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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1978-03-02, Page 4Times-Advocate, March 2, 1978 Serious Situation The trustees of the Huron County board of education are more to be pitied than laughed at, as they are like sitting ducks in the middle of a penny arcade shooting gallery. On the one hand, taxpayers are screaming as they see their education taxes climb higher and higher each year, while there are fewer and fewer students, and no respite in sight. On the other hand, the teachers, who get more and more each year, are now screaming at the board over class sizes. The trustees, however, have lost control of 75 per cent of the budget already, because it is locked up in teacher salary agreements, and now the teachers want to say how the system should be run and how big the classes should be etc. It will soon be to the point where we won’t need trustees anymore. After all, if they won’t be running the system then why go to all the trouble and ex­ pense of electing them every two years. The board and the teachers seemed to have reached the end of the road on one key issue, and depending which side one takes to its called job security, while the others call it a workload. For over a decade, teachers in On­ tario have pretty well called all the shots. They are among the best paid in the North American continent, and their union, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) is so powerful, that no boar^d had dared to fight them and win in the past. We cannot deny that most of the teachers are doing an excellent job in a very demanding profession, but it has got to stop somewhere. With very few exceptions, the general public are against the, teachers, and it would seem that the trustees have public opinion on their side. In a predominantly rural area where a farmer with a $400,000 invest­ ment gets $1.89 for a bushel of corn that cost him $2.25 to grow, a teacher mak­ ing, on the average, $23,200 a year ask­ ing for more money doesn’t go over too well. The teachers say it has nothing to do with money, but giving them job security boils down to the same thing, more money out of the taxpayers pocket. The teachers are now making, on the average, twice as much as those wage earners who pay their bills, and the OSSTF demands, given the current poor economic situation, seem ludicrous. The real unfortunate part of the whole teachers’ strike is the students, who are the ones who really suffer the most. If it boils down to a long strike, then so be it, the rampage must be stopped, and if Huron must be the sand bag, then so be it. It seems ironic that present market indications say that half of the graduating students in Huron won’t even be able to get jobs, let alone have job security. ' The board must take the stand here and now, but judging by past ex­ periences, the OSSTF won’t back down from their untenable position, and un­ less the board gives in, the strike will be a long one, and the students will be the real sacrificial lambs. Clinton News-Record . “Think there's any chance fragments from the nuclear satellite will have an adverse effect on marine and wildlife around here?” BATT'N AROUND • a «•-a a More than youth need help I Concern for students The real loss in the dispute between the Huron County Board of Education and the county’s Secondary School Teachers is not the side who eventually give in to the demands of the other, but the innocent who are cauglit in the middle - the students. Surprisingly, the students are not interested in a holiday from school but rather, feel they are being played with. Their real concern is they they do not know what is happening. The teachers claim that the students understand the situation but, the students say the teachers do not discuss the strike with them. When the teachers are at school their attitude is not conducive to lear­ ning and the students are restricted in their use of resource materials because principals will not allow lab equipment and library books to be taken home in case the schools are closed for a loftg period of time. Grade thirteen students are con­ cerned that the time lost now will mean that some work will not be covered and this will show next year when they are trying to continue their education and have not covered necessary material. One student is afraid that if the teachers are out for a long period of time the students will have to attend school next summer. This would in­ terfere with his summer job and he wouldn’t be, able to make enough money to support himself at university next year. Some teachers are giving students assignments to complete at home and some are tutoring students in their homes. While this may help_ several students, it is not conducive to the system as a whole. And, if teachers find it dufficult to teach effectively because a class is large, it is certain that teaching in a living room will be awkward. Regardless of who is right or wrong in the dispute, the teachers and the board say that their first interest is the quality of education for the students in the Huron County system, yet peither side seems to be thinking of the student who is the big loser if the teachers are out for any real period of time. It’s like arguing parents who play their children off against each other and manipulate their children to their advantage. Yet, all along, they say their real concern is for the children. The dispute cannot help but have adverse effects in the classroom even if the teachers are on the job. It is a serious situation when a county board of education and its teachers have so little communication that contract settlements cannot be reached without using the students as pawns in a chess game.Lucknow Sentinel The two senior levels of government have outlined plans in the past few weeks to create thousands of jobs for the nation’s young people this summer. Certainly, it is a commendable ef­ fort, and in many cases the money received by the students is the means by which they will be able to continue their higher education. However, the Ontario opposition par­ ties are quite correct in being concern­ ed that too much emphasis is being placed on summer employment for students, while thousands of people already out in the job' market are un­ able to secure work. Many of them are in a much more precarious position than students, in that they have families to support and greater financial obligations to meet than students. They obviously deserve as much con­ sideration in the governments’ make­ work schemes as students, although it appears they are presently being overlooked. The opposition should continue their plea to ensure that the governments look more favorably at those already in the market for permanent jobs. jury pay in light of even the much higher minimum wage in Ontario. Some of those making presentations to the government on the issue have suggested the fee be increased to $40 per day. That appears to be more sensi­ ble. There is another suggestion that should be considered. When picking jurors, why not select people from the ranks of the unemployed? While there is a fear they may engage in prolonged jury deliberations to keep their pay cheques coming, it is an employment opportunity that is worthy of some con­ sideration. *** There’s a growing movement to have the daily stipend for jurors increased in Ontario, and obviously there is con­ siderable merit in that suggestion. No one in today’s workforce is re­ quired to work for the meagre daily wage of $10. except those good citizens now called upon to fulfill their respon­ sibilities to serve as jurors. Being required to act as a juror often creates enough inconvenience for most people and they should expect to be better rewarded for their efforts. It is impossible to justify today’s low * w ★ For many years, people around the world have looked upon the United States, and even Canada, as their rich cousins. -rHowever, while great industrial nations may be the envy of the third world nations, they actually rank well below some tiny oil-rich sheikdoms when it comes to average incomes. The World Bank publication issued recently shows that the average in­ come in the United States — total out­ put of goods and services divided by population — is $7,890. In Canada, the figure is $7,510. However, they’re both well below such countries as Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The average income in those oil-rich spots ranges from a high of $15,480 in Kuwait to the $11,400 in Qatar. The lesson is obvious: start looking for an oil well in your backyard! * * * Organizations throughout this area — or even some enterprising en­ trepreneur — may be well advised to consider the example of the Grand Sugar and Spice Dispensed by Smiley Something Feminist struggle While the United Church is com­ mitted to equality for women, “in prac­ tice our actions do not come up to our lip service”, The United Church Observer says editorially in its current issue. The editorial points out that despite legislation aimed at justice, the gapf is widening between what Canada’s 3.8 million working women earn, and what men make for the same job. Women clerical workers average 64 percent of what men receive, and sales personnel are paid about 60 percent of a man’s average salary. Women’s struggle for equality is as significant “as the abolition of slavery was to our ancestors,” The Observer says, “and will turn the Church upside down.” While language “is not a basic issue in the feminist struggle, The Observer says, purging language of offensive phrases may “do for the feminist movement what the removal of ‘boy’ and ‘nigger’ did in the blacks’ struggle for dignity.” Times Established 1873 imes vocate ft North UmMon Since lift J Advocate Established 1 881 Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongkind Phorte 235-1331 (*CNA SUBSC.... 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 Amalgamated 1924 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Clast Mail Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation September 30,1975 5,409 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $22.00 Something rather pleasant happened in Canada recently. Not too many plea­ sant things have occurred in this coun-* try of late, so perhaps we should observe and enjoy this one. I’m referring to the general decency shown by the press and politicians, neither of them noted for this quality, in the Francis Fox affair. In case you’ve already forgotten it, Mr. Fox, a brilliant young cabinet minister and Solicitor-General of Canada, confessed he had committed a minor peccadillo and resigned from-the cabinet. He had forged the name of her hus­ band to a paper permitting an abortion for a married lady with whom he was, apparently, on more than speaking terms. He was caught when another lady wrote the prime minister and squealed on him. Mr. Fox, a Rhodes scholar, proved once again that you can have a lot of brains and still be a dummy. He not only committed forgery, he committed adultery. And he seems never to have heard of birth control. That’s all right. There are a good many dummies among our illustrious leaders, and always have been. Most of the others just haven’t been caught. But what was rather startling about the whole business was the restraint practised by Fox’s opponents in politics, by the press, and by the public in general. Nobody went for his jugular, or that of the government, which is astonishing in these times, when sympathy, compassion, and decency seem to be going by the board. Had it happened in Britain, the tabloids would have had a field day, and the poor man would have been chased out of the cabinet, out of parlia­ ment and probably right out of the country by the sheer weight of the scavenging that would have taken place. by R ichard Charles Bend firemen in conducting paper drives. Newsprint has been gaining in value • in recent months and collecting newspapers for recycling has become a more profitable venture. Metro Toronto has collected newspaper in several boroughs for a number of years and this year expects to make a profit of about $700,000 from the venture. We can recall as a Boy Scout that paper drives were one of the more ad­ vantageous methods of picking up some extra dollars for the organiza­ tion,- and while the bottom fell out of the market for several years, it has made a strong recovery and is now selling in the neighborhood of $80 per ton. s There is little doubt but what residents in most communities would be willing to store their newspapers for groups wishing to undertake periodic collections throughout the year. * * * pleasant happened But no, not here. Political foes ex­ pressed sympathy, editorials reminded us that we all have a skeleton or two in the closet, and the head of the United Church wrote Fox a letter hoping that “there is enough grace and understan­ ding in this country that you will not have to live under a cloud.” Such forbearance. A generation ago the man would have been howled out of office. Not so very long ago, as some elderly Tories remember a number of cabinet ministers of that denomination were smeared rather thickly for ex­ changing bon mots with one Gerda Munsigner, a German lady with a shady past. What in the world has come over us? Why this sudden benevolence toward a fellow human being? Is it some soft of midwinter madness that has crept sneakily into our dour Canadian Puritanism? Or is the whole thing a crafty Liberal plot to snatch headlines and induce sympathy among the women of the country? First Margaret bogs off and leaves that poor, dear man with three boys to raise. Now Francis, with one swell foop, reveals that even a cabinet minister is capable of passion. If this is the case, what in the world is Joe Clark going to do to counteract all this free publicity, before the elec­ tion campaign begins? His wife is stay­ ing home and behaving herself, and his own past is impeccably dull. My suggestion to Joe and the Tories, for what it’s worth, is that they start looking around for some really rotten people as potential cabinet ministers. What they need in their anxious ranks are a sex deviate or two, a couple of guys who served time for armed robbery, and a few ladies who were formerly happy hookers. A jam of tarts, as it were. Toss in a Child batterer and someone who snatched underwear off clothes-lines, and they’d The federal government has had trouble recently accounting for the behaviour of some of its Crown cor­ porations and agencies. It has also had trouble counting them. Last year, it was reported that Cana­ dian Crown corporations and agencies numbered 360. A recount indicated there were more. Another recount in­ dicated that there were still more. The figure is now said.to be 420. Ottawa evidently doesn’t really know how many corporations and agencies it owns. It it’s true to form, it will soon create yet another agency to keep track of them. run the Liberals right off the front pages. It is true that we all have a skeleton in our closet, something that would be humiliating were it exposed to the avid public eye? Maybe* there are a few lofty souls' with a clean slate, but I’d be surprised if there were enough of them to form a hockey team. Come on now, gentle reader. Cast your mind back over your life, and take a close look into those dark corners you , have managed to almost forget. Have you never picked your nose when nobody was looking? Have you never, ever, smelled your own armpits in similar company? Have you never helped destroy a reputation by repeating gossip? Have you never done a cruel thing or a mean thing in your life? Have you never got drunk and made an ass of yourself. Never said a bad word? Never hawked and spat a gob when nobody was around? Never emitted air from an orifice sneakily? zWell, good on you, as we say in Australia, if you haven’t. You must be under six months of age, and eyen in­ fants can’t qualify on all counts. J could probably count on my toes the people in this country who have not lied, cheated, stolen, committed adultery at least in the head, worshipped the graven image known as a car, or failed to honor their father and mother, at some time. Personally, I have sb many skeletons in my own closet there’s no room for more. I had to start shoving them un­ der the bed. If Joe Clark takes my suggestion With the seriousness with which it is offered, I’d be glad to help. I know some really rotten people. Walls within walls If your home was really your castle, it would have walls several feet thick and you wouldn’t need insulation. But, to save on building materials, space and cost (and because you. aren’t expecting a besieging army to open fire on you at any moment), you have thin walls that need another wall of insulation inside them. How do you know if there’s enough insulation inside the wall? One obvious way to tell is if you feel the cold striking into the house (which means that heat iff leaking out) when­ ever you go from the middle of a room toward an outside wall in winter. However, if you wait until winter to find that out, you may not be able to retrofit (reinsulate) your walls before the warm weather returns. Two things you can check before winter are the kind of insulation you have in the walls and the way in which the walls have been constructed. With this information, you (pr a contractor) can work out the effectiveness of the insula­ tion and, if it is not good enough, what method of retro­ fitting would work best in your case. Here’s a rough guide: wall insulation should have an R value (resistance to heat passing through it) of at least 12, which equals 4 inches of loose fill insulation or 3 !4 to 4 inches of batt or blanket insulation containing glass fibre or rock wool. There are, of course, many other types of materials available. The five basic ways to retrofit walls are with loose poly­ styrene, blow-in insulation, foamed-in-place insulation, wall renovation, and outside insulation. But, before you take your pick, read on. Loose polystyrene insulation can be a do-it-yourself job and does not cost much, but you can use this method only if your wall space opens into the attic and goes right down to the foundation. You can test this with a weight on a string that’s long enough to go all the way down. Blown-in insulation means that you get a contractor with special equipment to blow loose fill into a wood-frame wall that is hollow, or almost, but has obstructions that stop you from pouring insulation into it (as above). For this, an access hole must be drilled into the wall space from the outside or inside, or from the attic or basement. Foamed-in-place insulation is also a job for a contractor who has the proper equipment, and is an option for filling the space inside a wood-frame wall, and also some masonry walls. However this approach should only be taken if the wall has no insulation whatsoever. The foam is urea­ formaldehyde and it is injected into the wall space in semi-liquid form. (Make sure any U.F. foam you buy meets Canadian Government Specifications Board quality standards.) Wall renovation is a good way to, insulate if you are undertaking major rennovations anyway. With a wood­ frame house you can remove the wall board or plaster from- the inside and fit the insulation (such as batt or blanket) into the wall space. Another way with either wood-frame or masonry walls is to build a new wall inside the old one and insulate it. Outside insulation is a good method if you happen to be putting new siding on your home. Polystyrene insulation can be inserted between the old and the new siding. 55 Years Ago Early Thursday morning a severe wind storm passed over the district and caused considerably damage. Several chimneys were blown down. Thunder and lightning accompanied the storm. The Bethany Methodist Church on the Thames Road suffered greatly. The roof was blown off and the gable end blown in. The Young People’s Guild of Caven Presbyterian Church visited Trivitt Memorial Parish Hall on Friday evening of last week where they were' treated to slides and an interesting address on Windsor Castle and Tower of London by Rev. Mr. Trumper. Mr. Kenneth Stanbury played a violin selection and a very pleasing duet was sung by Miss Weekes^and Miss Hamilton. Mr. Chas. Shaddock has taken a position in the bakeshop of Mr. R. E. Cook in Hensail. Most of the snow has disappeared the past week. It has gone gradually and all danger of spring floods seems over. The roads are still in bad condition. 30 Years Ago Mrs. Ida M. Sanders, London, former resident of Exeter was elected president of the London Women’s Progressive-Conservative Association. Mr. Arthur Fraser of town has been appointed secretary-treasurer of the Usborne-Hibbert Mutual Fire Insurance Co. Mr, and Mrs. Wm. Baker of town celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary On Sunday. Mr, Irwin Ford has recently completed his new Food Market on Huron Street and this week an­ nounces the opening, The Lucan Irish dropped a hard fought semi final round with Ilderton on Monday night. 20 Years Ago Mrs. A. E. Holley of Main Street United Church ad­ dressed the World Day of Prayer Friday' afternoon. Lucan Public School on No. 4 Highway, nearly across from the Arena, was destroyed by fire early Thursday morning. One of the courses offered at the night classes during the past winter was a study of drama with lectures and demonstrations given by members of London Little Theatre. A play will be presented at the close of the classes. Ken Flear of SHDHS placed second in WOSSA public speaking competition held in Thames Hall UWO on Saturday. 15 Years Ago Miss Mary Tapp, a life­ long resident of Exeter, celebrated her 90th birthday on Saturday at Mrs. L. Desjardine’s Eventide Rest Home, Main Street. Huron PC’s formally nominated veteran MP Elston Cardiff to run again in the April 8 federal election at a nomination meeting in Clinton Friday night, Exeter Public School “Eager Beavers” square dancing club entered the square dancing contest at the Farm Show London, Friday night. Three schools competed and the Exeter .group was placed third receiving $15. Huron’s yield of winter wheat was the highest in Ontario in 1961, latest year for which statistics are available, county producers were told at their annual Meeting Tuesday night in Clinton.