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Page Two ne

THE COLLEGE NEWS

Friday, November 17, 1967



C7



Shrewd Reply
To the Editor;

I am writing in reference to
some well deserved criticism I
have heard of my review of ‘The
Taming of the Shrew.’’

. Perhaps fittingly for the pro-
duction, there was not quite enough
of anything in my review. Or
rather, what there was enough of, -
there was too much of,

I question whether anyone wants
to or should read more than 11
inches or so of someone else’s
opinion of a dramatic production.
At the same time, I feel there
should be a sort of hierarchic
distribution of space in a col-
lege newspaper. The length of my
review was in no way a sugges-
tion as to the importance of the
play.

There is no doubt that it was
of greater moment to the college
community than, for example, a
movie version of “Hamlet.’”? The

--“pelative brevity of my comments



was rather a journalistic concern
over the length of some of my
other pieces. This was an econ-
omy I should not have practiced*
at the expense of the College.
Theatre. ‘
Similarly, sincere if not terri-
bly contrite apologies are prob-
ably due the costume committee,
at whose expense | indulged in
some sarcastic rhetoric. Again,
the fact that three sentences were
devoted to the costumes and only
one to the music, for instance,
does not show that the costumes
were three times as important,
or as good, or as bad, or as
anything.
~] did my best to cover. the per-
formance and to sum it up as I
saw it. I think five incisive sen-
tences are better than fifteen cir-
cumloquacious, repetitive ones,
and I tried: to produce the form-
er, 1I-wish I could. have written
fifteen incisive ones, and perhaps
someday I will trust myself to do
it, but I do not feel justified in
stretching my capabilities at the.
expense of COLLEGE NEWS read-
ers.

Mary Laura Gibbs '70
Critical Holocausts

To the Editor:

On behalf of the Bryn Mawr
College Theatre and the Haver-

Letters to the Editor

ford College Drama Club, I would
like to extend my apologies to the
reviewer of ‘‘The Taming of the
Shrew’? for subjecting her to such
an unpleasant and fruitless eve-
ning. F

I would also like to point out,
however, that despite the often:

caustic tenor of his verbal holo-—

causts, Alexander Woolcott was
able to metamorphize a fiasco
into a moderately meaningful ex-
perience for both himself and the
theatre companies. A thought-
ful critical attitude is usually more
rewarding to everyone involved

than a devastatingly negative one. .

Betsy Kreeger '68
Vice President,
College Theatre

Distorted View

To the Editor:
Miss Mary -Laura Gibbs, the
most recent drama critic of Bryn

Mawr and Haverford productions, —

has revedled in her review-a
condescending, if not distorted
view of ‘‘The Taming of the
Shrew.’’

All too eager’ to condemn the

production for not having ‘‘quite.

enough of anything’? she failed to
note an admirable and polished
balance which characterized the
pace and tenor of the play. Her
textual understanding seems ‘‘un-
easily fuzzy’’ as she is surprised
that Petruchio is allowed to over-
come Kate. I may be mistaken, but

. T assumed that this was the gen-

eral idea ... Insofar as interpre-
tation of the material, a realm
in which Miss Gibbs feels there is
an ‘‘apparent lack,’? our critic
may have been too busy thinking
about Mr. Swann’s ‘‘cloying habit
of tossing his hair back’’ to ob-
serve the interpretation presented
in the first mieeting of Kate and
Petruchio; an idea of:.‘‘love at
first sight,’’ obviously not the
only possible interpretation of the
drama, but certainly a plausible
and effective one as it is car-
ried throughout the play.

What she calls ‘‘generally good
timing’? is to me a huge under-
statement. The actors move onand
off stage with a professional ease,
as do they pick up their lines
in a manner that can only be
called extremely well-timed. Thus
what Miss Gibbs calls a half-

hearted performance seems to me
to be a vibrant production.

The purpose of a review, even
on a college campus, is not to
give . unending and inordinate
praise to one’s peers; but at the
same time it should not be used
as a means to discuss frayed
costumes, unless one considers
this to be an essential flaw in the
art form (‘‘Fie, Fie unknit thy
threatening, unkind brow’’),

Instead this review might have
mentioned just once the name of
Mr. Paul Hofstetler, under whose
direction ‘‘The Taming of the
Shrew’? became a well-balanced,
well-paced, dynamic production in
which a number of actors dis-
played an uncontestable talent.

In short, Mr. Kopff and Miss
Ford -interacted with a vibrant
cast to present, in my opinion,
one of the finest shows seen on
the Haverford and Bryn Mawr
campuses in the past four years.

Lynne Meadow °68

Reviewer's Notes

To “Critical Holocausts”:
I never felt under sub-
jection, nor did I feel the

evening unpleasant or fruitless!

I am more flattered than you
know, and undoubtedly more than
you intended, by your reference
to Alexander Woolcott in relation
to my review, I wish I were of
his calibre, in the business of
writing caustic, verbal holocausts
or of metamorphizing, but I am
not, In order to metamorphoze at
all however, one must first see
a definite form in one’s raw
material, This is easy with a
diamond, or with a porcupine, but
more difficult with sludge,

Mary Laura Gibbs
To “Distorted View”: Mire

Glad you thought so!

I did not say that Petruchio
was allowed to overcome Kate.
I said that Chris Kopff was al-
lowed to overpower Kay Ford.
The idea of love at first sight
is a very common and comple-
tely believable interpretation of
the meeting of Kate and Petruchio;
I regretted that this interpreta-
tion was betrayed in our product-
ion only for a matter of seconds,
in their glance before either spoke,
and subsequently shelved.

Mary Laura Gibbs

Pass/Fail |

To the Editor:
Yale University has just insti-
tuted a new method of grading,

‘the pass/fail system, thus setting

a precedent for overdue revisions
within a system immutable for so
many years, Shouldn’t Bryn Mawr
take this opportunity to reconsider
the value of its present grading
methods? After devoting an entire
year to the infinite problems pre-
sented by the school’s calendar,
shouldn’t we now turn to the equally
compelling question: have we not

-gutgrown our grading system?

Our present grading system is
based on a scale from 0 to 100,
its purpose is to give a just and
meaningful evaluation of a. stu-
dent’s work, But what are its
results? It provides a reward
or stimulus for achievement, Un-
fortunately, the grade often be-
comes the only stimulus, thus
defeating the attempt to instill
in the student a desire for learn-
ing.
meaningful evaluation of the stu-
dent’s work--is such an evaluation
at all feasible under this system?
What is the standard used in de-
ciding whether a paper is to receive
an 82 or 83? Often a professor
is forced to spend time devising
a system by means of which he
can make such an unnecessary
distinction, time that he might
rather spend criticizing the papers
in greater detail, Not only is it
impossible to distinguish between
an 82 and an 83, but it is also
impossible for a professor to es-
tablish the absolute value of a

grade, How canthere bea common.

standard? (As weall know, a paper
which gets an 81 in one English
Comp, course may well reap a
paltry 69.7 in another, Where is
the basis fora just evaluation?)

If our present system encourages’

competition, by setting up symbols
of accomplishment, it should at
least provide an objective basis
for these symbols,
There are many alternatives
within the basic framework of a
pass/fail system, for example,
the honor-satisfactory-unsatis-
factory system, In any pass/fail
system the emphasis shifts from
grades which assume inherent but
misleading values, to comments

-which not only evaluate the spe-

cific papers, but which also lead
to brief but comprehensive analy-
sis of student’s progress and de-
velopment, Too often we are left
to infer comments from numbers,
A pass/fail system enables stu-
dents to work for knowledge and
not for rank in class. Private
standards replace group stand-
ards, (A new system might even
prevent a few neurotic traumas!)

We realize that we have treated
this problem only superficially,
omitting some issues. while only
touching others, Nevertheless we

(Continued on page 9)



And as for the just and



thanksgiving: that used to be
over the river and through the
woods to grandmother’s house
we go

now it’s
into the train and down the
tracks to new york city we go

many years ago when i was
a quite tiny baby owl thanksgiving
mainly meant roast turkey (yes,
sauce and stuffing, mashed po-
tatoes, olives, and juicy orange
pumpkin pie, also ten people
around the table and glasses
of home-made blackberry wine
for each of the grownups,
now that i have joined the not-
to-be-trusted group over twenty
and homemade blackberry wine
has long since seceded its re-
vered place to gin and tonic,
thanksgiving means this;
thanksgiving is cutting wednes-
day classes
thanksgiving is cutting monday
and tuesday classes
thanksgiving is a heaven-sent
breathing space - between two 10-
page papers ee
thanksgiving is new york and
mame
thanksgiving is shopping for
christmas.
THANKSGIVING IS THURSDAY
‘ love
applebee

ee



mM ajo , oi nt

What issues can be sorted out of the tangle of petitions

and minor changes and disappointments involved in the

question of majoring at Haverford while attending Bryn
Mawr? ;

One issue that becomes clear is a certain narrow-
mindedness. Bryn Mawr has a special experience to offer
to its students, and they come to this college to take
advantage of it.

But it can’t give every kind of a course from every kind
of an approach. Where it is lacking, it is lucky to have
Haverford so nearby to complement its curriculum and
faculty. Haverford students major in Italian, Archeology,
History of Art, Geology, and Anthropology at Bryn Mawr
because they can find nothing comparable at their own
school. The merging of the history. and economic depart-
ments of Haverford and Bryn Mawr indicates a recogni-
tion of the courses of both schools as valuable for a major.
Why is there no recognition of the difference between some
Bryn Mawr and Haverford departments, each of which
might be valuable to different kinds of students?

Another thing Bryn Mawr cannot do is determine in
what way a student will become excited about learning.
It can’t guarantee that the source of a student’s excitement
will be found within the Bryn Mawr curriculum.

This brings up the issue of how students choose a
major, and why they find Bryn Mawr’snarrowmindedness
about majoring restricting. One girl interviewed by the

NEWS described her-courses in the religion departmentat

~~Haverford as opening her mind to new ways of thinking “©
and as teaching her to discuss and deal with problems
_- dn the next few weeks. oe




that she feels persona ‘involved in, Being exposed to
these new ideas and encountering these problems has
made her aware of questions and themes inher Bryn Mawr
courses. Isn’t involvement in one area which gives rise to

be considering it for the particular individuals whoapply

questions. about other fields and affects our whole way ot



; Fiditorials

looking at things what we mean by centering interest, or
‘¢majoring?’? Or does majoring mean that, for example, a
girl who wants to study religion struggles over a course
in logic just to fulfill a requirement for a philosophy
major, which is acceptable at Bryn Mawr?

We think that students should be encouraged, not dis-
couraged, from majoring at Haverford if they are sincere-
ly interested in.a particular Haverford department. The
intellectual spirit that is nourished when a student works
in a major thatis meaningful to her will often make her
other classes exciting. And it can make her whole exper-
ience at Bryn Mawr a more learning anda less eeu’
cal one. M,

Marvelous Opportunity

Possibilities for working in the Independent Urban
Education Program in northeast Philadelphia should be
fully explored by all students who are interested in
education, community organizing or civil rights.

The pilot phase of the program will beginin February,
with six students living in Philadelphia and opportunities
for students to work there on a once- or twice-a-week
basis. Originally we had heard that only Haverford
students could live there and receive full semester credit.

‘They’ will be paying tuition to Haverford (to keep their

2-S status), but living in the neighborhood, taking one or
two seminars and writing a paper. Working this way
from February to July or August will equal a full
semester’s credit. Haverford’s Academic bamasinaed

‘The NEWS has since learned that Bryn Mawr students

might be able to work out a similar program. That is,

they might be able to get partial credit or even complete

_ credit for the semester, while living and working in the



f
project area, by having their plan accepted by the
Curriculum Committee and their major department.
Obviously, this will be easier in the social science
departments than others, because they can more easily
adapt their credit requirements to the kind of work and
research the student might be doing. 2

This is a marvelous opportunity for students to offer
their skills, talents, energies and enthusiasm to a
project which is attempting to get at the roots of several
of America’s most difficult problems.» The college
should do everything it can do to encourage students
to take this opportunity and to be as flexible as possible
in allowing credit. K.B,

Cooperation,
Bryn Mawr Style, Il

The roadblocks to joint effort between Haverford and
Bryn Mawr can be seen in the bus situation. Mr. Klug’s
surprise at the statement made by Haverford ‘‘News” that
negotiations for a joint purchase of anew bus are continu-
ing between the two comptrollers shows‘a certain lack of
communication between the schools.

According to Mr. Klug, Haverford‘is buying the bus by. *
themselves, since Bryn Mawr feels that this bus would be-
too small to solve the bus problem.

Judging from the statement ‘‘I stick to by business and
he sticks to his business’’ (another version-of ‘‘I wear a
certain hat and you wear a certain hat’’) it would seem that
‘onty a minimal amount of munication is desired and _
that coordination of ideas is discouraged. ~~~

His conclusion that there has been a greatdeal of mis-
understanding is sad, but true. Perhaps with closer com-
munication, situations like these can be avoided. _ “
N.M.