Blunder or Blessing?*

In an unprecedented move a couple weeks ago, the university announced that most non-freshman students must relocate to off-campus housing next semester to accommodate the hoards of new students attending Ole Miss in the fall. As could be expected, many current students are outraged at the decision, having to make other living arrangements on such short notice. Although many students had not planned on staying on campus next year anyways, many are unexpectedly being forced to find off-campus housing. As a student on our busy campus, I have become exposed to many complaints about this unfortunate circumstance. However, take it from me, this is the best thing that has ever happened.

Dorm life on campus is horrendous.

Being a resident of Stockard Hall, I have talked to many fellow residents very recently. I have heard many accounts about the dorm life in general in this building specifically and other dorms on campus. In Stockard, the way of life for any student is significantly inhibited. The lobby comes fully furnished with broken furniture, half-eaten burgers on the floor, and a brand new flat screen television which is never turned on. The elevators are always broken, sometimes causing many of the 500 residents to be late for class or other meetings. The hallways boast a wide variety of decaying foods scattered along the floor (with no garbage cans in sight, despite requests by the residents) and the aroma of the molding garbage chute rooms located on each floor. The bathrooms have mildewing pieces of food in the sinks, empty toilet paper canisters, and ants trailing towards the showers.

Wireless internet on campus is barbaric.

This full school year, I am paying just under 20,000 dollars to attend Ole Miss. About 6,000 of that is housing. As a freshman, I am required to live on campus this year, so there is no manipulating my way out of staying in this hell hole. Paying that much money should qualify me to be able to access my mandatory online homework, right? Not a chance. So far in this semester alone, I have been late on 3 assignments and had to trek to the library at midnight or later twice to complete assignments that I could not access on my laptop due to the wretched wireless internet on our campus. We are on a university campus in the 21^st century, so I never expected to have to deal with this kind of treatment.

Parking on campus is atrocious.

Are you aware that Ole Miss is one of the two SEC campuses that does not have a parking garage? I bet you aren’t surprised in the least bit. For those of us fortunate enough to have a vehicle on campus, we know that parking even at our own residence halls is nearly impossible. At Stockard, if the main lot is full, you are required to park literally half a mile away from the dorm on top of a 50 foot cliff (no exaggeration). Think you can back into a non-Stockard parking space for ten minutes without getting a ticket? That thought will inevitably empty your pocketbook in the form of a sizable ticket every single time.

When the university told me I had to move off campus next year, I was thrilled beyond comprehension. Words cannot accurately express my pleasure in this new rule. Next year, I am living in an apartment that will be cleaned and maintained to my liking, I will have working internet at all hours of the day, and I will ride a bus to my classes without having to worry about parking. I honestly take pity in the freshman next year that have to go through what I have gone through at Stockard and on campus.

The administration, the faculty, the alumni, and the student leaders need to figure this situation out now. It’s a good thing I love Ole Miss so much, or I would probably have transferred by now. I want things to get better because more students as disgruntled as I am can only lead to bad things for the future of our beloved Ole Miss.

Your Baby Can't Read*

Have you ever been up late at night flipping through the channels on the television? If you have, then you have probably seen the hoards of infomercials that pitch “the next great product” to the viewer. On any given night, you can see a wide variety of products that are being advertised. In an insomnia-induced trance at about 3 in the morning last week, I flipped on the television. Of course, there was nothing good on, so I left it on one channel that caught my attention.

On this infomercial, a middle-aged man narrated something like this: “What if I told you your baby can read? Well, it’s true. Our scientists have come up with a way to teach your baby to read.” I was immediately hooked. The commercial went on to show children under the age of 4 reading the words that their parents showed them on flashcards. Words like “dog”, “cat”, “word”, and “ball” were being shown to these kids and they would say them aloud. I was blown away.

I wondered if this could possibly be real. I was immediately skeptical, for obvious reasons. These kids can’t even walk on their own or make a legitimate sentence, and they are reading words one after the next. On to Google.

After reading numerous reviews, I was slightly taken back at the negative comments, but was even more blown away by the positive reviews that people were actually giving this product. “My three year old son has been using the product for about 6 months now and he can read some words out of books and magazines.”

The product uses videos shown on a television to “enhance memorization skills”. Now I was beginning to understand. Many of the negative reviews online stated that the product only allows children to memorize the shapes of the words, not actually learn the letters and put them together to form a word. Nevertheless, these children are technically reading.

Okay, it works. So what is the big picture here? For starters, we are screwed.

The creators of this product are absolutely insane. What could they have possibly been thinking to influence them to make a product like this? In kindergarten, most of us were taught to read by a specific, proven-to-work method—the same process that has always been used. Learn the individual letters, put the letters together to form words, and put the words together to form sentences.

This “innovative” product is teaching children to memorize the shape and length of the words, and recall that information. In other words, it is teaching children the wrong way to read.

Are you proud of your 3 year old that can read the word “jam”? Wait a couple years until they go to kindergarten. Their whole process of learning to read and process words will be turned around completely, and they will get behind. There are numerous studies that have proved it.

Just a few weeks ago in the State of the Union, President Obama addressed the poor education levels in our country. Products like this one I saw on the television is not going to do anything to help this problem. It will further increase the problem, if anything. These parents trying to get a head start on the education of their babies are really creating a barrier in the education of their children.

You cannot expect a three year old to be able to read under any circumstances, so why try? Effective parenting in our country is degrading quickly, and that has to be a reason why the United States is ranked 9^th in the world in literacy rates.

Products like this should be outlawed in our country. They are holding our children back from making the United States a leader in education. I’m looking at you, Congress.