pinochet assumed the 
reigns of the country in 1973 and until 1981, economic growth was 
generally good. Trade was liberalized, the borders were opened, duties 
were lowered from the 100% range to 10% overall, and inflation was 
reduced from the 500%-600% range to only 10% in 1981. But the price paid 
for these rapid changes, especially the dramatic lowering of tariffs within a 
short five-year time span, was high. An unemployment rate that topped at 
over 25% and the presence of a disturbingly large number of 
underemployed people have represented the most urgent economic 
problem of the country in the recent past. A pegged exchange rate made 
Chilean goods dear abroad and foreign imports inexpensive in Chile. This 
coupled with the rapid lowering of import duties caused grave 
disturbances in the balances of trade and payment. The vast number of 

25 



businesses that failed may be forever lost to the country, as new foreign 
investments re-enter Chile at a considerably slower pace. Since mid-1982, 
the peso floats freely against a small group of European, Japanese, and 
North American currencies, and this has brought some relief (Martin, 
1982). Additionally, tariffs were raised more recently, and this helped 
alleviate some of the problems of unemployment. 

Overall, the economic policies adopted by Chile in the last decade 
contained several aspects that appeared to be incongruent with the 
Pinochet Administration's publicly announced goals of enhancing the 
quality of life of the common citizens of Chile without converting them to 
western-style consumers. By tis emphasis on unrestricted free trade and its 
abstinence from all supports to indigenous agriculture and industry, it 
tended to promote indiscriminate consumption rather than to preserve the 
quality of consumption and working life, which would have been more 
enhanced if some barriers to non-priority consumption  as of luxury 
goods, automobiles, or highly processed foods  had remained in place 
while priority needs were still unsatisfied. Ultimately, it is the quality of 
life, not the quantity of material things of the individual citizens of a 
country that determines the level of wellbeing of a people. The traditional 
measures of a country's socio-economic progress, GN P growth rate or rate 
of increase of per-capita income, are poor surrogates for a primary quality- 
of-life measure. 

Some laudable efforts have been made to develop quality-of-life indices 
capable of measuring the social progress of a country. The majority of 
these indices, however, still tend to reflect Western-World value systems to 
the detriment of indigenous values. Some suggested indices are too 
difficult to construct to be of practical value. There might be a real need to 
design suitable country-, region-, or culture-specific quality of life indices, 
in which health, nutrition, and the happiness of the citzenry should 
probably play an important role, aside from caloric consumption, child 
mortality, average life expectancy, literacy rates, or similar data. If such an 
index esixted, it could be employed to assess the effectiveness of a country's 
socio-economic programs, including its fiscal and tax policies. But absent 
such a tool, the traditional measures of socio-economic welfare are 
employed to assess social progress. 

The Modernization of Chile's System of Taxation 

The evolution of the Chilean tax structure was largely determined by 
two major reforms: those of 1964 and 1975. Both reforms were ambitious 
and pervasive. They brought in their wake considerable socio-economic 
disturbances, but they also resulted in a modern, rational system. Tax 
revenues come from three major sources: from direct, indirect, and 
external levies. Direct tax burdens, as in income and property taxation, fall 
upon specific taxpayers. Indirect taxes, as the production, excise, sales, or 

26 



value-added taxes, tall upon activities and are generally passed forward to 
the consumer in prices. External taxes on imports and on selected exports, 
which are often included with indirect taxes, are collected for the Treasury 
by the Customs Service rather than by the Internal Revenue. The effects of 
duty rates on the Chilean economic structure should not be 
underestimated. The protective tariffs of past administrations served to 
promote the industrilization of the country's economy. The all too rapid 
dismantling of the tax barriers in the recent past has been the primary 
cause of an agonizingly painful process: the restructuring of the Chilean 
economy, which caused endless numbers of labor-using businesses to falter 
and fail. 

The major portion of the Chilean tax revenue today comes from indirect 
taxation with a mostly proportional rate structure. Over time, the relative 
importance of each tax source has fluctuated. When inflation increased, 
real yield from direct taxation generally declined due to the fact that there 
were no provisions for indexation in the tax laws (Ffrench-Davis, 1975). 

Chile's direct taxes today consist of a tax on the First Category, which is 
assessed on income ffrom investments in stocks or bonds, on business 
income from industry or trade, including a surcharge on the distributable 
income of corporations, a tax on small investments and on other business 
income; and a tax on the Second Category, which applies on wages, 
salaries, and professional fees. Both types of taxes bear proportional rates. 
A supplementary tax, the "Global Complementario" (an overall 
complementary tax), makes no distinction between the sources of income 
ans is applied at progressive rates to the total of a person's income in excess 
of a minimum. The Global Complementario was designed to correct 
inequities that stemmed from proportional taxation. It complies with the 
vertical equity principle which requires that the tax burden increase 
progressively with ability to pay (Ministerio de Hacienda, 1977). 

The income tax is an ill-appreciated and politically inexpedient tax, 
although its progressive rate structure has much theoretical appeal as a 
powerful redistributive mechanism of society's income. But it may not 
promote horizontal equity (equal treatment of taxpayers with equal 
income) because of various forms of tax avoidance through tax shelters, 
and it may have detrimental effects on propensity to save by making the 
financial rewards of current consumption more attractive to the taxpayer 
than the postponement of that consumption. For these and other reasons, 
the income tax in Chile ranks lower in revenue yield than the value-added- 
tax (VAT). But since Chile collects a greater proportion of total taxes in 
relation to its gross national product than do other countries in Latin 
America, the burden of the tax on the taxpayers is not insignificant. ("Los 
Impuestos," 1979). 



27 



In order to correct for possible omissions in payments under the Second 
Category tax, an "impuesto adicional" (additional tax) is charged those 
workers with wages or salaries from more than one firm and on foreign- 
company income that is repatriated. Altogether, income taxes account for 
about a fourth of all tax revenues. Property taxes furnish less than ten 
percent, the value-added tax (VAT) approximately 55%, and other 
indirect taxes account for the remaining 10%-15% of total tax revenues 
(S1I, 1984). 

Property taxes are raised, as in the United States, on real estate, 
automobile licenses, gifts, and inheritances. The inheritance tax accounts 
for only one tenth of one percent of all taxes collected. The theoretical 
justification for this tax can be found in the argument that wealth creates 
economic power (as the power to obtain credit); thus wealth bestows 
potential benefits upon the owner that are greater than the monetary 
income which the wealth produces or the sum of the previously taxed 
income constituting that wealth. Additionally, the taxation of property is 
presumed to increase the efficiency of its utilization. The taxation of farm 
land presumably provides incentives for more efficient agricultural 
production; the high tax on urban land provides incentives for 
construction. 

The VAT is levied at an overall rate of 20% and is neutral between 
imported and locally produced goods. The absolute monetary amount, 
however, that was added to the goods which entered Chile with foreign 
government subsidies at unfairly low prices when import duties were only 
10%, was smaller than the amount of VAT added to locally produced 
goods. In this sense, then, VAT was not neutral, since it charged the same 
basic good with different nominal amounts of tax depending on its source. 
The 20% rate is relatively high when compared to rates in effect in other 
countries that have introduced VAT, and the same 20% rate is charged 
(with very few exceptions) on practically all goods and services, whether 
produced locally or outside the country. Foodstuffs, medicine, or other 
basic necessities are not excluded from VAT nor do they command lower 
rates, as they sometimes do in other countries that have adopted VAT. 
Other indirect taxes, as those on judicial acts  the stamp tax and 
automobile or real estate transfer fees  are important from a revenue- 
raising standpoint only; they have no special function. ("Los Impuestos", 
1979). 

External taxes, on the other hand, in particular the import tax, have 
played an important role in Chile practically from independence, but their 
function has changed considerably over time. To the Great Depression of 
1930, import duties provided the major portion of fiscal resources, thus 
were mainly a revenue-raising tool. Later they were used as the basic 
protective barrier against competition from abroad. The basic rate of duty 

28 



charged on imported goods was only 10% of their C1F (cost, insurance, 
and freight) value in the early part of this decade, and this situation led to a 
considerable increase in the volume of imports. After 1982, tariffs were 
slowly raised. They peaked at 35% in September of 1984 and are being 
slowly lowered to a target rate of 25% (BIC, 1985, p. 19). 

The tax reform of 1975, through its simplification of the tax system, has 
resulted in more expeditious judicial handling of tax cases. Improved 
information processing techniques also enhanced the tax-administrative 
and collection procedures. The government estimates that at the end of the 
last decade approximately 15% of the real increase in revenues came from 
the control of evasion (S1I, 1981). 

Concluding Remarks 

Until the first tax reform in 1964, the system was unwieldy and 
inflexible; it also contained many loopholes. The income tax consisted of 
six proportional-rate categories, which were reduced to two in 1964: the 
First and Second Category. Numerous specific taxes existed that were 
fixed in nominal terms and did not increase with inflation, and the reform 
of 1964, while it represented a considerable technical improvement of the 
tax system, included no provision to prevent the drop in real tax yeild in an 
inflationary setting. The deficit spending that had plagued earlier periods 
continued to be financed through foreign borrowings. But the tax reform 
did substantially simplify the system, and it also converted the State into 
an active agent in the economic development of the country (Ffrench- 
Davis, 1975). Before 1964, the tax system was mainly a revenue-raising 
tool, but the new program included a system for the redistribution of 
power, wealth, and income. The government hoped that the stabilization 
of prices would be achieved gradually, as the structural causes of inflation 
were to be removed. The aim was two-fold: on the revenue side, to provide 
economic incentives to the wealthier classes for increases in savings and 
investments; and (b) on the expenditure side, to increase fiscal spending on 
education, health, public works, housing for the poor, agrarian reform, 
and other public investments (Zahler, 1978, p. 208). But unfortunately, the 
conflicts that existed between the necessity of providing stimuli for private 
saving or investment on one hand and the need to redistribute income and 
wealth on the other were not reconciled. This was partly the fault of the 
international groups, such as the Alliance for Progress, the Inter- 
American Bank, the Organization of American States, and the Economic 
Commission for Latin America; their overwhelming emphasis on the 
redistribution of wealth was too dogmatic and probably could not 
realistically be reconciled with the need to foster the growth of the 
country's economy. A similiar mistake was repeated in the tax reform of 
1975, when Chile gave into the international pressure to lower its import 



29 



duties. A more gradual opening of borders would have been less painful 
and therefore more appropriate for a small, vulnerable nation such as 
Chile. 

WORKS CITED 

BIC. Bussiness International Corporation. Investing, Licensing, and Trading Conditions 
Abroad. Chile. New York: BIC, 1981, 1985. 

Ffrench-Davis, R. Politieas Economicas en Chile 1952-1970. CEPLAN. Santiago: 
Universidad Catolica de Chile, 1975. 

Foxley, A. "Chile-Perspectives Economicas." M ensaje 301 (August 1982): 411-415. 

1LO. International Labor Office Employment, Growth, and Basic Needs: A One-World 
Problem. New York: Praeger, 1977. 

"Los Impuestos". Informe Economico (March, 1972): 9-16. 

Martin, E.G. "Frayed Miracle." The Wall Street Journal (January 18, 1982): 1 & 19. 

Ministerio de Hacienda. Reforma Tributaria. Santoago: 1977. 

Morris, M.D. Measuring the Condition of the World's Poor. New York: Pergamon Press, 
1979. 

Pinto, A. "Razones y Sinrazones de la Recesion." Mensaje 307 (March, 1982): 120-124. 

Ro, W. "Chicago en Santiago-El Poder Invisible." Mensaje 301 (August, 1981): 416-419. 

Sll. Servico de Impuestos Internos (1975-1984). Informes Tributarios. 

Zahler, R. (ed.) Chile: Treiinta y Cinco Anon de Discontinuidad Economtca, 1940-1975. 
Santiago: lnstituto Chileno de Estudios Humanisticos, 1978. 



30 



CRITICAL VIEWING SKILLS: EDUCATING ABOUT TELEVISION 
AND THROUGH TELEVISION 

by Charles F. Aust* 

From the time of its arrival on the American scene, television has been 
the object of scrutiny, criticism and concern by parents, teachers, 
government officials and the television industry itself. Individuals and 
groups have tried with some success and some failure to change the content 
of television offerings. 

Others, while agreeing with this approach, also wish to exert an 
influence on the consumers of this pervasive medium, especially children. 
That influence comes in the form of instructing the television viewer about 
effective and conscientious use of television based on adequate 
understanding of how television functions, what it offers, and the possible 
healthy and unhealthy impact it mightbe having. The following report will 
examine and encourage efforts to foster such instructions, particularly 
among children and educators. These instructions are commonly referred 
to as critical viewing skills (CVS). 

Do Children Need Critical Viewing Skills? 

Children acclimate to a visual world quickly, possibly as early as five 
months into life. They recognize photographs and drawings of people and 
objects. (Dirks and Gibson 124). 

Aimee Dorr reports in a review of literature about children's cognitions, 
that as early as infancy, children "learn to recognize two-dimensional 
representations of their three-dimensional world." (Whitney and Abeles 
194). 

Watching television, a two-dimensional visual experience, seems to 
come naturally. Television also uses natural language skills. It can, without 
exhibiting a single printed letter, inform the viewer about feelings, values, 
motives and outcomes. To view television requires no print literacy skills. 
(Ploghoft and Anderson). It requires only the ability to hear sound, see 
images and understand verbally spoken words. 

Yet voices are calling for education to teach children skills with which to 
watch television. Horace Newcomb, critic of television and professor of 
English at the University of Texas, argues: 

We should be educating children to deal critically with television ... 1 
think we should have television taught in public schools, K through 
12, not on a year-long basis, but maybe four weeks here or six weeks 
there. Let's look at some shows, let's look at some ads, here's what's 
done, this is the kind of thing that's done with the camera . . . and to 

* Instructor of Mass Communication, West Georgia College 

31 



get the kids involved with (television) ... as they deal with literature. 
Be critical about what you see, be knowledgeable, 1 suppose, is the 
best word . . . (Himmelstein 106). 

Do traditional skills that are taught in American schools help students 
deal with television? The superintendent of schools in Idaho Falls, Idaho, 
thinks not. Dr. James F. Parsley, Jr., oversaw a special project in his 
district to foster critical viewing skills in elementary grades. He suggests 
that educators and parents have falsely assumed schools equip students to 
use television content effectively. He states that "schools today are doing 
little, if anything, to equip students to be discerning consumers of televised 
communications or to develop critical thinking skills in general" (p. 29). 

In addition, he says, parents and teachers are realizing that television is 
"the most powerful medium of communication and that school may 
actually be of secondary importance in influencing the lives of young 
people" (p. 28). In one self-report, teenagers ranked as most influential on 
them, the following sources: peers, parents, television and then teachers 
(Boyer 549). 

Statistics are available which illustrate a pervasiveness of television in 
the lives of children in our current television era. Here is a sample: 

Young children aged 2-5 view an average of 27.5 hours a week. 
Children aged 6-1 1 view an average of 24.5 hours a week. Teenagers 
aged 12-17 view an average of 22 hours a week. The average high 
school graduate has spent 13,000 hours in school and 18,000 hours 
watching television. In the course of one typical year, the average 
child will have seen 25,000 commercials. (Van Dyck and Robbins 22) 

Some critics of the education system and people with sincere concerns 
for children put heavy demands on the schools to reform maladjusted 
children and shape well-adjusted, optimally functioning children. Gerald 
Lesser, Harvard professor of education and developmental psychology, 
who has served as chairperson of the advisory board of Children's 
Television Workshop, the producers of "Sesame Street," makes a lucid 
rebuttal to such demands and suggests an approach: 

Educators cannot solve all the emotional problems of students. They 
cannot remedy the injustices to minorities in our society or create 
new life styles or new communities to replace deteriorating ones . . . 
Education should, however, be asked to teach children to understand 
symbols  to read, to calculate, to write, to communicate  and to 
use these symbols to reason logically and to solve problems. It might 
also be asked to convey some useful knowledge about what the world 
is like and how things operate within it. (p. 6-7) 

And within the child's world, television holds a prominent spot. It would 
seem to make sense to equip children with the skills necessary to make 

32 



intelligent sense and use of this medium. Visual literacy of television is an 
important educational task, perhaps as vital to the development of human 
intelligence as the traditional curriculum. (Dondis 50) 

Critical Viewing Skills Defined 

The Yale University Family Television Research and Consultation 
Center, under the direction of Professors Dorthy and Jerome Singer, has 
defined critical viewing skills (CVS) to include the following goals: 

1 . To understand the different types of television programs, such as 
news, documentaries, variety, game shows, situation comedies, 
drama, etc. 

2. To understand that programs are created by writers, producers, 
and directors, and utilize actors and actresses as well as scenery and 
props. 

3. To understand how television works in terms of simple 
electronics. 

4. To learn what aspects of a program are real, and how fantasy or 
pretend elements are created on programs or commercials through 
camera techniques and special effects. 

5. To learn about commercials, their purpose and what kinds there 
are, such as public service announcements or political ads. 

6. To understand how television influences our feelings, ideas, self- 
concept and identification. 

7. To become aware of television as a source of information about 
other people, countries, occupations, and how politics, stereotypes 
are presented. 

8. To examine violence on television with a view toward taking out 
false glamour. To become aware that we rarely see someone 
recovering slowly from an act of violence on television, or see the 
aggressor punished. 

9. To encourage children to be aware of what they watch and how 
they can control their viewing habits, and how they can influence 
networks, producers, and local television stations. (VanDyck 38). 

These goals for K-6 grade level would be expanded and elaborated upon 
for higher grades. It is evident that to maximize use and desired impact of 
television requires skills. Watching television in optimal ways requires 
attention to visual and/ or audio elements of the message and requires 
higher levels of attention to effectively attend to the combined elements of 
visual, aural, and other non-verbal elements. (Ploghoft and Anderson 7). 

The nature of viewing skills is "basic to the total language development 
of the individual. In fact the traditional skills of language arts are served 
quite well by educational activities designed to enhance viewing skills" 
(Ploghoft and Anderson 7). 

33 



CVS are meant to help the student use television in a critical, active and 
discriminating manner. They are not meant to decrease television viewing 
and increase reading. CVS lead to a personal, individualized response to 
the medium of television. This idea of personal management implies an 
active receiver involved in the communication process, who effectively 
uses the television medium. (Ploghoft and Anderson 8). 

As part of its latest comprehensive investigation of television in 
America, the National Institute of Mental Health concluded that 
education of children about CVS "needs to be continued, expanded and 
evaluated" (Pearl 91). 

Critical Viewing Skills in School Curricula 

On the basis of these arguments it seems quite sensible to integrate CVS 
into a language arts curriculum. Message comprehension is a goal of both 
traditional language arts programs and CVS instruction. Language skills 
are not restricted to print media alone, but extend to the television 
medium. One important consideration is compatibility between the new 
curricular elements and the existing curriculum. Approaching the task of 
teaching CVS from the perspective of language arts might be one way to 
link these topics in a compatible way. 

Another approach might be to teach CVS in conjunction with teaching 
of critical thinking skills. One such approach uses media topics within 
established subject areas, such as English. The teaching units examine 
issues such as: 

 advertising appeals targeting on specific audiences and using 
specific persuasion devices 

 objectivity versus bias in news sources 

 media portrayals of groups, such as minorities, social classes or 
the sexes 

 conservative versus liberal media coverage 

 current issues in media, such as terrorism (Lewis 53). 

In one specific instance, an English instructor at a university teaches a 
critical thinking course title "The Impact of Media" (Downs 16). 

An early use of CVS occured in 1976 when the Baltimore (Maryland) 
Teachers Association and the Baltimore County Parent-Teacher 
Association (PTA) proposed to and convinced the board of education to 
make television viewing skills part of the school curriculum (Witherow 
56GS). 

Federal funds became available in the late 1970s for the development of 
CVS materials, curricula and workshops on four educational levels; 
elementary, middle school, high school and post-secondary. The U.S. 



34 



Office of Education (now the Department of Education) granted $1.6 
million for this purpose (Witherow 56GC). 

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) developed 
materials for elementary-school-age students which includes such aids as 
tour guides and road maps to television, interesting side trips and exercises 
to highlight viewing experiences, such as heavy regular viewing of one 
program. SEDL also designed a teacher's guide to help them incorporate 
television into coursework as an educational resource. Materials were 
developed to suggest applications in language arts, math, geography, 
history, science, health and social studies (Witherow 56GS). 

WNET, a public television station in New York City, with nine years of 
research, testing and revision of CVS materials under its belt, developed a 
curriculum for middle grades. Using an already-developed department of 
critical viewing skills at the station, WNET brought in program producers, 
teachers, school administrators and parents for planning consultation. 
Workshop materials were designed to show teachers and parents how to 
use the curriculum tools in school and at home. 

A high school curriculum was developed by Far West Laboratory for 
Educational Research and Development in conjunction with Boston 
television station WGBH's Office of Radio and TV for Learning. A text 
was produced called Inside TV; A Guide to Critical Viewing. The intent 
was to provide a one-semester elective using seven units that can be taught 
as a package or on a stand-alone basis. The four stated goals of the package 
were: 

 evaluate and manage one's own television viewing behavior 

 question the reality of television programs 

 recognize the arguments employed on television and be able to 
counter-argue 

 recognize effects of television on one's own life (Witherow 56GS). 

The U.S. Department of Education added a fifth goal of enhancing 
family communication through activities at home including viewing logs, 
quizzes and values clarification exercises to discuss opinions and attitudes. 

Boston University's School of Public Communication designed and 
produced a critical television viewing skills curriculum for adults and post- 
secondary students. The four major subject areas included: television and 
literacy, persuasive programming, entertainment programming and 
informational programming. 

The National Council for Children and Television provided the 
following rationale for involving adults in CVS: 

Adult viewers, especially young members of our first Television 
Generation, have been given no method, no 'lexicon' for interpreting 

35 



the subtle visual and aural messages presented through television 
entertainment, news and advertising. In order for these viewers to 
become more responsible television program gatekeepers for their 
students or their children, they must be given a method for acquiring 
a better understanding of their own responses to telelvision 
messages. They must develop critical viewing skills and visual 
literacy  skills as crucial in this age of mass electronic media as verbal 
literacy was a century ago (Dondis 49). 

Involvement of the Television Industry 

The television industry has supported CVS both in and out of school 
settings. In March of 1978 CBS announced that it would join the national 
PTA to raise funds for a new PTA television initiative, "the production of a 
school curriculum for teaching television viewing skills to children " 
("Strange Bedfellows"). 

The curriculum would include lesson plans, discussion questions, 
instructions for script development, videotapes and background material 
about the history of television. Plans were made to disseminate the 
package through the National Association of School Boards and School 
Administrators, the National Education Association and the National 
PTA. 

Gene Jankowski, president of CBS/ Broadcast Group, issued a related 
statement saying: 

The American people should know more about television, both as an 
art form and as an industry. They should know the good and the bad 
and how to tell the difference. They should bring to television the 
same sense of understanding  and criticism  that they bring to 
other forms of communication ("Stange Bedfellows"). 

NBC and a group called Teachers Guides to Television (TGT) sponsored 
a series of workshops called "Parent Participation TV Workshops" 
involving schools, PTAs, church and community groups, colleges and 
universities in major cities across the nation. At the workshops, parents, 
teachers and discussion leaders discuss programs and share guidance 
about the use of television to help their children with such skills as 
decision-making, handling conflict and developing responsibility. TGT 
works in partnership with the Television Information Office, an 
organization of the National Association of Broadcasters ("Teachers 
Guides"). 

By June of 1980 ABC had already donated $350,000 to the Yale Family 
Television Research and Consultation Center of Professors Dorothy and 
Jerome Singer. The money was intended to support the development of a 
curriculum to teach elementary school children to become more 
"discriminating television viewers" ("ABC Sticking with . . . "). 

36 



Conclusion 

Previously cited statistics indicate that children are typically heavy 
viewers of television. It should not be assumed that adults are 
knowledgeable about and teach their children CVS. Educators have been 
and could continue to be instrumental in educating children about their 
world, including the part of the world called television, by fostering 
understanding of the television medium and relating the content of this 
window on the world to any of the multitude of curriculum topics taught to 
America's school children. With assistance of various available resources 
described in this review, and compatible applications to existing curricular 
topics, students can learn essential knowledge traditionally taught in 
school and at the same time, learn about the most pervasive and highly 
influential medium in their lives. 

WORKS CITED 

"ABC sticking with research on children as television viewers." Broadcasting (June 22, 1980) 

47. 

Boyer, Ernest L. "College with connections." Curriculum Planning: A New Approach. Ed. 
Glen Hass. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1983. 549. 

Dirks, J. and Gibson, E. "Infants' perception of similarity between live people and their 
photographs." Child Development 48 (1977): 124-130. 

Dondis, Donis. "Critical television viewing skills for adults." Television and Children 
(Summer 1980): 49-50. 

Downs, Judy Rollins. "The impact of the media arid today's classroom." Delta Kappa 
Gamma Bulletin 52-2 (1986): 14-17. 

Himmelstein, Hal. On The Small Screen. New York: Praeger, 1981. 

Lesser, Gerald S. Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street. New York: Vintage 
Books/ Random House, 1975. 

Lewis, Lorraine J. "Developing critical thinking through media study." English Journal 73 
(1984): 52-53. 

Parsley, James F. "In support of teaching critical thinking and critical televiewing in schools." 
Television and Children (Summer 1980): 28-29. 

Pearl, David. Television and Behavior: Ten Years of Scientific Progress and Implications 
for the Eighties (Vol. 1: Summary Report). Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental 
Health, 1982. 

Ploghoft, Milton E. and Anderson, James A. Teaching Critical Television Viewing Skills: 
An Integrated Approach. Springfield, 1L: Thomas Publishers, 1982. 

"Strange bedfellows CBS agrees to help PTA raise funds for project to educate 
schoolchildren about television." Broadcasting (March 6, 1978): 79. 

"Teachers Guides backs sessions with parents." Broadcasting (October 10, 1977): 66. 

VanDyck, Nicolas. "Learning with television and learning about television: An NCCT 
Symposium Report." Television and Children (Fall 1980): 38. 

VanDyck, Nicolas and Robbins, Marsha P. "Profiles of children in the United States." 
Television and Children (Winter 1979): 22. 

37 



Witherow, Frank B. "Why we need critical viewing skills." Today's Education (September- 
October, 1980): 56GS. 

Withey, Stephen B. and Abeles, Ronald P. Television and Social Behavior: Beyond Violence 
and Children. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1980. 

ADDITIONAL READING 

Baran, Stanley J. The Viewer's Television Book: A Personal Guide to Understanding 
Television and Its Influence. Cleveland: Penrith Publishing Co., 1980. 

Brown, Les and Walker, Savannah Waring. Fast Forward: The New Television and 
American Society. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, Inc., 1983. 

Brown, Ray. Children and Television. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1976. 

Masterman, Len. Teaching About Television. London: Macmillan Press, 1980. 



38 



THE DEATH OF MAN AND THE BIRTH OF WRITING 

by John Micheal Craft on* 

Finally, if 1 am to rouse you to indignation that, after so many 
centuries of religious hypocrisy and philosophical bravado, nothing 
valid has yet been articulated on what links metaphor to the question 
of being and metonymy to its lack, there must be an object there to 
answer to that indignation both as its provocator and its victim: it is 
humanistic man andthe credit, affirmed beyond reparation, which he 
has drawn on his intentions. 

 Jacques Lacan, "The Insistence of the 
Letter in the Unconscious'" 

Humanistic man has indeed been drawing on his credit for some time in 
theories of writing and reading or, as it is termed now in one word, 
textuality. He has been drawing now with little collateral and his stock has 
been emptied in the massive projects of divestiture operating from the 
French banks, left as always, especially those under the name of 
poststructuralism. He has been drawing and doodling for his credit, to 
establish his credentials, and to manifest his credo, in the watery sands of 
discourse and caught too often embarassed at his own gouging, searching 
for an essence that would at best be a mirror of his own gouging. 
Paradoxically, of course, the image would be reversed and thus, for a 
humanism of an orthodox variety, wrong, the going and coming of the 
stylus eradicating each other in a reflection that by its nature and definition 
ends progress. As even a child after groping too long for the other in the 
mirror drops his hand in frustration and leaves this primal scene of writing 
for another form of constructive activity, that being of course play, so also 
must we in composition theory give up the mirror and get back to the issue 
of play. 1 

'Play is a complicated term in modern textural theory. One finds it 
or something very similar to it in the works of nearly every 
poststructuralist. While we must allow the term its ambiguity, if we 
are to appreciate the serpentine nature of poststructuralist 
philosophy, a few often used definitions are as follows: ( 1 ) dramatism 
or plays within plays (2) movement, tolerance, freedom from friction 
(3) nonseriousness (4) role playing (5) substitution, pretending, standing 
in, metaphor (6) deferral, teasing (7) foreplay to pleasures of 
textuality. 

Before staging any playful pursuits in this essay, however, the gates to 
the scene must be established. These gates situate themselves on the 
question of the role of metaphor and being, but more colloquially on the 

*Assistant Professor of English, West Georgia College 

39 



role of being in the pedagogy of composition. In composition theory being 
often serves as a metonym for the self or subject which is a useful center for 
attaining totalization. The self totalizes its discourse, it controls or owns it, 
just as the concept of being as presence or logos also totalizes the field of 
existence or meaning (Derrida, Grammatology 27-73). American theorists 
of the sixties were the most notorious in asserting that the self is inviolable, 
free and, if left alone, basically creative. Thus from this ethos in 
composition studies teachers were given methodologies of free writing, 
truthful writing, biographical, expressive, poetic, democratic and various 
other sorts of "honest" writing. These theories managed to indulge in a 
great deal of playing around in the forms of role playing and meditating 
but all in the service of "serious introspection." Very often teachers 
demanded that their students' texts represent a true and/ or real self. 
Although teaching from truth, these instructors watched the level of literacy 
gradually decline. Yet little guilt was felt in pedagody because the theory 
rested on the bedrock of the self, founding a theory without play, firm and 

"true." 
Poststructuralist theory (here I'm principally concerned with Derrida 

and Lacan) wants to insert the element of play into this discourse about 

discourse because it finds no center on which or by which play can be 

resisted. It finds no center because what has been considered the center in 

composition studies, the consolidated self, Subject, or ego, has all but 

evaporated in recent semiotically inspired thinking. This recent thinking 

boldly announces the death of the self, the subject and the author. Again, 

Lacan: 

For a long time thinkers, searchers, and inventors who were 
concerned with the question of the mind, have over the years put 
forward the idea of unity as the most important and characteristic 
trait of structure . . . The idea of the unifying unity of the human 
condition has always had on me the effect of a scandalous lie 
[partly because] the unconsciousness has nothing to do with instinct 
or primitive knowledge or preparation of [unified] thought in some 
underground. It is a thinking with words, with thoughts that escape 
your vigilance, your state of watchfulness. ("Of Structure" 189-190) 

The speaking subject, if he seems to be thus a slave of language, is all 
the more so of a discourse in the universal moment of which he finds 
himself at birth, even if only by dint of his proper name . . . for the 
primary reason that language and its structure exist prior to the 
moment at which each individual at a certain point in his mental 
development makes his entry into it. ("Letter" 289) 

Man's meaning or "signification is a function of a certain language 

[parole], which is and isn't the language of the subject  he receives this 

language ready-made, he is a relay for it" (Lecan, Le seminaire Livre II 

[ 1 978] cited in Racevskis 33). This order determining man's meaning, what 

40 



Lacan calls the Symbolic, in turn creates a second order, the Imaginary, 
"the order in which the subject develops a consciousness centered in itself" 
(Racevskis 33). The third and final order is the Real and of which "there is 
no direct apprehension" (Gallop 70). If the subject is resituated according 
to decentering philosophy in the structure of language or a language-like 
unconsciousness, then why does it die? 

Derrida in his simplest formulations explains that language is structure 
without center and without totalization. 

Thus it has always been thought that the center, which is by 
definition unique, constituted that very thing within a structure 
which governs the structure, while escaping structurally. This is 
why classical thought concerning structure could say that the center 
is, paradoxically, within the structure and outside it. The center is to 
the totality (is not a part of the totality), the totality has its center 
elsewhere. The center is not the center . . . The concept of centered 
structure is in fact the concept of a freeplay based on a fundamental 
ground, a freeplay which is constituted upon a fundamental 
immobility and a reassuring certitude, which is itself beyond the 
reach of the freeplay. If totalization no longer has any meaning, it is 
not because the infinity of a field cannot be covered by a finite glance 
or a finite discourse, but because the nature of the field  that is, 
language and a finite language  excludes totalization. This field is in 
fact that of freeplay, that is to say, a field of infinite substitutions in 
the closure of a finite ensemble. This field permits these infinite 
substitutions only because it is finite, that is to say, because instead of 
being an inexhaustible field, as in the classical hypothesis, instead of 
being too large, there is something missing from it: a center which 
arrests and founds the freeplay of substitutions. ("Structure, Sign 
and Play" 248, 260) 

Lacan reworks this same problematic by re-inscribing the center within a 
revision of Freud's concept of the unconscious, which Lacan calls the 
discourse of the Other. This discourse produces the Subject and thus 
neccessarily implies its transindividual reality. 

Where this decentered Subject and freeplay lead us in composition 
theory is a movement back to classical rhetoric and away from the quasi- 
Romantic pedagogy of the inviolable or consolidated self, a reversal which 
in turn creates a mirror image of the parodic paradigm of sixties pedagogy 
mentioned earlier. Thus, the reversed picture  the mirror image  is of a 
stricter, perhaps more austere, version of methodologies but with a flexible 
and play-centered theory. 

The notion of playful theories should not evoke an image of drunken 
Parisians speculating about their various axioms of Bacchic behavior, but 
rather should return us to an understanding of theory at once pragmatic 

41 



and artistic. Play is necessary in language as it is in machines and 
organisms. It allows movement or growth and thus reduces friction. If the 
Subject is an effect of language and thus of freeplay, its governing notions 
will be made slippery by the same lubricant. Our most proud abstractions 
are at bottom metaphorical, figures of disclosure that hide as much as they 
reveal (Derrida, "White Mythology"). Even the word theory shares its 
etymology with the sign for theater (Greek theasthai "to observe"). Each 
play is itself a paradigm, a lexical group, some more effective than others, 
only one winning the prize, but not necessarily more true. Aristotle's 
formulation of rhetoric is based upon the spectacle of orations he 
witnessed created by the dramatists and the Sophists, and as such they 
emphasize the theatrical element also, orations being drarnatic events. The 
self or transcendental truth had nothing to do with it, only the effectiveness 
of the presentations in a particular instance. The knowledge used in these 
instances was phronetic, that is, useful in winning the prize. Likewise, the 
transcendental Subject was of little interest here. Aristotle's famous ethical 
appeal resides not in the speaker but in the language he uses. He asserts in 
Book I of the Rhetoric, "The character [ethos] of the speaker is a cause of 
persuasion when the speech is so uttered as to make him worthy of belief" 
(8). The language must create an image for that audience of what it would 
consider to be the best image in that particular instance. So Aristotle 
locates his desciption of rhetorical acts without any founding concept of 
truth and Subject, following in one sense his predecessor Gorgias, whose 
founding concept, you will remember, was that nothing exists. 2 

2 Textual evidence suggests that Aristotle most likely did not 
compose his book on rhetoric, but rather is was compiled from 
student lecture notes. Since Aristotle sees rhetoric as existing in an 
interaction between dialectic and poetics, he perhaps did not 
consider a book of rhetoric even possible. 

Aristotle knew, as did Shakespeare that the play is everything and thus 
asserts the truth of dramatism for composition classes. They cannot be 
viewed as classes of subject matter in which a teacher lectures on the truths of 
the subject. According to some modern composition theorists, "there is 
simply nothing to lecture about"(Knoblauch and Brannon 102). There are 
only performances and techniques to be mastered as they are needed. 
While utilizing more play, these classes should be more rigorous in day-to- 
day activity because the techniques of basic acceptable dialect and 
rudimentary logic must be well polished, and there should be much 
practice. The basic writing class if working from a death of Subject 
philosophy must operate as an ongoing play staged in a classroom which 
can be rearranged slightly and with characters who play their roles as 
students who want to write but who cannot and one who plays the teacher, 
functioning as both a limited actor and limited director. The arche-play 
generally follows a pattern wherein he is the master, shaman, king who 

42 



possesses, in Lacanian psychoanalysis, the phallus of total signification. 
Those who would speak must then kill off the father/ king and gain their 
own phallus. However, in the death of man school, the phallus of 
signification, has already been removed and there is no control of 
signification, all controls or centers have been always already decentered. 
The initiates then must develop from their naive stance of waiting for 
totalization to accepting the absence of the phallus. They must alter their 
desire to possess signification  or their mauvais foi of already possessing it 
but being unrecognized  to an awareness that it is signification that 
possesses them, that creates them, and that is the only avenue to writing. 

The role of this kind of father is that of the Lacanian psychoanalyst who 
does not believe in a cure or even Freud's "talking cure" (Schneiderman 49- 
64). My view is that the teacher/ psychoanalyst will try to effect a "writing 
cure" (both meaning a cure for writing and a cure for students) by being 
made aware of the importance of both the sex and death drives of the 
psyche. Freud's concept of Thanatos not only includes our failures and will 
do damage ourselves along with others but also a recognizable state of 
adult consciousness, the desire for peace and nirvana, "a drive to reduce 
stimulation/tension to zero"(Gallop 180). Both the will to tear and to sew 
are tied in with the death drive. The desire for death can be effectively 
maintained only by sewing, or by putting it off, creating a greater moment of 
consummation. Accordingly, writing is one of the supreme ways of 
engaging in the death drive because as the words fall to the page, much as 
dead cells, they remind us of life force falling out and moving us more 
rapidly to the bottom of the page and downward into darkness. The 
dissemination of words is connected with death just as the dissemination of 
semen has been (le petit mort). Since the fear of death has to be overcome 
in order to engage in healthy sexuality, it follows that this fear must be 
removed for those who would write. Acceptance of the desire for death is 
therefore a necessary prelude to composition. What better father could 
there be to educate the novitiates than the anti-father of a Lacanian who 
believes that we are to a certain symbolic extent already dead anyway. The 
"writing cure" involves the King's handing the blade to Hamlet and making 
him thrust  yet only to reveal that both knife and King are stage props or 
reflections in the order of the Imaginary. 

One last note on this method or spectacle of teaching composition is that 
Lacan specifies that although his psychoanalysis is not about "curing"  
there being no such thing really  it is about talking and giving in to 
language. For Lacan this involves persuading the analyis and to accept the 
Symbolic order as the basis for the Imaginary. This Imaginary order is 
created in the child by what Lacan calls the mirror stage. 

The Imaginary leads us to think that we are in direct touch with 
reality, that we are in full possession of our knowledge, and that we 

43 



can grasp the truth of our Selves. This truth is no more than a lure, 
of course, since we find it in a mirror: the identity that we gain in the 
Imaginary is given to us by others, it is an objectification centered 
upon the evidence of a conscious that is inevitably subject to a 
network of determinants already in place. The self is thus a mirage 
and its relation to the world in which it sees itself reflected is 
constantly undermined by uncertainty ... An awareness of the 
Symbolic order can therefore be seen as a corrective, because it 
promulgates notions of exchange and reciprocity; it introduces 
relativity and reversibility in value systems that have solidified in the 
Imaginary; and it founds the subject's existence in the context of a 
relation with the Other, not the name of truth. (Racevskis 34, 37) 

Lacan's writings contain an implicit ethical imperative to break the 
mirror, an imperative to disrupt the imaginary in order to reach "the 
symbolic"  which for Lacan is the register of language, social 
exchange, and radical intersubjectivity  would be the locus of 
dialogue. (Gallop 59-60) 

The writing cure likewise moves the student through a process of what I 
call de-individuation, in a revision of Jung, of putting the Imaginary order 
apart to lay bare the filaments of linguistic existence which give the Subject 
the ostensible order that it has. Thus, untying some of these knots to 
allow more freeplay within that order of consciousness by removing 
some of the constraints that the Imaginary imposes on creativity. Perhaps 
the case of the humanist gouging in the sand is hopeless, but the child can 
be made to pass behind the mirror and be made to enjoy the play of writing 
while in the play of life and, in the movement toward death and the 
activities forestalling it, learn that his writing when seeking for or while 
subscribing to a transcendental truth is less effective than when it merely 
strives to make his fellows laugh or cry or stop gouging around in the sand. 



WORKS CITED 

Aristotle. The Rhetoric of Aristotle. Trans. Lane Cooper. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- 
Hall, I960. 

Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. Trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore: Johns 
Hopkins University Press, 1974. 

 . "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences." Macksey and 
Donato 247-272. 

 . "White Mythology." Trans. F.C.T. Moore. NLH 6 (1974): 7-74. 

Gallop, Jane. Reading Leacan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985. 

Knoblauch, C.H., and Lil Brannon. Rhetorical Tradition and the Teaching of Writing. 
Upper Montclaire, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1984. 



44 



Lacan, Jacques. "The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious." The Structuralists from 
Marx to Levi- Strauss. Ed. Richard and Fernande DeGeorge. Garden City, NY: Archon, 
1972. 

 . Le seminaire, Livre II Paris: Seuill, 1978. 

 . "Of Structure as an Inmixing of an Other: Prerequisite to Any Subject Whatever." 
Macksey and Donato 186-200. 

Macksey, Richard and Eugenio Donato, eds. The Structuralists Controversy: The Language 
of Criticism and the Science of Man. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1970. 

Racevskis, Karlis. Michel Foucault and the Subversion of Intellect. Ithaca: Cornell 
University Press, 1983. 

Schneiderman, Stuart. Jacques Lacan: The Death of an Intellectual Hero. Cambridge: 
Harvard University Press, 1983. 



45 



PRAGMATISM, ARGUMENTATION, AND THE 
POST-PHILOSOPHIC CULTURE 

by Steven Meredith Garmon* 

American pragmatism, which had been neglected in philosophic circles 
following John Dewey's death in 1952, is receiving renewed attention 
through the work of Richard Rorty. Rorty's 1982 book, Consequences of 
Pragmatism, identified pragmatism with a call for post-Philosophic 
culture (xiii-xlvii). I shall give a skeletal description of the defining attitutes 
of this post-Philosophic culture, and then flesh out the account by 
describing the nature of argumentation in such a culture. Finally, as a 
clarifying device, I shall broadly consider one major criticism leveled at 
pragmatism. The general point I want to make is that pragmatism can be 
explained as the replacing of traditional philosophy with a theory of 
argument in which the justification of a claim is culturally and 
linguistically based. 

Rorty distinguishes between Philosophy and philosophy. Philosophy- 
with-a-capital-p means "following Plato's and Kant's lead, asking 
questions about the nature of certain normative notions (e .g., 'truth,' 
'rationality,' 'goodness') in the hope of better obeying such notions" 
{Consequences xv). But we no longer need to follow that lead and ask those 
questions. Small-p philosophy, on the other hand, means "simply what 
Sellars calls 'an attempt to see how things, in the broadest possible sense of 
the term, hang together, in the broadest possible sense of the term'" 
(Consequences xiv). The exploration of relations between ideas, rather 
than the quest for an objective grounding for ideas, is the only type of 
philosophy we need. In the post-Philosophic culture, true beliefs will not 
be seen as those which accurately represent a reality independent of human 
purposes. Rather, the standards of the community  whether the broad 
popular community or the narrower academic or professional 
community  would be seen as the only standards available for assessing 
what to believe. "Accurate representations" in this culture will mean 
"simply an automatic and empty complement which we pay to those beliefs 
which are successful in helping us do what we want to do" {Mirror of 
Nature 10). "Objective" will refer to "characterizing the view which would 
be agreed upon as a result of argument undeflected by irrelevant 
considerations" {Mirror of Nature 333-34). In areas where no agreement 
seems likely, even though discussants are "undeflected by irrelevant 
considerations," then "objective" could only be a reference to the hope of 
eventual consensus {Mirror of Nature 335). A "subjective" consideration 
would then be understood as 

*Instructor of Speech, West Georgia College 

46 



one which is seen to be, or should be seen to be, irrelevant to the 
subject matter of the theory. To say that someone is bringing in 
"subjective" considerations to a discussion where objectivity is 
wanted is, roughly, to say that he is bringing in considerations which 
the others think beside the point. (Mirror of Nature 338-39) 

A post-Philosophic culture would hold that "accurate representation," 
"objective," and "subjective" never have amounted to more than these 
Rortian definitions, and that we don't need anything more. 

The pragmatist has thus given up on the idea of self-evident intuitions, a 
priori frameworks, or a permanent human nature. She has no proof that 
these things do not exist. Rather, she notes that since Plato Philosophy has 
sought ahistorical forms of truth, and the search has been fruitless. What 
Philosophers have accomplished are some brilliant commentaries on their 
own culture. The pragmatist takes the moral of this story to be that culture- 
bound, "ethnocentric" commentary is all we can get. 

In the post-Philosophic culture the study of argument would be a kind of 
sociology  the practices and standards to which members of actual, 
concrete communities refer when they argue would be the object of study 
rather than ideals of logic within abstractly conceived fields of discourse. 
Thomas Kuhn is supporting this view when he argues that it is the 
community of scientists which is the starting point for understanding the 
way that inquiry works "paradigms" come later. "Scientific 

communities," he writes, "can and should be isolated without prior 
recourse to paradigms; the latter can then be discovered by scrutinizing the 
behavior of a given community's members" (176). While individual 
geniuses may spark scientific revolutions, Kuhn sees scientists' 
contributions as always relative to a community: "Both normal science and 
revolutions are, however, community-based activities. To discover and 
analyze them, one must first unravel the changing community structure 
of the sciences over time" (179). And the thing which members of a 
community "share that accounts for the relative fullness of their 
professional communication and the relative unanimity of their 
professional judgements" is not anything ahistorical or transcultural. It is 
not more than whatever "disciplinary matrix" the communitv endorses 
(182). 

The post-Philosophic culture, then, would reject the view that argument 
is the attempt to prove that a conclusion follows logically from indubitable 
premises. Pragmatists doubt that there can be any "indubitable premises." 
Nothing is certain. As Wilfred Sellars notes, "science is rational not 
because it has a foundation but because it is a self-correcting enterprise 
which can out any claim in jeopardy, through not all once" (170). In the 
post-Philosophic culture this view of the rationality of science would apply 
to all subjects of argument. Argument would be the tying of a claim to 

47 



social standards  the attempt to connect a controversial assertion with 
beliefs which are not, for the time being, in question. The role of 
indubitable premises is taken by whatever opinions the disputants happen 
to agree on. And to say a conclusion "follows logically" is only to say that 
the argument does, in fact, garner assent. 

The propositions to which we assent  our beliefs  can be seen as 
forming a network, with connections between propositions existing 
whenever one proposition seems to us to imply another. The meaning of any 
proposition lies in its direct and indirect connections with 
other propositions. Some beliefs are more central than others; they 
connect up with a greater number of other beliefs. Peripheral beliefs can be 
changed with relatively little re-weaving of the belief network, but central 
beliefs are much more difficult to change and require modifying many 
other beliefs. In cases where central social practices are called into 
question, the claim would have to be tied to either still more central beliefs 
or to a large number of less central beliefs which would collectively 
constitute strong "grounds." A more formal definition of argument which 
the post-Philosophic culture would endorse, then, would be something 
like: an exchange of views seeking to establish relationships between a 
claim and those social beliefs not questioned in the particular exchange. 

All arguments must therefore be, in some sense, circular; the 
assumptions which we call upon to justify a claim can always be found 
question-begging by radical skeptics. This view of argument can be made 
more clear by seeing how Rorty answers the problem of the infinite regress. 
This problem is that if we justify one proposition by citing a "deeper," 
"truer," or more self-evident proposition as support, then we shall never 
end the need to find ever more self-evident truth. As Charles Willard put it, 
"If you try to stop the infinite regress by embracing a standard, I shall 
confront you with an incomensurable standard from another field to 
buttress the demand that you further justify your stopping point. And so 
on  forever" (27-28). For pragmatists, however, this regress is only a 
problem if it is what Rorty calls "vertical": 

Whether one thinks of this regress as going down in search of the 
Deepest or up the ladder of logical types in search of the Highest is 
less important than what I shall call the vertical character of both 
searches. This character consists in the fact that one looks at each new 
step as a transition to a new level  a level which is a necessary 
condition for the existence of the previous step . . . Such a regress can 
be constrasted with what I shall call a horizontal one, in which each 
new step gives us something which is of essentially the same kind as 
what we had at the last, but something which renders the last step 
more determinate than it was. ("Pragmatism" 219) 



48 



The principle of horizontal infinite regress only says that we can always do 
more explaining, more tying in of some ideas to other ideas. The more we 
draw these connections, the more "determinate" the idea becomes, i.e. the 
more we know about it. Scholarly investigation, for instance, will never 
end; there will always be more connections to be drawn between ideas. 
Unlike vertical regress, however, ideas are not tied to more certain or self- 
evident ideas. Rather, horizontal regress searches for more and new 
connections among our ideas. Since these connections define an idea, ideas 
themselves evolve as more and different connections are drawn. The new 
ideas, in turn, serve as points for further connection and re-connection. 

Argument, then, goes on forever, realigning and redefining knowledge. 
This is not a problem with the pragmatic view of argument, however, 
because "reference to action . . . can take place at any step in the eternally 
incomplete series of interpretations" ("Pragmatism" 223). The need to act 
produces temporary stopping places. By making regress "horizontal," 
pragmatism renders infinite regress unproblematic. 

A major criticism of pragmatism's cultural ideal is that it offers no 
account of coercion, oppression and injustice, and thus fails to offer any 
way to prevent or alleviate these problems. This criticism comes from 
liberals who fear that if we abandon the idea that our liberal democratic 
institutions can be grounded in permanent truths about the nature of 
humans, society, or the world, then we will be unable to defend those 
institutions. To give up the hope of conclusive, knock-out arguments that 
our institutions better reflect the way humans were "meant" to live, on this 
view, is to leave our way of life intellectually defenseless against tyrants. 

It is essentially the same criticism that comes from more radical writers 
who do not support liberal democratic institutions, and seek a normative 
grounding against which to identify the characteristics of more just, less 
oppressive social structures. Ideology and power, these writers say, will 
continue, in a post-Philosophic culture, to determine how a community 
argues, what it argues, and which arguments will be successful. 

The pragmatist, I think, must agree that the social and linguistic bases of 
all our knowledge can be thought of in terms of power and ideology. 
"'Power' and 'culture' are equipollent indications of the social forces which make us 
more than animals  and which, when the bad guys take over can turn us into 
something worse and more miserable than animals"( Rorty, Consequences 
208). Pragmatists, qua pragmatist s, see no way around this. "Culture"(or, 
more darkly, "power"), gives us the only truths we can know. Pragmatists, 
however, follow Michel Foucault's suggestion that power is not 
intrinsically repressive, "because, roughly, there is no naturally good self to 
repress" (Rorty, Consequences 208). We must hope power can be 
unoppressive, at any rate, because the only alternatives are to despair or to 
bring back in some sort of self-evident intuition, some ahistorical truth. 

49 



Recent attempts to brcket out culture/ ideology  e.g. Habermas's "ideal 
speech situation" or Rawls's "original position"  necessarily depend on 
some self-evident intuition about what constitutes coercion or injustice. 
The pragmatist, however, sees all intuitions as implications of some 
optional vocabulary. If we could, somehow, bracket out all culture, what 
would be left could say nothing to us, for to speak is to bring in the cultural 
assumptions of the language. We could conduct careful observation of 
such a cultureless being, of course, but cases like the wolf-boy are not likely 
to tell us much about how to construct a just society. 

Granted, many twentieth-century intellectuals do have such intuitions 
about coercion as are required to construct the ideal speech situation, and 
do intuit the reasonability of the choices of Rawls says actors in the 
original position would make. But there is nothing ahistorically self- 
evident about these intuitions. The "rational consensus" that emerges from 
the ideal speech situation meets our view of rational, but not Plato's or 
Aquinas's. The notion of justice we would choose in the original position is 
our view of justice but may have little relationship to the operative notion 
of justice of some fabulously happy future society. Critiques of Habermas 
to the effect that the consensus growing out of an ideal speech situation 
may sometimes be irrational, or of Rawls that his view of justice would not 
be chosen in an original position, already expose the optional, non-self- 
evident quality of the intuitions. 

The admission that our view of the good life is historically situated, 
however, takes away none of our arguments on its behalf. In abandoning 
the expectation that we will one day find a conclusive, once-and-for-all 
way to settle the matter, we need give up neither the search for arguments 
our opponents will find cogent not any of the actual arguments with which 
to defend or critique liberalism. Practical advantages rather than 
theoretical groundings are the proper focus of political debate, so we lose 
no argumentative potency by becoming post-Philosophic. 

Moreover, the chances for success for any concrete proposal for 
emancipation would seem to be increased in a post-Philosophic culture. If 
a practical alternative with greater advantages than disadvantages can be 
presented, the chances of the success of that alternative are increased 
because a society that does not see its institutions as grounded in eternal 
truth sees no reason not to entertain proposals for change. Captialist 
institutions, for instance, are still implicitly supported by reference to "the 
way the world really is." Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is taken as a 
metaphoric description of objective reality. Pragmatists, however, see the 
notion as part of one more circular argument within one one optional 
vocabulary, so they are less attached to it. 

Finally, proposals for emancipation can be thoughtfully considered and 
even adopted without reference to normative groundings. Such normative 

50 



groundings tor liberation as those of Marx or Habermas grow out of a 
prior recognition of some existing, concrete oppression or coercion. 
Pragmatists suggest that if we have that recognition (historically situated 
as it is), we have all that we need to go about looking for ways to alleviate 
the problem. If we intuit, for example, coercion of dialogue, then we will 
praise measures that reduce that coercion. To go from there to the 
assertion that the "ideal speech situation" is a "critical standard in terms of 
which any proposed set of basic social norms can in principle be assessed" 
(White 170), makes sense only if it means that whenever a society has our 
problems and our purposes it will recognize the same sorts of things as 
possible solutions to consider. Habermas, Marx, Rawls, and other 
political Philosophers can be read as offering relatively concrete advice on 
how to organize our institutions so that we can get more of what we want 
from them. A post-Philosophic culture would not rule out any such advice. 
The additional matter, the attempt to offer transcultural groundings, is 
only a rather empty complement to our social purposes. It is like the wheel 
that Wittgenstein refers to when he says that "a wheel that can be turned 
though nothing else moves with it, is not part of the mechanism"(95, 1, sec. 
271). 

WORKS CITED 



Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd ed., enlarged. Chicago: 
University of Chicago Press, 1970. 

Rorty, Richard. Consequences of Pragmatism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 
1982. 

 .Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979. 

 ."Pragmatism, Categories and Language." Philosophical Review 70 (1961): 197-223. 

Sellars, Wilfrid. Science, Perception and Reality. London: Routledge, 1963. 

White, Stephen K. "Habermas on the Foundations of Ethics and Political Theory." Changing 
Social Science. Ed. Daniel R. Sabia, Jr. and Jerald Wallulis. Albany: State University of 
New York Press. 1983. 153-170. 

Willard, Charles A. "Argument Fields." Advances in Argumentation Theory and Research. 
Ed. Charles A. Willard and J. Robert Cox. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University 
Press, 1982. 25-41. 

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations. Trans. G.E. M. Anscombe. 2nd ed. New 
York: Macmillian, 1958. 



51 



ABSTRACTS OF MASTERS THESES AND 
SPECIALIST IN EDUCATION PROJECTS 

REMEDIAL MATHEMATICS FOR THE 
UNDERPREPARED STUDENT 

Jimmy Daniel Allen 
(EdS, Secondary Education, June, 1985) 

Some evidence has suggested that beginning college chemistry students 
are lacking in the mathematical skills necessary for adequate success in 
college chemistry. This study was designed to assess college instructors' 
perceptions that this problem exists and to what degree their beliefs 
compare with the math deficiencies inherent among a sample of high 
school chemistry students. 

A questionnaire was sent to 269 chemistry professors across the 
Southeast. Results indicated the chemistry teachers believe that beginning 
chemistry students are underprepared and are in need of remedial 
mathematics. 

A test of basic math skills was administered to 1 26 high school chemistry 
and physics students at Calhoun High School in Calhoun, Georgia. 
Results showed that students were deficient in nine of the 12 skills tested. 

A test for correlation between the two revealed that a negative 
correlation exists. This meant that students performed better on the 
objectives which college professors believed were most important and in 
need of remediation. 

THE EFFECTS OF SUCCESS IN READING AND WRITING ON 
STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARD READING 

Denise Beaudoin (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1985) 

This study was undertaken to investigate the possible change in students' 
attitudes toward reading by using Success in Reading and Writing in a 
Whitfield County Elementary School during the school term 1984-1985. 
The problem of the study was to discover if the program had an effect on 
students' reading attitude. Data from 60 students randomly selected from 
the fourth- and fifth-grades were analyzed. This data consisted of pretes 
and posttest scores on A Reading Attitude Inventory for Elementary 
School Pupils by Lewis. Success uses the uncontrolled vocabulary of the 
students; teaches each child a decoding method that helps him to read anj 
word in the language; fosters the reading of library books; familiarizes th< 
students with the different types of textbooks; and provides daily spelling 
and creative writing experiences. The results of this study, tested by t-test 

52 



at the .05 level of significance indicated a significant difference between the 
pretest and posttest scores on the reading inventory. The difference of the 
fourth-grade scores was significant and positive; however the difference of 
the fifth-grade scores was significant but negative. These findings indicate 
that there are many factors which influence a student's attitudes toward 
reading. 

AN ATTITUDAL STUDY OF THE USE OF THE GEORGIA 

CRITERION-REFERENCED TEST FOR PUPIL PLACEMENT 

IN BREMEN, GEORGIA 

Hildred L. Bell (EdS, Middles Grades Education, December, 1985) 

The study was conducted to determine the opinions of third-, fourth-, 
and sixth-grade students, the parents of these students, and the 36 teachers 
at H. A. Jones Elementary School in Bremen, Georgia, concerning the use 
of the Third Grade Criterion-Referenced Test as a Criterion for promotion 
or retention. Three hypotheses were proposed. One hypothesis examined 
the differences in the percentage of item responses among students, 
parents, and teachers. Two null hypotheses were proposed which 
compared responses of low achieving students with average and high 
achieving students, and parents of low achieving students and high 
parents of high achieving students. Data obtained through the responses 
on a questionnaire were analyzed using chi square analysis. The .05 level of 
significance was established as the level at which the null hypotheses would 
be rejected. 

The results indicated that there was no significant difference in opinion 
between low achieving students when compared to average and high 
achieving students. There was no significant difference in opinion between 
parents of low achievers and parents of average and high achievers. In the 
overall comparison of students, parents, and teachers, there was a high 
percentage of agreement that the Third Grade Georgia Criterion- 
Referenced Test should be the criterion for promotion or retention. 

JOHN BARRINGTON WAIN: EXPERIMENTAL POET 

Shirley Williams Bockford (MA, English, August, 1985) 

John Barrington Wain, graduate of St. John's College, Oxford, 
participant in "The Movement" of the 1 950's, is a widely recognized man of 
letters, who was elected Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1973-1978. 
Although he has published works in all genres and is best known as a 
novelist, his outlook on life and writing classifies him as a poet, and as such 
he has published nine volumes of poetry. He is an experimental poet who 
abhors being labeled. In his early poetry he experimented with tercets and 
established verse forms, but his more recent efforts have been to develop a 
"voice" that is at once public and private. He prefers short Anglo-Saxon 

53 



words and concrete imagery taken from ordinary experience. A strong 
individualist and humanist, Wain is a stoic whose moral stance 
communicates his belief in the realities of experience and his faith in the 
power of poetry to lift man up. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN EVALUATION INSTRUMENT 
FOR MIDDLE GRADE ENGLISH COMPOSITIONS 

Donna Daniela Bookhardt, EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1985) 

The purpose of this study was to develop an effective evaluation 
instrument for English composition in middle-grade classes and to train 
teachers to use the instrument reliably. 

Ideas and suggestions for this study were obtained from language arts 
educators. Various assessment systems were researched with special 
attention to the works of Paul B. Diederich, Charles R. Cooper, and Lee 
Odell. The MSACS (Middle-School Analytic Composition Scale) was 
developed and submitted to middle-grade language arts teachers for 
survey response. The finished instrument was renamed the BSC 
(Bookhardt Composition Scale). This scale includes two principal 
sections, GENERAL FACTORS and CONTROL FACTORS, with nine 
feature qualities for assessment. The scale has a four-point rating range 
with low to high ratings of INADEQUATE, ACCEPTABLE, 
NOTABLE, and OUTSTANDING. 

Instrument reliability was tested in teacher-training sessions. Five 
experienced language arts teachers representing grades six, seven, and 
eight rated and rank-ordered sets of compositions in both monitored and 
independent training sessions. Inter-rater reliability of W= .84 was reached 
after three trials. Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance for agreement 
among ranks was used for data treatment. 

Conclusions from this study indicate that the BSC is a reliable analytic 
scale appropraite for middle-school use and that language arts teachers 
can be trained to use the instrument effectively. Specific recommendations 
for further study include initiating a school-wide/ county-wide writing 
program with an integrated assessment system including the BCS. 

DOCTOR'S ORDERS: A STUDY OF WILLINGNESS TO CHANGE 

EATING HABITS 

Delores Morris Bradley (MA, Psychology, December, 1985) 

The purpose of this study is to ascertain a measure of willingness or 
unwillingness of a group of college students (N=42) and the general public 
(N=44) to change their dietary practices. The survey form used in this study 
is comprised of questions regarding eating habits requiring a Yes or No 
answer.- Under each Yes or No answer a separate section of "reasons for the 

54 



response" is included. Additional questions have been formulated to allow 
a view of certain health-related habits of the participants such as cigarette 
smoking, exercise, drinking of alcoholic beverages and diet. 

This study seeks to determine: (1) If the participant has ever been 
advised by his/ her physician to change any poor eating habits he/ she may 
have or go on a diet for any reason. (2) What would facilitate a change in 
his/her diet, or make the process easier and, (3) if a change in eating 
habits is necessary what factor would be most influential in effecting such 
modification? 

The most significant finding of this study is that a published study or 
report will not impact as significantly on the willingness of an individual to 
alter his/her poor eating habits as would the advice of a physician. That is, 
the personal or family doctor is seen as an authority so far as influencing an 
individual to change any non-nutritious or hazardous eating habits is 
concerned. Moreover, this finding appears to hold without regard for the 
amount of education one has. 

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ALLOCATED INSTRUCTIONAL 
TIME FOR ONE CLASS OF FOURTH-GRADE STUDENTS 

Dallas Ann Dennis (EdS, Middle Grades Education, March, 1986) 

The study was conducted to determine the relationship between 
instructional time and noninstructional interruptions in one fourth grade 
class in an elementary school in a suburban county. Nine research 
questions were used in evaluating the research. 

During the fourth week of school an observer was in the classroom daily 
from 8:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. The observer recorded the length of all 
interruptions in the appropriate categories on the prepared checklist. 

The investigation revealed a loss of more than 51% of the allocated 
instructional time due to interruptions. The category of interruptions 
showing the greatest loss was transition with more than twelve percent. 

CROSS-AGE TUTORING: A NEW ROLE FOR LAST-BORNS 

AND ONLY CHILDREN AND ITS EFFECTS ON 

READING ACHIEVEMENT 

Evelyn B. Farr (EdS, Middle Grades Education, June, 1985) 

The study was conducted to determine any effects of cross-age tutoring 
on the reading achievement of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade 
Compensatory Education Reading Program students at North Fayette 
Elementary School in Fayetteville, Georgia. Three hypotheses were 
proposed. Data regarding grade, group, pretest and posttest scores for 32 
students were analyzed using the t-Test for Independent Samples. 

55 



No significant differences in reading achievement were found for the 
fourth-, fifth and sixth-grade students who tutored younger students as 
compared to the fourth-, fifth and sixth-grade students who did not tutor 
younger students. 

THE EFFECT OF SELF-CONCEPT ON ACHIEVEMENT IN 
TENTH GRADE REMEDIAL MATHEMATICS CLASSES 

Claudia P. Harmon (EdS, Secondary Education, December, 1985) 

This study was designed to determine what effect, if any, will efforts to 
improve students' self-concepts have on the enhancement of the 
mathematical skills needed to attain a passing score on the Georgia Basic 
Skills Test (BST) in Mathematics. 

Subjects used in this study were twenty-two students enrolled in a 
mathematics course developed to enhance mathematics skills needed to 
attain a passing score on the BST in Mathematics. During the seven-week 
instructional period, the control group received remedial instruction in 
basic mathematical skills as recommended by the Georgia Department of 
Education, while the treatment group received the same remedial 
instruction in an enrichment environment designed to enhance an 
individual's self-concept. The treatment period for the experimental group 
was a fifty-five minute class period which met daily. 

For evaluation purposes, the March 20, 1984, administration of the 
Georgia Basic Skills Test (BST) in Mathematics and a facsimile of the BST 
were used as the pretest and the posttest, respectively, to assess the 
achievement gains in mathematics. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was 
administered as a pretest and posttest to assess any changes in self-concept, 

A t-test was computed to ascertain any significant statistical differences 
in achievement in mathematics for each group. A t-test was computed to 
determine any significant differences in self-concept for each group. 

The two null hypotheses stated that there would be no significant 
differences between the two groups. The simple analysis of covariance was 
computed to determine the correlation between the achievement gains in 
mathematics and the gain in self-concepts. 

There was no significant difference shown on achievement gain in 
mathematics at the .05 level of significance for either group. There was no 
significant difference shown in the gain in self-concepts at the .05 level of 
significance in either group. There was no significant differences between 
the pretest mean and the posttest mean within either the control group or 
the treatment group as measured by the BST in Mathematics. There was 
no significant difference between the pretest mean and the posttest mean 
within either the control group or the treatment group as measured by the 
RSES. There was no significant difference between the means of the 

56 



control group and the treatment group for the BST test. There was no 
significant difference between the means of the control group and the 
treatment group for the RSES. Therefore, the two null hypotheses were 
accepted. A correlation between the achievement gains in mathematics 
and the gain in self-concepts was not shown at the .05 level of significance. 

THE EFFECTS OF THE USE OF SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS 

AND THE READING IS FUNDAMENTAL (RIF) PROGRAM ON 

ATTITUDE TOWARD READING, ATTITUDE TOWARD SELF, 

AND READING ACHIEVEMENT OF FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS 

Edna W. Herndon (EdS, Middle Grades Education, June, 1985) 

The study was conducted to see if the use of supplementary materials 
and RIF with the basal reading series affected the students' attitude toward 
reading, attitude toward self, and reading achievement of fifth-grade 
students at Sand Hill School, Carrollton, Georgia. Four hypotheses were 
proposed. Data regarding sex, reading achievement, and attitudes for 52 
students were analyzed using the t test for dependent means to measure 
gain. 

No significant differences in achievement gain of boys and girls or of 
better readers and poorer readers were found. There was also no 
significant gain in attitude toward self during the research period. There 
was, however, a significant gain in the students' attitude toward reading. 

LOSING FAITH: THE EXPERIENCE OF LONELINESS 

Donald Ray Ingram (MA, Psychology, March, 1986) 

Loneliness begins when a significant other rejects a feeling that the 
lonely individual has. The lonely individual's feelings are treated as though 
they don't matter; they are not important. When John went to a dance 
place, the Fifty-fourth Aeorospot, he felt lonely. He didn't matter to 
anyone there. He said, "1 don't feel special." If John had not expected 
someone to care for his feelings in this place, he would not have been 
lonely, but he expected to be someone special to someone there; and he was 
lonely. In other experiences, a similar initial feeling of rejection develops. 
Robbin feels left out, and Mary and Kathy feel rejected. In each of these 
cases there is a situation in which the individual's feelings are treated 
poorly but this alone does not make him/her lonely. It is the secret 
expectation that the significant other will provide an unfulfilled need, but 
the significant other cannot or will not provide it. The lonely individual is 
shy about asserting his/ her need because it is experienced as shameful. The 
participant emerges from loneliness to the degree that he/she takes 
responsibility for the need, rather than manipulating someone else into 
taking care of it. The method is descriptive and phenomenological. 

57 



A READING ACHIEVEMENT COMPARISON OF CHAPTER I 

STUDENTS USING A CHILDREN'S LITERATURE APPROACH 

AND STUDENTS USING A BASIC SKILLS APPROACH 

Mary J. Jarrell (EdS, Reading, June, 1985) 

This study was done to determine if sixth-grade students in a Chapter 1 
reading class who listened to children's literature read aloud every day and 
then pariticpated in Sustained Silent Reading would show as much gain in 
reading comprehension as would those sixth graders who were not read to 
but who used a structured basic skills approach to reading. Ten sixth-grade 
Chapter I students participated in this study, five in the experimental 
group and five in the control group. The study lasted for 12 weeks from 
September to December. The experimental group listened to a total of five 
books during that time, with each day's reading being prefaced by a short 
discussion of the previous day's reading. New vocabulary was introduced 
at the beginning of a book and as encountered in the reading. Various 
comprehension questions were discussed as the reading progressed. Some 
creative writing was done upon completion of a book. In addition to the 
daily 30 minute read-aloud sessions, students in the experimental group 
participated for 15 minutes in Sustained Silent Reading to give them time 
to practice reading independently. Class sessions totaled 45 minutes. 
Students in the control group also met for 45 minutes daily. They worked 
in a very structured format, after having skills such as sequencing, main 
idea, and drawing conclusions introduced in a group, completing 
workbook pages, worksheets, and task cards. Students were given the 
Metropolitan Reading Test, Form J, as a pre-test in September, and 
Metropolitan Form K, in December. A reading comprehension grade 
equivalency score was obtained on both the pre- and post-tests. The null 
hypothesis for the study stated that there would be no significant difference 
in reading comprehension scores as measured by the Metropolitan 
Reading Test of those sixth-graders using the Children's Literature 
Approach and those students using the Basic Skills Approach. The 
hypothesis was tested using a t-test at the .05 level of significance and was 
rejected with a t-test value of -2.81 with 8 degrees of freedom. The Basic 
Skills Group, the control group, made significantly more reading 
comprehension gain, with a mean gain score of .86. The mean score of the 
experimental group was .00. 

FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN: 
A DESCRIPTIVE APPROACH 

Melinda Jean Lafferty (MA, Psychology, August, 1985) 

Past research on male/ female friendships has tended to focus on the 
quantifiable aspects of these relationships with little attention being given 
to the experience as it is lived by the people involved. The present study was 

58 



conducted as an effort to explicate the lived meaning of freindship between 
men and women in a way that a new and truer perspective of the 
phenomenon could be gained. There was no hypothesis to be tested, no 
pre-conceived definitions or categories used. 

The subjects were three men and three women who volunteered to 
participate. They were initially asked to write a description of a meaningful 
relationship with a member of the other gender and later, were interviewed 
in order to elaborate on and clarify their original description. 

Data analysis proceeded along the guidelines of the phenomenological 
method as suggested by Wertz (1983). Within each individual transcribed 
interview certain themes were realized. Each transcript was compared, one 
to the other, so as to understand how the individual cases were 
representative of an integrated whole. 

While there were idiosyncratic features in the individual descriptions, it 
was found that some generalizations could be made. The lived meaning of 
trust, respect, the sharing of thoughts, feelings and activities, and the 
advantage of broadened life perspective are described. 

A COMPARISON OF SEXIST TRENDS IN CHILDREN'S 

LITERATURE IN THE NEWBERY AWARD WINNERS 

FROM 1965-1969 amd 1980-1984 

Sharon W. Loner (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1985) 

The purpose of this study was to find if there was a change in sexist 
content in the Newbery Award winners. The study used exclusively the 
award winners from 1965-1969 and 1980-1984. 

All ten books used in this study were read by the researcher. A talley was 
kept on each book to gather the following data: (a) the number of female 
characters, (b) the number of male characters assuming passive roles, (c) 
the number of males portrayed in illustrations, (d) the number of male 
main characters, and (e) the overall number of females in the books. To 
determine statistical difference, chi-square analysis was used. 

Five research hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance. 
There was a mixture of outcomes among the hypotheses. The number of 
female characters in the books did increase significantly from 1965-1969 to 
1980-1984. This was the only research hypotheses not rejected. 

The number of male characters assuming passive roles did not increase 
significantly from 1965-1969 to 1980-1984. The number of males in 
illustrations did not decrease significantly from 1965-1969 to 1980-1984. 
There was also no significant change in the number of male main 
characters between the two groups of years. Finally, there did not prove to 
be significant change in the overall number of females in the Newbery 
Award winners from 1965-1969 to 1980-1984. 

59 



From this study, it was concluded that, except for the significant change 
in the number of female characters, there was actually little change in sexist 
trends in the Newbery Award winners from the 1960's to the 1980's. 

The information studied leads to a recommendation that authors, 
publishers, and educators must do more to alleviate sex-biased content in 
children's literature. While some of the results showed a movement toward 
equalization in the portrayal of males and females, there was still room for 
improvement. 

SEX DIFFERENCES IN MATHEMATICAL PERFORMANCE 
OF SEVENTH- AND EIGHTH-GRADE STUDENTS 

Blanche E. McElfresh (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1985) 

This study was designed to determine if there is a significant difference of 
mathematical performance between males and females. A comparison was 
made on grades given at the end of each grading period and achievement 
demonstrated on The California Achievement Test and The Georgia 
Criterion Referenced Test. 

Subjects used in this study were seventh- and eighth-grade students from 
the Griffin-Spalding County School System in Griffin, Georgia. The total 
population from which the sample was selected included 1,521 students. 
Special Education students were excluded from the study. 

Each seventh-grade student was given The California Achievement Test 
and each eighth-grade student was given The Georgia Criterion 
Referenced Test during the month of March. Grades for the three grading 
periods were collected and assigned quality points. The test scores and 
quality points were statistically analyzed by the analysis of variance test for 
the purposes of this study. 

The first, second, third, and fourth null hypotheses, which dealt with 
grades, computational skills, application skills, and overall achievement in 
mathematics of seventh-grade students, were rejected. The fifth and sixth 
null hypotheses, which dealt with grades and overall achievement in 
mathematics of eighth-grade students, were not rejected. 

The results of the data of this study indicated that girls are superior in 
mathematical performance in the seventh- and eighth-grade in 
computation, application, overall achievement, and grades in 
mathematics. The seventh-grade girls were significantly higher than boys in 
mathematical performance in this study, however, in the eighth-grade the 
girls were superior to boys but not at a significant level. 



60 



THE EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE ON THE MATING 

BEHAVIOR AND REPRODUCTION OF SELECTED 

GENOTYPES OF D. MELANNOGASTER 

Boniface Ude-Onyebuchi Okeke (MS, Biology, August, 1985) 

This study was designed to provide information relative to changes in 
the mating behavior and the resultant reproduction, that may be triggered, 
by subjecting selected stocks of D. melanogaster to different constant 
temperature levels. 

Six mutant genotypes were selected on the basis of their known effect on 
mating behavior. A wild type strain (Oregon R) was used as a control and 
also the wild type males were mated with females of each of the mutant 
genotypes. 

Flies were removed from the stock vials after eclosion and separated 
according to sex. They were then placed in vials containing six males or six 
females of the same genotype. A male and female pair of each genotype 
was left at room temperature while the others were placed in controlled 
temperature chambers set at 20 C, 22 C, 24 C, 26 C, 28 C, and 30 C, for 
twenty-four hours. At the end of this period five Oregon R males were 
placed in the vials with the five mutant females and the vials placed back in 
their respective chambers. The sixth female mutant fly and a male Oregon 
R fly were placed on a grid in a petri dish and mating behavior was 
observed for a period of thirty minutes. After thirty hours the males and 
females were shaken from the mating vials and discarded. After nine days 
the offspring were removed from the vials, separated by sex and counted. 
The results indicate that different temperatures have an effect on mating 
overtures, especially on the time elapsing between the introduction of the 
male into the courting chamber and the male beginning his courtship. 
Temperature has a decided effect on the number of offspring produced. 
There was a gradual increase in the number of offspring from 20 C to 26 C 
and a decrease from this peak to 30 C. More offspring were born at 20 C 
than at 30 C. Statistical analysis of the experimental data by using the 
SASS Program for analysis of variance and F test, with further 
verification of the validity of the F test using Duncan's multiple range test, 
provided the basis for rejecting the null hypotheses, namely that 
temperature and genotype do not effect mating behavior and reproduction 
in D. melanogaster. Duncan's test showed some interesting relationships 
between and among the flies as regards mating behavior and reproduction. 
Pearson's correlation coefficient gave a high positive correlation for the 
ratio of male to female offspring produced for both temperature and 
mating behavior. 



61 



A COMPARISON STUDY OF A CAI TUTORIAL PROGRAM AND 

A CAI DISCOVERY PROGRAM TO TEACH ADDITION AND 

SUBTRACTION OF DIRECTED NUMBERS TO LOW ABILITY 

SECONDARY MATHEMATICS STUDENTS 

Gary E. Smith (EdS, Secondary Education, December, 1985) 

The purpose of this study was to determine for a group of low ability 
mathematics students whether there was a difference in achievement of 
students being taught addition and subtraction of directed numbers by a 
computer-assisted instruction (CAI) tutorial program as compated to a 
CAI discovery program. 

It was hypothesized that students taught by the CAI tutorial program 
would achieve at the same level as would students taught by the CAI 
discovery program. It was also hypothesized that the number of students 
exhibiting the ability to verbalize the rules for addition and subtraction of 
directed numbers would not be significantly different for the two groups. 

The subjects for this study were 64 tenth and eleventh grade students 
enrolled in three general math classes at McEachern High School, Powder 
Springs, Georgia. Each class was randomly assigned to one of three 
treatment groups. The only difference in the treatment of the three groups 
was that one group was taught by a CAI tutorial program, the second 
group was taught by a CAI discovery program while a third group (control 
group) received regular classroom instruction without any computer 
instruction. 

An analysis of vaiance on the raw scores of the general math test from 
the Scott Foresman Comprehension Assessment Program was used to 
determine whether the three groups were matched according to their 
general mathematics abilities. Two forms of an addition-subtraction test 
of directed numbers, consisting of 20 addition and 20 subtraction 
problems, were used for this study. A pretest and a posttest were given and 
a subtraction and addition raw score for both tests was obtained. A t-test 
for each group was conducted for the pretest and posttest means to 
determine if any significant learning occured as a result of the training 
sessions. 

To test the first hypothesis, the difference in the pretest and the posttest 
scores for both addition and subtraction was obtained and an analysis of 
variance for the three groups was used to test for any significant difference 
in achievement gains. The level of significance was set at the .05 level of 
condidence. To test the second hypothesis, each subject was asked to write 
down the rules for adding and subtracting directed numbers. These two 
rules were solicited both prior to the training sessions and after the training 
sessions. To test for any significant difference in the number of subjects 
able to verbalize these rules before and after the treatment a Chi Square 
was used. 

62 



There was no significant difference between the computer-assisted 
instruction groups with respect to achievement on both addition and 
subtraction of directed numbers. The only significant difference was 
between the computer-assisted tutorial group and the control group for 
achievement gains in subtraction. No significant difference was found 
between the subjects' abilities to verbalize rules before or after the 
training sessions. A discussion of the results was made and 
recommendations as to the use of computer-assisted instruction in the 
classroom were made. 

EFFECTS OF MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT ON ACADEMIC 
ACHIEVEMENT OF FOURTH-GRADE STUDENTS 

Donna June Smith Stanford (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 

1985) 

The purpose of this study was to determine what effect, if any, maternal 
employment has on the academic achievement of fourth-grade students at 
Bowdon Elementary School in Bowdon, Georgia. Seven hypotheses were 
stated. Data regarding race, sex, maternal employment status, 
professional maternal employment and non-professional maternal 
employment status, low socio-economic level and above low socio- 
economic level, and achievement scores in reading and mathematics as 
indicated on the California Achievement Test were collected. Using the 
Analysis of Variance, these data for 130 students were analyzed. 

There was no significant difference between the academic achievement 
scores of students whose mothers were employed and the students whose 
mothers were not employed. Also, no significant differences in academic 
achievement scores were found when comparing male students, black 
students, and white students regarding their mothers' employment status. 
However, there was a significant difference between the female students' 
mathematics achievement scores in regard to maternal employment. 
Furthermore, there were significant differences in achievement scores of 
students with professionally employed mothers and non-professionally 
employed mothers. Also, there were significant difference in achievement 
scores of students from a low socio-economic status and students from 
above a low socio-economic status. 



CORRELATING THE TEACHING OF GEORGIA AND 
UNITED STATES HISTORY-A SURVEY 

Zan S tailings Steadham (EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1985) 

The problem of this study was to determine the best method for teaching 
Georgia history  should the course be taught as a discrete subject or 
correlated with United States history? Furthermore, the problem was to 

63 



see what method of teaching Georgia history was being used throught 
Georgia in the various local school systems. 

The review of related literature clearly pointed to the need to correlate 
the teaching of United States and state histories to make national history 
more initmate and state history more realistic in relation to the state 
history's true place in the nation and region. This correlated course should 
be taught on the secondary level so that time in the lower grades could be 
used for the basics. However, it should not be a requirement for graduation 
due to the mobility of our population. This teaching method was upheld by 
the Georgia's basic curriculum which stated that Georgia history and 
studies should be taught in the eighth grade and should teach the 
interdependence of United States and Georgia political systems, history, 
and culture. 

The results of the survey of the school systems of Georgia showed that 
the eighth grade was the grade of choice for teaching Georgia studies 
(79%). This put Georgia studies in the secondary level without making it a 
graduation requirement. Sixty-three percent of the systems surveyed did 
not include United States history for at least one half of their class leading 
to the conclusion that the two studies were not being correlated. Seventy- 
six percent of the surveyed systems did state that United States history 
should be included in the Georgia studies classes because it made Georgia 
studies easier for students to learn. 

This study recommends that Georgia studies should be correlated with 
United States history in order to make Georgia studies more relevant, 
easier to understand, and realistically placed in its true perspective. 
Placement of this class in the eighth grade answered the need of including 
this important subject on the secondary level without making it a 
graduation requirement. Teaching United States history at an earlier 
grade, as in the seventh for example, does make it possible to correlate the 
two subjects sufficiently, United States history and Georgia studies should 
be correlated because, as shown by the literature research, the author's 
experience, and the school systems surveyed, students acquire a better 
understanding of both areas of study. 

A STUDY OF THE RECREATIONAL READING HABITS 
OF SIXTH-GRADE STUDENTS AT 
BOWDON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

Cathy W. Steed (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1985) 

This study proposed to evaluate the recreational reading habits of the 
sixth grade students at Bowdon Elementary School. Reading habits were 
analyzed based on sex and by fiction or non-fiction book choices reported 
by the students. 

64 



The subjects of the study were students in the sixth grade at Bowdon 
Elementary School, Carroll County, Georgia for the 1984-1985 school 
year. There were 88 participants in the study. 

Students completed a questionnaire and a reading interest inventory. 
Information asked for included how many books read, why they read a 
book (when they read for pleasure), and what kinds of books (fiction or 
non-fiction) they chose when they read for pleasure. 

Data were compiled and sent to the West Georgia College Computer 
Center to be analyzed. The .05 level of significance was the criterion 
selected to reject the null hypotheses. 

Hypothesis one stated there would be no significant difference in the 
number of fiction books chosen by boys and chosen by girls. The t ratio 
comparing the two means was -.55, d.f. (86), p=59. Hypothesis one was not 
rejected as the data showed there was no significant difference in the 
number of fiction books chosen by boys and chosen by girls. 

Hypothesis two stated there would be no significant difference in the 
number of non-fiction books chosen by boys and chosen by girls. The t 
ratio comparing the two means was .35, d.f. (86), p-J2. Hypothesis two 
was not rejected as there was no significant difference in the number of 
non-fiction books chosen by boys and chosen by girls. 

The third hypothesis stated there would be no significant relationship 
between sex and the categories of frequency of books reported read. 
Hypothesis three was not rejected as the chi square value for the 
comparison was x 2 = 10.55, d.f. (5) with .06 significance which shows no 
significant relationship. 

This study does not support previous research on the subject (Tooze, 
1957; Pilgrim & McAllister, 1968; Carlsen, 1980; Feeley, 1982). Research 
has found that boys tend to choose non-fiction while girls choose fiction. 
Girls generally read more than boys. In this study, boys and girls were 
found to be more alike than different in their reading habits and 
preferences. 

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ACHIEVEMENT OF 

ELEVENTH-GRADE GEOMETRY IN A COURSE OF STUDY 

WITH AND WITHOUT A LOGIC UNIT 

Talmadge Ray Tucker, Jr. (EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1985) 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether teaching a unit of 
logic would cause a difference in the achievement levels of geometry 
students on a standardized geometry test. 

It was hypothesized that there would be no difference in the level of 
achievement in geometry in two classes of geometry students, if one class 

65 



was taught a unit of logic and the other class was not taught a unit of logic. 

The subjects were in two intact geometry classes at Calhoun High School 
in Calhoun, Georgia. These clases included 28 eleventh-grade students. 
The treatment was that one class was taught a unit of logic and the other 
class was not. 

The Comprehensive Assessment Program, High School Subject Tests, 
Geometry was used in the study as both the pretest and the posttest and 
served as the dependent variable. The posttest data were analyzed using the 
two way analysis of covariance to test the null hypothesis at the .05 level of 
significance. 

It was concluded that geometry students would achieve at the same level 
whether they had the logic unit or not. 

THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION 

INSTRUCTION ON THE ATTITUDES OF FOURTH-GRADE 

STUDENTS TOWARD THE ENVIRONMENT 

Karen K. Turner (EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1985) 

The purpose of this study was to determine if a more positive attitude 
exists in students who have received 10 hours of planned environmental 
instruction than in students who have not received instruction in 
environmental topics. The relationship of attitude toward environmental 
education in relation to sex and achievement in science was also evaluated. 

The population of the study consisted of 50 fourth-grade students in two 
self-contained classrooms at Brookwood Elementary School in Dalton, 
Georgia during the 1984-1985 school year. The control group consisted of 
25 students, and the experimental group contained 25 students. 

The test used to collect data for the study was an environmental 
education survey designed for fourth-grade students by the investigator. 
The statistic used to test the null hypotheses was the analysis of variance. 
The level at which the null hypotheses would be rejected was set at .05. 

The independent variables were the type of group (control or 
experimental), achievement in science, and the sex of the subjects. There 
was a significant difference between the attitude test scores in relation to 
the groups; therefore, hypothesis one was rejected in favor of a more 
positive attitude toward the environment of the students in the 
experimental group. There was no significant difference between the 
scores on the test in relation to achievement in science and the sex of the 
subjects. 



66 



THE SELF-CONCEPT ON THE GIFTED STUDENT IN 

GRADES SEVEN AND EIGHT AT 

RINGGOLD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 

Ralph Wallin, Jr. (EdS, Middle Grades Education, March, 1986) 

This study was designed to investigate the significant effects of 
participation in an enrichment program on self-concept of gifted students 
in grades seven and eight at Ringgold Junior High School. 

The subjects used in this study were 44 students in grades seven and eight. 
A group of 22 high achieving students, not in an enrichment class, 
composed the control group. The experimental group was composed of 22 
students enrolled in an enrichment program. The subjects of both groups 
were similar in age, sex, and socio-economic status, grade in school, and 
scored 135 or above on the Slossen Intelligence Test. 

The self-concept test used for this study was the Piers-Harris Self- 
concept Scale. The test was administered in January, 1986. 

The t-test was uded to analyze the data and ther null hypotheses were not 
rejected at the .05 level of significance. 

Results from the analysis showed that there was no significant difference 
in self-concept scores between the students in the enrichment class and the 
high achieving students not in the enrichment class. There was no 
significant difference in self-concept scores with regard to sex within the 
experimental group. The results showed there was no significant difference 
between the self-concept scores of those students just beginning this school 
year and those students who participated in the enrichment program the 
year before. These statistics imply that further research should be 
conducted with both the experimental and control groups to determine if 
the subjects' self-concept scores were valid. 



A COMPARISON OF THE ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS 

TAUGHT WITH THE SUCCESS IN READING AND WRITING 

PROGRAM AND STUDENTS TAUGHT WITH THE 

BASAL READING PROGRAM 

Esther Walston (EdS, Early Childhood Education, August, 1985) 

The purpose of this study was to compare the achievement of students 
taught with the Houghton-Mifflin Reading Program, a traditional basal, 
and the students taught with the Success in Reading and Writing Program, 
an alternative to the basal. 

The subjects of this study were the 43 third-grade students at Fourth 
Ward Elementary School in Griffin, Georgia. The control and 
experimental group were considered equal in ability. 

67 



The control group was taught as prescribed by the Houghton-Mifflin 
Reading Program. Students were grouped for daily reading lessons 
according to the reading level completed in the second grade. Other 
language arts skills were taught as separate lessons from locally adopted 
texts. The experimental group was taught the full scope of language arts 
with the Success in Reading and Writing Program. Students were taught 
as a whole class with the students responding according to their ability. 
The teacher worked with individuals and small groups as the need arose. 

In the fall and again in the Spring, the California Achievement Test, the 
Estes Attitude Test and a writing assignment were administered to both 
classes. One week out of each month, a tally was taken of the number of 
books checked out of the school library by students from both classes. 

An analysis of covariance was used to test the null hypotheses at the .05 
level of significance. No significant difference was found in the reading 
achievement, attitude of reading or language expression of the students in 
both the control and experimental groups. There was, however, a 
significant difference between the groups in the number of books checked 
out of the school library. It was found that students in the experimental 
group checked out a significantly greater amount of books than students in 
the control group. 

It is recommended that a similar study be conducted comparing students 
taught with the Success in Reading and Writing Program in grades K.-6 
and students taught with a basal in grades K.-6 to see if the results would be 
similar. 



68 



B.E. POWELL 

ARTICLES: 

"The May 30, 1984, Annular Eclipse in Georgia," B.E. Powell, et al., 
Georgia Journal of Science, 43, 82 (1985). 

"Atlantans and Halley's Comet in 1910," B.E. Powell, West Georgia 
College Review; XVII, 5 (1985). 

"Newspaper Accounts of Halley's Comet in 1910 in Georgia," B.E. Powell, 
Georgia Journal of Science, 43, 99 (1985) 

"A Halley Scrapbook: What We Did in 1910," B.E. Powell, Astronomy, 
14, 24 (March, 1986). 

"Halley's Comet, 1910 and 1986," B.E. Powell, The Georgia Science 
Teacher, XXV 10, Number II (1986). 

PUBLISHED ABSTRACTS: 

"Physics and Astronomy Workshops-Summer, 1984," B.E. Powell and 
Lucille Garmon, Georgia Journal of Science, 43, 34 (April, 1985). 

"The May 30, 1984 Solar Eclipse," B.E. Powell, David Edwards, and 
Doug Nunnally, Georgia Journal of Science, 43, 36 (April, 1985). 

"NSF Science Institute of 1984," Lucille B. Garmon, Bobby E. Powell, 
and Latha Barnes, Georgia Journal of Science, 43, 46 (April, 1985). 



69 



n ' 



WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

REVIEW 



Published by 

WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

A Unit of the University System of Georgia 
CARROLLTON, GEORGIA 




WEST CEORCIA COLLEGE 



Volume XIX 



... 






/ I" I ) \ 






PERIODICALS- DEPT 
Irvine 
'" ^ROLLTON, GE 



May, 1987 



WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

REVIEW 

Volume XIX May, 1987 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 



A Poet's Gift to Radio: Archibald MacLeisrfs 
The Fall of the City 
by Glenn D. Novak 1 



Bukowski's Imagist Roots 

b v Jimmie Cain 10 



Greed is Destroying Our World  
A Human Science Study 
by James J. Barrel! and Peter W. Lueders 18 



Shock'un A 'Son Gout: Concept Art at 
West Georgia College 
bv Dorothy Joiner 29 



Abstracts of Master's Theses and Specialist 

in Education Projects 35 



Copyright  1987, West Georgia College 
Printed in the USA 



Published by 
WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

Maurice K. Townsend, President 
John T. Lewis III, Vice President and Dean of Faculties 



Learning Resources Committee 
George McNinch, Chairman 

Charles Beard Spencer Hamada 

Benjamin deMayo Lewis Larson 

Jospeh Doldan Joseph H. McGraw 

C. H. Edwards Dwight Romanovicz 

Leticia Ekhaml Fred Parsons 

Jimmy C. Stokes, Editor 
Martha A. Saunders, Associate Editor 
Marc J. LaFountain, Assistant Editor 



The purpose of this publication is to provide encouragement for faculty 
research and to make available results of such activity. The Review, 
published annually, accepts original scholarly work and creative writing. 
West Georgia College assumes no responsibility for contributor's views. 
The style guide is MLA Handbook, Second Edition. Although the Review 
is primarily a medium for the faculty of West Georgia College, other 
sources are invited. 

An annual Bibliography includes doctoral dissertations, major recitals 
and major exhibits. Theses and articles in progress or accepted are not 
listed. A faculty member's initial listing is comprehensive and appears in 
the issue of the year of his employment. The abstracts of all master's theses 
and educational specialists projects written at West Georgia College are 
included as they are awarded. 



A POET'S GIFT TO RADIO: 
ARCHIBALD MACLEISHS THE FALL OF THE CITY 

by Glenn D. Novak* 

American radio drama of the 1930's was not, in general, experimental or 
innovative. Governed by economic laws similar to those affecting 
television in the '80's, the typical radio drama of fifty years ago usually 
consisted of comedy series, mystery programs, adventures and romances, 
or radio adaptations of successful stage plays or films. Such fare was 
harmless, entertaining and, above all, immensely popular. Commercial 
advertisers were eager to sponsor such programs, and audiences were built 
up over time who came to expect familiar stories and only slightly varying 
themes. Radical experimentation with either the medium or the message 
was not one of the majorcharacteristicsofthe sponsored radio program of 
the 30's. 

It was, rather, the Columbia Workshop which provided the 
opportunities for writers and directors to diverge from the more 
established formats of the time. Formed in 1936 by W. B. Lewis, head of 
the program division at CBS at the time, the Workshop encouraged the 
writing and production of creative, non-traditional radio drama (Coulter 
vi). Irving Reis became the director of the CBS sustaining enterprise. His 
own innovative strips  among them, The Half Pint Flask, St. Louis Blues, 
and Meridian 7-1212  became models of thematic audacity and technical 
experimentation. Under his leadership, the Columbia Workshop 
flourished and grew in respect among both general public and prominent 
authors. Only a little more than a year after its inception, one writer called 
the Columbia Workshop "the most important laboratory in America for 
artistic and technical research in radio drama" (Hood 21). Douglas 
Coulter, Assistant Director of Broadcasts for CBS during the late 30's, 
explained the wide variety of programs broadcast by the Workshop: 

Except for about a dozen commissioned scripts, the Workshop 
has chosen from unsolicited scripts, producing those which seem 
worthwhile. There are no restrictions as to form, content, 
treatment, or subject matter; anything goes, as long as it is in good 
taste and makes a good story, (xv) 

Among the names of some of America's finest writers was the 
contributor of one of the Workshop's most successful plays. His name was 
Archibald MacLeish, and his play was The Fall of the City. This paper 
discusses the importance of the play to the development of radio drama, 
and analyzes briefly some of its internal characteristics which might 
account for its success and its influence. 

* Assistant Professor oj Mass Communication, West Georgia College 

1 



The Poet's Perfect Audience 

Archibald MacLeish is best known, of course, not as a radio dramatist 
but as a poet. A well-educated man (Yale, Harvard) who had served as a 
captain in the U. S. Army during World War I, MacLeish soon gave up a 
successful law practice to turn his attention completely to the field of 
poetry, long his avocation and first love. After a period of six years spent in 
Europe (1923-28), MacLeish returned to the United States, an 
acknowledged poet whose skill was widely admired (Smith 6). During the 
years to follow, he would create some of the world's most beautiful and 
memorable poetry: New Found Land, Streets in the Moon, Frescoes for 
Mr. Rockefeller's City, Conquistador. 

The Fall of the City marked MacLeish's first attempt at writing a radio 
drama. Panic, a verse play for the stage, written in 1935, had proved a 
testing ground for MacLeish's ability to convey a message written in poetry 
but carried to an audience via dramatic presentation as opposed to the 
written work. Regarding the attraction of the former method, MacLeish 
asked rhetorically, "What poet ever lived who was really satisfied with 
writing the thin little books to lie on the front parlor tables?" (MacLeish 
ix). 

MacLeish took about six months to write The Fall of the City, beginning 
in the summer of 1936. His reasons for writing the play were twofold: (1) 
He wanted to express to the public a theme which he felt was particularly 
relevant to the times, a theme that concerned itself with tyranny, resistance, 
and the price of liberty; (2) He wished to set an example for other writers, 
poets and non-poets, in his use of verse and medium. He hoped that the 
production of The Fall of the City would serve as an incentive to others 
who might be reluctant to attempt the writing of a verse play for radio. 

In the foreword to his play, MacLeish explained at some length his 
reasons for believing that radio was the ideal medium for the poet. Of 
primary importance was the fact that there existed on radio no 
competition to the spoken word. Unlike the theatre audience, the radio 
audience has no stimulation of the other senses which could in any way 
diminish the power of the poetry. In an insightful and colorful example 
from the realm of Wagnerian opera, MacLeish -nade his point: 

Over the radio verse has no visual presence to compete with. Only 
the ear is engaged and the ear is already half poet. It believes at 
once: creates and believes. It is the eye which is the realist. It is the 
eye which must fit everything together, must see everything before 
and behind. It is the eye and not the ear which refuses to believe in 
the lovely girlhood of a middle-aged soprano who sings Isolde, or 
the delicate, water-troubling slenderness of the three fat Rhine 
maidens ridiculously paddling at the ends of three steel ropes. 
With the eye closed or staring at nothing verse has every power 



over the ear. The ear accepts, accepts and believes, accepts and 
creates. The ear is the poet's perfect audience, his only true 
audience. And it is radio and only radio which can give him public 
access to this perfect friend, (x) 

Another reason for the poet to write verse expressly for radio rested in 
the fact that the "radio announcer" character, a figure quite normal and 
acceptable to radio audiences, provided the ideal vehicle to convey 
information, exposition, or opinion regarding the action of the play. He 
functioned much like the Greek chorus, but without the stylization or 
rigidity of the latter, allowing natural transitions without obscuring 
meaning or locale. On this second point at least one radio writer chose to 
differ with MacLeish, calling the narrator a "characteristic wind-bag," and 
asking, with a device like this, "Why bother to create a dramatic scene to 
carry your story? ... It is frightfully poor writing at best" (Alexander). 

Other reasons which MacLeish advanced concerning the radio poet 
consisted of the following: the recent suspension of the WPA experimental 
theatre had left a void in the production of innovative drama; also, because 
radio production costs were lower, more risks could be taken in the trial of 
new ideas and techniques, quite unlike the vested commercial interests 
governing Broadway; finally, radio provided a much larger audience for 
the poet, even though this audience was neither immediate nor capable of 
generating instant feedback. This "infinitely greater" audience was a key 
factor in MacLeishs enthusiasm for the medium, a consideration which 
"alone should deeply move the American poet whose present tragedy is his 
isolation from any audience vigorous enough to demand his strongest 
work" (MacLeish xiii). 

There were, of course, certain reservations, and MacLeish pointed these 
out as well. A radio play should not exceed thirty minutes; beyond that, it 
was very difficult to hold the listener. Obscurity was to be avoided. "To do 
the trick bold and legible themes must be used," MacLeish stated. "Poetry 
to be understood must be simple and clear, and that is the keynote of 
success in writing for the air"(Dunlap "Radio Challenges"). 

The Whole Square is Faces 

MacLeish practiced what he had been preaching. While The Fall of the 
City contains obvious metaphorical devices, events which are not entirely 
unambiguous, and speeches best described as cryptic at times, the poetry is 
always simple and clear, the theme always bold and legible. The message is 
clear yet inviting of our own special interpretations. This poetry, like all 
good poetry, resists a capsule summary in a mundane prose more suitable 
to a newspaper story. If we are not always certain what exactly is meant by 
a phrase or a speech, it is because there is no exact meaning that we should 
attach to it. Part of the beauty of the poetry and the power of the drama lies 
in the fact that we, the listeners (or the readers), are free to interpret the 



symbols as we see fit. MacLeish has given us the story; we are to draw the 
conclusions. 

The story itself may be summarized without difficulty; the effect of 
hearing the actual broadcast can only be imagined. The play opens on a 
large public square in an unnamed city. A large crowd has assembled, and 
we, the audience, are to receive reports on what is happening through the 
radio announcer, situated off to one side of the action, describing to us 
what he sees: 

Voice of the Announcer: 

We are here on the central plaza. 

We are well off to the eastward edge. 

There is a kind of terrace over the crowd here. 

It is precisely four minutes to twelve. 

The crowd is enormous: there might be ten thousand: 

There might be more: the whole square is faces. (MacLeish 4) 
It is through the announcer and his "on-site" microphone that the entire 
proceedings of the play are made known to us. We learn that the 
excitement of the large crowd is due to the fact that at noon on the past 
three days a dead woman has risen from her grave and appeared to the 
people. Today they expect her to reappear and perhaps to speak. They are 
not disappointed: 

Voice of the Dead Woman: 

Death is young in me to fear! 

My dress is kept still in the press in my bedchamber: 

No one has broken the dish of the dead woman. 

Nevertheless I must speak painfully: 

I am to stand here in the sun and speak: 

The city of masterless men 

Will take a master. 

There will be shouting then: 

Blood after! (7) 
This announcement results in panic. Soon a messenger arrives with word 
that a conqueror has landed on the nearby coast, advancing toward the 
city. The resulting frenzy is temporarily subdued by the subtle arguments 
of the pacifist orator, urging the people to follow a nonviolent course to 
foil the invader: 

Voice of the Orator: 
Force is a greater enemy that this conqueror  
A treacherous weapon. 
Nevertheless my friends there is a weapon! 
Weakness conquers! 
Against chainlessness who breaks? 



Against wall-lessness who vaults? 

Against forcelessness who forces? (15) 
Soon thereafter a second messenger arrives with a progress report on the 
conqueror who, we learn, requires no resistance; he brings with him his own 
enemy. Panic again ensues. The priests of the city then attempt to persuade 
the people to turn to their gods, and an uncontrolled religious ritual begins; 
a young girl is almost sacrificed in the excited confusion. A General 
interrupts the proceedings with a strong appeal to the people to resist the 
invader: 

Voice of the General: 

You! Are you free? Will you fight? 

There are still inches for fighting! 

There is still a niche in the streets! 

You can stand on the stairs and meet him! 

You can hold in the dark of a hall! 

You can die! 

 or your children will crawl for it! (28) 
The General's advice is not heeded, and the people run wildly throughout 
the square, destroying their weapons and shouting: 

Voices of Citizens: 

Masterless men must take a master! 

Order must master us! 

Freedom's for fools: Force is the certainty! 

Freedom has eaten our strength and corrupted our virtues! 

Men must be ruled! 

Fools must be mastered! 

Rigor and fast will restore us our dignity! 

Chains will be liberty! (30) 
The conqueror finally appears, clothed entirely in armor. The people 
cower at his feet, trembling, wretched, as he lifts the visor on his helmet. 
Only the announcer sees the terrible truth of the situation: 

Voice of the Announcer: 

There's no one at all! . . . No one! . . . The helmet is hollow! 

They don't see! They lie on the paving. They lie in the burnt spears: 

The ashes of arrows. They lie there . . . 

They don't see or they won't see. They are silent. . . . (32) 
It is the announcer, in the tradition of the Greek chorus, who states the 
theme of the drama at this point: 

The people invent their oppressors: they wish to believe in them. 

They wish to be free of their freedom: released from their liberty:  

The long labor of liberty ended! 

They lie there! (32) 



When the crowd begins shouting with happiness over their "new freedom," 
the announcer's final words ring out the close of the play: "The city has 
fallen" (33). 

Signs and Symbols 

In his probing analysis of The Fall of the City, L. C. Hood discusses the 
central theme and the author's use of the parable to convey a message: 

What the author has to say in this parable of ancient times in 
which the present is mirrored by the past is to provide an 
interpretation of what is happening to a world which feels itself 
being doomed by the spread of dictatorships. He has said what he 
has to say in poetry that apparently ooscures his theme but really 
reduces the complexity of the present age to symbols which when 
examined are more simple and more intense that the real thing. 
(22) 

The characters are all highly symbolic. The Conqueror represents 
antidemocratic influences apparently coming from without (and typified 
by the gradual Nazification of Western Europe at the time). The Dead 
Woman is a symbol of those who prophesy that democracy is doomed. The 
Liberal Orator represents all those who claim that not force but more 
tolerance will lead humanity to victory over its oppressors. It is the Crowd 
which is the tragic hero and central focus of the play. 

High School Students and Army Trucks 

The Fall of the City aired at 7:00 p.m., EST, on Sunday, April 1 1, 1937, 
on the CBS radio network, WABC, New York. This time slot on that 
particular evening was occupied by Jack Benny (WEAF), Forum Hour 
( WOR), Symphony Concert ( WNYC), and News (WMCA). The play was 
preceded on WABC by the Rubinoff Orchestra at 6:30 and followed at 7:30 
by Phil Baker, comedian (Radio Schedule). 

The part of the announcer was played by Orson Welles, personally 
recruited earlier for the part by director Irving Reis. The morning of the 
broadcast. Burgess Meredith had walked into the CBS studios and had 
asked for a part in the play: he was given the role of the Pacifist Orator 
("Fall"). House Jameson played the studio director who announced the 
story and set the locale for the radio announcer to take over. The dead 
woman was played by Adelaide Klein, the Priest by Edgar Stehli, and the 
General by William Pringle. 

The "crowd" consisted of students from New York University and 
several New Jersey high schools, along with boys' club members. They 
numbered about two hundred but were made to sound like ten thousand 
by the process of recording their sounds earlier in the day and then playing 
them back later through large loudspeakers during the actual 
performance, at which time these same extras repeated their vocalizations. 

6 



The recordings formed a second "layer" of sound behind the live noises 
being generated during the broadcast (Dunlap "The Fall of the City"). 

These sound effects were made all the more realistic by the natural 
ambience of the radio stage. The broadcast took place from the drill hall of 
the Seventh Regiment Armory at Park Avenue and 66th Street in New 
York City. The size of the place was ideal for the large group of extras, and 
echos were easily generated. One unforeseen event almost spoiled the 
play's opening, however. At five minutes to seven, the huge Armory door 
opened and two five-ton Army trucks pulled into the building, creating 
noise, confusion, and a break in concentration. The incident was quickly 
controlled, however, and the broadcast went smoothly ("Fall"). 

A Prophecy and a Trend 

The significance of The Fall of the City should not be underestimated. 
The drama represents an important contribution on at least three counts. 
First, a sense of extreme realism in sound effects was achieved and 
maintained by the use of the Armory and a large cast as opposed to 
a normal studio and recorded crowd noises. The technical aspects of the 
antiphonal chorus sounds, crowd responses, and individual speeches 
required the careful placement and mixing of four microphones in a vast 
building with difficult acoustics. 

Second, the drama deals with a provocative theme. The story was 
remarkably relevant to the times, when Europe was undergoing the 
turbulence and distress of the Anschluss, the bringing together of all the 
Germanic and Slavic nationalities. Within only a few months of this 
broadcast, Vienna would fall to Hitler; soon thereafter, Prague would 
succumb to the Third Reich, then Memel, then Tirana. As Coulter put it, 
"A repetition of The Fall of the City on any of these occasions would have 
given the program almost the sharp edge of a news dramatization" (350). 
The play was a grim testimony to the fact that cities and nations are 
composed of large masses willing to follow a leader and eager to accept his 
decisions and his visions of the future. MacLeish's play was an unhappy 
prophecy. 

Finally, and by no means least in importance, is the fact that The Fall of 
the City represents the first attempt by an American poet to create a verse 
play expressly for American radio. The play was not an adaptation from a 
stage play, novel, film, or verse anthology; it was written solely for radio. 
Geoffrey Bridson's verse drama, The March of the '45, had been broadcast 
in England in 1936, and the BBC had given air time to the experimental 
radio dramas of T. S. Eliot and James Hilton, but until April of 1937, 
American audiences had had no opportunity to hear any productions of 
this type ("Poetic Drama"). The success of MacLeish's drama was a major 
force in the creation of subsequent verse drama for radio, most notably in 
the poetic dramas written during the war years by Norman Corwin. 



MacLeish had hoped to establish a new direction and create interest in this 
new form. To a limited extent, he succeeded. 

Poetry as Public Speech 

The Fall of the City met with public acceptance and critical acclaim. 
Ralph Thompson, writing in The New York Times, realized the 
significance of the event: "This broadcast proved, perhaps for the first 
time, that the radio has an enormous artistic potential and that music is not 
the only means by which its commercial banalities may be tempered." 
Gilbert Seldes wrote that the work was a "highly dramatic and imaginative 
play in favor or human freedom. The Columbia Broadcasting System is to 
be congratulated on having made the production. . . Perhaps the fact that 
an experiment of this sort was made by one of the networks is as important 
as Mr. MacLeish's attempt to use radio" (61). Orrin Dunlap was equally 
excited by the broadcast, and expressed his unreserved optimism about the 
future of verse radio drama: "Mr. MacLeish has pointed the way, and the 
talented poets, who have been shy of the microphone or the microphone 
shy of them, as it was for a long time of comedians, now have the gateway 
open to the studio in which verse plays may be electrified and sprayed 
through every city and hamlet" ("The Fall of the City"). 

Negative criticisms were, in general, minor in nature and few in number. 
One writer felt that MacLeish's Conqueror was too brittle an abstraction 
to carry any real power (Larkin 893). Seldes thought the speeches were too 
long and that the action should have moved away occasionally from the 
square to the advancing Conqueror (62). Dunlap stated that some of the 
actors seemed to rush through their lines much too quickly, placing a 
burden on the listeners ("The Fall of the City"). One reviewer seemed to 
have missed the point completely, suggesting that the locale be not an 
ancient Mayan city but rather a modern walled European city. The 
listener's imagination had to work so hard "that the thrill of the climax was 
lessened" (Wyatt). 

The Fall of the City was considered one of the high points of the 
Columbia Workshop, and is included in Douglas Coulter's anthology of 
the Workshop's best plays (351-78). The drama was performed again on 
CBS on January 9, 1938, several months before MacLeish's second verse 
play for radio, Air Raid, was broadcast. Additionally, The Fall of the City 
received numerous staged productions on college campuses across the 
country, including a special dance-drama adaptation at Smith College in 
June, 1938 ("Students at Smith"). Clearly, the play had come at the right 
time and had had an impact upon the American public and upon the earlier 
notions of what did or did not constitute good radio drama. Perhaps 
Dayton Kohler, writing in The South Atlantic Quarterly in October, 1939, 
best summarized the aesthetic contribution of MacLeish to a pre-World 
War II America certain of its own goals but unsure of its global mission: 

8 



Archibald MacLeish has brought poetry back to the language of 
public speech, poetry that is once more a record of man's common 
fate. Written in an age of crisis, his work is an act of participation 
in the living world ... he is a spokesman of the modern age, and, I 
believe, the most challenging poet in America today. From him 
the poetry of nameless men of anonymous generations, not a 
poetry of collective dialectics but a literature of beliefs and 
emotions that form an enduring pattern of human life ... He 
reaffirms the idea of human freedom in poetry that belongs to our 
country and our times. 



WORKS CITED 

Alexander, I. J. "A Script Writer Answers Mr. MacLeish."Atew York Times(April 18, 1937), 
late ed., sec. 1 1:2. 

Coulter, Douglas, ed. Columbia Workshop Plays. New York: Whittlesey House, 1939. 

Dunlap, Orrin E., Jr. "Radio Challenges Playwrights to Try New Tricks. "New York Times 

(October 30, 1938), late ed., sec. 9:12. 
 . "The Fall of the City Reveals Possibilities for Theatre of the Air." New York Times (April 

18. 1937), lateed., sec. 11:12. 

"Fall of the City." Time (April 19, 1937): 60. 

Hood, Leon C. "An Analysis of Archibald MacLeish's Radio Verse Drama." Scholastic 
(November 13, 1937): 21-22. 

Kohler, Dayton. "MacLeish and the Modern Temper." South Atlantic Quarterly (October, 
1939): 426. 

Larkin, Oliver. "Air Waves and Sight Lines." Theatre Arts Monthly (December, 1938): 890- 
97.) 

MacLeish, Archibald. The Fall of the City. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1937. 

"Poetic Drama Wins Hearing." New York Times (April 11, 1937), late ed., sec. 11:12. 

Radio Schedule. New York Times (April 11, 1937), late ed., sec. 11:11 

Seldes, Gilbert. "Screen and Radio." Scribner's Magazine (June, 1937): 61-62. 

Smith, Grover. Archibald MacLeish. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971. 

"Students at Smith to Dance a Drama." New York Times (May 1, 1938), late ed., sec. 2:3. 

Thompson, Ralph. "Books of the Times." New York Times (April 28, 1937), natl. ed.: 21. 

Wyatt, E. V. "Post-war Poets and the Theatre." Catholic World (August, 1937): 600. 



BUKOWSKIS IMAGIST ROOTS 

by Jimmie Cain* 

In his foreword to It Catches My Heart in Its Hand, John William 
Corrington suggests that the poet Charles Bukowski 

has replaced the formal, frequently stilted diction of the Pound- 
Eliot-Auden days with a language devoid of the affectations, 
devices and mannerisms that have taken over academic verse and 
packed the university and commercial quarterlies with imitations 
of Pound and others. Without theorizing, without plans or 
schools or manifestos, Bukowski has begun the long awaited 
return to a poetic language free of literacy pretense and supple 
enough to adapt itself to whatever matter he chooses to handle. (5) 

Corrington goes on to say that Bukowski has done for the American 
vernacular "what William Carlos Williams claimed to have done" (5). 
Although Corrington correctly observes that Bukowski swears no 
allegiance to "plans or schools or manifestos," it seems nonetheless quite 
clear that William Carlos Williams' particular brand of Imagism has 
influenced Bukowski's art. Indeed, Bukowski incorporates many of the 
themes and poetic techniques found in Williams' work. Consequently, an 
examination of the philosophy behind Williams' poetry will illuminate 
Bukowski's debt and, moreover, reveal the extent to which Bukowski 
accomplishes what "Williams claimed to have done." 

Underlying Williams'aesthetic are the concepts of the founding father of 
Imagism, the British poet T. E. H ulme. Rejecting out of hand the romantic 
sentiment in poetry, Hulme objected "to the sloppiness which doesn't 
consider that a poem is a poem unless it is moaning or whining about 
something or other" (Hulme 127). Hulme envisioned a new classicism  
not a return to Greco-Roman verse forms and themes, but a return to a 
classical conception of man  to replace romantic poetry: 

One can define the classical quite clearly as the exact opposite to 
this (the romantic view of man). Man is a fixed and limited animal 
whose nature is absolutely constant. It is only by tradition and 
organisation that anything decent can be got out of him. (Hulme 
116) 

Because romantic verse has played "all the possible tunes" (121), Hulme 
felt that such poetry had outlived its usefulness. He also discounted the 
romantic belief that beauty is to be found in the otherworldly, the 
transcendental. "The essence of poetry to most people," he wrote, "is that it 
must lead them to a beyond of some kind" (127), for man is "unable to 
admit the existence of beauty without the infinite being in some way or the 

* Instructor of English, West Georgia College 

10 



other dragged in" (126). 

This new classical verse would contain nothing of the ideal, but would 
mirror the "fixed and limited" condition of man: 

The classical poet never forgets this finiteness, this limit of man. 
He remembers always he is mixed up with the earth. He may 
jump, but he always returns back; he never flies away into the 
circumambient gas. (120) 

The great aim of this classicism is the "accurate, precise and definite 
description" ( 1 32) of common things. Classical poetry arrests the reader's 
attention and concentrates it on tangible objects (134). To keep the reader 
from slipping into transcendent abstractions, the poem presents only 
concrete, easily recognizable images. For Hulme, these images are not 
merely decorative, as in romantic verse, but the "very essence of intuitive 
language" (135). 

Hulme's statements galvanized the then-aspiring poets Ezra Pound and 
F. S. Flint, who with Hilda Doolittle, Richard Aldington, Amy Lowell, 
John Gould Fletcher, and William Carlos Williams formed "Les 
Imagistes." The Imagists, as they are more commonly known, adopted 
Hulme's prescriptions and resolved to create poetry concerned with the 
precise and accurate description of concrete images. Flint subsequently 
produced his famous guidelines for Imagism: 

1. Direct treatment of the "thing," whether subjective or 

objective. 

2. To use absolutely no word that did not contribute to the 

presentation. 

3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical 

phrase, not in sequence of a metronome. (199) 

To these rules Pound added the warning to "go in fear of abstractions" 
(20 1 ). Amy Lowell appended the requirements that Imagist poetry should 
use "the language of common speech," create "new rhythms," "present an 
image," be "hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite," and allow the 
poet "absolute freedom" in the choice of subject matter (Pratt 22). 

Although Pound, Flint, and Lowell made different demands of 
Imagism, the thrust for each is essentially the same as Hulme "s. All insisted 
on the use of pure images  images unencumbered by sentimentality or 
abstract philosophizing. The image alone had to present some truth or 
intention; individual images were not to rely on groups of ideas to transmit 
meaning. The isolated image was to contain what William Pratt terms "a 
moment of revealed truth," and its effect had to be "instantaneous rather 
than cumulative" (29). 

Of equal importance to each author was that the poet write only in 
common, everyday language. The poet had to use language economically 

11 



as well, producing only the exact number of words needed to present an 
unobstructed image. To achieve this goal, it was necessary that the poet 
shun the use of abstractions. By leaving out all rational and moral 
commentary, Imagist poets attempted to maintain objectivity. Mindful of 
this demand, Pound argued that Imagist verse had to "be as much like 
granite as it can be" (12). He further insisted that the "sparer, starker, more 
striking the image, the better the poem" (Pratt 30). 

Bukowski's poetry certainly exhibits the "powerful imagery" (Holland 
31), the spontaneity, and the toughness called for by Hulme, Pound, and 
Lowell, and the poem "1 Taste the Ashes of Your Death" recalls much of 
Hulme's poetry: 

the blossoms shake 

sudden water 

down my sleeve, 

sudden water 

cool and clean 

as snow  

as the stem-sharp 

swords 

go in 

against your breast 

and the sweet wild 

rocks 

leap over 

and 

lock us in. 

The rocks which "leap over" the lovers bring to mind the "ruddy moon" 
which "leans over a hedge" in Hulme's "Autumn." Notwithstanding the 
similarities to Hulme, Bukowski's work is more akin to the poetry of 
William Carlos Williams than to that of the other lmagists, for like 
Williams, Bukowski writes only in a language that "is sensitive, harsh, yet 
always accessible to the most turned-off layman" (Katz 1848), in a verse 
that is "simple, casual, honest, uncooked" (Rexroth 5), and his images 
come solely from the common, everyday occurrences of contemporary 
American society. 

Williams' 1 poetry differs from that of the other lmagists because it 
operates strictly in the American idiom and presents nothing foreign to 
American culture. Williams broke away from the group when he sensed 
that their poetry was departing from the "language of common speech" to 
stay close to his American sources and avoid the derivativeness that made 
poems like Pound's "The Spring" and Aldington's "Lesbia" alien to his 
desire for "new" (Rosenthal xix) and original poetry which he hoped to 
create by writing in a style suitable for modern sensibilities ( Perkins 544). 

12 



Hence his condemnation in "Prologue to Kora in Hell": 

our prize poems are especially to be damned not because of 
superficial bad workmanship, but because they are rehash, 
repetition  just as Eliot's more exquisite work is rehash, 
repetition in another way of Verlaine, Baudelaire, Maeterlinck  
conscious or unconscious  just as there were Pound's early 
paraphrases from Yeats and his constant later cribbing from the 
Renaissance, Provence and the modern French: Men content with 
the connotations of their masters. (21) 

In like fashion, Bukowski addresses modern sensibilities. Realizing that 
today's reader expects to see present realities depicted in art and literature, 
Bukowski deals exclusively in contemporary concerns, such as sex, drugs, 
violence, disease, death, and man's inhumanity to his fellow man. To quote 
Hugh Fox, Bukowski is "an authentic, the real-thing, because he talks 
from the vantage point of the pavement, the dog biscuit factory, the whore 
house, the park bench, the run-down room with the shabby shade and 
worn-out rug stretched feebly across the sagging floor"(95). Another of his 
abiding themes is the apparent meaninglessness and futility of existence, a 
dominant twentieth-century interest. His use of language, equally as 
modern and realistic as his topics, "can make words dance and roar like an 
earthquake or whisper softly like a Spring breeze freshening the fetid air of 
the streets where men past caring sleep fitfully in flophouse cubicles" 
(Conroy 5). The first stanza of the poem "Success" typifies his use of 
"common speech": 

1 had a most difficult job 

starting my 14 year old car today 

in 100 degree heat 

1 had to take the carburetor off 

leap back and forth 

adjusting the set-screw, 

a 2 by 4 jammed against the gas pedal 

to hold it down. 

Save for one technical reference  adjusting the set-screw  the poem 
contains nothing remotely incomprehensible. Yet, in a minimum of words, 
Bukowski conveys an image of despair recognizable to many. 

The poem "face of a political candidate on a street billboard" offers an 
even better example of Bukowski's adherence to everyday American 
locutions. In sixteen short lines, he captures the essence of the American 
politico: 

there he is: 

not too many hangovers 

not too many fights with women 

not too many flat tires 

13 



never a thought of suicide 

not more than three toothaches 

never missed a meal 

never in jail 

never in love 

7 pairs of shoes 

a son in college 

a car one year old 

insurance policies 

a very green lawn 

garbage cans with tight lids 

he'll be elected. 

In this brief, unassuming sketch, Bukowski exposes not only the 
superficiality of the "billboard" politician, but also the gullibility of the 
American voter, expressing in a sparsity of language a complex idea 
without the aid of abstractions, generalizations, or foreign terms. 

In addition to writing only in "common speech," Bukowski shares 
Williams' penchant for local color. Believing that poetry had to find its 
primary impetus in "local conditions" (Perkins 553), Williams determined 
to use the images of his native America in his poetry, feeling that he could 
find the meaning of American life in the most common of things. 
Bukowski displays the same devotion to local color in his poem "the violin 
player," a work very similar to Williams'" At the Ball Game." As in"At the 
Ball Game," the action in "the violin player" centers on the expression of 
individuality, the "detail" which makes the crowd "beautiful"("At the Ball 
game" 11. 1 1-12), in the midst of a faceless crowd. The setting, likewise, is an 
athletic event, a horse race in this instance, and the audiences share a "spirit 
of uselessness/ which delights them" ("At the Ball Game" 11. 3-4), wishing 
"only to be amused by the action before them . . . willing to be amused by 
life and death as well as sports" (Guimond 57). Like the "flashy female" 
and the "Jew" ("At the Ball Game" 1. 19 and 1. 21), the violin player is 
"ignored" ("the violin player" 1 . 11), yet all three have "It," the "beauty. . . 
/that lives/day by day in them" ("At the Ball Game" 11. 25-27). 

Beyond his similarities to Williams in language and imagery, 

Bukowski's characterizations are almost identical to those of the older 

poet. Commonly the only person Williams' poetry characterizes is the 

author himself. Such pieces as "Danse Russe," "Tract," "January 

Morning," "Sprouts," "Waiting," "The Widow's Lament in Springtime," 

and many others are first-person-singular accounts, each in some way 

revealing something of the poet's psyche, his conceptualization of himself. 

Similarly, Bukowski's "the red porsche," "the drill," "Yankee Doodle," 

and "claws of paradise" confess much about the author, and it would not 

be imprudent to suggest that Bukowski excels at testimonial verse, as in the 

poem "hot month": 

14 



got 3 women coming down in 
July, maybe more 
they want to suck my blood- 
vibes 

do I have enough 
clean towels? 

1 told them that I was feeling 

bad 

(I didn't expect all these 

mothers 

arriving with their tits 

distended) 

you see 

1 am too good 

with the drunken letter 

and the drunken phonecall 

screaming for love 

when I probably won't 

have it 

Not all his reflective poetry is as morose as"hot month," however, as other 
pieces convey a poignant suppleness and depth of emotion. This sensitivity 
animates "fair stand the fields of France": 

in the awesome strumming of no 

guitars 

1 can never get too high 

in places where giraffes run like 

hate 

I can never get too lonely 

in bars where celluloid bartenders 
serve poisoned laughter 
I can never get too drunk 

at the bottom of mountains 

where suicides flow into the streams 

1 smile better than the Mona Lisa 

high lonely drunken grin of grief 
1 love you. 

Certainly, Bukowski does follow the literary trail laid down by 
Williams, updating his predecessor's demands with an infusion of 
contemporary language. And even though some critics argue that "No 
establishment is likely to ever recruit Bukowski" (Rexroth 5) and that he 
"cannot be classified or yoked with any other poet, living or dead"(Conroy 

15 



5), BukowskTs indebtedness to Williams seems obvious. Bukowski has 
heeded Williams' entreatment to make something new and original and to 
use distinctly modern, common language. And although the parallels in 
style and technique may appear to leave Bukowski open to the charge of 
dealing in "rehash [and] repetition," Williams' Imagism is but one path, 
though an admittedly well-traveled one, by which he expresses his own 
perceived truths and approaches the essence of art, something Bukowski 
defines in distinctly personal terms: 

"Art" 
as the spirit wanes 
the form appears. 



WORKS CITED 

Bukowski, Charles. "Art." Play the Piano Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers 
Begin to Bleed a Bit. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1979. 125. 

. "face of a political candidate on a street billboard." Play the Piano Like a 

Percussion, Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit. Santa Barbara, CA: Black 
Sparrow Press, 1979. 77. 

"fair stand the fields of France. "Play the Piano Like a Percussion Instrument Until 



the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1979. 124. 
"hot month." Play the Piano Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin 



to Bleed a Bit. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1979. 100. 
. "I Taste the Ashes of Your Death." The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over 



the Hills. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1969. 31. 
. "Success." Play the Piano Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin 



to Bleed a Bit. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1979. 83. 
. "the violin player." Play the Piano Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers 



Begin to Bleed a Bit. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1979. 61. 

Conroy, Jack. "A Skidrow Poet." American Book Collector 16.6 (Feb. 1966): 5. 

Corrington, John Williams. Foreword. It Catches My Heart in Its Hand. By Charles 
Bukowski. New Orleans, LA: Loujon Press, 1963. 5-10. 

Flint, F. S. "Imagisme. " Poetry 1 (Oct.-Mar. 1912-13): 198-200. 

Fox, Hugh. Charles Bukowski: A Critical and Bibliographical Study. Somerville, MA: 
ABYSS Publications, 1969. 

Guimond, James. The Art of William Carlos Williams. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 
1968. 

Hulme, T. E. "Romanticism and Classicism." Speculations. Ed. Herbert Read. London: 
Regan Paul, Trench, Tryber & Co., Ltd., 1936. 

Katz, Bill. "Bukowski-Kingof the Mean and Cement Poets."L/Z>ran'./ou/77a/95.10(15May 
1970): 1848. 

Perkins, David. A History of Modern Poetry from the 1890s to the High Modernist Mode. 
Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 1976). 

16 



Pound, Ezra. "A Few Don'ts for an Imagiste." Poetry 1 (Oct.-March 1912-13): 200-206. 
. "A Retrospect." Literary Essays of Ezra Pound. Ed. T. S. Eliot. Norfolk, CT: 



New Directions Pub. Co., 1954. 

Pratt, William. The Imagist Poem. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1963. 

Rexroth, Kenneth. "There's Poetry in a Ragged H itch-Hiker." New York Times Book 
Review 5 July 1964: 5. 

Rosenthal, M. L. ed. The William Carlos Williams Reader. New York: New Directions Pub. 
Co., 1966. 

Williams, William Carlos. "At the Ball Game." The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. 
Ed. Richard Ellman and Robert O'Clair. New York: Norton, 1973. 292. 

. "Prologue to Kora in Hell." Selected Essays of William Carolos Williams. New 



York: Random. 1954. 



17 



GREED IS DESTROYING OUR WORLD  
A HUMAN SCIENCE STUDY 

by James J. Barrell* and Peter W. Lueders** 

In Wilkes-Barre, Pa., a woman suffered a broken leg and four 
others were injured when 1,000 people, some of whom had been 
waiting for eight hours, rushed into a Zayre's Department Store to 
snatch up the few Cabbage Patch Kids available. 

The store manager, William Shigo, armed himself with a 
baseball bat, "This is my life that's in danger," he said from behind 
a protective counter. 

Greed. Hardly a day passes that the local newspaper doesn't record the 
unconscionable excesses.of a third world dictator or the intemperate 
consumption of the world's natural resources. Preachers spare no diatribe 
in warning their congregations of greed's evil. We see it on the streets and 
hear it on the news  greed is very much a part of our lives. 

But just what is greed? It is a curious fact that one of society's most 
insidious vices is so poorly understood. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 
defines greed as "excessive desire for acquiring or having," but the 
behaviors that we perceive to be "greedy" are as likely to be labeled 
"avarice," "gluttony," "inconsideration," or "selfishness." There seems to 
be no common agreement as to what constitutes greed. 

Any attempt to review past research into greed is met with frustration. 
There is none. This is not to suggest that so widespread and problematical 
a phenomenon as greed has escaped the attention of the entire research 
community. Rather, the paucity of greed research indicates the lack of an 
appropriate approach for its systematic study. 

The study of greed must address both the perception of greed in others as 
well as the meaning of the experience "as lived." Through an analysis of 
our perceptions of greed we can determine the necessary and sufficient 
factors common to that experience and answer the question: What 
constitutes greed? Additionally, by exploring the experiences of those 
people who are perceived as being greedy, we can begin to understand the 
"inside" of those behaviors. This provides a better understanding and 
greater awareness of the phenomenon of greed that is vital to the solution 
of the various confrontational problems associated with it. 

A traditional approach to research that focuses on behavior is wholly 
inappropriate to the study of greed. The greed phenomenon is best 
understood through an experiential perspective that examines the lived 
meanings related to human behavior. Much attention has been paid to the 

* Associate Professor of Psychology, West Georgia College 
**Graduate Student in Psychology, West Georgia College 

18 



importance of a proper approach as the critical factor in developing a 
science of human experience (Giorgi 130; Van Kaam 66). The consequent 
emergence of Human Science Research methods provides just such an 
approach. 

The Human Science Research method chosen for this study is the 
Experiential Method (J. J. Barrell and J. E. Barrell 63; Barrell and Price 
75). With its stated aim to achieve clarity, this method begins with direct 
experience and concludes with a precise understanding of the structure of 
an experience. This goal is achieved through a four stage process: ( 1) co- 
investigators notice either immediate, or re-live past experiences, (2) the 
experiences are recorded in a prescribed manner (first person, present 
tense), (3) numerous reports, from various situations, are prepared for the 
experience in question, and (4) co-investigators ask: What is common 
across the experiences in these different situations? 

Method 

A study group composed of 14 male and 18 female under-graduate 
psychology students, ages 19 to 35, served as co-investigators in this study. 
The group discussed two distinct questions: (1) What do we experience 
when we perceive greedy behavior in others?, and (2) What do we 
experience when our behaviors are perceived as greedy by ourselves or 
others? By recording descriptions of both immediate and past (re-lived) 
experiences of greed, co-investigators recounted a wide variety of 
situations leading to a greater generality of the findings. 

The investigation was conducted in two phases. During the initial phase, 
each participant was asked to record eight separate instances of the greed 
experience: four from an "outer" perspective (i.e. perception of greed in 
others), and four from an "inner" perspective. The inner perspective 
provided descriptions of experiences when their related behaviors were 
labeled as greedy by self or others. A report of each experience was made 
"as lived;" in first person, present-tense format. Participants were also 
instructed to avoid historical, mechanical, poetical, and interpretive 
accounts of their experiences (J. J. Barrell and J. E. Barrell 69). The 
resulting descriptions were analyzed in phase two to determine the 
essential structure of the experience of greed. 

Phase two was conducted over a three-week period in accord with an 
experiential method for consensual validation (Barrell et al. 106). This 
method consisted of a four-stage process: (1) presentation of each 
investigator's personal understanding of the experiential structure, (2) 
clarification of the ways in which co-investigators agree or disagree, (3) 
referring back, as necessary, to the experiential description to resolve 
disagreements, and (4) reaching consensus regarding the structure of the 
experience. 

19 



The above method was employed in the following manner. All proposed 
common factors were listed on a chalkboard. Drawing from personal 
experience, investigators argued, one at a time, for or against each factor. 
Because of the possibility that the same common factor might be expressed 
in different words, participants were instructed to pay particularattention 
to the meaning implicit in that common factor. Specifically, each common 
factor must be present in every experience of greed, and the final list of 
factors must be able to discriminate greed from any other type of 
experience. 

Findings 
The Perception of Greed 

Common factors were determined through an analysis of descriptive 
data covering a variety of situations. Descriptions were categorized as 
being from either an "inner" or "outer" perspective. The perception of 
greed in others represents an "outer" perspective. The following are four 
examples: 

1 . My roommate's little boy had his birthday party this weekend. He 
was three. I went to the party and the following experience occurred: 

1 am standing watching the kids eat their cake and ice cream. I 
notice this one kid. He hasn't eaten any cake but has completely 
finished his ice cream. The kid next to him gets up and goes to play. 
He gets the other kid's ice cream. His mother tries to take it away 
from him. He is shoveling this ice cream in his mouth as fast as he can 
before she takes it away. She lifts the cup of ice cream and he 
screeches. He grabs the ice cream back. A tug-of-war between 
mother and son ensues. Finally she gives it to him and he eats every 
bite. 

2. While I was waiting to talk to a professor 1 noticed a young male 
student reading a note on the bulletin board. 1 watched as he pulled it 
from the board and stuffed it in his books. 1 had the following 
experience: 

I think to myself, "What a jerk! Hecouldjustaseasily have written 
down the information he needed. That information is for everyone  
not just him." He begins to walk away. I can't believe it. I feel myself 
getting tense. I want to confront him. As I begin to pursue him the 
office door opens and I'm called in. I turn and walk into the office. 

3. My three roommates and I were watchingT.V. last week when the 
following experience occurred: 

At 12:30 three of us all watch the same soap opera. The fourth 
roommate decides she is the majority and wants to watch an old 
movie classic. She does not ask our opinion, but instead turns to the 
station. She stands in front of the T.V. for periods often minutes at a 
time while running back and forth to the mirror to fix her hair. All 

20 



the time she's saying, "Don't turn the T.V.!" I begin to feel she's 
hogging the T.V. and if she wants to watch an old movie she should 
watch it in her room. 

4. There was a party at my apartment. 1 had bought a case of beer 
and there were several people over. I had the following experience: 
John is here and did not bringany beer. I see him drinking my beer. 
No problem. But now I see him taking a beer or two and putting them 
in his coat pocket. I can't believe that someone at my house is, to put 
rs bluntly, not only being greedy but stealing (in a sense) my beer. 
John, what the hell are you doing! I'm letting you drink my beer. I'm 
amazed that he is being so greedy with my beer. 

Common factors implicit in the above type of descriptions represent 
both the necessary and sufficient conditions for the perception of greed to 
occur. Researchers reached consensus on the following factors: 

X is perceived as: 

1. Keeping others from having their part of a limited supply  here the 
individual is hoarding or consuming more than his or her entitlement. This 
violates our sense of "fair play." Equally important is the perception of a 
finite supply. The ice cream, the message taken from the board, and the 
beer each represent a fixed quantity  to be made available to all in an 
equitable manner. 

2. Being no more deserving than self or others  How deserving of the 
item is X? We make an immediate value judgment. In example number one 
the other children are presumed to be equally (or more) deserving of the ice 
cream. Were the greedy child known to be starving, and therefore 
perceived as more "deserving" than the others, his behavior would not be 
perceived as greedy. Clearly, this factor is necessary but not sufficient for 
the perception of greed. 

3. Ignoring the perspectives ofother(s)  G reedy behavior is obvious and 
readily recognized in others. Therefore, we presume X must also be aware 
of this greed  he must know what he is doing. There is a lack of empathy 
(i.e. putting oneself in the place of others). We feel X is consciously 
ignoring the viewpoints of those around him as he persists in greedy 
behavior. 

4. Being preoccupied with his/her wants or needs  In the eyes of the 
perceiver X is experiencing a form of "tunnel vision." For the moment, X's 
world is no bigger than the "target" of his desire  the ice cream, the 
message on the board, watching a classic movie, etc. The terms "wants" 
and "needs" refer to the relative significance of the target to X. "Needs," for 
example, are experienced as more important than "wants" or "likes. 

"Inside" Greedy Behavior 

Now, let us look at what is actually happening in our own experience 

21 



when our behavior is pointed out as being greedy by either ourselves or 
others. Interestingly enough, there is no direct experience of greed in 
ourselves. It is not even a felt emotion like happiness or anger. Greed exists 
only as the perception of a behavior. To recognize greed in ourselves we 
must assume an "outer" perspective, that is, imagine "stepping outside" 
ourselves and seeing our behavior as another person would. In the 
following examples, those experiences which are "inside" the behavior 
perceived as greedy will be the source of data. Again, four examples: 

1 . 1 walked into Eckerd Drugs knowing that I needed to find a 
magazine that had some good business articles in it. 1 had the 
following experience: 

1 flip through the magazine until I find it (the article). To my 
surprise and relief, it's only one page. This is great. This means less 
reading and an easier evaluation. But, as I stand here I 'm thinking, 
"Why pay almost $2.00 for a one-page article?" So, I look around. 
No one seems to be paying me much attention. 1 see no hidden 
cameras. So I hold my finger on the page and close the magazine 
over my hand. Slowly I rip the page out. The tearing noise is so 
loud. My face feels so hot. 1 feel my heart pounding. 1 think, "I'm 
stealing something, but then again it's only one piece of paper." 
Well, I've got the page out. I wad it up and walk out of the store. I 
made it. I got my article without spending any money and I feel 
relieved. 

2. I was eating pizza with one male and two female friends. There 
were three pieces left. The girls were not the least bit interested in 
pizza. My friend and I each took a piece of pizza. There was one 
piece left. I had the following experience: 

So, it's just you and me. Immediately the act of eating pizza 
becomes a competition. My eyes shift back to the last piece of 
pizza in the pan. I'm eating very quickly now  I don't even taste it. 
Just one piece left and it's mine. I deserve it more than he does  
I'm bigger, and hungrier. I look across the table. He's eyeing the 
last piece, too. I'd better make my move. I reach for the last piece. 
Mine, all mine. I think I'll eat this last piece slowly. 

3. I went to a bar over the weekend with one of my friends. These 
guys kept coming up, asking us to dance, and buying our drinks. I 
had the following experience: 

1 keep thinking that this guy must really have the bucks. He asks 
me if I want anything. I tell him, "A beer, please." A while later, 
after we've danced some more, he asks me again. I reply, "A beer, 
please," again. I can't believe this guy is spending so much money 
on me and my friend. I keep telling her that whoever asks me if I 
want something, I'm going to tell them, "A beer, please." I am 

22 



thinking 1 want to see how many beers I can get someone else to 
buy me and if they'll buy more for me than my friend. 

4. I was in my car at the bank waiting for a parking space. 1 was in 
a hurry to make an appointment. One lady was backing out of a 
space, another was waiting for her. I had the following experience: 

I'm feeling that she's taking too much time to get in the space. I 
feel that I have enough time to get in the space so I drive around 
the corner and take it knowing the lady was waiting to turn in. 
She's beginning to blow her horn at me. I'm not paying it any 
attention. 

Utilizing the same process of consensual validation summarized above, 
investigators determined the following common factors for the 
experiential correlatives of greedy behavior: 

1 . / am preoccupied with fulfilling my desire/ need  Identical to one of 
the common factors in the perception of greed. The world "shrinks" as 
attention is drawn to the target of the desire. Behaviors are determined by 
the specific strategy chosen to satisfy the desire or need. In example 
number one the desire to "get something for nothing" motivates the 
individual to rip the page from the magazine. Desire/ need represents a 
range of significance the object may hold for that person. 

2. / do not consider myself undeserving  The individual is judging him/ 
herself to be worthy of the target. Often the feeling of guilt must be "dealt 
with" as we become aware of how our behaviors might be perceived by 
others. We are incredibly creative in justifying our behaviors to ourselves. 
Even in the case where we might stop for a moment and question whether 
or not we are greedy, a justification occurs that can allow for the 
continuation of the behavior. "I'm stealing, but then again it's only one 
piece of paper." (example 1), and "1 deserve it more than he does  I'm 
bigger, and hungrier." (example 2), both justify behaviors about which the 
person feels guilty. Through justification we make ourselves deserving of 
the goal. Also, if we feel we must secure our futures; if we think highly of 
ourselves; or if we feel that we have suffered greatly in the past, then we are 
deserving of as much as we can get. There is no limit! 

3. / expect I can fulfill the goal  This is a question of motivation. 
Without a reasonable expectation (i.e. greater than chance) that the goal 
can be achieved, there is no action. "Reasonable expectation" is 
determined by the personal meaning attached to the perception of an event 
and varies according to the confidence the person has in his ability to attain 
the goal. 

4. I feel I have more to gain than to lose by acting  The individual 
carefully weighs the perceived risk of the greedy behavior against its 
expected outcome. When the desire or need for that goal is greater than the 

23 



possible negative consequences of that behavior, the risk is judged 
acceptable and the person acts. In example one, the possible results of 
getting caught ripping the page out of the magazine are overshadowed by 
the desire to "(g et ) mv article without spending any money." 

Differentiation of Experiences Related to Greed 

Our analysis of greed has allowed us to make comparisons with other 
perceived actions such as avarice, gluttony, inconsideration, and 
selfishness. Avarice represents a specific type of greed. In this case the 
target of desire is wealth. Avaricious behaviors are motivated by an 
insatiable desire to amass great wealth. While all avaricious behavior is 
greedy, not all greedy behaviors are money-related. 

Unlike greed, a person viewed as gluttonous is NOT perceived as 
keeping others from having (heir part of a limited supply. They are simply 
"stuffing themselves"  oblivious to others around them. "Being a pig" is 
the phrase commonly used to describe gluttonous behaviors. 

Let us take the case of inconsideration. Suppose you are sitting in the 
first row at a concert and people are leaving the dance floor in front of you. 
However, two couples stop to talk right in front of you before leaving the 
floor. The band appears and they are obstructing the views of both you and 
others seated around you. These people can be perceived as inconsiderate 
but not greedy. This is because they are perceived as NOT consciously 
ignoring the perceptions of others. Now, if they are asked to move and do 
not, then we could perceive them as greedy. 

Finally, let us compare greed with selfishness. Whereas selfishness is 
"taking care of only our needs," greed is "taking more than we need." 
Selfishness refers to experiencing ourselves as "number one"  the world 
"revolves around us." Because of pre-occupation with one's own wants and 
needs, selfishness is an important factor (cause) in any action that can be 
perceived as greedy. It is not a separate experience from greed, but rather, a 
component of it. 

Emotional Responses to Greed 

Our responses to greed are quite different depending on whether we 
experience ourselves or others as greedy. It is likely that we will feel guilt in 
the former and anger in the latter situation. For ourselves, guilt is the most 
uncomfortable feeling. For after all, in this situation we join others in 
becoming upset with ourselves. When we "turn on ourselves" there is no 
escape from this bad feeling. We cannot "walk away" from ourselves. 

Emotions, like anger and guilt, are not necessary for the perception of 
greed or its correlative inner experience. They are reactions to these 
meaning structures. However, although these emotions are simply 
reactions, they are particularly important in confrontational situations. 

As reactions, the intensity of anger and guilt depends on our own needs 

24 



and desires. For example, if one is tearing a page from a public phone 
book, our anger in response to the perceived greedy behavior is increased if 
we need to use that phone book ourselves. In short, we intensify the 
emotions of anger and guilt as we take these situations more personally. 

Discussion 
The Problem 

To solve the problem of greed we must first explore the difference 
between behavior viewed as meaning or as action. Behavior as action 
represents the "objective reality"  a specific series of physical movements 
about which we, as perceivers, can agree. From this perspective the cause 
or purpose of the behavior is external to the perceiver (i.e. it lies in the 
"actor"). Imagine, for example, the following classroom situation: In the 
middle of a lecture a student hurriedly walks out of class without saying a 
word. Anyone noticing the student would likely agree to the "facts" about 
what happened: a student got up from his desk, picked-up his books, and 
walked out the door  he didn't say a word. When viewed simply as 
"action," the behavior is "absolute." 

Though behavior may be viewed as "action," it is understood as 
"meaning." In the above example we attach meaning to the student's 
behavior based on our own perspective, or mind-set, at that particular 
moment (Robbins 48). In this instance the meaning of another's behavior 
lies in the "mind" of the perceiver . If we had experienced the lecture as 
being dry or unimaginative, it becomes "obvious" to us that the student left 
out of boredom. If we were aware of the flu epidemic on campus and not 
feeling very well ourselves, we might believe the student must have left 
because he was sick. We could assume the student had an important 
appointment or a personal emergency; there are numerous possibilities. It 
is important to note that the meaning we ascribe to the behavior represents 
our "subjective reality" and satisfies the question: Why?. The meaning of 
the behavior is determined by the perceiver and peculiar to the context. 
Nevertheless, these meanings do not determine the actual causes of the 
behavior as an action. 

It is clear that the cause of the perception of greed lies in the "mind" of 
the perceiver. Insofar as solutions to greed-related problems are 
concerned, the significance of this statement cannot be overemphasized. 
We cannot control the perceptions of others. Instead we must look to the 
factors common to the "inner" experience of greedy behavior (i.e. those 
actions perceived as greedy) if we hope to curb the problems of greed. 

Common factors are both necessary and sufficient for the occurrence of 
a particular experience and represent the specific structure of that 
experience. Consequently, the elimination of any single factor makes that 
experience impossible. To control the common factors of the "inner" 
experience of greed is to control greed. 

25 



The world of the individual preoccupied with fulfilling a desire or need is 
necessarily small. As one attends to the particular goal, awareness of the 
social context diminishes and that person becomes "isolated" from the rest 
of the world. In this isolation, the world exists as a series of discrete spatial- 
temporal events (i.e. it has been objectified). From this perspective the 
individual no longer views the "big picture." That is, an awareness of the 
rich, multi-level, ever-evolving relationship one shares with the world is 
lost. The consequences of need-satisfying behaviors beyond the immediate 
context are similarly affected. While those viewing the behavior might 
perceive a willful disregard of the needs of others, this is not the experience 
from the inner perspective. 

The person concerned with need-satisfaction may assume either of two 
attitudes toward the future: (1) denial of the future, or (2) faith in the 
future. Denial of the future occurs when an individual believes there is no 
future in which to satisfy needs. Needs must be satisfied HERE AND 
NOW. Just such an attitude was expressed in a popular beer jingle, "You 
only go around once in life. Grab for all the gusto you can get!" On the 
other hand, having faith in the future presumes a belief in unlimited 
resources. For example, the person using an inordinate amount of water in 
the midst of a drought might feel justified in the belief that "it is bound to 
rain soon, we've never been this long without it." Such a belief denies the 
truth that for any given period of time available resources are limited. 
Either attitude is fundamental to greed-related behaviors and each rejects 
the truth: the future is open-ended and forever changing. 

Accepting an unknown future, filled with question and doubt, threatens 
our vital sense of security. Security exists only in certainty. But how can we 
feel safe and secure knowing that a single accident or "act of God" can 
bring physical, emotional, and/ or financial ruin? To feel secure we must 
look out for#l  provide for every foreseeable contingency. Logically, this 
is impossible. And yet, our desire for security is overwhelming. This high 
desire for security coupled with an uncertainty about beingable to attain it 
is all that is necessary to produce anxiety and its related stress(Barrelletal. 
1 1 1; J. J. Barrell, Sindledecker, and J. E. Barrell256). Moreover, this stress 
is forever unless we can "control" the future. From this perspective, both 
denying the future and having faith in the future (e.g. investing in greedy 
behaviors!) are viable means of dealing with basic security concerns. 

The Solution 

Becoming more aware of the "self-in-context" is certainly part of the 
solution to this dilemma. We each play many roles in life, but are usually 
cognizant of only the most immediate. Our relations as friend, lover, 
family member, and coworker are frequently acknowledged. Equally 
important are the positions we hold as members of society, citizens of the 
world, and even, residents of the cosmos. By "opening the frame of 

26 



reference" to incorporate these broader perspectives, individuals begin to 
see and better appreciate their position and relation to others and the 
world in which they live. This recognition of the interdependence of man 
and world promotes a vital sense of affiliation and security. 

For many of us, our interdependence with the world is not so clear. 
Technology has amply provided for our safety and comfort, and few 
Americans still struggle to draw their subsistence directly from the land on 
which they live. While safe and secure in our temperature-controlled 
homes with all the amenities, we easily forget (or ignore) the relation we 
share with the earth. Technology has provided a "higher standard" of 
living, but not without cost. The many decades of thoughtless strip- 
mining, deforestation, and the wasteful use of water reserves have left our 
future heavly mortgaged. Technology, with its promise for a "better 
tomorrow  today," denies our dependence on the world and its limited 
resources. 

Developing an expanded awareness of ourselves as part of a greater 
whole need not be difficult. The following five to ten minute exercise is but 
one of many possible methods. Like most exercises, maximum benefits 
will be gained through daily repetition. The exercise: 

Find a comfortable place outdoors and sit quietly. Look at the 
scene around you, paying close attention to your sensations: the 
the colors, the shapes, the textures, the sounds around you, the 
feel of the wind on your face, the smells in the air, etc. Stay with 
these impressions without thinking about them. Nov/, feel your 
body as a part of these natural surroundings. As you begin to feel 
this connection with nature, "get in touch" with the/act that you 
are in the immensity of an unlimited universe. You are an integral 
part of it. There is nothing to imagine or visualize, simply stay 
with the understanding of this fact and feel its reality. 

Increased awareness of context brings a different perspective. While 
individual experiences will necessarily vary, certain common factors are 
always present. Here is an account of one person's experience with the 
exercise: 

I was sitting outside a restaurant. The weather was sunny and 
pleasant. I began to idly reflect on my place in the universe. As I 
began to feel the "reality" of my situation I had the following 
experience: 

My body begins to feel more and more relaxed and I begin to 
experience a calm "intensity. " I take another breath and the world 
rushes up to embrace me  I am "absorbed." Immediately there is 
a multiplicity of vivid sights, sounds, and smells. The world exists 
as a rich tapestry or mosaic in which every item, every event, 
blends smoothly with another. As I move my gaze from the 

27 



clouds, to the trees, to the ground, to my feet, I perceive no gaps or 
"voids." I feel my "presence" (i.e. I am here) as part of a limitless 
whole  differentiated but not separated. Everything exists in a 
"common space." No single impression is more important than 
any other and no impression has just one meaning. Both time and 
("empty") space have dissolved. I feel secure. 1 am at peace. I do 
not want to leave this place. 

While awareness of the relationship we share with the world is 
important, it is not sufficient to overcome such anti-social behaviors as 
greed. We must acknowledge our position "in the world" as well as "of the 
world." For example, few would question that a swami or guru engrossed 
in a world of quiet meditation understands he is "of the world." But, his 
contribution as an individual "in the world" is somewhat less clear. There is 
an "ambiguity" in experiencing our relationship to the whole. This 
ambiguity must be overcome if we hope to transform those experiences 
(i.e. discover the causes) which lie behind our behaviors. "Awareness," of 
itself, is not necessarily a "call to action." 

The Experiential Method used in this study providesjust the necessary 
process by which to achieve a clear understanding of the specific structure 
of any experience. The common factors we derive through self-observation 
and self-report are within us and, as such, under our influence. By 
understanding these experiential factors we can increase the range of 
choices available to us, and live "in the world" more effectively. 



WORKS CITED 

Barrell, J. J. and J. E. Barrell. "A Self-Directed Approach for a Science of Human 
Experience." Journal of Phenomenological Psychology 6 (Fall 1975): 63-73. 

Barrell, J. J., and D. D. Price. "An Experiential Approach with Quantitative Methods: A 
Research Paradigm." Journal of Humanistic Psychology 20 (Summer 1980): 75-95. 

Barrell, J. J., S. Sindledecker, and J. E. Barrell. "Test anxiety: an experiential study." A 
Science of Human Experience. Ed. J. J. Barrell. Acton, MA: Copley, 1986. 

Barrell, J. J., et al. "The Causes and Treatment of Performai.ee Anxiety: An Experiential 
Approach." Journal of Humanistic Psychology 25 (Spring 1985): 106-122. 

Giorgi, A. Psychology as a Human Science. New York: Harper-Row, 1970. 

Robbins, A. J. Unlimited Power. New York: Simon-Schuster, 1986. 

Van Kaam, A. L. "Phenomenal Analysis: Exemplified by a Study of the Experience of 'really 
feeling understood'." Journal of Individual Psychology 15 (1959) 66-72. 



28 



"SHOCKTJN" A SON GOUT: 
CONCEPT OF ART AT WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE 

by Dorothy Joiner* 

Proceeding on Brumbelow Drive toward the West Georgia campus, 
Monday morning, December 1, 1986,1 happened to glance in the direction 
of the school. At first startled, then delighted, I saw a voluminous 
parachute of creamy white, orange, and muted khaki draped casually over 
the roof of the Humanities Building. The unwonted sight jogged my 
memory: the Concept Art Exhibition to be staged by Bruce Bobick's art 
history class. Modern Art 310. I was in fact arriving a little early in order to 
add my own conceptual piece to the display. 

The building quickly lapsed from view as the road descended, and I 
rounded the corner onto West Georgia Drive. 1 gaped in disbelief at the 
bevy of police cars, lights aflash, parked in a narrow lane leading to the 
Humanities Building. The object of their attention fairly glowed in the 
parking lot. A bright yellow behemoth of an auto wrapped in clear Saran 
was parked sideways so as to occupy no less than three of the coveted 
spaces in this always overpopulated area. The extra-wide plastic 
enveloping this oversized Oldsmobile from the early 70 's ended in a kind of 
twisted "umbilical cord," attached to a telephone pole. A somewhat 
amused young policeman was ticketing the gaudy, meretricious vehicle. 
(In French and in Italian all the words for various kinds of cars are 
feminine.) In felicitous harmony with the "cocoon" symbolism of the 
wrapping, the officer asked the artist Christy Benton, "Did you imagine 
that by wrapping this wreck, it would turn into a Rolls?" 

1 learned later that Christy's idea had come to her during a class 
discussion of Concept Art. She originally considered covering three spaces 
in the student lot with gravel. Her "work" would have jolted those seeking 
a parking slot into considering the scarcity and hence the value of the 
space. But she then determined that cleaning up the gravel would be far too 
onerous. The troublesome gravel was therefore transmogrified into an 
easier-to-remove mammoth car, especially chosen for its well-established 
flashy notoriety on the campus. The wrapped vehicle held several levels of 
symbolism for Christy. She thought of it first as a kind of "land yacht," 
anchored with a cord "so that it wouldn't get away." It represented at the 
same time a plastic cocoon, the meaning of which the astute policeman had 
perceived. And on yet another level of meaning, the Saran-wrapped yellow 
car was chosen for its shock value, alerting the viewer to its occupancy of 
valuable space. This space was indeed expensive: the policeman had 
affixed a $10.00 ticket to the door handle. Happily, however, Christy 
appealed the charge, which was finally rescinded. 

* Professor oj Languages, West Georgia College 

29 



Hardly having had time to savor the idea of the giant cocoon-car, I was 
hurried into the building by Phil Price, who implored me to help him 
disassemble his own concept work on the second-floor landing of the 
northeast stairwell. The police had threatened to arrest him if he failed to 
clear the stairs immediately. L) nfortunately, there was no time to enjoy the 
intricately festooned party space that Phil had created. We had to rip away 
the carefully crafted arrangement as quickly as we could. 

Had I the leisure to look, 1 would have been immediately confronted 
with the poster of a sultry woman and her sinuous cat, both archetypal 
symbols of evil. A second poster, positioned to be seen by those descending 
the stairs from the third floor, depicted a woman behind Levelor blinds, 
gaily kicking up her heels and playing a trumpet. Thus the contrasting 
posters offered two aspects of celebration: on the one hand, its potentially 
negative side, and, on the other, its festivity and fun. Phil continued the 
party theme with shiny aluminum foil over the railing, balloons, streamers, 
and multi-colored throw rugs  all suggestive of joyous abandon. In 
contrast, Phil added unattached limbs of mannequins, as well as a 
wastebasket gorged with empty aluminum cans: Coke, 7-Up, and 
Budweiser. These last images represented the underside of celebration, its 
often bitter aftertaste. They echoed the evil manifested by the first poster. 

The party side of Phil's work was juxtaposed to a spare desk covered 
with twine woven into a kind of web. Here Phil symbolized the other half 
of a student's life, its arduous work, the twine web indicating the 
confinement occasioned by a life dedicated to study. Repeated in the space 
above the entire piece, the webbing was, in Phil's words, "hovering over a 
student's whole life, like a trap," its partying as well as its lucubrations. In 
fact, the web restricted all potential movement to such a degree that no 
festivity was really possible after all. The meaning of the bright aluminum 
overlay on the railing then becomes clear. It represented the glamorous but 
ultimately superficial and deceptive aspects of partying. After a few 
moments of our frantic dismantling, a policeman trudged up the stairs, 
declaring in an authoritative tone that Phil was to follow him. Was this 
mild-mannered, sensitive, courteous, and studious young man being 
arrested? 1 subsequently learned that Phil's crime was puncturing the 
cement block wall with three nail holes. 

Returning to the ground floor, 1 saw a concept work 1 had missed on my 

initial hasty entry, a long strip of white paper several feet wide running the 

length of the south hall. Arrows drawn on the paper pointed to offices on 

the right, together with terse assessments of their occupants. The word 

"wisdom" indicated the domain of David Higgins, head of the philosophy 

department; and "distilled water" was inscribed beneath the arrow 

pointing to my own door, a good-natured jab at the wine bottles full of 

pure water that 1 have regularly carried into the building for years. The 

"mystery" artist of this piece has never been identified. 

30 



I was turned from an amused contemplation of this witty analogue of the 
white carpeting laid down at weddings by an acrimonious outburst near 
the elevator. That decrepit antique of a lift whose torpor we have all 
deplored was filled with rolls of newsprint and heavy black sculpture 
stands. The angry imprecations came from a teacher who was constrained 
either to remove the obstacles or to exercise what French philosopher 
Gaston Bachelard has termed "the heroism of climbing the stairs." 

By this time, I was forced to abandon my enjoyment of the Concept Art 
Exhibition and head for class. When I was free again at 1 1:00 a.m., the 
other works had for the most part been removed; and I learned about them 
only later. Almost no part of the building was without concept art that 
morning. Jim Witt placed red danger signs over many of the electrical 
outlets, his work calling attention to the potentially lethal forces normally 
harnassed and hidden from view in the service of illumination and 
appliances. 

Carol Summer taped satin cloth in graduated shades of violet, purple 
and orange over all the mirrors in the women's room on each of the three 
floors. Her title Vanity has a complex significance. First of all, it recalls the 
traditional ornamented vanity box for ladies, which usually contained 
powder, a puff, and a mirror. On another level, the title suggests the empty 
self-admiration associated with gazing in a mirror; and in yet a more 
universal sense, it echoes the age-old vanitas theme which proclaims the 
evanescence of earthly reality. 

The southwest stairwell was also transformed by art. Between the 
second and third floors, Sherri Adams covered a single step with white felt, 
placing a DO NOT TOUCH sign nearby. She had intended to count the 
number of footprints at the end of the day. When the material was 
prematurely removed, however, everyone had graciously stepped over this 
pristine "sterile" step. 

Holly Faircloth placed her work Disposable Heroes in the building's 
atrium. She painted stuffed garbage bags in conventional camouflage 
patterns, strewing the lumpy containers over the carpeted floor of the 
foyer. In the empty space, I am told, Holly's work took on the eerie look of 
dead bodies. When the area began to fill up with students, however, the 
mood brightened; and an atmosphere of excitement born of the ridiculous 
replaced the initial somber feel. Holly gives credit for the title to her 
younger brother, who borrowed it from a contemporary song. Holly's 
work focused on the ephemeral recognition which society offers to heroes 
such as veterans who have made sacrifices for the commonweal. 

Just above Disposable Heroes, on the second floor of the atrium, Ivan 
Purcell used masking tape to cover the area bounded on three sides by a 
railing and open to the stairway on the fourth. Titled Bridging the Gulf, 

31 



Ivan's piece interrupted the continuity of space between the first and 
second floors and blocked temporarily the vantage of those who 
customarily lean over the railing to view the activity on the lower floor. 
Spectators thus thwarted voiced their anger with surprising force. 

Diane Eissler covered with a black drape the portrait of Kathy Cashen 
on the landing of the atrium stairway. Fascinated by the image of this 
smiling young woman who has given her name to the building's small 
auditorium, Diane investigated Ms. Cashen's history. Learning that she 
had died of leukemia in 1968, Diane wanted to reactivate, as it were, the 
memorial to her memory, now largely forgotten by most students. To 
make the point even stronger, Diane turned the bench on the landing 
around to face the picture. She thereby forced the observer to concentrate 
on the identity of the veiled portrait. 

The Concept Exhibition even spilled out onto the campus beyond the 
building. As an untitled kind of interface between inside and out, Kurt 
Beshers placed sand on a portion of the second step of the porch around 
the building, smoothing the sand to an exact forty-five degree angle. 

Another work serving as transition between indoors and out was Renee 
Tartaglione's entrance barricade. In front of two of the building's four 
entrances she positioned cardboard tubes, each three feet high, laced 
together with nylon webbing. To enter the building, it was necessary to be 
somewhat more active than usual, either moving the featherweight 
palissade or walking around it. Reactions to this blockade differed widely. 
On the west side facing the quadrangle, the webbed tubes were simply 
moved aside; but on the north, the barrier was angrily knocked down. One 
needs only to consider that this entrance is closest to the faculty parking 
lot. 

Three concept pieces transformed the quadrangle into a short-lived art 
gallery. One student placed hundreds of colored toothpicks porcupine 
fashion into a mound. An administrator fearing that a student be impaled 
by these sharp wooden weapons termed the work "dangerous." Another 
student, Amanda Morris, erected a barrier of concrete blocks two and one- 
half feet tall over the narrowest point of the walkway leading toward the 
library. A pedestrian was thereby forced to leave the path to circumvent 
the temporary wall. A third work by Curtis Davis provided an intriguing 
amalgam of nature and art, of the natural and the artificial. He wrapped 
the branches and trunks of trees on the quadrangle with vinyl tape, 
creating interesting patterns in red and yellow. 

Curtis adopted this technique from the well-known artist Marian J. 
Vieux, who has wrapped trees with vinyl on Ossabow Island in Georgia, in 
a Chicago churchyard, and outside the Evanston Art Center in Illinois. 
The artist says that she uses "the tree as a line in space, to follow a linear 
motion. . . . The line," she continues, "jumps out at you. "Assuming its own 

32 



"unique and recognizable profile," each wrapped tree is "animated," as it 
were, by its artificial wrapping. 

I later also learned more about the parachute floating in gentle swells on 
the corner of the roof. It was the work of Professor Bobick as a tribute to 
D. B. Cooper, the skyjacker who vanished after parachuting with a sack of 
money from a plane over the Northwest in the 1970*s. 

Another work should perhaps be added to this chronicle of the Concept 
Art Exhibition, that is, my own piece which remained very literally a 
concept because of the brouhaha generated by the exhibit. 1 had planned to 
encircle the departmental vacuum cleaner with the gold satin rope used in 
the gallery to cordon off especially valuable or delicate works of art. The 
machine was to have been left running with the title Femme de menage: 
Semper Courante. This deliberately bastardized melange of French and 
Latin translated as "cleaning woman, always running," was to my mind an 
ironic self-parody of the many unlikely tasks that fall one's way in 
academe. 

The ingeniously contrived concept works created by Professor Bobick 
and his students participate in the post-Modernist, or more exactly, the 
anti-Modernist tradition developed during the 1970's. Concept artists 
reacted against the Modernist esthetic which had carried to its logical 
extreme the art-for-art's-sake legacy of the latter half of the nineteenth 
century. Modernist art exaggerated the importance of form over content, 
tending to divorce art from the flow of life in an increasingly self-referential 
esthetic. Although theoretically removed from mundane, material 
considerations, modernist works were in fact most frequently transformed 
into commodities by monied interests. 

Seeking to reverse what he perceived as a hypocritical duality, the 
concept artist began to shy away from art objects altogether, preferring to 
confront his audience with the force of his own personality, indeed in some 
cases with his own body. Most frequently the concept artist wants to elicit 
an active response in his viewer, creating a participatory art in a literal 
sense. He seeks to return art to its most basic roots, that is to say, making it 
again a source of energy and perceptive understanding. 

In this endeavor to counter what he sees as the mercenary proclivities of 
the art world, the concept artist often denies art as a concrete object. This 
"dematerialization" of the art object reverses a centuries-old tradition in 
Western art. Early medieval manuscript illuminators, for instance, bound 
their precious pages between gilded covers often encrusted with jewels 
to manifest the great worth of the scriptures which they recorded. And in 
the fifteenth century, Jan van Eyck painted the back of his panels in 
marbleized patterns, again to emphasize the object's great value. 

Yet just as Modernist art became paradoxically bound by the corruptive 

33 



influences of money at the same time that it denied in theory the relevance 
of the material realm, so, too, is Concept Art replete with its own inherent 
ironies. Even as it repudiates the Modernist esthetic, Concept Art actually 
reinforces a fundamental though largely unarticulated Modernist premise, 
that is, the substitution of artistic discipline and esthetic transcendence for 
religion, a tendency begun in the latter half of the century. Several recent 
religion, a tendency begun in the latter half of the nineteenth century, 
examples of this substitution will suffice. 

The Taiwanese artist Tehching Hsieh, for instance, imposes upon 
himself arduous serial life-styles, each for a year, this period symbolic of a 
whole life cycle. He once spent a year in a cage with neither television nor 
books nor radio; for another year he punched a time clock hourly, thereby 
depriving himself of normal periods of sleep; during a third year he lived 
completely out-of-doors in New York City. 

Two American Buddhist Monks offer another striking example of art 
which assumes the role of religion. Traveling on foot from Santa Monica 
to the Oregon border, these monks stopped after each three steps to kiss 
the ground and to pray. Their trek is recorded on videotape. 

But Chris Burden gives the most bizarre example of an effort toward 
self-transcendence through art. The artist crawled naked over a surface 
littered with shattered glass, was nailed to the roof of a Volkswagen in a 
strange kind of crucifixion, and had a friend shoot him in the arm from a 
distance of twelve feet. 

From these examples it is obvious that the Concept artist most 
frequently assembles a "portfolio" of lively stories, photographs, and 
videotapes rather than objects such as those produced by a more 
conventional artist. It is in this lineage that 1 offer a written chronicle of the 
Concept Art Exhibition at West Georgia College. The talented students 
and their works which lasted so briefly in "material assemblage^should be 
remembered. Their art did far more than provide the matter for a five-page 
police report; it altered to a greater or less degree the perception of many 
on the campus. The artists of the Concept Art Exhibition merit our 
recognition. 



34 



ABSTRACTS OF MASTER'S THESES AND 
SPECIALIST IN EDUCATION PROJECTS 



THE EFFECT OF LOW pH ON DAPHNIA PULEX 

Lucius Geneve Adams, III 
(MS, Biology, June, 1985) 

Research in the area of acid rain has indicated topics which need further 
investigation. One of these topics is to determine the effect of low pH on all 
aquatic organisms with respect to survival, reproduction, and behavioral 
changes which may occur. Daphnia pulex was selected as a test organism 
for its significance in aquatic food chains, high rate of reproduction, and 
ease of culture. The problem was to investigate the effect of low pH on 
survival, growth, reproduction, morphology, and behavior. D. pulex was 
cultured in a defined medium and fed two species of algae, 
Chlamydomonas reinhardi and Scenedesmus sp. The test organisms were 
introduced into media at pH 4.8, 5.5, 6.6, and 7.0. Survival, average body 
length, number of eggs and births were determined over a 3 week period. 
Behavioral response to a change in wavelength of light was observed in test 
media of the 4 pH levels. At a pH of 4.8, there was a significant reduction in 
all variables. This would indicate that in ponds or lakes at a pH level of 4.8, 
populations of D. pulex would suffer considerably in areas of survival, 
growth and reproduction. 



FOSTERING INVOLVEMENT THROUGH 

A CALENDAR OF BASIC SKILLS ACTIVITIES FOR 

PARENTS OF CHILDREN IN THE 

COWETA COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

Nelda T. Boren 
(EdS, Reading Instruction, August, 1986) 

This study was undertaken for the purpose of providing a Calendar of 
Skills for parents of children in each of the grades kindergarten through 
three in the Coweta County School System and to analyze the data which 
were collected from parents concerning the utilization of the calendars and 
the helpfulness of the material contained in them. Calendars were 
distributed to all children at the beginning of the 1985-1986 school year. 
Data concerning the helpfulness of specific material in the calendar were 
collected from 322 randomly selected parents at the end of the year. 
Analysis of this data using chi square at the .05 level of significance 

35 



indicated that a significant number of parents found all items included in 
the calendar to be of value. Percentagesof parents who reported 
completion of at least 20 activities each month were tabulated by grade 
levels. Analysis of variance at the .05 level of significance determined that a 
significant difference existed among grade levels. The percentage of 
parents in second and third grade who reported utilization of calendar 
activities was lower than those reported in kindergarten. The average 
percentage of parents who reported use of the calendar activities decreased 
each month from September through April. The results of this study 
indicate that a significant number of parents utilized the Calendars of 
Skills and found the activities to be of value. It is recommended that such 
information continue to be provided in the future. 



THE EFFECTS OF TEAMS-GAMES-TOURNAMENT ON THE 

ACHIEVEMENT OF FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS IN 

SOCIAL STUDIES 

Beverly R. Chitwood 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1986) 

This research was conducted to determine what effect the use of Teams- 
Games-Tournament has on the achievement of below grade level, grade 
level, and above grade level fifth-grade students in social studies. Teams- 
Games-Tournament is an academic game in which students work in 
heterogeneous teams to learn specific material and then compete as 
representatives of their teams with members of other teams who are like 
them in past academic performance. 

Six heterogeneous fifth-grade classes at City Park School in Dalton, 
Georgia participated in the study. The six classes were randomly assigned 
to either the experimental group of the control group. The experimental 
and control groups received essentially the same social studies instruction 
with the exception of the Teams-Games-Tournament activities which were 
given to the experimental group. 

The experiment was conducted for a nine-week instructional period. 
Both the experimental and the control groups received social studies 
instruction for 45 minutes per school day. The three control group teachers 
taught social studies using their usual methods. The three experimental 
group teachers covered the same material using the same textbook, but 
added Teams-Games-Tournament activities three times per week. 

One hundred standardized questions from five chapters in the text The 
United States and Its Neighbors were used for the pretest and posttest to 
measure social studies achievement. The independent t-test was used to 
compare the mean scores on the posttests of the two groups. The mean 

36 



scores of the below grade level, grade level, and above grade level readers 
in the experimental group were also compared by t-test analysis with their 
respective counterparts in the control group. 

Analysis of the data revealed that there was a significant difference in the 
achievement of students taught social studies with Teams-Games- 
Tournament. The experimental group had a higher mean score which was 
significant at the .01 level. Also, the experimental group's grade level 
readers scored higher at the .01 significance level. The experimental 
group's above grade level readers had higher scores which were significant 
at the .05 level. However, there was no significant difference in 
achievement when the below grade level readers in each group were 
compared. 

Based on this research, Teams-Games-Tournament should be 
considered a valuable instructional method for elementary teachers. 
Further research using TGT under varying conditions was recommended. 



A STUDY OF TEACHERS' OPINIONS OF USABLE CRITERIA 
FOR CONSIDERATIONS OF MERIT PAY IN MIDDLE GRADES 

Jessica P. Cummins 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1986) 

The purpose of this research was to study the opinions of teachers 
toward merit pay. Middle school teachers from five middle schools were 
surveyed. Schools were selected from different socio-economic sections of 
the school system. 

Fifty-two percent or 130 teachers returned the survey. Out of 130 
teachers, 20 were male and 1 10 were female. There were 71 holding a T-4 
Certificate, 55 a T-5 Certificate, and 5 have a T-6 Certificate. 

There were 51 teachers who had from 1-7 years of teaching experience, 
48 had 8-12 years, 25 had 13-16 years, 4 had 19-24 years, and 3 had 25 or 
more years of teaching experience. 

The survey consisted of 25 questions. Teachers responded by marking 
yes or no. The survey included questions from the areas of instruction, 
student management, professional responsibilities, and education and 
experience. 

The majority of teachers preferred to be judged on the criteria found in 
the area of instruction and student management. Teachers approved some 
of the criteria in the area of professional responsibilities including lesson 
plans, school attendance, a positive attitude, punctuality, and a 
cooperative relationship with fellow staff members. However, in the area 
of education and experience the results were insignificant except the 

37 



criterion concerning scores on the Teachers Certification Test. An 
overwhelming majority of teachers did not want to be judged on their 
Teacher Certification Test score. 



THE MYTH OF THE ANDROGYNE: 
GENDER, PSYCHOLOGY, AND THE DIALECTICS OF BEING 

Donald E. Davis 
(MA, Psychology, August, 1986) 

As a growing number of historians are beginning to acknowledge, the 
building of western thought and culture has been an enterprise of what 
they are calling a male-centered or "patriarchal" attitude. The voice of 
femininity, they claim, has been reduced to a mere whisper, a faint cry in 
the wilderness of modernity. If a visiting anthropologist from another 
planet were to randomly leaf through the cherished works of our culture, in 
the halls of our great libraries, he or she would no doubt find something 
missing in the pages of these carefully guarded texts  texts written by and 
for males. Our anthropologist friend would see that the "lesser sex" has 
been almost universally, given little or or no status in the making of human 
history. Though women have given birth, nursed, protected, and cared for 
the children of an entire humanity, their documented "worth" remains 
hopelessly eclipsed by the scientific, technological, and rational 
"achievements" of a civilization that has given birth to such atrocities as 
the chemical waste dump, nuclear meltdown, and atomic warhead. 

The purpose of this thesis is to critically discuss the problem of gender 
imbalance in the creation of civilization and culture. Under the umbrella of 
adrogyny, we can begin to explore the feminist vision without resorting to 
the dualisms of a non-dialectical approach. One of the powerful tenets of 
androgyny, is its ability to both transcend and maintain the feminist 
position without adhering to what Marilyn French has called the 
"ideological purity" of the feminist separatist. Ultimately, feminism is not 
about total separation from males or maleness but about a harmonious 
integration of the masculine-feminine worldview within a socially, 
culturally workable, framework. Unfortunately, some feminists failing to 
recognize this, claim, for example, that "for women to participate in our 
present (patriarchal) world is equivalent to their consorting with the 
enemy" (French, 1985, p. 447). French says that this position, though 
partially influential and productive, leads to a "tendency toward 
totalitarianism" (p. 447). 

The title, "The Myth of the Androgyne," was chosen primarily as a 
poetic metaphor with which to portray a much more profound picture of 
the power of the feminist vision as I see it. Although 1 will critically 

38 



discuss the role of the mythic androgyne (as reviewed in the 
anthropological, psychological, and religious literature), my main intent is 
to use the "myth" not only as an historical or psychological fact, applicable 
to our times, but as a way to symbolically illuminate the "dialectics of 
being." Certainly the androgynous idea has its roots in what Joseph 
Campbell (1968) calls the "archaic view." Nevertheless, we must not 
therefore suppose that this "ideal is to be encountered only k in the dark 
backward and abysm of time'" (Heilbrun, 1973, p. xix). Androgyny, 
whether in its original mythic form, or as we confront it in present 
psychological discourse (e.g., Cook, 1985), continues to leave its mark on 
the literature of our age. 



THE EFFECT OF WRITING INSTRUCTION ON 
STUDENTS' CREATIVE WRITING 

Jacquelyn Fears 
(EdS, Reading Instruction, August, 1986) 

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of formal writing 
instruction on students' creative writing. 

The subjects in the study were 36 7th-grade students in gifted English 
classes at Pointe South Junior High School in Jonesboro, Georgia. The 
treatment group consisted of 16 students, and the nontreatment group 
consisted of 20 students. All subjects in the study had qualified for the 
gifted program in Clayton County. 

The John Hopkins Model of Writing Instruction for Verbally Talented 
Youth was used for the treatment. The students in the treatment group 
received writing instruction using the exercises in the model. The students 
in the nontreatment group received no formal writing instruction but did 
have opportunities to write. 

The writing of both groups was evaluated using the Georgia CBE 
Writing Assessment Analytical Scale. The writing was evaluated on 
quality, style, and mechanics. 

The t-test was used to analyze the data, and the null hypotheses were not 
rejected at the .05 level of significance. 

Results from the analyses showed that there was no significant 
difference in the gain scores on Quality, Style, or Mechanics of the 
prewriting and postwriting assignments of the students in the two groups. 

These results indicate that more research is needed in the area of writing 
instruction and its effect of students' creative writing. 



39 



SEX-ROLE STRAIN AND ALCOHOLISM IN WOMEN 

Ann S. Finley 
(MA, Sociology, August, 1986) 

Sex-role conflict and alcoholism in women was investigated using the 
concept of sex-role strain analysis. It was hypothesized that high sex-role 
strain would be related to alcoholism and also to low self-esteem. A third 
hypothesis, that alcoholism and low self-esteem would be related, was also 
investigated. The total sample included 38 women, 19 alcoholics and 19 
non-alcoholics. 

Results indicated that sex-role strain was not significantly related to 
either alcoholism or low self-esteem, though a trend in this direction was 
observed. Secondary findings were that low self-esteem and alcoholism 
were significantly related, and both were related to previous treatment for 
depression. Parental drinking behavior was found to be related to both 
high sex-role strain and to alcoholism. Further, the alcoholic women were 
more likely to be divorced or separated, to have less formal education and 
to have a lower family income that the non-alcoholic women. 



A STUDY MEASURING SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDES AND 

THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO ACHIEVEMENT IN 

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS 

David Alfred Giesel 
(EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1986) 

The purpose of this study was to measure the attitudes of high school 
students toward science and to determine whether a correlation between 
attitudes and achievement could be obtained. Attitudes were measured by 
the Scientific Attitude Inventory. Achievement was measured by science 
grade point average and results of the science section of the Iowa Test of 
Academic Proficiency. 

The SAI was administered to 600 students at Lakeview-Ft. Oglethorpe 
High School in Catoosa County, Georgia. Of these, 145 were randomly 
selected as participants. The study was designed to determine whether 
measured differences in attitude for sex, grade level or course were 
significant. Scores on the attitude inventory were compared to scores on 
the achievement measures to determine correlation values. 

Results showed that Lakeview-Ft. Oglethorpe students moderately 
accept positive scientific attitudes and moderately reject negative scientific 
attitudes although inconsistency was present as to the understanding of the 
nature of science and also in evaluating their emotional views of science. 
No significant differences were shown between scores on the SAI and sex 

40 



or grade level. Significant differences were obtained between SA1 scores in 
biology grade 10 and biology grade 9, botany, human anatomy, and 
chemistry. No other significant differences between courses were obtained. 

A moderate positive correlation (r=0.40) was obtained when comparing 
attitude to science grade point average; no significant correlation was 
evident when comparing attitude to Iowa TAP scores. Positive 
correlations between certain specific attitudes and achievement were 
noted, but many scientific attitudes were accepted regardless of the level of 
achievement. 



THE USE OF AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISTIC ART TO ENRICH 
THE TEACHING OF AMERICAN HISTORY FROM 1860-1910 

Roscoe Lis ton Googe, Jr. 
(EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1986) 

This study brings to the attention of American history teachers the vast 
potential of American impressionistic art as an instrument for enriching as 
well as supplementing the teaching of history. The major focal point was 
the artists who were active painting impressions of the American way of 
life at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. 

This study examines the use of impressionistic art in fifteen United 
States high school textbooks. Lower level textbooks were found to be very 
negligent in their use of impressionistic art and artists. The upper level texts 
were more noticeably aware of impressionists accomplishments. Teachers 
will be able to utilize supplementary materials in this study to enable 
students to better understand history not only from an artist's point of 
view, but of a person living in this period. 



A FOLLOW-UP STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF 

DEVELOPMENTAL FIRST GRADE ON FIFTH-GRADE 

STUDENTS AT EASTSIDE AND ANTIOCH 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 

Anthony E. Hohol 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, J 986) 

Purpose 

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant 
difference between mean achievement scores in reading and mathematics 
of developmental first-grade students when compared to students not 
needing readiness at grade levels one, three, four, and five. 



41 



Methods and Procedures 

This study was conducted at Eastside and Antioch Elementary Schools 
in Whitfield County. There were 25 randomly selected students in the 
control and experimental groups. 

In the fall of the 1979-1980 school year, all first-grade students at 
Eastside and Antioch Elementary Schools were administered the 
Metropolitan Reading Readiness Test. Students with scores less than 40 
were assigned to readiness classes for the remainder of the year. The 
readiness students participated in direct manipulative experiences built 
aroung the following core areas: (a) fine motor control, (b) five senses, (c) 
problem-solving skills, (d) oral language, (e) mathematics, and (0 art, 
music, health, social studies, and science. 

Student records of the experimental and control groups furnished 
Metropolitan Achievement Test results in grade one and Scott Foresman 
Norm Referenced Test results in grades three through five in reading and 
mathematics. 

The / test was used to test the null hypotheses. The level of significance 
for rejecting or accepting the null hypotheses was set at .05. 

Results 

Findings of the study were: 

1. The control group scored significantly higher (P= .01) than the 
experimental group in reading at grade levels one, three, four, and five. 

2. The control group scored significantly higher (P= .01) than the 
experimental group in mathematics at grade levels one, three, four, and 
five. 

3. There was no significant difference between the control and 
experimental group means in mathematics at grade three. 

Conclusions 

Based on analysis of the data it was concluded that: 

1. The developmental students never attained like scores in reading of 
the nondevelopmental students in grades one, three, four, and five. 

2. The developmental students never attained like scores in 
mathematics of nondevelopmental students in grades four and five. 

3. The nondevelopmental and developmental students attained like 
scores in mathematics at grade level three. 



42 



A DESCRIPTIVE EXPLORATION OF THE 
IMPOSTER PHENOMENON 

Judith Anne Horton 
(MA, Psychology, March, 1987) 

In their work with high achieving women, Clance and Imes (1978) 
identified a pattern of self-doubt which they named the imposter 
phenomenon, connoting an inner sense of intellectual phoniness which 
persists despite objective evidence of one's ability and success. This study 
analyses dialogal interviews in order to examine the experience and 
meaning of the impostor phenomenon for the individual. Participants 
were six self-described impostor phenomenon sufferers. The empirical, 
descriptive methodology used provides a basis for contextualizing the 
relative significance of themes which emerge from the analysis of the data, 
as well as for evaluating the pertinence of the traditionally derived findings 
of previous research. The findings, although congruent with Clance and 
Imes' theoretical constructs, go beyond them in identifying how the 
"impostor" experiences herself, others, and achievement situations. It was 
found that the impostor phenomenon arises out of the interaction of 
polarized thinking with a sensitivity to the critical evaluation of others, and 
an identification with one's expressive rather than one's instrumental 
abilities. 



A STUDY OF TEACHERS' OPINIONS TOWARD 
MERIT PAY IN DOUGLAS COUNTY 

Maria L. Hutton 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, June, 1985) 

The purpose of this study was to study teachers' opinions toward merit 
pay. Elementary, middle, and secondary teachers' opinions were 
compared as were union and nonunion teachers. 

The population of the study consisted of the 173 elementary, middle, 
and secondary teachers in Douglas County during 1984-85. A 20-item 
questionnaire was developed by the researcher. Numerical values were 
assigned to the 20 merit pay statements to enable the researcher to analyze 
the data. Chi square was used and the .05 level of significance was 
established as the level at which the null hypothesis would be rejected. 

The results indicated that there were five merit pay statements out of 20 
that were significant when comparing elementary, middle, and secondary 
teachers. There was one significant statement when comparing union and 
nonunion teachers. Teachers did not favor being evaluated by the 
principal, committee or peer teachers, curriculum specialist, and 

43 



department head. The teachers agreed with their attendance, academic 
credits, individual projects, group projects and classroom performance 
being used as merit pay criteria. 



THE EXPERIENCE OF TRANSFORMATION THROUGH 
THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE 

Donna L. King 
(MA, Psychology, December, 1986) 

It is my intention in this paper to explore the psychological life of the 
body and to better understand how meaning is expressed through our 
embodiment. Specifically, I am interested in the psychological 
transformation which occurs when we embrace a radically new motility. 
My point of departure will be a phenomenological analysis of a group of 
the Alexander technique students, all of whom describe their experience as 
dramatically changed since embarking on a course of Alexander lessons. 

1 will begin my paper with a review of the literature on the Alexander 
technique  its history, praxis, and research methods. Following, I will 
present a method of phenomenological research and apply it to the study 
of five students of the Alexander technique. This section will culminate 
with a description of the general structure of the experience of 
transformation through the Alexander technique. Finally, I will conclude 
with a discussion section in which 1 draw conclusions based on my 
findings, relate these to others in the field of phenomenological and 
psychoanalytic psychology, and make suggestions for further study and 
investigations. 

My interest in the Alexander technique began while I was living and 
working in New York City. Coming from a background of music, 
movement and psychology, 1 had heard of the Alexander technique from 
several acquaintances in the performing world. Alexander work was said 
to be subtle body work, involving gentle touch by a teacher along with 
certain instructions to "keep the head forward and up," and, "let the back 
lengthen and widen." Some people said they benefited from Alexander 
while others complained they felt little or nothing during lessons. Having 
had some difficulty in breathing freely while singing, and being at a 
crossroad in my career pursuits, 1 decided to try Alexander lessons and see 
what they could offer me. 

Very early on, one of the most striking aspects of my lessons was the 
surge of emotions I felt when the teacher worked on certain parts of my 
body. I recognized that there seemed to be key areas of my body that when 
touched in a certain way, or encouraged to move or let go, elicited a wave 
of sadness or fear, or occasionally a sense of incredible release and 

44 



unburdenment. I felt an unhinging of psychological meaning, and I was 
fascinated by the fact that there was very little verbal communication going 
on between me and the teacher. These meaningful emotions emerged in 
tandem with the special tough of her hands and the deeply penetrating 
awareness with which I was feeling and sensing my body. 1 felt I was 
gaining new access to understanding myself in the world, a heightened 
awareness of being embodied. Conversation with my teacher revealed the 
commonality of my experience with those of other students of the 
Alexander technique. 

The existence of this phenomenon was apparent, yet nowhere in the 
literature of the Alexander technique could I find research which 
satisfactorily described or analyzed the structure of the experience. It was 
an uncharted frontier and I the self-appointed pioneer exploring what 
many called "ephemeral" terrain. Armed with a novice understanding of 

phenomenological methodology and some important mentors to guide me 
along the way, 1 embarked on a quest that was to become this project: the 
pursuit of the phenomenon of transformation through the practice of the 
Alexander technique.. 



THE BATTLE OF JONESBORO: 

A LOCAL HISTORY PARADIGM AND ENRICHMENT UNIT FOR 

SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS IN 

SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA 

James W. Leach 
(EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1985) 

The purpose of this historical project is to provide structured materials 
which will serve as a local history paradigm and as an enrichment unit for 
social studies teachers in south Fulton County. The structured materials 
will be useful in teaching a portion of the history of the area which used to 
be Campbell County. 

This historical project consists of the following sections: (1) a review of 
the literature relevant to the teaching of local history (chapter 2), (2) a 
descriptive narrative of the Battle of Jonesboro accompanied by maps and 
illustrations (chapters 3-5), (3) a reader's guide of the literature pertaining 
to the Battle of Jonesboro (chapter 6), (4) a long-and-short driving tour of 
the area concerning the Battle of Jonesboro (chapter 7), (5) a summary of 
recommendations about doing a local history, and (6) the means for 
implementing this historical project (chapter 8). Social studies teachers 
will greatly benefit from the plethora of information presented in this 
historical project. 



45 



A STUDY OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN THE 
GIFTED EDUCATION PROGRAM IN FAYETTE COUNTY 

Mary G. Perry 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1986) 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether parents are actively 
involved in elementary gifted programs. Both parents and teachers of 
gifted students were surveyed. The subjects were the parents of the 423 
students and the eight teachers of the elementary gifted students in Fayette 
County, Georgia, in May, 1 986. A six item questionnaire was developed by 
the researcher, and results were analyzed using a Chi square formula with 
.0 1 level of significance established as the level at which the null hypothesis 
would be rejected. The results indicated that parents are not active in their 
child's program of gifted education. Parents do not feel they regularly 
communicate with the teacher, but do believe they understand what their 
child does in the gifted classes. Teachers tend to see parents as being more 
involved and report that parents communicate more regularly than the 
parents themselves think they do. Teachers and parents agree parents want 
to be more involved and be better informed about the program, but 
believe other commitments prohibit more participation. 



THE EFFECTS OF SELF-CONCEPT IMPROVEMENT 

STRATEGIES ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT 

IN THE CLASSROOM 

Joan B. Quijano 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, August, 1986) 

This study was designed to determine the results of exposure to a self- 
concept program on mathematical test scores of fifth-grade students. 

Subjects for the study were fifth-grade students at Taylorsville 
Elementary School. The subjects were intact groups found in the two 
fifth-grade classes whose total enrollment was 56 students. The 
experimental group and control group numbered 28 students each. 

The study was conducted over a four week or 20 day period. The 
Systematic Teaching and Measuring Mathematics (STAM M) cluster tests 
were administered for the pretests and the posttests. The test scores from 
the pretest and posttest were used to calculate the analysis of covariance 
which did not result in statistically significant mean gains, at the 0.05 level 
of significance. Therefore the null hypothesis was not rejected. 
Conclusions, educational implications and recommendations for research 
were drawn from the results. 



46 



THE EFFECT OF PHYSICAL MATURITY RATE ON THE 
SELF-CONCEPT OF ADOLESCENT MALES 

Linda Forester Seay 
(EdS, Middle Grades Education, December, 1986) 

This study was done to determine if there was a difference in the self- 
concept of males whose physical maturity was delayed and those whose 
physical maturity occurred at an earlier age. The study also was done to 
determine if self-concept differed between the subjects in the sixth grade 
and those in the eighth grade. A total of eighty-four subjects was identified 
by certified school counselors with the help of certificated physical 
education teachers within the schools from which the subjects were drawn. 
Identification was based on certain physical characteristics indicative of 
the onset and advancement of puberty. The sixth grade subjects were 
within the age limits of 1 1 years months and 12 years 6 months; the eighth 
graders were within age limits of 13 years months and 14 years 6 months. 
The Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale was administered to all subjects by 
the school counselors in a morning test session during April, 1986. After 
the tests were scored, data were analyzed by using the two way analysis of 
variance and tested at a .05 level of significance. No significant difference 
was found to exist due to grade or to physical development. No interaction 
was found to exist among the groups. 



TRANSFORMATION: THE ALCHEMY OF ADDICTION 

Frank Rice Tiller, III 
(MA, Psychology, August, 1986) 

This study was undertaken to demonstrate that the individually 
destructive nature of addiction results from an inner division and polarities 
within the personality, and an inability to conjoin these separated parts 
into a cohesive holistic functioning. The study of Alchemy as a symbolic 
process of deep personality structure and spiritual development is used 
metaphorically within a Jungian context to define and elucidate the ways 
in which these conjunctions may be accomplished through a Program of 
Recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous or other anonymous programs. 
Information regarding the system and imagery of Alchemy as a science of 
transformation is presented in a broad framework to give the reader some 
feeling for the correspondence of symbol that reveals deeper and 
underlying meanings inherent to any Program of Recovery. The major 
historical development of Alcoholics Anonymous is described along with 
foundation concepts to assist all readers in understanding this current 
American self-help system. Poetic, historical, mythological, and 

47 



anthropological parallels are used to communicate spiritual types of 
personality phenomena which otherwise either remain in the realm of 
symbol, or tend to be misinterpreted by popular psychological systems, the 
medical community, and other methods relying on numerical data, 
causative projections, and so forth. An alchemical step formula combined 
with a discussion of the theory of archetypal manifestation is compared 
qualitatively to the growth experience of the Twelve Steps of A. A. and its 
ally organizations. The psychological need for spiritual expression from 
the total personality is discussed, with substance use viewed as a situating 
in time and social context the realization of transcendental absolutes. The 
attainment of experiential states such as those described by alchemy and 
later by such researchers as Huxley and Maslow are seen as a normal 
human function, and related to the arising Self as personality/ existential 
meaning through a Program of Recovery. 



POST-SECONDARY FOLLOW-UP OF LEARNING DISABLED 
ADOLESCENTS HAVING RECEIVED VOCATIONAL TRAINING 

Janet M. Turner 
(EdS, Special Education, March, 1987) 

The impact of vocational/ technical training at the secondary level of 
learning disabled students is analyzed to see if it has any bearing on the 
future vocational choice of those students. The analysis is figured by the 
follow-up of several learning disabled students who completed a year long 
vocational/ technical training course while in high school to see if they 
continued in that same area of training upon graduation. Results will give 
some indication of whether or not vocational training for learning disabled 
students is of any benefit in helping them to determine a vocation upon 
graduation. Significance to the field of education will be as to whether or 
not these vocational training programs have any impact at all on these 
students. 



THE EXPOSURE TO CAREERS IN YOUNG ADULT NOVELS: 

AN ASSESSMENT 

Robert E. Twiggs 
(EdS, Secondary Education, December, 1986) 

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent of information that 
can be obtained about careers through the reading of young adult (YA) 
novels. One area examined was the degree or level of exposure that junior 
and senior high school students receive to adult careers in YA novels. 

48 



Another aspect of the study was to evaluate the portrayal of the adult in a 
particular career and to ascertain whether that portrayal is either negative, 
positive, or neutral. A third area of concern in this study was to determine 
whether a trend exists in YA novels toward portraying any particular 
socio-economic group. 

A total of twenty-two novels was selected from the "Best Books" lists of 
Booklists for five years. The researcher read each of the selected novels 
thereby determining which careers were presented in each novel. The 
researcher noted the type of career based on level of skill required and 
whether the job was held by an adult or a teenager. 

In addition to the above, the researcher noted whether the characters 
and their careers were portrayed negatively, positively, or neutrally. Nine 
career factors were evaluated: words associated with the career, ethical 
standards within the career, actions within the career, actions outside the 
career, emotional reward of the career, the handling of stress related to the 
career, lifestyle afforded by the career, and views of career held by other 
characters. 

Conclusions drawn from this study indicate that in general adults and 
their careers in YA novels are portrayed in a neutral manner. The data 
indicated that exceptions did exist but that in most instances when an adult 
character was portrayed negatively in areas of his/her career he/she was 
portrayed positively or neutrally in other career factors. The data also 
indicated that educators were the most numerous adult group in YA 
novels. Clerks and food service personnel along with medical personnel 
were the next most prevalent groups. No single socio-economic group was 
given special treatment by YA novelists. The number of characters from 
the three skill levels was virtually equal as was their portrayal. 

From the data and the review of the literature, the researcher concluded 
that using YA novels as a component of career awareness in conjunction 
with literature study is a viable choice for the classroom teacher, the school 
librarian, and the vocational and/or guidance counselor. 



THE EFFECT OF VARIATIONS IN THE 

FORMATIVE-FEEDBACK-CORRECTIVE CYCLE ON 

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY 

Daisy G. Waldrep 
(EdS, Secondary Education, August, 1985) 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a 
significant difference in the achievement of high school chemistry students 
due to variations in the formative-feedback-corrective cycle in a mastery 

49 



learning program. Achievement measures were scores on seven summative 
tests. Three intact classes were randomly assigned to three treatments: (1) 
no formative testing, (2) formative testing followed by feedback only, and 
(3) formative testing followed by feedback with suggested correctives. The 
treatments were reassigned during the study so that each class was exposed 
to each treatment. The prior course average was used to adjust for the 
effect of pre-knowledge. Analysis of covariance procedures on each of the 
seven summative tests indicated no significant differences between the 
three treatments or when formative testing was compared to no formative 
testing. When the two treatments with formative tests were compared, the 
results were not consistent. For three of the seven summative tests, 
significant differences were indicated between students who had 
correctives and those who had feedback only. Students who had 
correctives performed significantly better on these three objectives. No 
other significant differences were found. 



A COMPARISON OF TRADITIONAL AND VISUAL FORMS 
METHODS IN ENGLISH COMPOSITION INSTRUCTION 

Kathleen S. Yeneha 
(EdS, Secondary Education, March, 1987) 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether seventh-grade 
students from regular language arts classes would show greater 
achievement gain in composition after having been instructed in 
exposition by visual forms methods that those students who were 
instructed by traditional methods. Sixty-one students participated in the 
study. Thirty-three students formed the experimental group, and 29 
students were in the control group. The study was conducted during a 1 5- 
day instructional period during which time both groups were instructed in 
basic paragraph and essay development. Class periods were 55 minutes in 
length. The control group was instructed by traditional methods using 
lecture, basic textbook information, and worksheet activities. Only the 
experimental group included the use of "Hub and Spokes, ""S-curve, "and 
pyramid visual forms as illustration of the structure of paragraph and 
essay development. No visual forms were used by the control group. 
Personal essays were written by both groups as pretest and posttest writing 
samples before and after the 15-day instruction period. Scores obtained 
from these tests were used as data to test the null hypothesis which stated 
that there would be no significant difference in the writing achievement of 
students instructed by visual forms methods as opposed to instruction by 
traditional methods. The null hypothesis was tested using the Analysis of 
Variance at the .05 level of significance and was not accepted since the 

50 



mean gain score of the experimental group was 1.0, from pretest to 
posttest, whereas the mean gain score of the control group was 10.0 from 
pretest to posttest. The difference between the two means resulted in a 
ratio of F(l, 56) = 4.29, p .05. 



51 



//