Colored Rock Map of Texas at I-20 in Pecos. Link to Travel Page Pecos Enterprise

NEWS PAGES
News
Sports
Opinion
Lifestyles
Sports Scores
Texas Lotto

SPECIAL SECTIONS
Monthly
Living off the Land

Annual
Pecos at Work
Rodeo Advance

ADVERTISING
Display Pages
Bookstore
Classified
Real Estate

TRAVEL
Area Papers
West Texas

ARCHIVES
Pecos Country History
Archives

Photo Archive

STAFF
Mac McKinnon
Jon Fulbright
Peggy McCracken
Rosie Flores

FORUM
E-Mail Forum


Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Opinion

Mac McKinnon

Observations

By MacMcKinnon
Enterprise Publisher

Tuesday, September 1, 1998

School rating depends
on success of students



Have you ever wondered about all of these lists that come
out ranking the best of this or that?

Every year or in some cases more often than that, different
publications come out with various lists on colleges and
universities and medical facilities and other such public
institutions.

This past week, U.S. News & World Report came out with their
list of best colleges for 1999. They break the rankings into
various categories including the top four tiers of national
colleges and universities and the top 50 public national
universities, best national liberal arts colleges, again
divided into four tiers and then the best regional schools
for the north, south, midwest and west.

In the judging are a number of categories including academic
reputation; graduation and retention rank; freshmen
retention rate; 1997 gradution rate (predicted, actual and
over and under performance); faculty resources rank, per
cent of classes under 20; per cent of classes of 50 or more;
student/faculty ratio and per cent of faculty who are full
time.

Also in the criteria are categories such as selectivity rank
(whatever that means); SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile;
freshmen in top 10 per cent of high school class; acceptance
rate; financial resources rank; alumni giving rank and
alumni giving rate.

Having said all of that, let me get to my point. First, to
make that point, let me list the top 10 as listed best
national universities. They are, from the top, Harvard,
Princeton, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Cornell, Duke, University of
Pennsylvania, Calif. Institute of Tech, (tied for 10th)
Brown, Dartmouth and Northwestern.

The only school in this part of the world that ranks very
high is Rice at No. 18. You don't get to any other Texas
schools until you hit the second tier and that's where
you'll find A&M and the University of Texas and Baylor.

When you get to the fourth tier, you'll find Texas Tech,
University of Houston, Texas Woman's University and New
Mexico State.

In the list of the top 50 public national universities,
you'll find Texas A&M at No. 15 while UT is No. 17.

Having given all that information, let me make myself
perfectly clear. These ratings stink! I really get tired of
all this superiority complex of people in the northeast. Who
do they think they are?

I would stack almost any university in this region of the
world and that includes schools all over the southwest and
midwest up against those that are listed in the top
categories.

The basic success rate of any school depends on students and
any youngster who wants it bad enough can get a good
education at any school, regardless of ranking.

The same thing applies to ranking of medical facilities. It
seems that the ranking for top medical facilities belongs to
those in the northeast. I'm not real sure why these rankings
end up like they are but it does appear there are some
snobbish prejudices involved.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mac McKinnon is the editor and publisher of
the Pecos Enterprise whose column appears each Tuesday. He
can be e-mailed at: bigmac@bitstreet.com

YOUR VIEW

Parents need to set kids on right path


To The Editor:
I'm writing about what's going on on school ground and off
the school ground only because I am disgusted. This B.P.G.
gang really makes me sick, and the schools and police
department don't do anything about it. I believe it is so
idiotic for a teacher, principal, or police offier to refuse
help to a student who has asked for help. Then the question
is, what are you here for? What it sounds like to me is that
you get paid, but get paid, but you get paid to do nothing
at all. No one here wants to help our students and finally
when parents, friends, or family do get in to help (Only
because the people who are suppose to help...Don't) they are
the one's who wind up paying a price they shouldn't.

Parents of these so called B.P.G. wanna be's need to set
their kids straight. This only shows that the parents of
these kids have no control over their children. What they
need to do with these kids is send them to the bigger cities
like El Paso, Houston, California, etc. where the real gangs
are, drop them off, and believe me, they would **** in their
pants with fear, and like always, come crying back home to
their mommy's and daddy's. Someone needs to set them
straight whether it's the parents, other students not
involved in the gang, or just the whole community itself.
They are little kids trying to get attention. They do wrong
and you reward them instead of punishing them. They are
trying to run over us, but my advice to everyone is run
right back over them. They only deserve it!

Just like the incident that happened at Carver Center
Tuesday morning. The two teenager's that got arrested only
got charged with misdemeanors. Hasn't anyone heard of a
felony charge with no bond? That's what these two kids
should have gotten. Now they get slapped on the hand and run
free to do it again. Didn't the parents teach them any
morals, or even respect?

Well I've said what I wanted to say, and I'm hoping I'm not
the only one feeling this way, in fact I know I don't stand
alone. So we need to do something about this. Stand our
ground and fight for what is ours.

Respectfully,
A CONCERNED CITIZEN

CRITIC'S CORNER

Spinach is good in veggie dessert


Had you ever thought of spinach as a dessert? Well, now you
can add that most nutritious of foods to pies and cakes for
a mouth-watering, muscle-building treat.

Lemons complement spinach, and in "Vegetable Desserts:
Beyond Carrot Cake and Pumpkin Pie," authors Elizabeth
Schafer and Jeannette L. Miller, RD, recommend a lemon pie
and cake that will melt in your mouth.

Ingredients follow standard recipes, except for the addition
of greens (turnip or spinach) to the mix. They give
nutrition facts with each delicious recipe, so you will know
how each will fit into your overall diet plan.

I'm not a cook, but I couldn't resist these recipes. I tried
Peter Pumpkin Squares (heavy but good), Chocolate Chip
Pumpkin Cookes (my favorite), Cookie Jar Cookies (with
jicama - I forgot the raisins and they were bland), Zucchini
Brownies (luscious), and Soft Spaghetti Cookies (with
spaghetti squash).

None of these recipes provides as much nutrition as the
plain vegetable, but if your family just has to have
desserts, this is a good way to go.

Twenty-four different vegetables are used in the 125 recipes
that not only add fiber, vitamins and minerals, but watch
the fat and calories.

Some I didn't try are Sliced Green Tomato Pie, Potato Fudge,
Honey Garlic Ice Cream, Celery Doodles, Cocoa Zucchini Cake
and Sweet Pea Bars.

"Vegetable Desserts" gives a complete overview of featured
vegetables, including history, seasonality and tips on
selecting and storing them.

ISBN1-56561-135-7, $16.95 in bookstores or by calling
800-848-2793. Amazon.com offers discounts online through the
Pecos Enterprise bookstore.
-Peggy McCracken

Classical Music for Everybody


By Dhun H. Sethna
Capture the drama of man's fight for freedom with Beethoven,
share with Wagner a young father's dreams for his infant
son, or descend with Liszt into the depths of Dante's Hell
in Dhun H. Sethna's new book, "Classical Music for
Everybody."

Sethna leads beginners who don't know where to start and
music lovers who want to deepen their understanding through
piece after piece of classical music. He not only explains
the piece, but gives lessons in music construction and
instrumentation as he goes along.

He introduces non-musicians to the vocabulary of music, such
as a fugue or the sonata form, and explains the timetables
of music and varieties of musical experience through
specific compositions.

By obtaining the music and using the more than 90 listening
notes, anyone can learn to enjoy classical music.

Published by Fitzwilliam Press, the $16.96 trade paperback
is available by mail by calling 1-800-997-6874 for credit
card orders, at bookstores or through the Enterprise's
online bookstore at a discount.

--Peggy McCracken

OUR VIEW

U.S. "retaliation" raises questions


The U.S. "retaliation" against terrorism with cruise
missiles hitting Afganistan and Sudan raises a number of
questions.

First, we believe terrorism should be stopped and every
measure within our means should be used to put a stop to it.
We believe the U.S. government and others are working toward
that end.

However, why did it take us so long to try to take out the
training camps in Afganistan? They've apparently been there
for some time.

How did we mistaken a factory making medicines for a plant
making chemical weapons?

The U.S. intelligence community seems to be slipping.
Actually, throughout much of recent history, our
intelligence has been slow and often wrong in keeping our
government posted on what is going on.

To be sure, our intelligence agencies have done a number of
really good things so we don't want to appear to be anti-CIA
or any of our other intelligence agencies. However, there
have been times it appears they are asleep at the wheel.

Nor do we want to say that our attacks were timed to take
attention away from President Clinton's personal problems.
Clinton simply approved a recommendation from his national
security council.

Terrorism is probably a more serious threat to our national
security than was Russia during the Cold War. It is
imperative that our intelligence organizations stay alert
and that we take appropriate action immediately to help
control terrorism as much as possible.

As President Franklin Roosevelt once said, all we have to
fear is fear itself. If we are afraid to act, we will really
be in trouble.

Return to top


Search Entire Site:


Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.

324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net

Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.

Copyright 1998 by Pecos Enterprise
We support Newspapers in Education