resistance is not futile...

[Robert Beard]

        In response to Mr. Asay's reaction to the original posting:
        While the form of posting might have been partisan, I didn't see
the presumption in Mr. Goeringer's posting that everyone on SEELANGS
subscribed to the assumptions of the posting any more than I see such a
presumption in other postings.  Are we supposed to withhold an argument for
a particular approach to  Russian language teaching until we are sure that
everyone subscribes to it?  I believe that the submission was
straight-forward and based on the probably correct assumption that at least
some of us for our students and our programs. And, by the way, if
educational subsidy is socialistic, every nation on earth is socialist to
that extent today, including the US.
        We are facing a time of declining enrollments.  If education
support is reduced, fewer students will be able to attent universities and
Russian programs will suffer first and most for the simple reason that we
are already suffering.  It follows that if lower overall enrollments are
distributed evenly, we will suffer disproportionately.  Federal support of
education around the world is not a political issue at all.  Republicans
have been supporting federal aid to education as a measure of good economic
sense for the past 3-4 decades. I suspect that should the issue come to a
vote during this session, Party lines will be crossed again.
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Robert Beard                                        Telephone: 717-524-1336
Russian & Linguistics Programs                            Fax: 717-524-3760
Bucknell University                                     Lewisburg, PA 17817
MORPHOLOGY ON INTERNET:                            www.bucknell.edu/~rbeard
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