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;"