HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1977-11-24, Page 4Valuable exercise
Last week's public session conducted
by the South Huron rec centre board of
management was a most fruitful exercise,
although there was considerable criticism
levelled.
However, most of that criticism ended
up being channeled in the right direction
when those in attendance agreed that the
majority of complaints stemmed from the
fact the building has not been completed
and its use has therefore resulted in
problems for everyone involved.
Those are problems over which no one
locally has any control and it is unfortunate
that is has resulted in some ill feelings
between the local citizens involved in its
construction and operation.
The board also learned there were
some problems within their operation, and
while they may have been surprised that
they were aired publicly without any prior
notification, they must agree that the end
result was beneficial in that corrective
measures have been taken,
In short, a number of people managed
to get some things off their chests, and that
can only serve to strengthen the situation.
It should also point out to the board, that
further meetings of that nature may prove
valuable in that contentious issues are not
allowed to ferment.
Many of the area citizens who attended
aired some worthwhile suggestions to
make the facility more efficient. Many of
those items would have gone unheard had
the meeting not been held, and that ob-
viously would have been unfortunate'.
The board is to be commended for their
desire to have public input into the opera-
tion of the facility.
Positive step
eeesees,we :eaeieexeca-vei.e::+exeaer.
O
Pass the pain reliever
Have a nice day!
Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924
Imes voca
Published Each Thursday Morning
at Exeter, Ontario
Second Class Mail
Registration Number 086
Paid in Advance Circulation
September 30, 1975 5,409
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Page 4 Times-Advocate, November 24, 1977 eeeetee . .
Comment from...
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By IL. Wooden
A recent release from the Ministry of
Education reveals that Education Minister
Thomas Wells is still opposed to province-
wide examinations in Ontario's school
system as the sole means of promotion. But
it is also levident that Wells and his
associates are• aware that some sort of un-
iform diagnosis of pupil strengths and
weaknesses is needed in the province's
schools.
A group of 13 — mostly teachers — was
established last fall by Wells to consider
evaluation and reporting methods. In their
report this month, the group stated that
province-wide standardized testing should
form only one part of a broader program of
student evaluation. It was further
recommended that responsibility for the
evaluation of student achievement should
remain primarily with classroom teachers,
but that considerable effort should be taken
to improve the evaluation and testing skills
of teachers throughout Ontario.
This latter recommendation is signifi-
cant in that it points up the wide variety of
opinions among teachers in Ontario concer-
ning what education is, what should be ex-
pected of students and what teacher goals
should be. While standardized testing
across the province was proven to be an un-
reliable instrument to gauge what students
had actually learned, the testing did re-
quire teachers to teach a standard course
in a fairly standard way to obtain standard
results.
Many educators today are concerned
about the lack of common objectives in the
schools. Without them, it is agreed by most
teachers, students can be the unsuspecting
victims of the cruelest trick of all . • . poor
preparation for the tasks that lie ahead.
It is good to know that some of Wells'
work group recommendations will be im-
plemented soon, particularly the develop-
ment of a bank of tests related to specific
curriculum objectives which will be made
available to teachers to help them assess
student progress as it relates to the provin-
cial scene. With this positive step forward,
there is time to haggle for a while yet,
about what is the best course of action to
follow for the kids in school in Ontario.
If you read in the papers one of
these days about some middle-
aged guy going berserk and
punching a pretty young waitress
or bank teller in the mush for no
apparent reason, you'll know it
was 1, driven finally over the
brink by that inanity to end them
all, "Have a nice day."
It may happen in a restaurant.
It will be just after that waitress
has served me lukewarm soup
followed by filet of sole, The filet
will turn out to be of the boot
variety, rather than the sea
variety, and I will just have
broken a tooth on it. As I am
fumbling fragments of bone out
of my face, she will sashay off to
serve another customer, hips
twitching, and toss over her
shoulder at me a gay "Have a
nice meal, now," That's when I
will let her have it.
Or it might occur on a Friday
afternoon, in the bank. The
weather forecast is for blizzards,
I have 300 miles to drive
tomorrow, my wife is in a snarky
mood, I'm on my way to have
two teeth extracted, and my
arthritis is giving me a fairly
lively foretaste of hell. And this
young teller, her feet aching
slaps down my withdrawal, sum-
mons an exhausted smile from
down around her pantyhose and
chirrups, "Have a nice weekend,
eh?"
It's not the grammar or the
verbiage I object to. It's the
utter insincerity of the sugges-
tion, It means just about as much
as if the speaker blew his/her
nose and spat into the wind.
And it's pretty obvious where
it came from. It's one of those
American imports that should be
banned at the border. It has
crept across via the airwaves,
issued in treacly tones by
signing-off disc jockeys and
game show MCs.
And it has been copied by
Canadian media people, who ape
automatically the mispronun-
ciations of their U.S. counter-
parts, such as eggsacution for
"execution" and noshus for
"nauseous."
From there it has spread like
the Black Plague into our air-
lines, hotels, restaurants, and
even our sacred institutions like
the banks. I haven't been in a
bordello lately, but I'd be willing
to bet that when a customer
totters off shaky and unshaven
into the cold dawn, the madame
will coo after him in dulcet
tones, "Have a nice day, now."
I have a strong suspicion the
damn thing originated in the
deep south, along with such
heart-felt maxims as "Y'all
come back real soon, y'heah."
Which means, roughly, if you
want to be ripped off again in our
joint, we'll be happy to oblige.
I refuse to believe all those
waitresses, air stewardesses,
bank clerks are spouting this
garbage from deep in their
hearts. These gals are tuckered
out, They don't give a diddle
whether we drop dead, as long as
we do it in front of somebody
else's wicket.
Goderich Signal Star
No, they've been coerced into
this phoney farewell by the
Simon Legrees they work for, the
type who think that if the clerks
utter such slop in the Holiday Inn
in Texas, they should do the
same in the Holiday Inn in Toron-
to.
And they're the guys I have it
in for, not the poor underlings,
forced to soil their lips with an
artificial, cynical so-long that
raises the hackles on the likes of
me.
At first I responded to this silly
utterance with a reluctant and
very concise "Thanks. You too,"
As I became more disgusted
with the obvious falsity of such
as the dentist absentmindedly
muttering "Have a good day"
just after he'd drilled two and
yanked one, my response sub-
sided to a grunt.
Next step will be to look one of
the idiots who issue 'this inanity
right in the eye and calmly ask:
"Are you kidding? Who told you
to say that? Do you mean it?
What do you care what kind of
day I have? I don't really care
what kind you have."
This might make a few of the
more sensitive ones blush, But
most of them would just drop
their jaw and wonder whether
old Smiley had got into the
sauce, to make him so snarly.
It may take stronger
measures, and I hope many of
my readers who agree with me
will join in putting a halt to this
Having recently watched that
persistent TV commercial about
the school bus driver and his
need for an adult-sized pain
reliever to battle the noises of his
daily job, it was with some ap-
prehension that the writer decid-
ed to join a group of students
from Exeter Public School to
travel to the Royal Winter Fair,
That apprehension was not
diminished to any great degree
by the obvious enthusiasm of our
own nine-year-old with whom we
were going to make the trip, and
when the thought of multiplying
that by some 40-fold finally hit
home, it was unfortunately too
late to develop a bad cold or even
come up with some strange in-
testinal problem that could be
used as an excuse for having to
withdraw from the outing.
However, there is safety in
numbers they say, so there was
some solace in the fact that when
we arrived at the school for our
departure on Thursday morning,
there were a number of other
moms and dads on hand to join
us, although none of them
appeared to have the same
enthusiasm as the kids did
either.
It wasn't long before the kids
were rounded up into their pre-
arranged groups and our con-
genial bus driver herded us onto
our vehicle, His calm approach
to the situation led us to the con-
clusion he too had seen the
advertisements, but had taken an
ample supply of those adult-sized
pain relievers prior to the trip.
At any rate, we were soon on
our way, the youthful ex-
citement bubbling throughout the
bus as the teachers made a final
"head count",
The writer opened up his
newspaper to glean the news of
the world, but the headline had
barely caught our eye when there
was a gentle tap on our shoulder
from the pert little gal sitting
beside us. "What highway is
this?" she asked.
From that point on, there was
a constant barrage of questions
from Janice and the group of
youngsters located in our vicini-
ty. They had been given
numerous pages to fill out regar-
ding the trip, and it wasn't long
before we realized just how fast
the modern world must appear to
move in the eyes of a nine or ten-
year-old, ,
* * *
The questions were not dif-
ficult, They had to name the
various towns and villages
through Which we would pass and
pernicious poop,
If it happens in a public place,
perhaps we should call the
manager and say "This young
lady/man is interfering in my
private life, in my democratic
right to have a rotten
day/weekend if I feel like it. Now
you, buster, just tell her never to
insult another customer With
that silly saying, or I'll take my
business elsewhere."
This is the only language un-
derstood by the type of turkey
who thinks such garbage as
"Have a good day" is good public
relations, Hit him where it hurts,
In the PP. panic pocket.
Perhaps I am over-reacting. I
have been known to do this in
connection with Celsuis, metric,
politicians of every hue, greedy
unions, misleading adver-
tisements, town engineers,
school administrators, and about
12,000 other things, including the
highway robbers known as gar-
age mechanics.
Maybe it Will pass away, along
with other such worn-to-the-
heels expressions as "That'll be
the frosty Friday" and "All
righty" and the current Lib'.
quitous "Turkey," Which seems
to cover a multitude of mental
and physical abberratiohs,
But in case it doesn't, keep
your dukes up, you purveyors of
Have a goad „ ."
mark our route on a pre-printed
map. There were columns in
which they were to count various
vehicles and even record the
color of cars and trucks.
The sheets included cross-
word puzzles, a science question-
naire and that game that has
always been popular with school
children, hang-man, where the
body appendages are added as
each letter in a selected word is
missed by the youngster trying
to fill in the blanks.
"How do you spell
Russeldale?" Janice asked as we
proceeded along the route. She
had seen the road sign, but at 50
m.p.h., had been unable to get
enough time to note the spelling,
"What's the population? asked
the little gal in front, while from
behind us came the question
"Are we still on Highway 83?"
"There's a red car", com-
mented a lad across the aisle as
he marked the appropriate sheet,
while another girl turned to ask
what name would be given to a
plant that sometimes may be
..poisonous.
"How can it be both highway 7
and 8?" another youngster asked
as we sped along towards
Kitchener, "That's 240 silos."
another remarked, adding up his
check marks.
* * *
And so it continued...one ques-
tion popping up before another
could be answered. A quick
glance at the mirror in front of
the bus driver caught his wide
grin as he watched the editor
fielding the questions. Even with
the heavy traffic, he probably
realized he had the easier task.
After pulling in for a "pit stop"
at a 401 service centre, exchang-
ing greetings with the other bus
load of kids and parents apd a
group of WI members from
Zurich, we were on our way
again and soon the kids were ad-
ding jets to their list as we zoom-
ed past the airport.
In what was undoubtedly the
shortest trip we had ever taken
to Toronto, we were soon pulling
up to the CNE grounds and an in-
dication of what was to follow
soon became amply obvious.
There they were...those yellow
school buses everywhere one
looked. There must have been
200 of them and the realization
that their contents had all been
disgorged into the building we
were about to enter was again a
sinking feeling. Two hundred
times 50 kids adds up to a tur-
moil!
With final instructions as to
our departure, we headed into
the fair and there they
were.,.. those 10,000 kids
parading behind adults and
teachers,., hanging onto ropes in
some cases to keep them in tow.
"One, two, three..„yes we have
all —new let's go see the
cattle," the beleagured man on
the head of the line chanted as
yet another group of youngsters
made its way through the
building,
Once in the cattle barn (or
sheep area...or pig area) the lit-
tle bodies would scatter as each
saw a particular specieS which
attracted his/her eye. "Over
here," one would shout as she
caught a glimpse of the tiny little
black lamb in one pen. Half the
group would make it that fat, the
other dispersing to another shout
of "look at this"...and so it went,
Everywhere, kids stopping to
jot down the name of a particular
species to add to their assigned
collection for classroom
study—picking up a piece of wool
or the clippings from the men
who Were primping their red rib-
bon hopeful for the steer class,
And then there was a strange
silence, Looking about, the
reason became obvious. Down
the hallway ambled a huge
Chianina bull,..all 3,000 plus
pounds of it. The handler allowed
Wirt to stop for a drink and a
crowd clustered to take in the
monstrous sight. Finally, the bull
had had his thirst wetted and the
owner moved off down the hall,
again with kids standing open-
mouthed to watch the spectacle.
One could easily imagine how
that animal appeared to a four-
foot youngster, as it towered
over him with those long horns
held high and erect. There
appeared to be as much fear in
some eyes as there was awe.
*
Finally, the list of horses, cat-
tle and sheep had been com-
pleted. Even the writer was
amazed at the number of species
and could guess at the confusion
that must have been creeping
into the young viewers' minds.
Having completed the assign-
ment, we wandered more
leisurely through the other ex-
hibits, sitting for awhile to watch
the judges eye a class of long-
eared goats and to see the
handlers of the high-spirited
hackney ponies draw on their
wealth of tricks to get their
steeds to stand more erect. They
tossed sawdust in the air, flicked
the whip at a nose or held their
hats high to get the required
stance. Some of the animals
were close to hysterics as they
pranced about under the
watchful eyes of the judges and
handlers.
Then it was off to the field ex-
hibits. A 406-pound squash! Oh
the beauty of those hand picked
and symmetrically arranged
wheat and barley displays. The
trophies were there to be award-
ed to the world's best exhibits.
They too were gorgeous.
There were the working dis-
plays of the old-fashioned
pioneer activities of spinning,
cider making, sausage stuffing,
etc. The youngsters delighted in
their ability to explain to their
viewers what was going on.
As usual there were the
barkers attracting their crowds
of adult viewers as they
demonstrated the latest in
kitchen magic products, but the
school children were noticeably
absent from those lineups. There
were more interesting things for
them to see and do, such as walk-
ing through the poultry buildings
with its incessant noises of
geese, ducks and chickens.
Now on to the aquarium to see
the rainbows of color flash
through the waters in the tanks
of tropical fish.'
One more glance at the
building map showed other ex-
hibits yet to visit.,.but alas it is
already close to departure time
and we had-better head down to
the lobby to prevent the bus
driver from having to take any
more of those adult-sized pain
relievers.
We wandered back through the
flowers, Carlsberg horses, and
heard again the nervous steps of
hackneys as they made their way
along theicementto theishowlring.
* *
Once outside, we were treated
to the timing of a couple of
Toronto hucksters who appeared
out of nowhere with their carts of
fresh roasted chestntkta, popeorn
and peanuts.
Then it was on to the bus and
into the frenzy of the Toronto
traffic, Made Oven more difficult
by a heavy rain.
But the driver was left to his
duties- as once again they
started. Those questions! Now it
was time for the youngsters to
filllin More questionnaires ofvehat
they had 'seen. "What's a
Shropshire?" one asked, while
another attempted to elicit the
requited answer to whether an
Appaloosa Was a hbrse Or sheep,
Again the constant bubbling as
youngsters compared notes and
— Please turn to Page 5
To say that there is a crisis in
education in the western world is
simply to repeat what has
become a common place ob-
servation. If there is, indeed, a
crisis in education it simply
means that there is a crisis in
western society not just in
education but in society as a
whole.
We are in fact at a point of
confusion about directions,
purposes and goals but certainly
not just in education,
It is true that the popular
Media have narrowed the crisis
and expressed the concern in the
cryptic cry of "back to the
basics". Nothing complex can be
reduced to simplistic mottos like
this, although we are con-
tinuously trying to reduce
enormously difficult ideas into
cryptic sayings.
This kind of encapsulated
thinking ,probably comes from
modern advertizing.
However, it doesn't do to
simplify in educational
philosophy. In the hue and cry of
"back to the basics" we can find
a number of very complex issues.
Firstly, the phrase contains the
assumption that the basics -
reading, writing, and arithmetic -
are no longer taught.
This assumption is clearly
wrong since it is possible to
demonstrate that more people
have these skills in some degree
or other now than ever before.
This isn't to argue that the
educational system has done a
perfect job; it hasn't and it may
well be that some children have
not learned these so-called basic
skills as well as they could or
should have done.
Secondly, the phrase "back to
the basics" implies that the skills
meant are very basic like eating,
or walking, or reproducing, when
in fact they are extremely
complex. It has been a very
recent development that societies
have even attempted to teach
these skills to more than a few.
Our society - i.e. the western
world - has been the first to at-
tempt to carry these skills past
very rudimentary stages for
virtual the total population. This
attempt has been fraught with
difficulties, not the least of which
has been the enormous upward
movement in expectations.
Thirdly, there is very great
concern with the implications in
the word "back" since it suggests
retreat or withdrawal and it is
about this notion of retreat that I
want to deal with,
But, one last comment about
the "basics". Reading, writing,
and arithmetic skills are fun-
damental tools for learning and
so must be taught and must be
learned as early as possible and
as well as possible, There is no
disagreement about that. There
are questions still about how to
best do this and, of -course,
serious questions about what to
do with these tools once they have
been learned.
55 Years Ago
Dollar Days were observed by
the merchants of Exeter 'on
Friday and Saturday and were a
great success despite the very
inclement weather. A heavy snow
storm raged all day Friday.
The Ontario Agricultural
College awarded prizes last week
for the best plays submitted
dealing with rural life. Miss N.
Medd, a teacher in the Exeter
school, was one of the two prize
winners.
Miss Frances Nickawa, the
noted Cree Indian reciter, ap-
peared in the Exeter Opera
House on Friday evening last
under, the auspices of the Young
People of Main Street Church.
The second degree team of the
Exeter Oddfellows accompanied
by the orchestra motored to
Seaforth Wednesday evening last
and exemplified the work of the
second degree.
At the last regular meeting of
the James St. Methodist Church,
Rev, W. E. Donnelly, B.A.
Amherstburg, accepted an in-
vitation tobecomepastor of the
church,'
30 Years Ago
The Municipal Council has
purchased 100 new leather
upholstered folding chairs for use
in the Town Hall.
The Exeter Area High School
Board has secured option en six
acres of land adjoining the school
property where the public school
owns three acres, The land is for
the new high school building,
Hurohdale Women's Institute
has completed a course in
psychology given by Miss
McBride of Toronto.
Fite was discovered in St,
Andrews United Church, Kippen,
on Sunday morning but it was
extinguished with Slight deluge
to the platform,
Mdrnbers of the newly formed
male choir Will have no further
practices till January.
However, I would like to raise
the issue of "basic skills" in
another way, Instead of going
back we must move forward, It
seems to me that there are now
basic skills over and above the
simple acquisition of the "3 R's".
One of these skills is an un-
derstanding and utilization of
computers. Computers provide
"extensions" to the brain and the
use of "artificial intelligence"
has been put forward as "one of
the two practicable ways of
achieving major advances in
human intelligence".
The other way of advancing
human intelligence is the enrich-
ment of the pre-school and-school
learning environments of
children. Indeed, there is a
growing body of evidence that
intelligence can be advanced by
"enriching" the uterine en-
vironment of the fetus. In other
words pre-partum nutrition,
oxygen supply, and other en-
vironmental factors have
significant effects on intelligence
levels,
But let us return to the con-
sideration of computer skills as
being fundamental. It has been
realistically predicted that within
a decade there will be tens of
millions of computers and will
obviously, be "commonplace
aspects of our lives."
Early childhood is 'not too soon
for the acquaintanceship with
computers to begin. There are
cogent arguments that com-
puters should be a part of the
child's world of play. Since "the
important function of play" is to
permit us "to gain without any
particular future application in
mind a holistic understanding of
the world, which is both a com-
plement of and a preparation for
later analytical activities,"
"Computers permit play in en-
vironments otherwise totally
inaccessible" to the average
child.
The function of play is well
understood in psychological and
physical terms yet we have
inhibited the play of children in so
many ways - television is
probably the most destructive
environmental inhibitor of play
but the conversion of children's
games into competitive athletic
contests is perhaps almost as
bad.
In any case the "next major
structural development in human
intelligence is likely to be a
partnership between intelligent
humans and intelligent
machines". In learning the
fundamental skills computers
will be of enormous assistance
but so far we have made very
minimal use of this resource in
early childhood education which
is where the fundamental lear-
ning tools must be acquired.
Perhaps Bronowski is right
when he suggests the most basic
learning of all is "an un-
derstanding of man's origins, his
evolution, his history (and) his
— Please turn to Page 5
20 Years Ago
First winner of the $800
Christmas jackpot sponsored by
Exeter ,Businessmen's
Association was Mrs. Donald
Ralph, Exeter who received $50
Saturday night.
Stephen and Usborne township
schools encouraged the Christ-
mas spirit during the Yuletide
opening in Exeter Saturday by
singing carols in front of the post
office,
Three new councillors- and a
new deputy-reeve will sit on the
1958 Hay council, Alex Mousseau,
a Councillor this year won the
deputy's chair. New councillors
are William Davidson, Karl
Haberer and John H. Soldan.
Reeve V. L. Becker won this third
term by acclamation.
An Exeter lady, Mrs. Eunice
Stone, sighted a "fireball" which
was reported over Western
Ontario over the weekend, She
said the hovering object "was a
rounded ball with a tail of fire
which looked to be about Six feet
long." Several other area people
reported similar sightings.
15 Years. Ago
Crediton police village ,trustees
are offering a $100 reward for
information leading to the arrest
and conviction of the person or
persons making false fire alarm
calls in the village.
A son replaced a father Mon-
day as a trustee Of Centralia,
police village, Norman Tripp
took over the seat vacated by his
father, Harold Tripp.
Huron MPP Charles Mac-
Naughton, new Ontario minister
of highways was honored by over
400 people who jammed Exeter
Legion Hall to honor his recent
appointment,
Hensall Boy Scouts raised $70
in a recent drive of the village for
the Muscular Dystrophy Fund.
B, J. Vos, RR 3 kxOtet, was
recognized aS the top milk
producer in Huron at the annual
meeting of the county Holstein
dub last week,