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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1973-06-20, Page 2Sugar and Spice By Bill Smiley My views on education don't seem to upset the Minister one whit. He just 'goes around with his 'eyes' shut droning that hypnotic chant, "The standards of education are not declining the standards of education are not declining the stan..." However, my views do seem to strike a cord or a nerve or an open wound among a good many other people.. A recent column on education has attracted more mail than anything I've written since . I churned out, , "Sex and the Editor." That was when, I was a weekly editor , and it was a hot number,. I can tell you. There. were no leftover papers that week. I know. You want me tcy reprint it. Sorry, I'm a school teacher now, and as everyone knows, except a lot of teachers, school teachers must maintain the highest ' standards of morality, sobriety and taste. Besides, it was harmless. Just a device to sell papers when circulation was slump- ing a bit. Where was 11 Oh, yes, letters about education. Following are some excerpts from letters received from ordinary tea, ders, if there are • such creatures. I've never yet met a person who' considered himtelf ordinary. ,,,And. why should 11 We're an extraordinary lot. If you don't believe the,, take a good look yourself, then at your teighbeurS, then at out "leaders". They may be a lot of riffraff, but there's not One who is Ordinary. From tiYOu have stated publicly - whit "a great Many of US think, but our means 'Of COndintiiiidatieri is not as Wide as yours. The Mickey Menge and Donald Duck Cent-Sea they helot* in high schools and so-called colleges, now 'would be a big jeke if they were, not doing- harrn to out young people and were not . so costly: would 'appear from the tepotts of the meetings that 011 is beautiful in education land arid seldom IS heard a discouraging word, ln air 100.1 brain factory, the students seem to, betunhing, the SideshO*." PrOiri a mother: "We have Seen the iyStetil .deteriorate rapidly. We have a tan, in last year law, and tine daughter in' er last year university who managed to be outstanding students who coulditeadoitito and spell and didithave wise and wonderful SOX education in the Scheel, /hit has btought An epidemic v,d. and related Metal prObleMi Stie•goet .64;4 oAtirittier problem is too many 'Waking Woineno i Lib VW hate met one of our finest teachets told me he could tell in a week whieh thildten had mothers in the loin-4 and Which ones bad working From an ex-teacher; in, am one Who" was ecludated in .the old way and used -to loVe grammar - class *. . My. daughter, who is a Grade 2 teacher, says what terrible English •the children use . . sure "that the high school students of today who' are dropping their language courses are• doing it because they don't have the basid English gram- mar." From a minister: me 'put in a Word for poor spellers . Teachers insist that spelling laws are like the laWS of the 'Medes and the Persians unchanging, unchangeable, as it . was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be . . • So generation after generation We persist •in fOiStering (or is it foysting>the spelling quirks of the middle ages.unto our ehildreit It's foiatering, but I agree. From a teacher; .1!1 do not wish to needlessly send your blood pressure up another pOint, but sorrow likes company and ,,yoUr May 24th article was welcomed in tour school as a most timely and healthy counterbalance to the irrea, • ponsibie articles from the . Alai* County Board of 'Education • • our board liket 10 be very aVantgarde in the rush tOWarda decittiaday," Hey, teach, .there's a split infinitive in yout opening sentence, Well, flea just a sampling of the letters. I don't agree with everything they say, but pielSed there is evident AOfiCern about the quality of education. And I don't planie keep hacking away at the subject. There'S nothing 'duller. than a farther Who, can talk .about nothing. but farming, an editor who can; talk about 'nothing but newspapers, or a teacher who WhineS all the time about bducation. It's near the end Of June and I'm tee. het and liked to' get 'excited .•about much of anything. • I've just crawled out troth under an avalanche of 255 iessays and short stories Which i marked my iispate and I have almost ceased to Care how anybody. spells anything,.. And 1 must say that therei'S a tremens dous interest in education during that last Week or so. 'dtlys' and dolls who have spent . aPprooiniiitely as much. tithe this year On their !66tioOl work as I have spent being a. millionaire have suddenly. lost ell belt apatiiy,i They dome to theit teachers with the tibitappealing,.wietfulailiiieS and 'wonder Whether they are going to be recommended, or whether have 'to Write the exams.. • they're pitiful and btittheOl See: that old .Smiley has a heart. of solid Steel,, Or but eri, '-Serving Brussels' and the surrounding- ,community published, each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario by McLean. Bros. Publishers, I.inlited, Eielyn Kennedy - Editor Torn Haley -.Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper' Association and. Ontario Weekly Newspaper Associatioiv Subscriptions fin advance) Canada $4.00 a year, Others $5.00 a year, Single Copies 10 cents each. Second class mail Registration No. 0562. Telephone 887-6641. • Newspaper borrowers! Whether you ,subscribe to this newspaper, or buy a single copy of it each week, makes little differ- ence to us. But it was interesting to see the imaginery things that allegedly happened to a family in another part of this world as the result of falling into the practice of borrowing a neighbor's weekly newspaper. Here it is: A man who was too cheap to sub- scribe to his hometown newspaper sent his little boy to borrow his neighbor's copy. In his haste the boy ran over an $80 hive of bees and in 10 minutes he looked like a warty squash. His , father ran to his assistance, and failing to notice the barbed wire fence, ran into that, cutting a hole in his anatomy as well as ruin ing a pair of $20 trousers. The old cow took advantage of. the-gap in the fence and killed herself eating green corn. Hearing the racket, the wife ran out, upset a four-gallon churn of cream into a basket of chicks, drown- ing the entire bunch. In her haste she dropp -A a $235 set of false teeth, which the family dog buried thinking it was., a new type of bone. The baby, having been left alone, crawled through the spilled cream and into the parlor ruining a $250 carpet. During the excitement the oldest daughter ran away with the hired man, a stray dog broke up 11 setting hens, the% calves got out and chewed the tails off four fine shirtS on the - clothes line, and the cat had a batch of kittens. All this just to save 20 cents. And in this case, the ' poor , guy never did get to read that week's edition. (St.Marys Journal Argus) qt% th battery, ma-aim -afraid a • ratiSPiant is netessary;"