HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-05-28, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2015. PAGE 5.
“In the first place, God made idiots. That
was for practice. Then he made school
boards.”
– Mark Twain
The author of Tom Sawyer and The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn didn’t
know the half of it. Today, a century and
a bit after his death, the idiots are still in charge
of children’s education – and still making a
hash of it.
Down in the U.S., the hot new buzz words
for what kids get taught are ‘sensitivity’ and
‘inclusion’. The idiots are all over that. They
stand on the ramparts making sure that
offensive words and concepts don’t get into
school textbooks to infect the little ones’
minds.
Words like, well...peanuts. Last year, the
experts in charge of vetting words and
passages destined for a test that would measure
the reading and comprehension skills of
students in Grade 4, harpooned all references
to peanuts and hauled them out of the text.
Why?
Because (a) peanuts were described
as ‘a nutritious snack’. That clearly shows
bias against people with an allergy to
peanuts – and (b) in a summary of the
peanut’s history, reference was made to
‘African slaves’ and it suggested that
Spanish conquistadors ‘defeated indigenous
tribes’.
That’s just not nice.
The ‘bias and sensitivity review’ panel also
deep-sixed a story that told of a blind man who
hiked to the top of a mountain. They claimed
the story displayed ‘regional bias’ – meaning
that some children don’t grow up around
mountains so they would be unfairly
disadvantaged. The panel also disapproved of
the outrageous suggestion that blindness
would be any kind of handicap in mountain
climbing.
Nothing escaped the eagle eye of the Bias
and Sensitivity Review panel – not even a
reference to a rotting tree stump. The panel
shot that down because in reference to the
number of organisms that live in decaying
wood, the author compared the stump to an
apartment house.
Clearly a crippling blow to children who live
in apartment houses.
The educational arbiters not only erase
history – they make it up. The panel approved
a piece about the Anasazi Indians, a tribe that
lived in southwestern U.S. about a 1,000 years
ago. The essay described the Anasazi as a wise
and tolerant people who “fostered an
egalitarian culture in which people functioned
as equals. Without kings, chiefs, or other
official authority figures to compel co-
operation, members of Anasazi farming
villages built dams, reservoirs, and irrigation
systems,” as well as 400 miles of roads and
broad avenues.
Small problem: the Anasazi were a
prehistoric people who left no written records
and vanished 500 years before the United
States existed. Nobody knows that they had no
kings or chiefs. Is it likely that they could have
built ‘dams, reservoirs and irrigation systems’
with nobody in charge?
Pretty story, though – and thoroughly
inoffensive.
A recent study found that 61 per cent of
American students find school boring.
The other 39 per cent must already be
asleep.
Arthur
Black
Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
There was a time, in my pre-Grade 8
years, when I felt I was too cool to be
involved in my community or volunteer
for things.
I didn’t put my hand up to help out, I didn’t
really want people to notice me, I was quite
content to sit in the back of the classroom, do
what was necessary to get some decent grades
and skate by as unnoticed as possible.
Unfortunately, trying to go unnoticed is
probably the best way to get noticed. Anyone
who has tried to sneak into their house well
past their curfew in their younger years knows
exactly what I’m talking about.
Despite that, I still wasn’t very involved in
things. The only interaction I had outside of
my friends and sports team was refereeing
soccer (which I’ve been at for a full half of my
life now that I’m 30 years young).
In Grade 8 I was fortunate enough to have to
sit through a guest speaker which I figured (at
the time) would be, at worst, annoying, and at
best a chance to not sit in class.
This particular speaker, apparently oblivious
to the potentially-nefarious connotations of his
speech, preached the benefits of saying yes.
He talked about how, when students are
young, they often have the excitement of
putting their hand up and participating beat out
of them by people who claim it isn’t cool.
He challenged me and my classmates to
remember what it felt like to want to answer a
question, to want to be involved and say yes
when someone asked us to do something out of
our comfort zone.
Things changed for me pretty dramatically
that year. I went from not wanting to be
involved in any kind of sports activities to
wanting to try and do everything.
One of my teachers even noted it just prior to
graduation, saying, at the beginning of the
year, he would never have thought I would be
willing to take on some of the extra
responsibilities I had adopted.
Learning to get involved and re-learning the
joy of saying yes when someone asks you to
do something was an important turning point
for me.
When I graduated high school and went out
to make my mark on the world, I learned that
there are a lot of doors open to fun, to
educational experiences and to situations and
friendships that would form the basis for who
I became later in life – all because I had
learned the joy of getting involved.
Last Friday evening I had the chance to
cover Royal Flush Improv III for The Citizen
(check the pictures elsewhere in this issue).
The show was amazingly funny. It was
clean(-ish) comedy that kept me laughing
throughout the evening and beyond, thinking
back on it.
I even ended up getting involved. I was
called up on stage and handed three cards with
decidedly positive answers on them and was
told that, in the order they were handed to me,
the cards were the only way I could answer
questions.
It made for some good entertainment, it was
funny and, as red as I may have been while on
stage, I had a lot of fun.
The three phrases, “I’ll do it”, “Sounds good
to me” and “Yes, please!” certainly fit into the
idea of saying yes, though, I’ll admit, the
relative family-friendly nature of the show
took a bit of a turn at that point.
At first I thought I would be embarrassed
but, thanks to the lights, I really couldn’t even
make out the crowd, which probably
emboldened me enough to try and be a part of
the show. But looking back, I think that even
seeing the audience wouldn’t have detered me,
it was fun regardless.
That realization kind of took me back.
I could have said no. I could have said, “I’m
here to work, not to get involved” and probably
looked like a pretty big downer to everyone
there but, instead, I smiled, turned red and
jumped up on stage.
I had fun and, with the souvenir of the three
cards I got to keep which will be pinned to my
“stuff that is kind of work-related” board in my
office, I’ve got a memory that I won’t forget
any time soon.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ll admit it’s become
harder to say yes to new and exciting
opportunities. There just isn’t time, but I
promise myself that I will try everything that I
can feasibly do.
I’ve taken over referee scheduling and
recruitment for Blyth Minor Soccer for better
or worse, I’m coaching a soccer team this year
and who knows, maybe that’s something that
will continue.
I’ve also been arrested (for charity), grown a
mustache (for charity) and kissed a pig to try
and raise money for the Blyth Business
Improvement Area.
If you sat me down when I was a 12- or 13-
year-old boy and told me that those would be
some of the most memorable moments (aside
from weddings, birthdays, parties and the
like), my reaction probably wouldn’t be
favourable.
That said, I don’t think I’d trade any of it
(except maybe for a pig with a little bit of a
tamer attitude).
So, for those of you who aren’t involved in
the Lions, the Kinsmen, the Legion or any
other community group yet, or that haven’t
refereed or coached a team, or got involved
somehow in your community, think about it.
When someone suggests taking on a
responsibility with a group like those listed
above, or coaching a team, don’t look at it as
taking up time, look at as an investment.
Maybe the first game or the first activity
won’t be fun, but it will come.
You will learn that saying yes to
opportunities will open doors to memories and
exciting moments you would never experience
otherwise.
So, take a chance. When someone asks you
to join a group or a club, if you have the time
at all, say yes. You’ll forge friendships, make
memories and almost certainly never regret it.
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den
Sharing is caring
When doing something physical,
you’re almost always in the position
of being encouraged . If you’re
playing sports, people cheer for you, if you’re
running a marathon or in a bike race, people
support you. If you’re doing well, spectators
cheer, if you’re not, they cheer louder.
As soon as I decided to be part of the Fire
Riders team, which is embarking on the Ride
to Conquer Cancer next month, I received
universal support. People have been more than
willing to whip out their wallets and donate
and they have been even more generous with
their words.
When I have doubted myself or kvetched
about how difficult training is or how eating
healthily sucks, people have always been there
to talk me off the ledge. They have encouraged
me to keep going. They have told me that I
have it in me and that I can do it. Sure, it’s a
200-kilometre bike ride through some of
Ontario’s biggest cities, but everyone has faith
in me that I can do it. Except for my friend
Chris, but he doesn’t think anyone can do
anything – but that’s his business, not mine.
So it was with that wind at our backs that the
Fire Riders set out for our first team ride on
Sunday (see our team picture elsewhere in this
issue of The Citizen). We rode from Blyth to
Vanastra and back (taking the scenic route as
teammate Donna Walsh put it – I would more
accurately describe it as the long way with all
the hills, but that’s just one man’s opinion)
putting about 70 kilometres on our two-
wheeled chariots in the span of a few hours.
On a personal note, this was my first public
ride on roads on which people drive over 80
kilometres per hour, so to say I was a bit
nervous would be more than fair. To my
delight, however, drivers were more than
courteous. They slowed down, drove around us
with caution and moved over farther than they
needed to.
Except for one guy.
One guy was out on the road looking for a
fight on Sunday morning and to facilitate that
desire, he honked, swerved and eventually
slammed on his brakes, got out of his truck and
went nose to nose with members of the team
right in the middle of the road.
To say it was a bit disheartening would be an
understatement. For someone a little new to
cycling and a lot new to travelling on
highways, it was upsetting.
Here is a team of 10 people (one member
absent) who have collectively raised over
$25,000 to battle cancer, all respected
members of the community (potentially with
the exception of me, but in my quest to become
respectable I dedicate myself daily anew) and
this is the behaviour they’re handed when out
on the streets.
For this to happen early on during my first
highway ride, I wondered internally what else
awaited us that morning. Luckily, however,
everyone else out there was supportive (we
even got some waves and cheers) and
courteous.
But as they say, it only takes one bad apple
to spoil the bunch.
After a little more riding, a hearty Kate’s
Station breakfast and a getting-to-know-you
session with the team, our enthusiasm
returned, it’s just too bad that it had to waver
because of someone having a bad day.
As we returned to Blyth, we were greeted by
this week’s Sparling’s Propane sign: “The
greatest pleasure in life is doing what people
say you cannot do.”
That statement seemed appropriate on a
number of levels that morning.
Other Views
Discovering the joys of saying yes
Rewriting history to make it nicer
Final Thought
“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few
experience what you really are.”
– Niccolo Machiavelli