The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 1

rirrfl -ni rr ir ifci riiMiMiia ii-- i What to do A new mayor's with Tower ambitious agenda 1 PagoBI Beacon magazine I Season's best BJ Players of the Year Pages CI, 9 ron Beacon Journal Copyright0 1989, Beacon Journal Publishing Co. Sunday, December 10, 1989 Akron, Ohio 'One Dollar Ak Illiteracy in a high-tech world 1 1 1 lllll lillll mmsmm iiisiiiMiifi wmmmmmm Reform tide still surges Czechs get new leaders Shortly after hard-line Czecho-slovakian President Gustav Hu-sak announced Saturday he would resign as soon as a new government could be installed, Premier Marian Calfa and opposition leaders agreed to form the first government in more than four decades not dominated by Communists. The premier said the government would be sworn in today in Husak's last official act. The president was one of the hard-liners put into power after tanks crushed the 1968 "Prague Spring" reform movement. Details on page A14 German party names chief East Germany's Communist Party on Saturday elected a 41-year-old reform lawyer, Gregor Gysi, as party chief after an all-night meeting in which delegates also abolished the Stalinist structures of Politburo and central committee.

Gysi rejected the idea of a reunified Germany, but the European Community, meeting in Strasbourg, France, declared its approval of reunification through "free self-determination." Details on page A1S Soviets shun call for change At a meeting of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee in Moscow, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev turned back growing demands for action to end the party's monopoly on political power. However, Vadim A. Medvedev, Central Committee secretary and the party's chief ideologue, said the party is ready to give up the constitutional provision that assures the party's power. Details on page A14 It threatens to shackle U.S.

ability to compete By Mary Vanac Beacon Journal staff writer The fog has always been there. It hung on the horizon as the farmers of Ohio plowed and planted. It walked among Akron's factory workers during the Industrial Revolution; postwar prosperity concealed it. But today it is no longer possible to ignore the fog that threatens the future. The fog is illiteracy.

An average of one person in five in the United States cannot read well enough to understand this story. In Akron, that would be enough to fill the Rubber Bowl, with thousands left over. By varying estimates, there are 17 million to 60 million illiterates in America, ranging from people who have not completed the fifth grade to people who cannot read and understand the Bill of Rights. People like Tom Stolz, a 43-year-old Akron plumber who says a learning disability has stymied his efforts to become a reader. A lOth-grade dropout from Akron schools, he plans to take an oral test to get his city plumber's license because he can't handle a written test.

Still, Stolz will be installing equipment even though he may not be able to read directions. Business executives are alarmed: It seems as if the work force has dropped anchor while American industry tries to win the race against rapidly advancing foreign economies. Schools are not solving the problem, but instead are mired in regulations and paperwork. Robert Mercer, who recently retired as Goodyear's chairman and chief executive officer, says he was shocked when a retiring employee told him of his illiteracy. "He came in to say goodbye," Mercer says.

"He told me he probably could have gone much at Goodyear if he had learned how to read. I almost fell See ILLITERACY, page A8 Hi ipilfgli 1 Beacon Journal photoaMkh Good A picture of concentration, Donald Boso Is one of about 401 Akron adnlts learning to road through tntoring at Project LEARN. At right, one of the books used In classes. XT 4r INSIDE Nixon authors soften their opinions But ethical lapses still rate criticism Neighborly couple is killed by burglars while checking on a friend's welfare. Page A3.

The capital of the South is again giddy over Gone With the Wind. Page A5. Chance of snow tonight. Low near 20. Full report on Page 2.

Ann Landers G6 Lifestyle G1 to 8 Books H3 Lottery Page 2 Business D6 Fran Murphey B2 Classified 1 to 22 News and Views D1 to 4 Deaths D15 Region and State B1 to 6 Editorials D2, 3 Sports CI to 14 Entertainment HI to 7 Travel H8, 9 Fashion G3 Weddings G7 By W. Dale Nelson Associated Press Morris is critical of Nixon's ethics but says his book is an evenhanded portrait. Parmet, a professor of history at Queens-borough Community College in New York, worked six years on Richard Nixon and His America, scheduled for publication Jan. 15 by Little Brown. His previous books include a definitive work on President John F.

Kennedy. Ambrose, a historian at the University of New Orleans, is writing the final volume of a three-volume biography. The second, The Triton NIXON, page All Now all three have written books on the 37th president, and all say the experience has increased their respect for Nixon even though none would exonerate him on ethical failings. "I think it was very important to see him as the very sensitive, intelligent human being that he is," Parmet said in a telephone interview. Ambrose, now at work on an account of the criticism that drove Nixon from office in the Watergate scandal, said, "I can't help but have a no-longer-secret admiration for his ability to stand up to it, and fight back." Washington Herbert Parmet once vowed to help keep Richard Nixon from becoming president.

Stephen Ambrose says that in 1974 all he wanted was to get Nixon out of office. Roger Morris was so appalled by the invasion of Cambodia that he resigned from the Nixon White House. jr yi Bare shelves take away fun for toy buyers The inspiration comes on little microchips By Kim McMahan Beacon Journal staff writer a different final exam to each of the 11 students in his class. But before the parents of Hiram students demand a refund from the college or some shiftless professor gets any bright ideas, they should know this: Chatfield, who has been teaching "The Art of Poetry" course at the Portage County college for 20 years, says the self-paced computer program Star Alpha merely frees up half of his class time so students can do more productive things during their hourlong sessions. That extra 20 hours of class time, he said, is spent listening to guest poets, readings by students, videotapes and discussions.

"This isn't to get me out of work," said Chatfield, who delivers poetry readings throughout the United States. "It's See BUDDING, page A12 Hiram computer composes poetry By Cristal Williams Walker Beacon Journal staff writer It's enough to make 19th century poets John Keats and Walt Whitman sit up and take notice. Hale Chatfield, a poet and English professor at Hiram College, has developed a computer program that actually writes and critiques poetry. The computer program entertains, baffles, educates and appears to have a human side that jokes with students. It even has a few words of profanity in its vocabulary.

This year Chatfield used the computer not only to help students write poetry, but to teach the textbook and administer The snow was blowing, the mercury had dropped and the wind was tormenting a surly crowd of consumers. They were waiting for the doors of a toy store to open on a recent morning. After several chilly minutes it was finally starting time. The gates opened and it was off to the races. At stake were the most popular toys of the season, and it was winner-take-all.

In a few minutes the race was over. There would be no more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles available at that See BARE, page A4 Remember those great toys from the good old Christmases? Page G1. Beacon Journal photoOtt Gangl Hale Chatfield, computer wizardpoet, In Hiram computer room 4.