Clinton News Record, 2014-09-03, Page 44 News Record • Wednesday, September 3, 2014
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editorial
Rural Ontario gains
from funding injection
QMI Agency
When Premier Kathleen Wynne took a
spike -driver to an old rail line in St. Thomas
recently, she hammered home an important
point: the province's rural roads, bridges and
sewers are in desperate need of a re -build.
While urban neighbours debate the need
for subway expansion and upgraded sewage
treatment, so they can cope with big -city
issues, smaller communities have often
endured the double blow of depopulation
and deterioration.
Too often, a shrinking tax base has worked
against a community's need to improve its
facilities.
Municipal leaders faced a cumbersome
process of waiting for the right fund to come
along, putting together a proposal, submitting
an application, then waiting to see if there was
enough provincial money or interest to push
it through before the wallet snapped shut.
If they missed the deadline or endured
rejection, they often waited on their needed
project until another was available.
That makes the new $100 -million -a -year
Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund
(somehow, it's apt that the name is as utilitar-
ian as its purpose) a welcome change from
the norm.
Wynne and Jeff Leal, Minister of Agricul-
ture, Food and Rural Affairs, tout the program
as a permanent and predictable source of
annual funding to build and repair roads,
bridges, water and wastewater systems.
Now, the work that needs to be done in
rural and northern communities will stand a
better chance of getting done.
Communities that languish in part because
they haven't been able to afford to rebuild a
bridge or upgrade their water treatment facil-
ity — few have had access to the racetrack rev-
enue or transit -money transfers that cities
expect as their due — will have greater ability
to attract investors, residents and jobs.
The fund might even go a short distance
towards easing the animus rural Ontario
expressed towards the Liberals during the last
provincial election.
There are those who will say Ontario's
$12.5 -billion deficit needs no added weights.
Truth is, both views are accurate. But in a
province driving to fix a fiscal deficit and a
rural infrastructure deficit, this fund travels a
necessary and welcome middle road.
column
Students and teachers, speak up
Tara Ostner
The Clinton News Record
It's back to school time
and students are excited
and perhaps a bit nervous
as they prepare for the first
week of classes. Schools are
also busy preparing and last
week both local high
schools held grade nine ori-
entations to welcome the
new students.
I attended both orienta-
tions andwhatwas said at
one of them stood out for
me. As away to welcome
the grade nine students, one
of the school administrators
explained what the school
had to offer them and then
said "if we don't have some-
thing for you, then tell us:'
These words, "if we don't
have something for you,
then tell us; encapsulate a
theorythatis taught in all
teachers colleges across the
country called differentiated
instruction. The general
idea behind differentiated
instruction is that the
teacher should tailor their
lessons to suit each child's
leamingneeds because
each child is different and
thus has varying ways of
absorbing the material.
Itis fantastic that schools
have now adopted this
approach and, as a mom,
I'm thankful to hear that our
local schools have done the
same.
However, at the same
time, this idea is completely
commonsensical and when
I was in teachers college I
remember feeling frustrated
that so much time was
devoted to discussing such a
very elementary concept
Presumably individuals
who are enrolled in teachers
college have some brains to
them and I found being
told, on practically a daily
basis, that "every student is
different" to be an insult to
myintelligence. The instruc-
tors would try to present this
message in varying ways,
perhaps as an attempt to
make it sound profound,
however, the more that they
did this, the more thatI
found it insulting.
The idea that every child
is different is not an idea, itis
a fact; itis not a trendy the-
ory, itis atruism. Saying that
every child is different is
tantamount to saying that
2+2=4; this is not what I
would call "higher educa-
tion:' And, nevertheless,
teachers colleges across the
country seriously put forth
this fact as though it was a
new concept that all of us
should find enlightening.
Looking back on it now
my suspicion is that teach-
ers colleges today devote so
much time to promoting
differentiated instruction
because, in the past, many
teachers just taught accord-
ing to one method and
never swayed from the
book By lecturing on and
on about differentiated
instruction, teacher college
instructors are, I guess, try-
ing to undue many years
and probably decades of
erroneous teaching.
But even going back in
historyyou hear stories
about teachers making a
difference in a person's life
and the teachers in these
stories are rarely stick-to-
the-book
tick to -
the -book types; instead,
they are always those who
connected with the student
And a teacher will never be
able to connectwith a
student if he doesn't first of
all get to know him and his
learning needs; surely, intel-
ligent educators, even in the
olden days, were aware of
this.
I'm not saying that teach-
ers should sway from the
curriculum completely. Not
only could this hinder a stu-
dent's education it would
also probably get the
teacher fired. Obviously,
there are predetermined,
provincial expectations that
every student should meet
Having said that, though,
the Ontario curriculum - I
don't care for what subject -
can be taught in a multitude
of ways and itis up to the
teacher to realize and
appreciate this. Just as every
student is different, every
teacher is different (again,
not rocket science) and it is
up to him as an educator to
teach his subject according
to his own knowledge, expe-
rience and interests.
When these two rudi-
mentary concepts are not
acknowledged or respected,
that is, when the students
are not taught on an individ-
ualbasis andwhenthe
teacher is not given the free-
dom to teach as an individ-
ual, the students' and the
teachers' capabilities, crea-
tivity and ultimate potential
is, I believe, unnecessarily
stifled.
So, to all of you students
goingbackto school, tell
your teachers what you
want to leam. And to all of
you teachers goingbackto
school, tellyour administra-
tors what you want to teach.
When these two interests
are in harmony I think that
great things canbe
achieved.
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