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Home My WebLink AboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1954-03-11, Page 2Page 2 THE TIMES-ADVOCATE, EXETER, ONTARIO, THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 11, 1954 This Journal shall always fight for progress, reform and public welfare, never be afraid to attack wrong, never belong to any political party, never be satisfied with merely print ing news. THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 11, 1954 Costly Necessity You Can t Take Education Lightly You can’t lake education lightly these days. In Exeter, more than one-third of the municipal tax dollar goes towards the teach ing of children. And the burden isn’t going to become any lighter. Payments on the debentures for the. new addition to Exeter Public School will start this year. Salary costs will probably be higher because of increased staff. Throughout the district the cost is pro portionate. Education of youth, preparing them for life, is an expensive proposition. It won’t be long before additions of both staff and facilities will be needed at the district high school. Taxes for school purposes will go up, Discussion of the educational problem revolves around the basic question: “Are we getting our money’s worth?”. South Huron’s residents should be proud of the district high school. Its well-balanced program has attracted attention in educa tional circles of the province. In recent years SHDHS has established a fine scholastic re cord, it has noted achievements in athletic fields, it is tops in Ontario in agriculture in struction, and it gives a varied extra-mural activity program seldom matched in schools the same size. Credit for this must be given Principal H. L. Sturgis and the members of his staff. In addition, the administration and operation of the school is efficient to the point where the mill rate is one of the lowest in the province. Tribute for this achievement is due Chairman Dr. H. H. Cowen, Secretary- Treasurer E D. Howey and the members of the school board. It is, of course, harder to judge the merits of the Exeter Public School and the surrounding rural school areas since .com parisons between them and other areas are not readily available. However, there is no reason to* believe that our local primary schools are at all inferior. Members of the boards controlling these schools deserve the community’s thanks. Their work is not easy, their responsibility heavy yet their reward is nil. Education Week strives to focus atten tion upon the achievements and the problems of education. The observance of this week in this area is not very extensive. We feel both teachers and boards should co-operate to make education week more meaningful and more enlightening, The public, the board members and the teachers could use profit ably a better exchange of ideas. In observance of Education Week, The Times-Advocate presents comments on school problems and achievements by Principal H. L. Sturgis of South Huron District High School and Principal- C. H. Blowes of the Exeter Public School. By SimpkinsJASPER Maclean’s Magazine. “I’m soiry but your application has been turned down.” !■ HillllHWIl HIIHHHIIIItHHIIIIHItH II* TIMES" Go By Letters To The Editor Writer Sceptical Exeter, March 7 To Editor: Thank you for your kind of- “It’s For You". do not Of your readers your invitation, to scepticism. your first question deliberate: “Got any Just a minute, while I fer, think many respond to are inclined However, is very beef?”, look in the refrigerator. Second, “Pleased about something?": most decidedly, a whole lot of things. Third, “Mad at the World?”; well, suppose .we lay that one on the table. Fourth, “Like to suggest an improve ment?": Your paper won’t hold them all. Will We Essentials By H. L. STURGIS In the pioneer days of our country, one of the first institutions that the settlers felt they should establish was a school. The pic ture that the word school would conjure up to a pioneer would be quite different from what the word suggests today. Let any old- timer talk about his school days and you soon conclude that there were other differ ences just as startling as those in architec ture and design of schools. The army type of discipline together with reform-school type of punishment aroused the spirit of the more adventurous and resourceful elements in the student body, so that, for them, school was a series of reprisals and counter reprisals. Teachers had slight knowledge, little training and often no suitability or no enthusiasm for their work. The curriculum was like the lives of the pioneers, narrow in scope and limited in its aim. It was the curriculum of merest intellectual survival. We have progressed beyond the con fines of a narrow pioneer life with its drudgery, deprivations and its starved social and cultural, life. While we can’t help but admire the fortitude of our pioneer ancestor none of us have any desire to deprive our selves of the fuller life that is possible in a modern Canadian community. Even if we ■wished to return to that mode of life, such would not be possible. We have to live in our own day and age. We would be deluded, irdeed, if we thought that courage and in telligence were no less valid requisites in modern living than in pioneer life. In addi tion to these basic requirements, modern life demands much more. In the realm of science .alone, there is no comparison as to the need of knowledge, both practical and theoretical, ^necessary now, as compared with days of Tiur ancestors. Combustion engines and elec tricity, not horses, supply the horse power on the modern farm. In the realm of national life the prob lems of a pioneer statesman were puny as compared to the responsibilities faced by present-day law-makers. If one of the fa thers of Confederation were miraculously to appear on the political scene he would find his background and political experience en tirely inadequate. Canada is no longer a sheltered child but a fullgrown young adult nation rejoicing in its youthful vigour and new-found sense of responsibility. Modern communications have forever put an end to necessary isolation in Canada. We do not even have to read to become ac quainted with current events and happenings, all over the world. Science is doing more and more for us. In business the use of the typewriter created a need for a faster sys tem of writing. Now another machine in many offices is making the use of shorthand unnecessary. In the field of education the three Rs of the pioneer education can no longer pre- Changing Schools By C. H. BLOWES The curriculum determines what a pupil learns. Many people talk about the curricu lum and the course of study as if they were the same thing. This is not true. The course of study is a group of studies leading toward graduation and a choice of vocation. The curriculum has been defined as “all the ex periences, including subject matter and skills, which are interpreted and used by the school to further the aim of education”. The emphasis during recent years has been shift ed from mastery-of-subject-matter courses to the best development of each individual stu dent. To aid in this development, the school encourages many activities from which a pupils may choose to follow those especially interesting to him. The modern elementary school now helps each child to develop talents and to correct or compensate for his deficiencies. We have special curriculum programs for slow learners and for the intellectually gift ed. In the Exeter school we have been more or less hampered by our large numbers per classrom in developing this important plan but with two additional teachers on the staff this September, the situation should be re medied to a large extent. Our curriculum is geared to weave .to gether the subject courses and relate them to life and living. In other words the basic subjects are not learned in separate bits and pieces.. Instead each subject is learned in connection with all the others—and all help to develop skill in study, self-discipline, self confidence, ability to work with others, will ingness to carry responsibility and so on. Continuous progress of each pupil is more important than class averages, exam ination marks or any form of competition. We endeavour to keep our classes small and reorganizations are made twice a year in the learning-to-read classes. This plan may provide the teacher wij;h less time to know her pupils and to provide for individual dif ferences but we still cling to remnants of the Porter Plan that a child, if he has learned the basic skill of reading with comparative case, should progress according to his ability without having to be confined to the rigor ous demands of his age grade. 50 YEARS AGO Maple syrup from trees in Huron county will be an unknown thing this year unless the wea ther moderates very quickly. Other years trees have been tapped and a good supply of sap running by the end of February. It was not expected Judge Holt would get here to hold court but His Honor braved the stormy weather and bad roads and drove all the way from Goderich, arriv ing here the night before court convened. Several witnesses were unable to get to Exeter.. A gang of men with picks and shovels worked to clear the rail way tracks of ice and snow, two to three feet deep. On Sunday, a gang of 50 men worked with snowplow and two locomotives between Exeter and Hensall but only succeeded in opening up one mile of the track. Not until Wed nesday did the first mail service from Clinton in ten days, reach here. No freight has reached here since February 27 and provisions of all kinds are running low. Cattle have come through the bitter winter in excellent condi- fashioned drill exercise, why not use a method that has the appeal of a real-life situation? Besides learning arithmetic, if, in the situation just described, other lessons such as good lan guage practices, or the value of good manners are learned inci dentally, then I am still more in favour of progressive methods. The. pioneer ’rithmetic spent a good deal of time and energy in perfecting some elementary skills to an elaborate degree that was impractical for most persons. The adding machine has made much of the pioneer addition drill an anachronism. The time for educa tion is a short period of child hood so I agree that we should concentrate on the essentials of education, but by essentials of education I mean a much broader and a much deeper curriculum than the three Rs of the pioneer da^s. tion, farmers report. -The sharp, frosty weather increases their appetites and everything put fore them is cleaned up. be- AGO a week of of 25 YEARS After basking in sunshine during which most the sn o w disappeared, March staged a real blizzard. Several windows in town were blown in, and chimneys and signs blown down. Hydro went off about mid night on Wednesday and was not restored until 9 a.in. Thursday. Mr. Charles Ford has sold his grocery business to Mr. Frank Coates, who will .take possession early in April. Special evangelistic services conducted in James Street Church by the Rev. D. McTavish, assisted by district clergymen, have been well attended. Mr. A. E. Green law, basso of Detroit, has been the soloist. Dr. S. R. D. Hewitt, of Tor onto, who is well known in Ex eter, has accepted the position of superintendent of the Regina Gen eral Hospital. Mrs. Hewitt is the former Edna Dow, a graduate nurse of Toronto General Hos pital. 15 YEARS AGO Fire of unknown origin com pletely razed Orville Twit-chell’s garage, Hensall, and adjoining frame buildings owned by Canada Trust company. The law office of Mr. Gladman was also destroyed. Suckers were running in the river at Grand Bend the latter part of the week and some were offered for sale in Exeter. Miss Marjorie Flynn took part in the children's program over CFPL on Saturday morning. A 23-year-old U.S. Air Corps pilot was killed when his plane crashed into a barn near Parkhill on the farm of Jack Young. Sev eral animals in the barn were pare us adequately for modern living. They are not as essential as they once were and other phases of education are more import ant and more necessary than they once were. I do not wish to take issue with the Min ister of Education when he stresses the fun damentals of education. The difficulty is to decide what the fundamentals are. Sometimes wc can best arrive at a goal by what may seem at first glance an in direct route. If, for example, by playing store a class can learn more arithmetic facts more quickly than by an abstract old- Wbe Exeter ®ime5=^tibocate Thues Established 1873 Amalgamated 1924 Advocate Established 1881 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario An Independent Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Town of Exeter and District Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa Member Of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association Member Gt the Ontario-Quebec Division of the CWNA Member1 of the Audit Bureau Of Circulation Paid-in-Advance Circulation as of September 30, 1953 2,474 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Canada (in advance) $3.00 per year ■ U.S.A. (in advance) $4.00 per year Published by The Exeter Times-Advocate Limited What Is A Boy? (This being Education The Times-Advocate presents this essay written by a. boy in grade seven of a local school. Readers will find it an interesting ex ample of the literary ability of children in our public schools.) Between the stage of a howling baby and a brave man is a two- legged creature called a boy. He is hard to understand, rough, full of mischief, and very care less. He is very hard to understand because he is very awkward. One minute he will agree "with you, and the next minute he will dis agree. It is hard to tell him any thing because he thinks he is right. Roughness is his best trait, and his happiest. Expanding his chest he will bump into girls and knock them down. He’s con tinually fighting smaller boys and he runs away from boys. This is a bully and combined. • Mischief is another happy traits. He breaks and blames anybody but him self. He teases old people and and makes steps slippery. His tricks are many. Carelessness to him is nothing at all. He stubs the toes of his shoes, water in the sink and doesn’t clean up after himself. As long as father -pays—this two-legged creature carries on. Now he is a jnan, which is sometimes good and other times useless-. He has smartened up some—but not much. Week, bigger coward of his brooms breaks dishes, splashes killed. Mr. Young had left the building only a few minutes be fore or he would have been killed. The general store of Reste- meyer and Miller, Dashwood, was broken into on Sunday night and a quantity of merchandise stolen. Entrance the glass was gained by smashing in the front door. YEARS AGOIO Mr. and Mrs. Enoch Rowcliffe celebrated their golden wedding anniversary March 7. Ladies of Concession 4 and 5, Usborne, organized a Red Cross unit at the home of Mrs. W. Moodie. Mrs. Luther Rowcliffe was named president. A special meeting of the coun cil was called to consider the matter of new fire equipment. Of an objective of $7,000 for the Red Cross campaign, $3,000 has been received to date. Mr. Irvine Armstrong, who has been working in London, has ac cepted a position with Mr. E. R. Hopper. , TH^BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY OF CANADA Maclean’s Magazmo Do you leave your work behind when you quit for the night? Or do you—and your wife—often answer business calls that are too important to wait till morning? Open twenty-four hours a day This sort of thing happens So often to so many people they’ve come to realize how important a home telephone is in helping them to keep their jobs going. In fact you may be one of those who Say that, for business reasons alone, your telephone at home is worth more than it costs! I notice you are happy to pub lish signed letters. Do we have to sign our names? Would our wife’s name be in order? Or say the man next door? You open a wide field when you say public discussion of com mon problems. Some, who are articulate, are always doing it. Others, keep mum. They figure silence is golden. Then, have you ever read where it says “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise"? “Opinions and arguments are the healthful tonics of democ racy", That is gnod. We really should blossom out there. Your next question begins with that very accomodating word “if": “If you would like the people to know what you think . . . “Mr. Editor, how is it pos sible to live in a small town and escape that. Some people tell us nowadays we do not need to think. It is all waiting for us, wrapped up in cellophane. We do not believe that, do we? Originality is still one of “our priceless possessions. Have you noticed all the TV aerials going up? Some say they breed laziness and eye strain. Good heavens! We must not im pair our vision. It ds bad enough now in some quarters, isn’t it? F. H. Whilsmith Visits Exeter, Cal. Escondido, California March To the Editor: ■I am enclosing check newal of my subscription paper. I have enjoyed reading The Times-Advocate for a great many years. My father, Mr. F. H.. Neil, who used to live near Lucan and later at London was a constant subscriber to your paper. So you see, I haye been reading it for over 50 years. Last September, while on a trip to Sequoia National Park, we passed through Exeter, Cali fornia. We for awhile their local We have here in this part of Southern California. We enjoy it very, very much! Our home is located on a hill top overlooking the city and sur rounded with beautiful green valleys, filled with orange groves, avocado groves and lovely homes. The atmosphere is very clear, affording many beautiful scenic views of mountains, rising range on range, away into the distance and to the westward a view out 1, 1954 for re- to your stopped and visited with the editor of newspaper there. a wonderful climate over the blue Pacific for approxi mately 100 miles. Flowers grow in great profu> si-on the year around US well as many semi-tropical fruits and trees. In case you should ever coiiie down here to Southern Califor nia, have be pleased to us. very truly Neil, we would you call on Yours E. R. P.O. Box 604, Escondido, California KEEP YOUR CROSS For as long as there is human suffering then there is need of the Red Cross. You know the need, and how great it is. Please help generously—the work of mercy never ends. ,422,850 is needed this year Sponsored by Exeter Lions Club choose your colours at home-Buy your Paint by Phone! 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