thumbnail of Front Street Weekly; No. 208; 1982-12-02
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<v Gwyneth Gamble>As academic achievement scores have fallen, educators have reevaluated their methods <v Gwyneth Gamble>for teaching basic skills. <v Jane Cote>Ready? <v Gwyneth Gamble>There are two radically different methods used to teach kids how to read. <v Gwyneth Gamble>In the state of Oregon, every child is entitled to an education, regardless of a <v Gwyneth Gamble>handicap. We'll talk to legal and educational experts about helping children <v Gwyneth Gamble>at a time when money for special programs is disappearing. <v Cal Norman>Mainstreaming, it seems to me, has been around as long as public law 94-142 <v Cal Norman>has been around. It's been a part of the program here all three years that I've been <v Cal Norman>here. <v Gwyneth Gamble>20 years ago, the remote area of Christmas Valley was advertised as the Palm Springs <v Gwyneth Gamble>of Oregon. Unfortunately, the plans for this resort community have become a high desert <v Gwyneth Gamble>mirage. Now, the town may become the site of a sophisticated military radar <v Gwyneth Gamble>complex. <v Resident>I think most of us are kind of proud to be involved in it. <v Resident>And there's also an economic factor that it has to help our community. <v Resident>We're very interested in that.
<v Gwyneth Gamble>Two newly divorced people talk about the singles scene. <v Jerry Burbach>I went into this place with a friend and I did not want to be there. <v Jerry Burbach>I was not in the mood. I had a hard day at work. <v Jerry Burbach>But he convinced me I should not go home. I should go out, and we'd go out to the bars, <v Jerry Burbach>so we did. And I was sitting there and he was out dancing, having a good time. <v Jerry Burbach>There was this girl down at the end of the bar, having just a miserable time as I was. <v Jerry Burbach>So I thought, well, what the heck. I didn't want to dance, I didn't want to do anything. <v Jerry Burbach>I walked up to her and I says, you're having as miserable time as I am, I says, you know, <v Jerry Burbach>can I sit down? She said, Sure. So the two of us just misery together. <v Gwyneth Gamble>We'll take a look at television's profits, Oregon's weathermen. <v Jim Little>Well, it's really a tough question when you ask about accuracy in forecasting. <v Jim Little>Because you have to define what accurate is. For example, if I say the high temperature <v Jim Little>tomorrow is going to be 75, and in fact, it's 76, is that right or wrong? <v Gwyneth Gamble>Good evening. Welcome to Front Street Weekly. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Declining academic achievement in this country has focused attention on elementary school
<v Gwyneth Gamble>reading programs and the way children are being taught the English language. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Tonight, we'll explore various elements that affect early learning. <v Gwyneth Gamble>We'll also look at two radically different approaches to teaching schoolchildren how to <v Gwyneth Gamble>read. <v Gwyneth Gamble>As elementary school children returned to classes this year, they found themselves in the <v Gwyneth Gamble>middle of an ongoing controversy. <v Gwyneth Gamble>The issue has nothing to do with bussing or prayer in the schools, but it is centered on <v Gwyneth Gamble>scholastic achievement and the way basic skills are being taught in the classroom. <v Doug Carnine>The problem is that the country hasn't genuinely made <v Doug Carnine>achievement and excellence in school a priority. <v Doug Carnine>That we're quite content to have kids who are coming out of schools <v Doug Carnine>learning much, much less than what's possible. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Alarmed by a decade of falling achievement test scores, many school administrators, <v Gwyneth Gamble>teachers and parents have begun to take a hard look at educational priorities. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Some school districts have re evaluated the do your own thing attitude of the 1970s
<v Gwyneth Gamble>and are now promoting a renewed emphasis on the basic skills - reading, writing and <v Gwyneth Gamble>arithmetic. Because reading is so critical to learning in general, <v Gwyneth Gamble>much of the attention of the educational community has been focused on the first "R." <v Gwyneth Gamble>In Eugene, administrators at the Four J School District decided to do a total <v Gwyneth Gamble>evaluation of their reading program. <v Mike Brott>We had found ourselves in a place where, on a system wide basis, our readers scores <v Mike Brott>were really not where they should be. We were in a town with a high socio economic area <v Mike Brott>where we got a lot of people with college education or educational level's high. <v Mike Brott>You would expect to see children in this town doing very well academically. <v Mike Brott>That wasn't necessarily true. <v Gwyneth Gamble>There is general agreement that children can improve their reading skills, both in the <v Gwyneth Gamble>area of phonics, decoding of words by sounding out letters and comprehension, <v Gwyneth Gamble>understanding what the words mean. <v Gwyneth Gamble>But there is no consensus among educators about the best way to teach these skills or <v Gwyneth Gamble>about the materials to be used in the classrooms.
<v Mike Brott>We couldn't find a single textbook, for example, our last adoption that <v Mike Brott>really met all the phonics skills and the later comprehension skills that needed to <v Mike Brott>be developed. So we had to adopt more than one and say this one's really good at <v Mike Brott>the primary level. This one is much better at the upper level. <v child>[child reading] <v Gwyneth Gamble>Traditionally, school reading programs have relied heavily upon Basil textbooks to teach <v Gwyneth Gamble>basic reading skills. Over the years as textbook publishing has become very <v Gwyneth Gamble>lucrative and highly competitive, the Dick and Jane readers that most of us remember <v Gwyneth Gamble>have been replaced by Basils that contain a wide variety of characters, stories and <v Gwyneth Gamble>illustrations. But critics like author Bruno Bettelheim claim that textbook <v Gwyneth Gamble>publishers are making stories less challenging and offering fewer vocabulary words. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Teachers who use the new books in their classrooms, however, like some of the changes. <v Linda Handshaw>The textbook companies have have put a great deal of money <v Linda Handshaw>in to making sure that, for example, there's no sexism
<v Linda Handshaw>in books, there's no racism in books, that the pictures are fantastic. <v Gwyneth Gamble>But even with the best textbooks, many children are failing to learn how to read. <v Gwyneth Gamble>And some educators are blaming other parts of the system. <v Siegfried Englemann>There are many problems with the traditional scheme. <v Siegfried Englemann>These include not only textbooks, but the structure of school <v Siegfried Englemann>systems, the structure of colleges, of education, and to a large extent, <v Siegfried Englemann>the way teachers are reinforced through teacher unions or through district policies <v Siegfried Englemann>that are the sum total of the current <v Siegfried Englemann>traditional system is it is not designed to teach <v Siegfried Englemann>kids. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Ziggy Engelmann, professor of special education at the University of Oregon, has long <v Gwyneth Gamble>been critical of traditional approaches to teaching reading. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Experimenting with new instructional methods, his success in teaching disadvantaged <v Gwyneth Gamble>children how to read has gained him a national reputation and a growing number of
<v Gwyneth Gamble>followers in the educational community. <v Siegfried Englemann>The thing that's wrong with American education is that there is no <v Siegfried Englemann>focus on kid performance, that instead there is <v Siegfried Englemann>justification for doing things the way they're done. <v Siegfried Englemann>So a teacher does something and a percentage of the kids don't learn. <v Siegfried Englemann>Who's blamed? The kids, always. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Engelmann and several colleagues have formed the Engelmann Becker Corporation to develop <v Gwyneth Gamble>educational materials which are marketed under the name Distar and to train teachers <v Gwyneth Gamble>in their direct instruction methods. <v Gwyneth Gamble>The Distar program provides teachers with a very detailed script for teaching word <v Gwyneth Gamble>decoding skills based on Englemann's philosophy that every child can be taught. <v Siegfried Englemann>In our programs, they're taught. <v Siegfried Englemann>There is not just merely exposure. <v Siegfried Englemann>So those programs, are they appropriate for all kids? <v Siegfried Englemann>Yes. Or like we can demonstrate that that will increase <v Siegfried Englemann>the kid's rate of acquisition of reading skills, make them better readers, <v Siegfried Englemann>and do so at a faster rate.
<v Jane Cote>Let's go back to this word and see if you can read it the fast way. <v Jane Cote>Make sure you're sitting up nice and tall so I can hear you reading. <v Jane Cote>Ready? <v Jane Cote>[children reading] What word? Good sounding out. <v Jane Cote>Here's a fast one. <v Jane Cote>Sound it out. Ready? <v Jane Cote>[children reading] What word? Cow. Now let's read this one. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Jane Côté is using the Distar program to teach this first grade class the relationship <v Gwyneth Gamble>between letters and sounds. <v Jane Cote>Ready? <v Gwyneth Gamble>Using direct instruction techniques, she cues responses, corrects mistakes <v Gwyneth Gamble>and rewards appropriate answers with praise. <v Jane Cote>Good, you didn't get tricked on any of your sounds. <v Jane Cote>Let's sound out a real hard word. <v Jane Cote>Sound it out. <v Jane Cote>I prefer the Distar program over other methods of teaching <v Jane Cote>because it is sequential and the students <v Jane Cote>are taught exactly what they need to know to figure
<v Jane Cote>out what the words are. <v Jane Cote>Nothing is left to chance. <v Jane Cote>Nice reading, Jeremy. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Although there is much data to support the effectiveness of Distar, many teachers <v Gwyneth Gamble>disagree with the total focus on phonics and are uncomfortable with the regimentation in <v Gwyneth Gamble>the classroom. <v Christine Pappas>Who is in control? In Distar the teacher is in control. <v Christine Pappas>In my language experience approach, the child is in control <v Christine Pappas>and the teacher is a facilitator, an encourager and knowing <v Christine Pappas>what what kinds of materials that will be interested interesting making <v Christine Pappas>decisions about instruction based on the strengths of the particular child and what <v Christine Pappas>the child needs to know next. <v Christine Pappas> <v Gwyneth Gamble>Dr. Chris Pappas, also an educator at the University of Oregon, approaches the teaching <v Gwyneth Gamble>of reading from a totally different perspective. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Her language experience philosophy is based on the idea that children will be motivated <v Gwyneth Gamble>to read if the material is meaningful. <v Gwyneth Gamble>She says that students come to school wanting to read and rather than focus the process
<v Gwyneth Gamble>on repetitive drills, the teacher should encourage the child to engage in the activity <v Gwyneth Gamble>of reading. <v Christine Pappas>The only way children can learn to read is by reading. <v Christine Pappas>They learn to talk by talking. <v Christine Pappas>They learn to walk by walking. <v Christine Pappas>They're going to learn to read by reading. <v Christine Pappas>And they'll learn to write by writing. <v Christine Pappas>And I mean real live writing activities, reading activities <v Christine Pappas>that have functional use in their own lives. <v Peggy Winbigler>What else can Rabbit do, Kelly? <v child>Run fast. <v Peggy Winbigler>You want to put fast right here then? You want to spell fast for me?. <v child>F-a-s-t. <v Peggy Winbigler>Good girl, run fast. <v Gwyneth Gamble>In Peggy Winbigler's language experience, class children list descriptive words <v Gwyneth Gamble>about familiar subjects and use these words to make up written stories which they then <v Gwyneth Gamble>learn to read. <v Peggy Winbigler>If you want a child to read, you have to give him a reason to read.
<v Peggy Winbigler>He should read not just to say words or read sentences for the teacher. <v Peggy Winbigler>He should read because he wants to find out things. <v Peggy Winbigler>He should read because he wants to use words in other ways. <v Peggy Winbigler>So language experience is really being motivated to write your own ideas, <v Peggy Winbigler>which you read and share with other folks. <v child>The rabbit can change colors in the winter. <v Gwyneth Gamble>The language experience approach is based on the belief that children will learn to read <v Gwyneth Gamble>by being motivated to use new words in creating their own stories. <v Gwyneth Gamble>But this method puts a lot of responsibility on young students, and in some cases, they <v Gwyneth Gamble>find it difficult to respond. <v Siegfried Englemann>The traditional educational philosophy is that we expose - some <v Siegfried Englemann>kids, learn it, some kids don't. <v Siegfried Englemann>If the kids don't, it's their fault because of inadequacies in terms of the way they're <v Siegfried Englemann>wired or their home environment or something over which we have no control, <v Siegfried Englemann>that the basic message and the basic philosophy in which we really believe <v Siegfried Englemann>is that if we know how to teach it, the kids know how to learn it.
<v Gwyneth Gamble>Engelmann's Distar program emphasizes direct instruction <v Gwyneth Gamble>techniques and puts the primary responsibility for learning on the teacher. <v Gwyneth Gamble>But by following a predetermined sequence, this approach sometimes fails to accommodate <v Gwyneth Gamble>what the child already knows about language. <v Christine Pappas>With respect to Distar, the assumption is that there is a blank <v Christine Pappas>slate and that the teacher has all the knowledge and we are somehow <v Christine Pappas>giving that child those bits of knowledge. <v Christine Pappas>Children come to school with lots of different backgrounds, and so <v Christine Pappas>teachers need to be careful observers about what they already know. <v Christine Pappas>And you are making, then, decisions of instruction based on <v Christine Pappas>what children already know. <v Peggy Winbigler>I really don't believe that any one program is good for all <v Peggy Winbigler>children. That's why we have several to choose from. <v Peggy Winbigler>And we try to we try to <v Peggy Winbigler>make sure that the child has the reading program that's best for them.
<v Mike Brott>I think education in general has moved towards the more individualized approach <v Mike Brott>because. <v Mike Brott>We've learned how to organize better, we've learned to better instructional techniques, <v Mike Brott>we learn better diagnostic techniques. <v Mike Brott>Once we do that, then we look for a variety of teaching styles in a variety <v Mike Brott>of materials, are going to meet the various needs of the kids. <v Gwyneth Gamble>While it seems that no single approach to reading works in all situations, one thing on <v Gwyneth Gamble>which all sides agree is that children are greatly influenced by their parents' reading <v Gwyneth Gamble>habits. Children who see their parents enjoying reading and whose parents enjoy <v Gwyneth Gamble>reading to them will be motivated to read no matter what methods they're exposed to at <v Gwyneth Gamble>school. <v Peggy Winbigler>I make sure that the kids now I love to read, and I think the fact that they <v Peggy Winbigler>are reading that they have books around them all the time is the thing that will <v Peggy Winbigler>stimulate them and motivate them to read. <v Peggy Winbigler>Not just me teaching them to read.
<v Peggy Winbigler>I think it goes far beyond that. <v Doug Carnine>The key is that improving educational excellence <v Doug Carnine>involves many different actors, we might say. <v Doug Carnine>It involves the publishers, the colleges of education, the teachers, the <v Doug Carnine>parents, all of these people, through their <v Doug Carnine>attitudes to their skills and what they support, are going to have a big effect <v Doug Carnine>on how well students are going to do in school. <v Gwyneth Gamble>But whether educators choose Distar or a language experience approach in the 1980s, <v Gwyneth Gamble>high technology will also greatly affect children's performance in school and the way <v Gwyneth Gamble>they relate to reading. Some children are becoming readers by watching television. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Others are spending time with video instead of reading. <v Gwyneth Gamble>And others are learning whole new languages. <v Gwyneth Gamble>While computers may replace books as sources of information, reading will still be a <v Gwyneth Gamble>necessary skill in the electronic age. <v Gwyneth Gamble>And no matter how much we come to depend on machines, nothing can replace the experience
<v Gwyneth Gamble>of reading a good book. <v child>You are with me and here I am with you. <v child>Oh, what a happy birthday, dear dragon. That's all. <v Gwyneth Gamble>While national S.A.T. scores have declined steadily since the late 60s, there are <v Gwyneth Gamble>indications that this trend is being reversed. <v Gwyneth Gamble>In Eugene's public schools, reading scores have gone up in recent years, and officials <v Gwyneth Gamble>there say that several problems have been identified and corrected. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Despite the controversy over teaching approaches, there are some hopeful signs that our <v Gwyneth Gamble>children can improve their reading skills, one of the most vital indicators of <v Gwyneth Gamble>scholastic achievement. <v Kevin McGovern>In recent years, children with learning disabilities and serious handicaps have been <v Kevin McGovern>receiving special education designed to help them improve their basic skills. <v Kevin McGovern>Also, emphasis has been placed on making learning disabled children feel part of the <v Kevin McGovern>ordinary school environment.
<v Kevin McGovern>This as a result of a federal law requiring the least restrictive education for <v Kevin McGovern>all students, regardless of handicaps. <v Kevin McGovern>Federal law 94-142. <v Kevin McGovern>While the law represents hope for thousands of families and their children in the <v Kevin McGovern>northwest, it is not without controversy. <v Kevin McGovern>Ben Pedro reports. <v Ben Pedro>For many children, going to public school and studying the basics is taken for granted. <v Ben Pedro>But for children with disabilities, a regular classroom experience is new and exciting <v Ben Pedro>because in the past they have been shut out, excluded from the environment their <v Ben Pedro>peers enjoyed. Public law 94-142 <v Ben Pedro>was designed specifically to protect these handicapped children. <v Ben Pedro>The law requires a, quote, "free and appropriate public education <v Ben Pedro>for all handicapped children in the least restrictive environment." <v Ben Pedro>Mainstreaming <v Ben Pedro>evolved directly from that law.
<v Ben Pedro>Now, both mentally and physically handicapped are being integrated into the public school <v Ben Pedro>system. Well, Hurst Elementary is one of the many schools in the Portland <v Ben Pedro>area involved in the program. <v Cal Norman>This makes great sense. There are any number of areas of the school program that <v Cal Norman>a child should be a part of socially with age mates and so forth. <v Cal Norman>But when they need specific kinds of help, they do need it. <v Cal Norman>I don't see that mainstreaming would ever come to the point where there would be so many <v Cal Norman>girls, boys and girls with problems that are so difficult that <v Cal Norman>would cause undue problems. <v Ben Pedro>Kinds of special education classes vary from school to school. <v Ben Pedro>These handicapped children spend most of their time participating in regular activities. <v Ben Pedro>Every child, whether mentally or physically disabled, deserves an opportunity <v Ben Pedro>to achieve. Mainstreaming provides such an opportunity. <v Cal Norman>The child is the one we're looking at to help him as our is our first goal.
<v Gwyneth Gamble>With us in the studio tonight is Maralyn Helzer, who is the assistant superintendent for <v Gwyneth Gamble>special programs in the Portland Public Schools. <v Gwyneth Gamble>And Betsy McKay, who is chairwoman for a special education advisory committee, and <v Gwyneth Gamble>herself the parent of a Down syndrome child, Andrew, age 11. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Now, the effect of public law. 94-142 is that local school <v Gwyneth Gamble>districts must spend more money proportionately to educate these handicapped children, <v Gwyneth Gamble>and unless they comply with the legal and educational requirements which are costly and <v Gwyneth Gamble>time consuming, they face increasing threat of lawsuits. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Now that many school districts are short of funds for all activities, Maralyn, I guess I <v Gwyneth Gamble>would address you with this question. How are you going to decide to spend limited funds <v Gwyneth Gamble>and what will school districts do? <v Maralyn Helzer>We'll have to go through and look at what our goals are and how what the minimal <v Maralyn Helzer>level of service is as required through the legislation and <v Maralyn Helzer>what we feel our community needs and then have to make some decisions there. <v Maralyn Helzer>I would speculate and again, it's speculation because we're not even sure what kinds of
<v Maralyn Helzer>funds we'll have available, that if we had to reduce services, that we would <v Maralyn Helzer>most likely reduce services to the mildly handicapped first <v Maralyn Helzer>and keep as many services for the severely handicapped intact as possible. <v Maralyn Helzer>But again, we're not even sure at this point what our funding base will be for the next <v Maralyn Helzer>biennium, particularly. <v Kevin McGovern>Betsy, if there are cutbacks and I know you're involved in planning and you're also the <v Kevin McGovern>parent of a child that has a developmental disability, what would happen <v Kevin McGovern>if your child was placed back into a normal classroom? <v Betsy MacKay>Well, my child has never been in a normal classroom in public school, and I'm <v Betsy MacKay>I'm not sure I really don't know what would happen. <v Betsy MacKay>I don't think he would learn very much. <v Betsy MacKay>I don't know that he would do too badly socially, but I'm not sure. <v Betsy MacKay>I don't think he would, what would be the point of having him there. <v Kevin McGovern>So you think this would be a drawback? <v Betsy MacKay>Well, yes. In his case, he is in what is called the self-contained classroom right <v Betsy MacKay>now, which, if I understand you correctly, he is considered moderately
<v Betsy MacKay>retarded. <v Betsy MacKay>There are degrees, mild, moderate, severe, profound. <v Betsy MacKay>And what Maralyn's talking about are the the mildly retarded children <v Betsy MacKay>are ones who are already in something like an ERC, they're <v Betsy MacKay>in a regular classroom some of the time, anyway? <v Maralyn Helzer>Mildly handicapped <v Betsy MacKay>Right, mildly. <v Maralyn Helzer>could include those kids, students with learning disabilities or any kind of handicapping <v Maralyn Helzer>condition but who maybe need a minimal level of support service. <v Gwyneth Gamble>But you're saying you wouldn't cut that minimal level, probably? <v Gwyneth Gamble>That would be the first place where you would cut. <v Maralyn Helzer>Probably, yes. <v Gwyneth Gamble>What would take up the slack for those children who are mildly handicapped? <v Maralyn Helzer>More of those kids would probably have to be supported in the general ed classroom. <v Gwyneth Gamble>But what does this do, then Maralyn, to the general ed classroom, to the rest of the <v Gwyneth Gamble>children who are not handicapped? <v Maralyn Helzer>Well, it affects all of them. It affects. <v Maralyn Helzer>It would affect teacher time. <v Maralyn Helzer>It also, I think, has an effect on the teacher's sense of personal competence <v Maralyn Helzer>when you place children in that environment that maybe they were not trained
<v Maralyn Helzer>to deal with. If we don't have sufficient support staff to provide <v Maralyn Helzer>help to that teacher as well as to those children, then it affects that whole <v Maralyn Helzer>environment. <v Betsy MacKay>Because if the child goes back in and fails immediately, if he can't keep up and he can't <v Betsy MacKay>do the work, part of the good thing that special ed does <v Betsy MacKay>is really increase a child's self-esteem, his feeling that he can accomplish things. <v Betsy MacKay>That's I feel that that is a real benefit. <v Betsy MacKay>And to get blasted back into a class or he is suddenly unable to cope. <v Kevin McGovern>As a mother, what impact would that have on your child and your family? <v Betsy MacKay>Well it would be devastating. <v Kevin McGovern>Devastating is what sense? <v Betsy MacKay>It's bad enough to have your child fail, or your normal child fail, to have a child who <v Betsy MacKay>has failed and failed and failed and finally found a spot where he is actually making <v Betsy MacKay>progress, where suddenly he is going forward and <v Betsy MacKay>to be put back right where he was when he was failing. <v Betsy MacKay>Of course, it's devastating. <v Kevin McGovern>Now Betsy I've heard comments that children often stereotype the developmentally <v Kevin McGovern>disabled. They make fun of them. They ridicule them.
<v Kevin McGovern>Have you found that in your experience to be true? <v Betsy MacKay>In my particular school, I really haven't. <v Betsy MacKay>There are always <v Kevin McGovern>which is self-contained. <v Betsy MacKay>No. Well, he's in a public school. He goes to Glencoe Elementary School. <v Betsy MacKay>He's in a self-contained class in a regular public school. <v Betsy MacKay>He goes to music with a third grade class. He goes to P.E. <v Betsy MacKay>was the third grade class. <v Betsy MacKay>They all eat lunch together with whoever they want to eat lunch with in the cafeteria. <v Betsy MacKay>The children in every child, there are two special ed classes at the school. <v Betsy MacKay>Every child, I think, is treated as a child. <v Betsy MacKay>And I truly feel that in that particular circumstance, there's <v Betsy MacKay>not a lot of fun made. I think the other children are very proud of <v Betsy MacKay>having other kids and working with them. <v Gwyneth Gamble>You know, I'm curious on this subject of the handicapped child, Maralyn you say that this <v Gwyneth Gamble>is going to be taken up by the legislature in terms of budget cuts. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Do you think that there is a sympathy on the part of our lawmakers towards the <v Gwyneth Gamble>handicapped child or perhaps is there a greater interest in providing funds for the <v Gwyneth Gamble>talented and gifted child?
<v Maralyn Helzer>Well, I think there's a sympathy at the legislative level for handicapped to a point <v Gwyneth Gamble>More so than perhaps? <v Maralyn Helzer>I don't think I can say relative. I'm not sure how it compares to talented and gifted. <v Maralyn Helzer>I think that there are some legislators that I've heard speak in sessions who are very <v Maralyn Helzer>frustrated with the requirements of 94-142 and the decisions <v Maralyn Helzer>that it's required our legislators to make so that they've had to make some difficult <v Maralyn Helzer>choices about the allocation of funds based on some federal guidelines. <v Maralyn Helzer>So there's some frustration there. But I also think that there is some sympathy for those <v Maralyn Helzer>programs. It's just that where do you put that money when it's limited? <v Gwyneth Gamble>What numbers of children are we talking about in terms of actual handicapped children, <v Gwyneth Gamble>say, within the Portland public school district? <v Maralyn Helzer>About 4500, if we count the children who in the regional programs <v Maralyn Helzer>for physically handicapped, deaf and visually impaired, as well as <v Maralyn Helzer>the kids in the regular school programs or the support programs like Betsy's. <v Kevin McGovern>Betsy what changes should be made in public law 94-142 or any other <v Kevin McGovern>component of the educational structure we have now?
<v Betsy MacKay>Well, no, I feel strongly as a parent, as a member of the Special Education Advisory <v Betsy MacKay>Committee and as a member of the Association for Retarded Citizens, that absolutely no <v Betsy MacKay>changes should be made in the law or in the regulations <v Betsy MacKay>implementing the law. Any changes will be bad for the children <v Betsy MacKay>involved right now. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Why, Betsy? <v Betsy MacKay>Because of the change. There are many proposed deregulations to the law right at this <v Betsy MacKay>moment. <v Gwyneth Gamble>We're talking about a federal law. <v Betsy MacKay>this - the federal law is public law 94-142. <v Betsy MacKay>It is implemented by regulations from the Department of Education. <v Betsy MacKay>The department is proposing some changes in wording. <v Betsy MacKay>All of the changes involve reduction of services to the children, reduction <v Betsy MacKay>of rights of the parents. <v Betsy MacKay>I can't say strongly enough that all of us involved, all <v Betsy MacKay>of the people that I am involved with support no changes in the law. <v Betsy MacKay>We feel it will be detrimental to our children. <v Betsy MacKay>Any change right now. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Is the law unweidly, Maralyn, do you think it's unwieldy as far as our administrators are <v Gwyneth Gamble>concerned?
<v Maralyn Helzer>In some cases I think you'd find that most educators don't want to <v Maralyn Helzer>reduce or lose services to children, but there are some pieces that would make it <v Maralyn Helzer>easier to manage administratively so that ultimately there could be more time <v Maralyn Helzer>spent with children. We have some specialists who are spending a great deal of time <v Maralyn Helzer>on the paper end of it to provide the due process protections both <v Maralyn Helzer>for districts and for families that actually take time away from <v Maralyn Helzer>services to children. And there are some adjustments that we would like to see made that <v Maralyn Helzer>would bring some relief to that. <v Gwyneth Gamble>So it could it could be tightened up then, but as far as repealing this <v Betsy MacKay>The paperwork we don't mind. <v Betsy MacKay>It's the services that we do. <v Maralyn Helzer>The basic premise should stay, but there's some other management <v Maralyn Helzer>pieces that are unwieldy. <v Gwyneth Gamble>You think that'll happen? <v Maralyn Helzer>We'll have to wait and see what the next batch will look like. <v Maralyn Helzer>I don't know. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Are you optimistic about the future of special education, Betsy? <v Gwyneth Gamble>And as it concerns your child? <v Betsy MacKay>Well, I have been very happy with what has happened with his progress <v Betsy MacKay>in special education in the seven or eight years that he has been involved
<v Betsy MacKay>with it. I would hope that things would continue to get better. <v Betsy MacKay>Public law 94-142 was only finally completely implemented in 1978, <v Betsy MacKay>I believe. And that's a very short time. <v Gwyneth Gamble>While Congress debates whether or not to build a new version of the MX missile system in <v Gwyneth Gamble>Wyoming, we here in Oregon could be asked to host another major military <v Gwyneth Gamble>installation. Christmas Valley, about 100 miles southeast of Bend may <v Gwyneth Gamble>become the site of a giant military radar complex. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Local residents are getting caught up in the spirit of cooperation with the military and <v Gwyneth Gamble>land development. Reporter Jeff Young went to Christmas Valley to see how the people <v Gwyneth Gamble>there feel about defense, business, and the wide open spaces. <v Jeff Young>East of the mountains in central Oregon was a vast and arid expands,
<v Jeff Young>more like Arizona or New Mexico, sagebrush and sand. <v Jeff Young>Home for jack rabbits, coyotes and a few hundred hearty souls who like <v Jeff Young>fresh air and wide open spaces. <v Jeff Young>If you wanted to locate something that would take up lots of room but wouldn't be in <v Jeff Young>people's way, eastern Oregon's high desert would seem a likely area. <v Jeff Young>Christmas Valley, about 100 miles southeast of Bend, is that kind of place. <v Jeff Young>During the past couple years, the Valley's remoteness and topography have attracted <v Jeff Young>the interest of the Air Force. Defense analysts say it's just the sort of place <v Jeff Young>to locate one of the largest radar installations in the world. <v Jeff Young>What the Air Force has in mind is a radar transmitter a mile long and 30 <v Jeff Young>to 50 feet high. It's part of a system called the Over the Horizon backscatter <v Jeff Young>radar. The system consists of three parts: transmitter, receiver <v Jeff Young>and operation center. The Air Force is also looking at two other locations
<v Jeff Young>in Washington and Idaho. But if Oregon is selected, the giant transmitter will <v Jeff Young>be in Christmas Valley and the operations center will be at Kingslee Air Force Base in <v Jeff Young>Klamath Falls. The transmitter would be larger, but roughly similar <v Jeff Young>to this one in Maine. Here's how it works. <v Jeff Young>Radar waves are beamed skyward by the transmitter. <v Jeff Young>They bounce back off the ionosphere and are picked up by the receiver. <v Jeff Young>The Defense Department calls this system the over the horizon or backscatter. <v Jeff Young>Conventional radar is line of sight, like an F.M. <v Jeff Young>radio signal. And it's easily deflected by mountains or other obstructions. <v Jeff Young>And because it's line of sight, range is limited by the curvature of the Earth's surface. <v Jeff Young>Planes can fly low enough to slip under conventional radar nets. <v Jeff Young>But since the over the horizon system covers ground level to the ionosphere, <v Jeff Young>there's no place high or low for planes to hide. <v Jeff Young>And installation in eastern Oregon could detect planes or missiles 500 to 1800 miles <v Jeff Young>out to sea. The backscatter system is already in place on the East Coast
<v Jeff Young>and the Pentagon says another one is needed. <v Jeff Young>The system here, they say, is vital to the defense of the western United States. <v Jeff Young>The Air Force recently set a team of radar experts and public relations men to <v Jeff Young>study Christmas Valley. One of the prerequisites for siting the installation <v Jeff Young>is the support and cooperation of local residents. <v Jeff Young>The military apparently found what it was looking for. <v Resident>Most simplistic way that the Air Force explained it to us was this is the <v Resident>only thing they can determine that will close the holes in the radar. <v Resident>This is the only thing that will give us complete protection. <v Jeff Young>Mentioned potential targets. <v Jeff Young>It just seems to me that, you know, the case of a preemptive strike and what <v Jeff Young>they want to shoot the radar sites that their planes could get through. <v Resident>Brought up the Air Force personnel when he was here and their feelings was we would <v Resident>definitely not become a target. <v Jeff Young>Does it give you a sense of being part of something larger, being part of national <v Jeff Young>defense? What is that feeling?
<v Resident>I think most of us are kind of proud to be involved in it. <v Resident>And there's also an economic factor that it has to help our community. <v Resident>I'm very interested in that. <v Jeff Young>How will that help the community? <v Resident>We'll probably pick up ten to fifteen families that will live here permanently, <v Resident>and that probably adds three or four local people in the local <v Resident>businesses. <v Resident>It just mushrooms when you get a little growth started. <v Resident> <v Resident>[Oregon residents talking] <v Jeff Young>People in Christmas Valley like the idea of being part of national defense. <v Jeff Young>The feeling of doing their part. <v Jeff Young>But as we heard at the Trail Cafe, there's also an economic motive. <v Jeff Young>Christmas Valley is a place that has a small population and is downright neighborly. <v Jeff Young>It also has some reasons to encourage growth. <v Jeff Young>There's three or four hundred people in the town, maybe eight hundred in the surrounding <v Jeff Young>area. I couldn't really determine for sure how many people are scattered around the
<v Jeff Young>county, nor does anyone really seem to care. <v Jeff Young>Those who settle there tend to be older folks, retirees or the semi retired <v Jeff Young>business people. One of the drawbacks of life in the valley are social and <v Jeff Young>medical services they left behind in the city. <v Bud Maple>That's what scares the elderly people out now, it's 90 miles to Bend hospital. <v Bud Maple>If we had our own doctor's office stuff like here, I could see more and more people <v Bud Maple>coming in here to retire. <v Jeff Young>Unlike most places that grow too fast, Christmas Valley wonders why it hasn't grown <v Jeff Young>faster. The town was always supposed to be bigger. <v Jeff Young>When the area began developing 20 years ago, growth was planned if not promised. <v Jeff Young>It was part of a vision. <v Jeff Young>Christmas Valley began as a model development, the dream of California based <v Jeff Young>developer Penn Phillips. <v Jeff Young>Phillips bought more than 70,000 acres of high desert and mapped out 2700 <v Jeff Young>plots of varying sizes. <v Jeff Young>Salesmen told customers out of state people generally that Christmas Valley
<v Jeff Young>would become the Palm Springs of Oregon. <v Jeff Young>Prospective buyers were offered land at unbelievably low prices. <v Jeff Young>Magazine and television ads promised resort style living at $15 dollars, <v Jeff Young>down $15 a month. <v Jeff Young>Many bought the lands at sight unseen. <v Jeff Young>The brochures gave them reason to believe that this corner of the desert was ready to <v Jeff Young>bloom. To his credit Penn Phillips set up the structure necessary for <v Jeff Young>future development. Before the land began selling, his construction crews <v Jeff Young>had built an airfield, a lodge, manmade lake, golf course, and church. <v Jeff Young>The plots of land were equipped with water mains and facilities for power. <v Jeff Young>All the place needed was people. <v Jeff Young>Longtime resident Betty Morehouse tells how life in Christmas Valley was promoted. <v Betty Morehouse>We had vacation plans and for a very low cost for an entire <v Betty Morehouse>family, maybe four to six people. <v Betty Morehouse>They could come and spend five to seven days. <v Betty Morehouse>They had planned trail rides.
<v Betty Morehouse>Hay rides with wagons and horses. <v Betty Morehouse>Weenie roasts. <v Betty Morehouse>Golf, of course, when the golf course was completed and the people that bought the <v Betty Morehouse>property were encouraged to take advantage of this plan so that they could appreciate <v Betty Morehouse>what they would have to look forward to. <v Betty Morehouse>And they did move here. <v Jeff Young>When you moved out, there were very few people here and you seemed to enjoy the freedom <v Jeff Young>that you had and not having too many neighbors. <v Jeff Young>And yet your job was to bring in folks to make this place larger. <v Betty Morehouse>That is very true. <v Betty Morehouse>I sometimes would think, why am I doing this? <v Betty Morehouse>I may be destroying the very thing that I moved here for. <v Betty Morehouse>But I suppose the people learned to adjust. <v Betty Morehouse>And I realized people had to move in here and it has not been that bad. <v Betty Morehouse>I am glad that I helped promote it. <v Betty Morehouse>It's a matter of pride. At the time, too. <v Jeff Young>Those who bought the land planned to settle in 10 to 30 years when they retired. <v Jeff Young>When the development crews packed up and left, Christmas Valley was only slightly larger <v Jeff Young>than before. It was a town of absentee deed holders.
<v Jeff Young>When land buyers finally came to inspect their property, they had mixed reactions. <v Resident>Just depending on whether you're a desert rat, or if you like this <v Resident>type country or whether you don't. <v Jeff Young>Is that often different than they thought it'd be? <v Resident>Half and half. Some were impressed with it being quiet and nobody bothers you much out <v Resident>here, and then other people are really <v Resident>mad about that they thought they got cheated. <v Jeff Young>For the next few years, most development was agricultural. <v Jeff Young>The vision of life on a golf course gave way to farms and circle irrigation. <v Jeff Young>Somewhere under the sandy desert floor lies a vast underground water supply. <v Jeff Young>When this aquifer is tapped and water pumped at the surface, the desert becomes fertile. <v Jeff Young>Christmas Valley is one of those desert areas that if you add water, you can grow just
<v Jeff Young>about anything. And if you don't add water, you have literally kitty litter. <v Jeff Young>Matter of fact, there's a small plant just outside of town where they have thousands of <v Jeff Young>acres of diatomaceous earth. <v Jeff Young>It's so dry that it can absorb about a hundred times its own weight in whatever goes in a <v Jeff Young>cat box or on your garage floor. <v Jeff Young>The oil dry plant is the area's largest single employer. <v Jeff Young>50 or so people scoop the bone dry material out of the desert, <v Jeff Young>process it, dump it in bags and send thousands of pounds <v Jeff Young>of kitty litter out the stores across the country. <v Jeff Young>If you don't work for the plant or farm or have a skill that makes you independent, <v Jeff Young>you're probably out of luck in Christmas Valley. <v Jeff Young>A small population far from the state's urban centers has another disadvantage. <v Jeff Young>Christmas Valley doesn't have a large political base. <v Jeff Young>And perhaps because of that, businesses and government agencies are more <v Jeff Young>likely to locate things there that wouldn't be tolerated in or around cities.
<v Jeff Young>In 1969, the company hoped to locate a radioactive waste disposal site <v Jeff Young>a few miles away. Although area residents were not officially informed <v Jeff Young>about the company, word travels fast in the desert. <v Jeff Young>Fearing potential seepage of radioactive waste into the underground water system, <v Jeff Young>residents were quick to respond. <v Betty Morehouse>We moved to have it stopped. <v Betty Morehouse>After various letters to state people, state agencies <v Betty Morehouse>and releases letters to the editor, articles, we did get <v Betty Morehouse>an Oregon State Senate committee to come to the site and look at it, <v Betty Morehouse>and as soon as they saw it for themselves, then they went back and <v Betty Morehouse>passed the necessary legislation put an end to it. <v Jeff Young>While battling the radioactive waste company, residents also discovered over 10,000 <v Jeff Young>barrels of toxic waste that had been dumped nearby. <v Jeff Young>No one had bothered to inform them that 2, 4-D and other hazardous waste had been
<v Jeff Young>seeping out of rusty barrels for years and years. <v Jeff Young>Perhaps due to its size, residents are more concerned about the quality <v Jeff Young>of life here and noticed changes faster than city folk. <v Gary Malchow>I personally feel that I have a closer <v Gary Malchow>rein in what happens to this community. <v Gary Malchow>I have a closer rein in what values my kids get, and I <v Gary Malchow>just think this is a great place to raise a family. <v Jeff Young>In the meantime, Christmas Valley is waiting to become just a little larger, <v Jeff Young>a little more prosperous and a little more attractive to people who might want to settle <v Jeff Young>there. Although radar base might not be the perfect answer, <v Jeff Young>they say it's the best idea anyone's come up with lately. <v Jeff Young>People out here want to improve their quality of life just like anyone else. <v Jeff Young>They readily accept the tradeoffs of sharing their valley with the strategic air command. <v Jeff Young>But they did give us a clear signal. <v Gary Malchow>I don't want a Metropolis. If this were to become a Metropolis, I'd have to move about <v Gary Malchow>another 80 miles out and start another small town, maybe.
<v Gary Malchow>I won't live in a Metropolis again. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Christmas Valley is undeveloped now, but it definitely has potential for growth. <v Gwyneth Gamble>If everyone who owned land in the area eventually moved there, it would be almost as <v Gwyneth Gamble>crowded as a city such as Bend. <v Gwyneth Gamble>That kind of growth is certainly possible. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Residents, those who would like to be, say if the town had a doctor and other services, <v Gwyneth Gamble>it would be the perfect place to live. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Not too many communities can say that. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Ironically, while Christmas Valley is still in its political infancy, it may be <v Gwyneth Gamble>vulnerable to those who would use it as a dumping ground for chemical waste and satellite <v Gwyneth Gamble>prisons, which have been proposed for the area. <v Gwyneth Gamble>That would spoil the relatively untouched quality that makes Christmas Valley so <v Gwyneth Gamble>special. <v Kevin McGovern>More than half of the couples who get married eventually file for divorce.
<v Kevin McGovern>The legal process of divorce is, for most people, a costly and painful experience. <v Kevin McGovern>But after the financial battles are over and a divorce is final, the worst part of losing <v Kevin McGovern>a partner begins. It's a time when people on their own face guilt and emotional <v Kevin McGovern>isolation. The hope is that things will be better the second time around. <v Kevin McGovern>There may be a few brief scenes coming up that might be objectionable to some viewers. <v Kevin McGovern>Many people who are newly divorced end up sitting in a bar trying to figure out what went <v Kevin McGovern>wrong. It isn't easy. <v Kevin McGovern>They're trying to cope with grief. <v Kevin McGovern>They're wondering if they'll ever be self-sufficient again. <v Kevin McGovern>Often they worry about the way they look, thinking that in order to get into the singles <v Kevin McGovern>scene, they have to project a sexy available image. <v Kevin McGovern>So believing in TV hype and advertising, they often go through a period of physical self <v Kevin McGovern>assessment and decide to cultivate a new look. <v Kevin McGovern>They often join the fitness crowd at a health club or make the rounds in clothing stores,
<v Kevin McGovern>buying the latest fashion. <v Kevin McGovern>Next, the single has to face the frightening prospect of going out. <v Kevin McGovern>Some never do. Everyone who does feels insecure, afraid that somehow <v Kevin McGovern>they won't measure up. Many people haven't dated since before the sexual revolution and <v Kevin McGovern>women's lib. Now they are face to face with their own sexuality. <v Kevin McGovern>Even a good night's kiss can be traumatic. <v Kevin McGovern>Like a scene from a Woody Allen movie. <v Alvy Singer (Woody Allen)>[scene from Woody Allen's Annie Hall] That's terrific. <v Annie Hall (Diane Keaton)>You know something, I never even took a lesson either. <v Alvy Singer (Woody Allen)>Hey, listen, listen. Gimme a kiss. <v Annie Hall (Diane Keaton)>Really? <v Alvy Singer (Woody Allen)>Yeah, why not? Because we're just gonna go home later, right, and then there's gonna be <v Alvy Singer (Woody Allen)>all that tension, you know, we never kissed before and I'll never know when to make the
<v Alvy Singer (Woody Allen)>right moves or anything. So we'll kiss now. We'll get it over with, then we'll go eat. <v Alvy Singer (Woody Allen)>Okay. <v Annie Hall (Diane Keaton)>Oh. <v Alvy Singer (Woody Allen)>And we'll digest our food better. <v Annie Hall (Diane Keaton)>Okay. <v Alvy Singer (Woody Allen)>OK, so now we can digest our food. <v Kevin McGovern>The personal appearance and a new sexual freedom aren't the only stumbling blocks <v Kevin McGovern>informing a new relationship. <v Kevin McGovern>There's the problem of how to meet someone, and there isn't a right way. <v Kevin McGovern>For some, there is help from close friends who get them involved in activities. <v Kevin McGovern>Others decide to join single clubs. <v Kevin McGovern>Single clubs cater to all ages and offer emotional support. <v Kevin McGovern>At club meetings, people can share their feelings and discover they are not alone. <v Kevin McGovern>Sometimes talking is enough, just letting it all out. <v woman>This guy is a phony and why is he putting on this, you know, why doesn't he knock it off <v woman>and be himself. <v woman>And so, you know, it has the opposite <v woman>effect and the person wants. <v Kevin McGovern>It helps to hear from experts that everything will be all right eventually, and to learn <v Kevin McGovern>how to interact with other singles. <v expert>First of all, we'll be dividing you into three separate families.
<v expert>The game attempts to simulate the human movement <v expert>from staying home - see the red sign back there? <v expert>To dating, which is over here, to authentic intimacy, which <v expert>is behind Judy on the poster. <v Kevin McGovern>Roleplaying games encourage people to come out of their shells. <v Kevin McGovern>For some people, it's a challenge. <v Kevin McGovern>For many, an ordeal. <v Kevin McGovern>But trying something new can be a good experience. <v Kevin McGovern>Many new singles don't like to do things in groups. <v Kevin McGovern>They prefer to read self-help books at home. <v Kevin McGovern>Sometimes divorce counselors who give advice on a one to one bases can make <v Kevin McGovern>the period of adjustment to single life less painful. <v Nancy Frisch>Because frequently people who are in a great deal of pain or who have experienced failure <v Nancy Frisch>are not able to see what all of their options are. <v woman>[woman talking] <v Kevin McGovern>For the more adventuresome, meeting someone can be arranged through dating services,
<v Kevin McGovern>some featuring computers and video libraries of available clients. <v woman>?inaudible? A home life. She cans, each year she actually plants her own vegetable <v woman>garden. There's a lot of different interests. <v woman>She was raised. <v Kevin McGovern>There are ads and the personal columns of several papers. <v Kevin McGovern>And of course, certain restaurants also draw a singles crowd. <v Kevin McGovern>At some bars, customers are guaranteed attention from the opposite sex, while <v Kevin McGovern>the male strip show is going on at The Great Gatsby, many women are able to live <v Kevin McGovern>out a fantasy without taking risks. <v Kevin McGovern>For many, the wild side of the singles scene is too threatening. <v Kevin McGovern>The reaction of each person to divorce and the problem of re socialization is different. <v Kevin McGovern>Val Fiske is someone who came out of an unhappy marriage with insecure feelings.
<v Kevin McGovern>Being single again isn't all that she expected. <v Kevin McGovern>She shared with us her thoughts about why her marriage failed and what she is looking for <v Kevin McGovern>now. <v Kevin McGovern>Val, how in love were you when you got married? <v Val Fiske>I really don't think I was in love at all. <v Kevin McGovern>Well, did you have any sparkling feelings or feel really infatuated? <v Val Fiske>Maybe at certain times, but not really. <v Val Fiske>In fact, the day I got married, I was crying my head off because I was so depressed about <v Val Fiske>whether or not I wanted to get married. <v Kevin McGovern>Why did you go ahead with your marriage? <v Val Fiske>I think basically I felt that if I <v Val Fiske>didn't grab the first thing that came along that nothing would ever come along again. <v Val Fiske>And I couldn't believe anybody could ever love me like my husband loved me. <v Val Fiske>And I also felt real, <v Val Fiske>not real good about myself. And I was very unhappy at that point in my life that I felt <v Val Fiske>like being married would make everything better and make Val happy. <v Kevin McGovern>Do you feel you were loved in your first marriage?
<v Kevin McGovern>Extremely loved? <v Val Fiske>Yeah, I do. <v Kevin McGovern>But yet you weren't able to have the same love feelings for your husband. <v Val Fiske>Right, I wasn't able to return that kind of love because I could not walk <v Val Fiske>up and hug this person and say, gosh, I love you. <v Val Fiske>And I wanted that from the very deepest part of my heart, but I couldn't do it. <v Kevin McGovern>Divorces normally have an impact on one's self-image <v Kevin McGovern>and how they feel about themselves. What happened to you? <v Val Fiske>Well, I probably went the opposite for most people. <v Val Fiske>Instead of trying to go out and prove myself and join health clubs and diet, <v Val Fiske>I did the opposite and gained quite a bit of weight and isolated myself and <v Val Fiske>made myself just made myself feel as bad as I could because I was just felt <v Val Fiske>so guilty and like such a bad, bad person. <v Val Fiske>I hated myself for what I'd done to this other person. <v Val Fiske>And I never want to go through that kind of guilt again, the rest of my life, because it <v Val Fiske>was so devastating to me. <v Val Fiske>I just withdrew. All my friends will drag me out and I would be with my friends. <v Val Fiske>But it's like I couldn't even relate to my friends because I just felt so alone, so
<v Val Fiske>confused. <v Kevin McGovern>How did you feel when your friends dragged you out of the house and pulled you to a bar? <v Val Fiske>You know, I'm glad they forced me out of the house because I wouldn't have gone if they <v Val Fiske>didn't. <v Val Fiske>I felt real isolated, I felt that like there was a big wall around me and no one <v Val Fiske>could get near me. I didn't want anybody near me. <v Val Fiske>I realized that I I think at certain points in my life, I want to be loved <v Val Fiske>and I want affection so bad I'm willing to do anything for it. <v Val Fiske>Meaning, you know, to go to bed with a man on the first date or the first, <v Val Fiske>you know, say rendezvous or whatever, <v Val Fiske>but well, and that always turns out to be bad. <v Val Fiske>I mean, those experiences are the most unfulfilling, empty after that's over <v Val Fiske>I feel so empty and lonely, I could just die. <v Val Fiske>You know and I think right now I'm looking more for the friendship and the companionship <v Val Fiske>more than the sexual part of it. <v Kevin McGovern>So the food and the nightlife, the spontaneity may not be as meaningful <v Kevin McGovern>as it's meant to be as discussed by others.
<v Val Fiske>I think it's built up. I think, you know, it's fun to be independent, you know, and it's <v Val Fiske>a great feeling like, wow, I can do this and I can be my own person and I can <v Val Fiske>fend for myself. But there are lots of lonely moments and lots of emptiness. <v Jerry Burbach>Did you write this thing just from because of the stickers?. <v Kevin McGovern>Jerry Burbach, a father of two children has been divorced for several years. <v Kevin McGovern>He's now planning to marry again. <v Kevin McGovern>He began his new relationship because of a mutual interest in skiing. <v Kevin McGovern>It turned into a loving and caring partnership, something he had always hoped for. <v Kevin McGovern>Jerry says things were really rough following his divorce, especially the day his <v Kevin McGovern>wife moved out. <v Jerry Burbach>That Friday I came home and I walked into this house and it was just dead silent. <v Jerry Burbach>And here I was in this house and no kids running around, no wife at home. <v Jerry Burbach>And that was the hardest thing that I could. <v Jerry Burbach>Just stands out immediately. Fortunately, when you're going through a divorce, the <v Jerry Burbach>best thing you can have that really helped me was good close friends. <v Jerry Burbach>I failed, you know, one of the most important things in life to me was being married.
<v Jerry Burbach>And I had failed at my marriage. <v Jerry Burbach>And it got to be I was embarrassed to tell people, well, you know, are you married now? <v Jerry Burbach>I'm divorced. It really became hard for me to say that because it showed that I had <v Jerry Burbach>failed at something. And a sudden I stood out and I was a freak, but I was someone that <v Jerry Burbach>couldn't handle something. <v Kevin McGovern>Jerry, were you in love in your first marriage? <v Jerry Burbach>Yes, I was really very much in love with, in my first marriage. <v Jerry Burbach>I think the thing to look at now is being 41 years old and being16 <v Jerry Burbach>at the time that I met my wife in school, I <v Jerry Burbach>look at love different now than I did than. <v Jerry Burbach>I was in love with Linda a lot. <v Kevin McGovern>What did love mean to you at 16? <v Jerry Burbach>Someone to be with that I really cared about that it was more maybe a physical <v Jerry Burbach>attraction, someone I enjoyed being with, <v Jerry Burbach>going out with. And I didn't really get into the deep emotional feeling of what love is. <v Jerry Burbach>And I think with maturity that comes, and that's <v Jerry Burbach>one of the disadvantages of getting married right out of high school.
<v Jerry Burbach>I'd been married for 15 years and I was out of circulation and the bar scene was <v Jerry Burbach>something I hadn't done for 15 years. And to try to put yourself in it is really a shock. <v Jerry Burbach>I mean, there's a whole different culture out there now than when I was young. <v Kevin McGovern>So that was really frightening for you. <v Jerry Burbach>It was it was frightening for me. <v Kevin McGovern>After 15 years of living in a home, having children, you had to go back out there <v Kevin McGovern>and search. Do you remember some of your first impressions of what the search was going <v Kevin McGovern>to be like, what you had to do after 15 years of hibernation? <v Jerry Burbach>I went into this place with a friend and I did not want to be there. <v Jerry Burbach>I was not in the mood, I had a hard day at work, but he convinced me I should not go <v Jerry Burbach>home, I should go out and we'd got to the bars, so we did. <v Jerry Burbach>And I was sitting there and he was out dancing, having a good time. <v Jerry Burbach>There was this girl down at the end of the bar, having just a miserable time as I was. <v Jerry Burbach>So I thought, well, what the heck? I didn't want to dance, I didn't want to do anything. <v Jerry Burbach>I walked up to her and I says, you're having as miserable time as I am. <v Jerry Burbach>I said, you know, can I sit down? She said, Sure. <v Jerry Burbach>So the two of us just misery together. It gets boring. <v Jerry Burbach>It really does. And like I say, the ladies that I met in these places are not <v Jerry Burbach>really someone I was interested in looking for a long term relationship.
<v Jerry Burbach>And at the time, I really wasn't anyhow. But I just it just wasn't for <v Jerry Burbach>me. <v Kevin McGovern>Now that you're settling down in a new relationship, what advice would you give to <v Kevin McGovern>someone who's just going through a divorce and is back searching again? <v Jerry Burbach>Be with people you want to be with. Like with me, it wasn't the bar scene. <v Jerry Burbach>I didn't want to be there. So I could not be in my element. <v Jerry Burbach>I could not be at ease. And if you're getting, you know, if they are going to go out and <v Jerry Burbach>they want to date and you want to meet people, do it in the environment that you're <v Jerry Burbach>really comfortable in. Because otherwise, I don't think it. <v Jerry Burbach>It just doesn't work. It isn't lasting. <v Kevin McGovern>Adjusting to being single is a difficult process. <v Kevin McGovern>People going through a transition should keep in mind what Val and Jerry have said. <v Kevin McGovern>Value friends and keep trying to get back in the swing of things. <v Kevin McGovern>Be aware of who you are and what you want to be. <v Kevin McGovern>Then maybe things will be better than it was the first time around. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Kevin, we've just seen some options for the newly divorced.
<v Gwyneth Gamble>How does a person know what path to follow when he or she is recently divorced? <v Kevin McGovern>They need to find a direction that will allow them to feel more healthy and to develop <v Kevin McGovern>their self-esteem so they'll feel comfortable with this emancipation. <v Gwyneth Gamble>What are some of the negatives that come up with these options? <v Kevin McGovern>People often become depressed. They lose their self-confidence and they feel extremely <v Kevin McGovern>guilty and lost. <v Gwyneth Gamble>But then in that case, Kevin, does divorce always have to be negative? <v Kevin McGovern>Absolutely not. Many people who become divorced find ways to discover themselves <v Kevin McGovern>and to move forward in life. <v Kevin McGovern>Do you think that we're gonna see more and more divorce in society? <v Gwyneth Gamble>I think over the next 10 years, you're probably going to see an upswing in divorces. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Unless you live in the catacombs, there's no way to get away from it. <v Gwyneth Gamble>If you ski or play tennis, if you're a construction engineer or a student, if you need to <v Gwyneth Gamble>know when the baseball game is being played, you need to know about the weather.
<v Gwyneth Gamble>Oregonians don't have much life threatening weather like hurricanes or tornadoes, but <v Gwyneth Gamble>we do spend a great deal of time each night watching the weather on television. <v Gwyneth Gamble>That interest has prompted the Portland television stations to spend several thousands of <v Gwyneth Gamble>dollars each year to make their weathermen appear credible, understandable and <v Gwyneth Gamble>likable. <v Jim Little>A lot of rain and some gusty winds this morning. <v Jim Little>The winds have died down. <v Gwyneth Gamble>A weatherman at a commercial station spends one hour for every minute he's on the air <v Gwyneth Gamble>just to prepare the forecast. <v Gwyneth Gamble>To make a more accurate prediction, he has to watch the reports and make observations <v Gwyneth Gamble>all day long. But even so, weather is fickle. <v Gwyneth Gamble>No matter how sophisticated the equipment, no prediction can ever be exact. <v Jim Little>Well, it's really a tough question when you ask about accuracy in forecasting, because
<v Jim Little>you have to define what accurate is. For example, if I say the high temperature tomorrow <v Jim Little>is going to be 75. And in fact, it's 76, is that right or wrong? <v Gwyneth Gamble>Oregon's variety of terrain and weather patterns make it very complicated to tell what <v Gwyneth Gamble>is going to happen. It's even more difficult to foresee when a new weather system <v Gwyneth Gamble>will arrive. <v Jim Little>When I was in the Air Force, I forecast weather for the Midwest, for example, and <v Jim Little>the weather came in across Kansas and up through Nebraska. <v Jim Little>And you could just see it coming here. <v Jim Little>It's coming. <v Gwyneth Gamble>All weatherman can do is make educated guesses. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Accuracy isn't the only criteria that affects the public confidence. <v Gwyneth Gamble>People often like a forecaster because of factors other than his ability to predict when <v Gwyneth Gamble>it's going to rain. <v Resident>My favorite weatherman. <v Resident>Well, I think Jim Little. <v Resident>Uh, Jim, what's his name on Channel 8? <v Reporter>Jim Little? <v Resident>Yeah, yeah. <v Resident>Yeah. Why do you listen to him? <v Resident>Because I watch the news at that time. <v Resident>Dr. John, I guess.
<v Reporter>Why? <v Resident>Oh, he has nice delivery. I like the voice, it sounds, you know, good <v Resident>to me. <v Resident>Jim Bosley on Channel 2. <v Reporter>Why? <v Resident>I just like his personality, he's funny. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Of all the other reporters, the weatherman is the only one who has to deal with the <v Gwyneth Gamble>future. And though some weathermen say they're right almost nine times out of ten, <v Gwyneth Gamble>it only takes one mistake to make them seem more fallible. <v Gwyneth Gamble>The ultimate irony is if a forecaster reaches that measure of credibility <v Gwyneth Gamble>he is trying to attain, he then becomes the target of blame when people are unhappy <v Gwyneth Gamble>about the actual weather. <v Dr. John Walls>Sure. I found that a long time ago that we don't use bad <v Dr. John Walls>weather and rain, for example, in the same sentence. <v Dr. John Walls>We don't talk about rainy, cloudy weather as being bad weather at all because many <v Dr. John Walls>people that live in this part of the country look forward to that kind of weather. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Oddly enough, the harder it is to predict weather, the more Portland meteorologists <v Gwyneth Gamble>like it. They say it is more challenging and gratifying to get the right
<v Gwyneth Gamble>answer when the odds are against you. <v Jim Little>Gotta be a little bit of a masochist, I guess, to be in this business, because, you know, <v Jim Little>the state of the art is such that you can't get it right all the time. <v Gwyneth Gamble>These men are not infallible. <v Gwyneth Gamble>In Oregon, predicting the weather is more than an inexact science. <v Gwyneth Gamble>It's an inexact art. <v Gwyneth Gamble>That's all the time we have tonight. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Thanks for watching. Until next time. <v Gwyneth Gamble>Good night.
Series
Front Street Weekly
Episode Number
No. 208
Episode
1982-12-02
Producing Organization
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Contributing Organization
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip-526-sj19k4734r
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Description
Episode Description
"Front Street Weekly, Program #208, is one in a series of weekly newsmagazines produced locally for Oregon and Southwest Washington. "Segment One compares two very different approaches to teaching reading in elementary schools and demonstrates how children learn to read under each system. "Segment Two raises the question of whether or not federal law (PL 94-142) should be modified with respect to the impact on [learning-disabled] and non-handicapped students. "There are also segments on a massive military radar project proposed for the Christmas Valley, Oregon area; a segment on learning how to re-socialize after traumatic divorce, and finally, a feature on the credibility of weathermen in the Northwest's unpredictable climate."--1982 Peabody Awards entry form.
Broadcast Date
1982
Created Date
1982
Asset type
Episode
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:59:31.690
Embed Code
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Credits
Producing Organization: Oregon Public Broadcasting
AAPB Contributor Holdings
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia
Identifier: cpb-aacip-6e6c17edc19 (Filename)
Format: U-matic
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Citations
Chicago: “Front Street Weekly; No. 208; 1982-12-02,” 1982, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-sj19k4734r.
MLA: “Front Street Weekly; No. 208; 1982-12-02.” 1982. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-sj19k4734r>.
APA: Front Street Weekly; No. 208; 1982-12-02. Boston, MA: The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-sj19k4734r