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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1972-10-19, Page 4we get letters 4-,-Clinton News-ftecord.„ Thursday, October 19, 1972 The great Degiected children "In biblical times they were 'left outside the gates of the city', I sometimes think we haven't progressed very much," These words are those of a parent whose child has a. learning disability, The massive dimensions of this problem in Canada has only been recognized in the past few years. It is estimated that 12 percent of Canada's Population under 19 yedrs of age - or one million children and youth suffer from some form of handicap - emotional or perceptual - which prevents them from learning in the normal way. The failure and personal distress ahead for these children is not inevitable. The demands for action on this problem have become louder. The professions involved have been stimulated to search for new ways to help these children and their families. it is imperative, for a start, that those people who are most closely involved with children-teachers, school nurses, social workers, probation officers and family doctors - be informed and included in programs of detection, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Children who need these programs in- clude: those who are neurotic, psychotic or exhibit behaviour disorders, retarded children, children with specific learning deficits, children with a sensory or physical handicap, those who have been judged delinquent, those who are culturally or emotionally deprived. In order for these children to live nor- mal, rich and full lives it is important that they not suffer isolation or segregation. Efforts must be made to ensure their nOr- mal experience of childhood, family, school and community. To accomplish this the child must be viewed as a whole. In the' past the child has been seen by different professionals. He is a medical patient to one, a difficult student to another, a ward of the, Children's Aid to another, or a delinquent to another. This fragmentation leaves his need unmet. There must also be con- tinuity of service and care, and help available at the earliest moment of need. This care must be administered by the local community but the funds necessary and the standards to be set should rest with the Government of Canada, and with the Provincial governments, The people of Canada must demand changes: in policy, planning, and prac- tice; but most of all in attitude. A late start in these reforms cannot be afforded. One million children cannot be failed. A slow start but a good race If the all-candidates meeting spon- sored by the Huron Federation of Agriculture is any indication, interest in the present federal election is about as high as a snail's belly button. Fewer than 100 people turned out at the meeting last Thursday in Clinton. Many blamed the fact that there was a late bean harvest for the poor turnout, and that may be the case. But the questions posed by the listeners didn't show much interest either, Part of this may be due to the fact that most of the things done by the federal government are done on a grand scale and don't directly affect the ordinary citizen as do decisions of the provincial government. Part of it is due to the fact that despite the attempts of opposition leaders to force an issue, there just aren't many. Some say unemployment is an, issue, but it doesn't seem to enrage most voters. The only issue that brought life to the meeting` Thursday was the unemployment in- surance overdraught which gave Mr, McKinley a chance to show indignation at the government and brought some heated argument from the audience. Other than that, there was little ex- citement. It's too bad there isn't more interest in the race here in Huron because there are three good candidates. Possibly the most impressive on Thursday was the biggest surprise, Shirley Weary the NDP can- didate who, although discussing farm policy with farmers managed, as an ur- ban woman, to get in more good points than her two male farmer opponents put together, Of course, being an opposition mem- ber, Mrs. Weary like Mr. McKinley had all the advantages. They could Criticize without having to come up with solutions to problems. They did not have to be responsible for past mistakes, and had more ammunition for pot shots at the government. Mr. McKinley is in the best position and will likely repeat his victory of 1968 because of it, He has the advan- tage of being the incumbent (which is a big edge in this part of the country) and yet as an opposition member can gain because of any unhappiness with the government. At the same time, he doesn't have to be so careful of his own past achievements because he can always blame any failures on the government not listening to him. Charles Thomas, the Liberal candidate, found himself on the defensive most of the evening because of this. Although he is a better speaker than Mr. McKinley, his advantage was nullified by the problem of being a representative of the federal Liberal government in a riding that has always been a Conservative stronghold and by the fact that almost always he had to speak first in the debate. The situation for Mr. Thomas is a tough one, and it's too bad. Under other circum- stances than the present, he would probably win but now he faces a very stiff battle, For Mrs. Weary, it is perhaps even sad- der. Here is a woman who, on the im- pression she left Thursday at least, has a lot on the ball. She is a good speaker. She is a moderate voice for women's rights. She has some good ideas. Yet she doesn't appear to have a chance of even getting 10 per cent of the vote in this riding that has never supported NDP can- didates. Hopefully, people will in the next couple of weeks, begin to listen to the candidates and think about the issues. It is the least they can do when there are three good candidates such as we have. (Blyth Standard) WINK CRIIPAU RIADOPARITR5 "First the good news from our survey — 54 per cent of the people polled never heard of you . ." They'll never get me back in school I rest in bed and look at me THE CLINTON NEW ERA Amalgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1865 1924 Established 1881 Clinton News-Record A member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper AssociatiOn, Ontario Weekly Newspaper AsSociation and the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) second etas- mail registration number — 0817 'SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) -Canada, $8.00 per year; U,S.A, 0.50 JAMES E. FITZGERALD-,-Editor J. HOWARD AlTKEN General Mena er Published the heart every Thursday At Of Huron County' Clinton, Ontitio Population 3,475 THE HOME ' OF RADAP IN CANADA It takes some people a long time to realize that they are completely dispensable. I realized it years ago, but keep forgetting until something jolts me. Today it's the mother and father of all colds. I haven't missed a day's work in about three years, at times tottering off to the job with one foot in the grave. For some reason, I had the conceit to imagine that the en- tire English department, if not the whole school system, would crack, crumble and collapse if I weren't there, Common sense tells me that if I were ill for a month, nobody would know the difference, and that if I dropped dead this moment the human race would not falter for a second in its pur- suit of folly, happiness and all the other things that make it tick, So, here I am surrounded by soggy kleenex, coughing up chunks of lung, and sweating like a mule-skinner every time I do anything more vigottrous than blink my eyes. But it's not all bad. My wife is dancing attendance oh me, Sonaethirig she rarely does because I'm almost never ill. I have a good, foolish detective story which I'd normally never have time to read. And perhaps most important of all, I have this lazy, hazy feeling that I have stopped the world and got off, even if only for twenty-four hours. My wife has just forced on me, quite against my will, a large libation of hot water, lemon, sugar and some sort of cough medicine with the odd name of Teachers' Highland Cream, It makes me sweat, but certainly eases the cough. In fact, it makes life look almost rosy, hope she doesn't run out of lemons. And stuff. Isn't it a pity, though, that we go through life, or the biggest part of it, with this feeling that we're so important, when we're less than ants on the face of the earth? Businessmen flog themselves daily to meet the competition. 'Executives and lawyers drag home their brief cases. Doctors burn themselves out in twenty years of inordinately long hours. Teachers develop ulcers or quietly go mad, Why don't we all relax a little more often and let the earth take a few spins without us? Perhaps the most guilty of all are politicians, Right now the country resembles a disturbed bee-hive as our politicians hur- tle about, every one of them con- vinced that his constituency, his party, and his country will go to the dogs if he, personally, is not ,elected, God forbid, but what would actually happen if Trudeau, Stanfield, Lewis and Caouette had a four-way air collision, which is not an impossibility at the rate they're haring about their homeland? Would we just have to throw up our hands and sell the coun- try to the highest bidder? Fat chance. There'd be enough power-hungry men and women, or just plain idiots, to fill their shoes before the bits were picked up, Nobody is irreplaceable. The sky didn't fall in when the British kicked their great war- time leader, Winston Chur- chill, out of office, The States didn't disintegrate after the deaths of Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, When he Stalin finally expired, Russia didn't exactly hit the skids, It BOOMS that the only way to stay off that treadmill of feeling indispensable is to be poor. The fewer our possessions, the freer we are to step off the merry-go. round, take a look at the won' The certain school board which played a contributory part in my spectacular and con- tinuous failure through nine faltering years of their. system has sent me a pamphlet called "Study - The Do-It-Yourself Form of Learning". Presumably they're under the impression that there's still hope for me. My impression on the other hand, is that things haven't changed much around that board. Clearly, they still look upon learning as much the same painful, disagreeable drudgery that caused me to escape, at a very early age, to begin a career in berry-picking. A long list of "Tricks of the Study Trade" begins with The Alphabet Device. "You have a number of points to remember, say the list of the ten basic life processes taken in Biology 91," it begins. "You list the first letters of the key words and then you memorize the series. Like so: F-D-A, A-R-E, S- M and S-R. They recall to your mind: Food Getting, Digestion, Absorption, etc." Just reading that far had me drowsy and nervous, a very rare combination. By the time I'd got through The Grid System, The Care File, The Mix and Match Method, The Large Chart and the Underlining Technique I'd almost re-captured that half- forgotten attitude to knowledge that marked my school years, namely panic. Listen, School Board, when in heaven's name are you going to learn to make education a joyful adventure instead of a grim dare? When are you going to derful world we live in, and realize that we are about as in- dividually important as grains of sand. I have a fellow just like that sitting downstairs talking to his mother. He drifted in this mor- ning from Montreal. He's off to Alaska to spread the Baha'i faith. How is he going to get there? Well, if he can get to Penticton by Friday, he'll catch a ride north with some friends. I point out that there is no way, short of flying, of getting to Penticton in two days. Oh, well, he may hitch-hike going through nor- thern Saskatchewan, (He got the hint .that I wasn't going to loan him air fare.) What was he going to take? Well, he has a sleeping bag and a sweater and jeans and boots, and it's only about three thousand miles, so there's no problem, He's been to Mexico, New Orleans, Now York and across Canada from coast to coast. Ilia total assets are those listed above. Physical, that is. On the other hand, he's completely bilingual and has an education no university could provide. Best of all, he knows clearly that, he is not indispensable. grasp the idea that a disciplined memory is not half as important in life as an aroused curiosity? I watched my own kids going through the same indoctrination that defeated me. Oh, they were marvellous little inventory- takers. They held their own and better with their classmates in the competition of total recall. But it was mighty rare for them to be engrossed in an idea or to sort out the great truths and mysteries from the vast file of inconsequential, unimportant and immaterial data that's shovelled daily into tender little craniums. It is still a system that produces young, men and women who can tell you, .as faultiassiN, as an electronic computer, that the• ten basic life processes are, F-D-A, A-R-E and so on without the slightest thrill of recognition. No deliberate conspiracy could contrive a formula so brutal in clobbering the true 10 YEARS AGO OCTOBER 18, 1962 Since the area serviced by Clinton Lions Club is prac- tically free of crippled children who require financial aid, the club was able to present $1,000 to the Crippled Children's Treatment Centre at London, The cheque was given on Tuesday evening, October 9 to E,G. Silverwood, a director of the London centre. Enrolment at Clinton District Collegiate Institute has leveled off at 786 students, reported principal D. John Cochrane last week to the board. He explained that a number of changes had been made in the timetable to accommodate classes and student, The weather October 17, 1962. High 63, Low 46. 15 YEARS AGO OCTOBER 17, 1057 Bright red, white and blue banner proclaiming "In Union there is strength" was the rallying point last Thursday evening at the annual meeting of the Huron County branch of the Ontario Farmer's Union. Well over 70 men and women attended and each wore a rib- bon and name tag, indicating whether member or non- member. Training schools for leaders of the 4-H Homemaking Clubs in the south part of Huron County are being held in the agricultural office board rooms here in Clinton next Tuesday and Wednesday. The project for the clubs this winter is entitled "Working 'with Wool". 25 YEARS AGO 0010aes 23, 1947 DottiOng MeDonakl, soh of , Mr, and Mrs. S, MacDonald, is the winner of the Sir Battiest Cooper Scholarship, Jack Rozell la mayor of "Teen Town", supported by Reeve spirit of enquiry as this tedious, traditional mold of arbitrary fact and robot-like method. God only knows how many fine minds and bright intellects have been discouraged by it, have dropped out of formal education because it seemed to be getting them nowhere. More than that, it negates the whole idea of teaching — "the art," as Anatole France put it, "of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it after- wards. I offer the illustration of my own grubby torment only because it is typical of vast hor- des of adults who can ,say that they did ,not be.09, to learn u t'i~ they'd 'left sj iadOl,': that- theY acquired the habit of absorbing knowledge in spite of the way they'd been taught. One of the most astonishing and gratifying discoveries of my life, as a 16-year-old newspaper reporter, was that I was not, af- Don Miller. Robert Allan, R.R. Brucefield was winner and Murray Roy, Londesboro and Ray Wise, R.R. 3 Clinton were runners-up in the Clinton Junior , Grain Club competition. Commanding Officer GiC E.A. McGowan presented cer- tificates to 23 graduates of Radio and Communications School, R.C.A.F, Station Clin- ton. 40 YEARS AGO OCTOBER... 20, 1932 E.A. Fines was winner of the single's competition at the Bowling Greens and won a very handsome occasional chair. Gordon Rutledge, formerly of Clinton, who has been manager of the Financial Post, has been appointed branch manager of the Toronto branch of the On- tario Equitable Life. David Cantelon, Huron's Ap- ple King, interviewed the I-Ion. Robert Weir, minister of agriculture in Ottawa this week in connection with recent developments in the apple in- dustry. Turner's Church celebrated 70th anniversary with Rev. F.G. Farrill. 55 YEARS AGO ter all, a backward brain, but that I could hold my own in gathering and digesting infor- mation quickly and often on subjects that were complicated. That was necessity, the need of doing it to earn a living. But it was even more pleasing to discover that I'd a normal, un- satisfied appetite and capacity for a great variety of knowledge — in many cases precisely those subjects that had utterly con- founded me in school — and that I could readily find and assimilate what I wanted to know. Study then became a matter of wanting to answer questions rather, than the cockeyed ritual of having to memorize a shop- pirkgolist,. of •isplated i and qfpen unrelated facts. All the Grid Systems, Card Files and Charts in the world, I discovered, are no substitute for that natural hunger to know. I wonder if the people who run our schools will ever learn it. OCTOBER 18, 1917 Conscription notices were issued calling on all unmarried Canadian males to service, if aged 20. Coal prices are at $10 to $10.25 per ton and the problem of getting a supply is rather serious. Miss Emma Lavis exhibited some fine specimens of her work in the fine arts section of the Brussels Fall Fair. Miss Annice Bartliff has com- pleted her course as nurse in Victoria Hospital, London. 75 YEARS AGO OCTOBER 20, 1897 The Church Boy's Brigade will resume their regular meetings on next Thursday evening. A full attendance of all members is requested to be on hand punctually at 7 p.m. Just now there is a great sur- plus of leaves from the numerous, big and handsome shade trees in Clinton. The leaves are being gathered for many purposes, but there is no more useful purpose they can be put to than future soil for plant- s. Place them in some suitable spot sparingly or in bulk and nothing better for future use can be secured. Dear Editor: This may seem a very unusu request and hobby, and hoping that you may be able find me a small space in yo newspaper for my quest, T ha a very interesting hobby collecting regimental badge my main interest bein Canadian badges of the pa. and present. I'm especially kee on all C.E.F. badges, Infantr Artillery, etc. I have seen a picture of t 161st Canadian Infantry Ba talion's very nice badges but am hoping that some reade may be able to help me in quest for any Canadian badg of the past and present. Thanking you, I remain, Yours trul Bert Pike (Postma Dear Editor: In a remote corner of t West African country Dahomey, there's a tiny on room shed which currently se yes as the only classroom for t children of four neighbori villages. The children need a new fiv room school. The land has be cleared, the parents are volved, interested, willing t work together. They even hay the support of 15 other Africa nations who are ready to sen unpaid volunteers to erect t building itself. This is the kind of project 0 fam-Canada is particular sager to support because it's et tirely indigenous; locall motivated, involves all the loc people, represents the beginni of a new awareness of "corn unity", and at the same ti points the way to a spirit mutual self-help among th nations of Africa. But the people simply don' have the money with which t buy building materials. The problem is, neither do w The community school Dahomey is only one projec among dozens I could mentio which must be postponed 'perhaps Indefin Rely, 'rfor need funds. There is also a nutrition education-santitation-and-scho 1 program for the children o Haiti; a radio course to help th( rural families of Nicaragua; th fishermen's co-operative in th Philippines; a farmers' co-op it Brazil. At a time when most of us i Canada have just returned fro a carefree summer-time vacation, I am taking the libert, of appealing to you on behalf of the thousands, even millions, of people and families around th world who urgently need you help. During the past year, we have channelled some two million dollars from generous and concerned Canadians to people who needed only the first small boost to start them on their way to a better more human way of life. And I can report to you that 84112 cents of each dollar sent to Oxfam-Canada has gone to our International Aid program. But the disturbing fact remains that a great percentage of our recent efforts have, of necessity, been directed to one part of the world. The country of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, has been beset by a series of disasters unprecedented in human history; cyclone, tidal wave, civil war, the incredible crisis of the refugees and now the rebuilding of a new nation, literally from nothing. So vital are the needs of the 75 million people of Bangladesh that:Ox- fam-Canada has set a target goal of $615,000 as our share of the rehabilitation expenditure for this struggling young nation. So far, slightly more than one third of that sum has been raised. Natural and man-made (continued oh page 7)