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Times-Advocate, 1979-03-14, Page 4Page 4 Times-Advocate, March 14, 1979 <» i* i n IO N ■ |rrT-------------------------------------------.v.,----------------A-------......................................................... Watch name calling What’s in a name? Quite a bit, ap­ parently, and if you’re expecting a child in this ‘’year of the child” and you want him or her to do well in school, there are certain names you should avoid. At least that’s the message in an Ontario School Trustees Council report that says there is evidence that if teachers do not like a pupil’s name, they will give him lower grades than are deserved. In one controlled test involving 80 experienced elementary teachers, it was found they consistently gave higher marks to children named Michael, Richard and David than they did to those named Elmer, Cuthbert and Aloysius. Boys with unpopular names are discriminated against by classroom teachers. However, teachers seemed to believe girls with unpopular names were more studious and gave them higher marks. The message seems to be that if you want your daughter to have an edge in school, name her Edna, Elsie, Verna or Gertrude. Stick to con­ ventional names for your son. And watch those sexually am­ biguous names, such as Clare, Beverley, Carey, Kirk and Robin. For a boy, the name may mean he finds himself on the defensive and fighting with those around him. The report says the problem does not ease with age. There is a much higher proportion of uncommon names among students who drop out of univer­ sity than among those who completed degrees. Half the men referred to psy­ chiatric evaluation are burdened with such bizarre names as Rosebud, Oder and Lethal. Another poll showed 46 per­ cent of university students unhappy with their first names. So watch that name calling! 7*7 Think small Standing At The Crossroads Too early to tell Members of Exeter council were quite correct in their decision this week to turn down a request from shop­ ping centre owner Jerry Sprackman for their pros and cons of that centre, particularly in view of the type of questions he wished answered, and because he failed to give any hint of what use would be made of that infor­ mation. Councillor Don Cameron probably came close to the point of the request when he suggested Landawn Shopping Centres Limited were basically in­ terested in seeking statistical proof that shopping centres don’t hurt down­ town business. That’s the type of com­ ment the firm could use to great advan­ tage in their bid to have shopping cen­ tres approved in other municipalities. However, we suspect that if Exeter council gave a negative response to shopping centres, that information would be quickly filed away in Mr. Sprackman’s office and would not be relayed to other municipal councils with whom he may be attempting to gain approvals. It should also be pointed out that the effect of a shopping centre in Exeter in relation to its downtown businesses would not necessarily bear any resemblance to any other community. None has the same set of cir­ cumstances and therefore the effect in one community could be entirely different in another, even of com­ parable size and market characteristics. To top it off, Mr. Sprackman is being rather naive in suggesting that Exeter council members could make any definite comments on the pros and cons of a shopping centre when it has been in existence for such a short time, and in fact hasn’t even been filled as yet. While some short-term evidence may now be garnered from the opening of a major grocery outlet, the long-term effects of that store and the other out­ lets which are only now opening can not even be guessed. It may well be interesting for Mr. Sprackman and even council to find out how the shopping centre has affected local business to date, but it would cer­ tainly be of little value at this point in time. “Mom grabbed her purse, said s if you can't lick them, join them,3 and took off shopping,33 Consider alternatives as well Perspectives Working on an assembly line can do frightening things to a person’s mind if he doesn’t learn to shut out the gnawing monotony of a task repeated over a thou­ sand times. My cousin went berserk one day. After working on an auto-assembly line for eight years, he calmly put his tools down and walked out, pausing only long enough to land one royal punch on the nearest foreman’s chin. The odd thing about that situation was that the com­ pany recognized that it and the whole assembly-line system was essentially at fault in his illness, and after his six months in a mental hospital, the company term­ ed him disabled and gave him a life-long pension, even though he is basically well as long as he stays away from the factory. My brother worked in the same plant for many years and told of some of the things fellows did to relieve the monotony, like throwing a screw-driver into the con­ veyor belt. Sooner or later the whole line would grind to a halt until the offending item was found. Or a man would deliberately place his swea­ ty hand on a car door. Though the mark was not visible to the naked eye, the salt would stop the paint from adhering properly and there would be a clear im­ print there later on. One man’s job was to in­ spect the cars for water leaks. He would hop into the car and roll up all the win­ dows just before it went through a high pressure ‘car wash’. Imagine his surprise and joy when he got in once to discover that all the win­ dows had been jammed open and it was too late to get out again. I guess he looked like a drowned rat when he got out. Then there was the cons­ tant pressure, the battles between foremen and union stewards over very minor interpretations of the con­ tract. Some of the bitterness surfaced at Christmas time when it was traditional to grab a foreman and cut off half of his tie. The ultimate in the relief of boredom had to beat a big Ford factory. The building was huge and covered many acres of land. It was so huge, in fact, that three men were able to create a little living room for themselves in between boxes and shelves, complete with a television and a stocked refrigerator. It was only because of a jealous co-worker that they were ever discovered - after one full year of their ‘retreat’s’ existence. They were fired immediately, un­ doubtedly with just cause. At the same time you have to admire the style of three characters who really work­ ed to break the routine a lit­ tle bit. The announcement by the Huron County board of education that they will institute a summer school program for secondary school students on a trial basis this year no doubt will be met with mixed reaction. There will be some ratepayers, as in­ deed there are board members ap­ parently, who will feel it is an un­ necessary expense. The argument is that if a student can’t reach the prescribed level in the normal school year, additional money should not be used to provide a second opportunity. To top it off, of course, there’s no guarantee that the student will successfully reach that goal even with the extra instruction provided for his/her benefit. Many students who will find themselves as candidates for the summer course probably won’t ap­ preciate the effort either, no doubt leading to some unpleasant negotiations with their parents. On the other side of the coin, there will be many who will recognize the value of such a program in enabling students to salvage a full year’s work without facing the prospect of repeating the entire course in the next term and at the same time missing the opportunity to move ahead on another credit. Many school boards, particularly those in urban centres, have been providing this opportunity for students for several years and certainly rural students should not be denied similar benefits merely because of geography. Ratepayers who think only of the cost, should be reminded that a summer school program can make the difference of an entire year in school for some students, and if they can progress through the system without that extra year, there is a considerable saving in education funds. * * * While we applaud the board on their decision to undertake the pilot study this summer, there are a couple of points that should be aired. The first, of course, is the fact that in such discussions it is always assumed that it is the student who is basically at fault because he/she has been unable to grasp the work in the normal school year. However, there never appears to be any onus placed on the teacher in en­ suring that every possible avenue has been explored to enable that student to grasp the work. It is, after all, the . responsibility of the teacher to provide the necessary input for the success of the student. The failure of a student to achieve, in some cases, represents a failure on the part of a teacher. ; While we recognize the fact that teachers do not have the time' to provide special assistance for in­ dividuals when it places in jeopardy the progress of the entire class in covering the prescribed course of study, there does not appear to be enough emphasis in the system to provide extra assistance to borderline students. In some subjects, such as math, a couple of hours spent with a student in helping him grasp some particular work can often mean the difference between success or failure with the whole course of study. Obviously, those few hours represent a vast saving over an entire summer’s instruction. * * * Most conscientious" teachers quickly point out that they are available for students who wish to come to them for special assistance after class. However, again the onus is placed on the student and not the teacher, which in many cases is un­ satisfactory. Generally speaking it is the teacher who can more easily assess whether there are students in need of help. Students are more apt to be compla­ cent, especially if it involves some ex- will Couldn't agree more Times Established 1873 imes - Advocate Iw'ii Hwwt, Karib MMMbwt K A LmnMm J Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by J. W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongkind Published Each Wednesday Morning ^^^^Nwne 235-1331 at Exeter, Ontario . Second Class Mail I A Registration Number 0386 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $22.00 I’ve been helping a student, the lively and lovely Julie Noack, to prepare her speech for the Lion’s Club public speaking contest. She wrote it; I just listen and make critical comments. We’ve had a few laughs. Her speech is in praise of travel in Canada, instead of taking our lame dollars off and spen­ ding them on the often spurious attrac­ tions of other countries. It’s a sort of travelogue of Canada, and sounds pretty good. But at one point she broke me up. We have just crossed the Ottawa River from Quebec and are cruising around the capital, ‘‘where dwell,” according to the speech, ‘‘our Prime Minister, am­ bassadors from all over the world, and ...” She slurred the “ambassadors” a bit, and it came out, “Our Prime Minister, bastards from all over the world ...” I couldn’t agree more. Another one that shook me up was when she said that, “Canada is more than ‘a few acres of snow’, as the French writer, Voltaire dismissed it.” Voltaire came out as Volare. The powers of television! However, one point in her speech got me thinking along a different track. She pointed out that, despite the vast variety of vistas this country offers the tourist, it is expensive to travel in this Canada of ours. Too true. Hotels and motels are ridiculously costly. Many of the big new hotels in the cities want an arm and a leg for a place to lay your head for a few hours. Motels want from $20 ’to $36 for a plastic room, no room service, often not even a place to get a cup of coffee, and get out by one p.m., no matter what time you checked in. Restaurants in this country are equally usurious, with a very few ex­ ceptions. I don’t mind going out and spending a day’s pay at a good restaurant, with suave service, food carefully chosen and cooked with care, and nobody hustling you out the minute you’ve sipped your last crop of fifty- cent coffee. But it burns my butt to be served a leathery omelet with the inevitable piece of limp lettuce, the inexorable one slice of green house tomato, and the ubiquitous helping of french fries, none of which you want, and charged enough to feed a fair-sized family a good meal, at home. Then there’s the mark-up on drinks, anywhere from one t(f two hundred per cent. Don’t believe me? Check it out. A bottle of beer at home costs about 35 cents. In a restaurant it’ll cost you about one dollar. A drink at home will cost you approximately 45 cents for an ounce and a half, with free tap water thrown in. In a bar or restaurant the same drink will cost you from $1.25 to $1.60, depending on the decor, for an ounce and a quarter. And if you prefer wine, they just triple the price. No wonder so many restaurants and bars go broke. The business is so profitable that too many people want into it, and the law of supply and de­ tra work or missing out„ some special activity in which they may have more interest. Parents have difficulty assessing the situation because they don’t find out their offspring is doing poorly until they get a report card and that is often too late for remedial action. Many of them are also too complacent in seeing that their student does get the extra assistance required. However, the fact remains that the responsibility rests with the education system and those involved in it to challenge students to do their best, and in some cases that challenge is not provided. * * * While summer school provides an op­ portunity for students to pick up credits, it is clearly evident that it would be much more economical to provide that extra instructional time within the school year for those students requiring it. It could also be taken out of the category of a voluntary program by making it mandatory for students to at­ tend special sessions with teachers for a given period each week. Another alternative would be to set up special classes on a Saturday mor­ ning on a monthly basis, paying regular or supply teachers to deal with students’ individual problems as they have been outlined to them by the students! teacher. That would be an expense, of course, but still well below that of a summer program. Having recognized the need for special classes for some students, the board should explore the alternatives of making them available during the regular school year, either on a volun­ tary or forced basis. It could be much more economical and more acceptable to the students involved. on In the long run, a nation gets the kind of economy it deserves. An ambitious, farsighted, well-managed nation can ex­ pect to achieve a healthy economy based on modern technology. By the same token, a.nation cursed with easy affluence or with lead­ ers unable to interpret the trend of technological change will fall behind the rest of the world. Both lessons are evident in the British experience. At the end of the 18th Century, England’s power depended on mercantile strength. Only through visionaries like James Watt was England forced into the Industrial Revolution and global eco­ nomic domination which would last for more than a century. However, economic pros­ perity led to unreasonable expectations. Labour decided that the state could create wealth, entitling every work­ er to luxury incomes regard­ less of productivity. And business chose to take profits as income rather than rein­ vesting in new products and processes. Ultimately, Eng­ land became a second-rate industrial nation. Sooner or later, in other words, every nation reaches an economic crossroads. If the national leaders direct the country into the proper economic activities, the end result will be continued pros­ perity. If no action or incor­ rect actions are taken, the country is likely to suffer. Canada is at one of those crossroads now. The easy af­ fluence it has enjoyed by selling off resourcesis threat­ ened by the collapse of its industries. New technology in the form of microprocessors (the tiny silicon chips that r mand looks after the rest. Travel in this country is equally un­ appealing. Internal airfares are ridiculously high. It costs almost as much to fly from Toronto to Vancouver as from Toronto to London, England, a thousand miles or more. Trains are a dying species. They have lost their old grace of service, good food and excite­ ment, cut off all their branch lines, and become a rather wistful anachronism for people who like rough road-beds, frequent breakdowns and abandoned stations. Buses are better. Some have even crept into the twentieth century, with airconditioning, heat in the winter, and fairly punctual time-tabling. But all this is ruined by the bus depots, which are pure 1970’s Sleaze, dirty, imper­ sonal, and with the inevitable drunk sounding off. Or throwing up. Another aspect of travelling in Canada that puts people off is the ser­ vice, or lack of it. There’s very little service with a smile. Too often it ranges from grudging to surly, from in­ different to sullen. Waitresses slop coffee into your saucer or wipe off your plastic table with a dirty damp rag. Waiters stand with their backs to you when you are in a rush to catch a plane. Hotel doormen are all smites when you are checking in, and non-existent when Please turn to Page’,5 make up the heart of modern solid-state equipment such as calculators and digital watches) are revolutionizing the world of industry. Every productivity improvement in business from fish processing to pulp and paper will de­ pend on applications of micro-electronic technology, Countries which hook into the microprocessor train will be equipped to face the future; countries which don’t will wind up as second-class economies. The possibilities of micro­ processors are still largely unrecognized. Television tuners are integrating micro­ processors. Telephones, washing machines and micro­ wave ovens also make use of the new technology. Oppor­ tunities and cost savings for small firms stretch the imagi­ nation. So far, science has only scratched the surface of uses. And Canada to date has no microprocessor industry of consequence. Unless we act soon, our industry will forever be tied to foreign suppliers - with the inevi­ table result that all Canadian technology will lag behind knowledge in the supplier nations. Never before have we faced such a meaningful industrial decision. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is urging Ottawa to bring to­ gether whatever resources are required to get this country into the select group of microprocessor producers. The request is more than logical; our national econo­ mic future depends on it. “Think small" Is an editorial message from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business© memory Iciris^ 55 Years Ago Mr. Bill Davis left Wed­ nesday of this week for London Military Barracks, to take a Sergeant’s course in the Cavalry, for two weeks. Major J. A. Gregory of North Battleford, Saskat­ chewan, was in Stratford last week, to attend the funeral of his mother, Mrs. Thomas Gregory. On Wednesday evening of last'week, a men’s meeting was held in the basement of James St. Church, with a splendid attendance. A musical program of high" order was given, followed by a debate on whether Abraham Lincoln or Woodrow Wilson was the greater man. The af­ firmative was upheld by Aylmer Christie, Clinton Sweet and Silas Reed, while the negative was supported by George Hind, Will Gar­ diner and Herman Gower. The judge was J. Richard Welsh, and his decision was in favor of the affirmative. Rev. A. A. Trumper spent a few days last week in Wingham. A number from town were pleasantly entertained at the home of Mr. & Mrs. Preston Dearing of Stephen, on Wednesday evening of last week. 30 Years Ago Velma Ferguson won top place in the regional public speaking contest held in Hanover Friday. Miss Marguerite Pickard of London Teachers’ College, has accepted a position on the Hamilton Public School staff beginning with the fall term. Preston Dearing of Stephen was appointed a director of the Canadian Sheep Breeders Association at the convention held in Saskatoon last week. The price of sweet corn has been set at $22.50 a ton, an increase of 50 cents over last year. 20 Years Ago A junior yearling raised by Whitney Coates and Son, RR 1, Centralia, won reserve champion Hereford honours at the Ontario Bull Sale in Toronto recently. Exeter Bowlers copped the inter-town championship by a margin of 115 pins. Team members included Bob Wettlaufer, Jack Fuller, Bob Osgood, Murray Brintnell, Jack Gibson and ‘Cap’ Foster. Helen Cole, grade six and Brenda Dinney, grade five, Exeter Public School, topped’ their grades to win trophies for the best verse speaking in the final competition. T-A sports editor Boom Gravett is reported to be making a fast recovery after suffering a fracture of the skull during a hockey game in Mitchell. Spring fashions focus attention on empire waistlines, shorter jackets for suits, and hemlines at mid-calf. 15 Years Ago David Ducharme, 21-year- old son of Mr. & Mrs. Dennis Ducharme, RR 3 Zurich was one of five students chosen for a University Student Council award at the Unversity of Western Ontario. Exeter Council accepted a $22,000 budget submitted by Roads Chairman Bailey which includes permanent road building on parts of William and Anne streets this year. Nine windows in Exeter Public School and two heavy front door plates in the district high school were broken by vandals over the weekend. It appeared vandals had kicked their heels through the glass. The controversial subject “Cancer and Smoking” was discussed by Dr. Allan Alway of Westminster Hospital, London at the Exeter Home & School meeting. A film and a question and answer period followed. The program was presented by the Exeter unit of the Canadian Cancer Society.