The Brussels Post, 1978-08-09, Page 2ehind the scenes
By Keith RouIston
I can't stop watchin
WEDNESDAY, 'AUGUST 9, 1978
smussE LS
ONTAN IO
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community,
Published each. Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, 'Ontario.
by McLean Bros, Publishers Limited,
Evelyn _Kennedy - Editor
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association
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OBrussels Post.
Church and state
The educational pot is boiling across Canada. What is happening in
Ontario is suggestive.
Supreme 'Court of this province recently said "no" to North York's
plan to set up a Jewish school with compulsory religious classes. The
Board of Education -- in a policy switch from the sixties -- wanted to
integrate a private school into the public system. About 400 junior high
school students at the Associated Hebrew Schools would have been
involved.
Having rendered this verdict, Judge John Holland, in a personal
comment, said "Religious instruction of all denominations would
appear to have merit from an educational viewpoint." However, he
noted that this would require substantial „changes in the legislation.
The fact is that a system, conceived by men like Rev. Egerton
Ryerson, is dead. We now have a concept of public education that is
neutral or agnostic. So the pot is boiling.
Ryerson travelled abroad to get ideas. We would do well to take a
good look at the Netherlands.
The constitution of Holland lays down that the cost of voluntary
schools (fulfilling certain conditions imposed by law) is to be defrayed
from public funds on the same scale as public schools. State primary
schools are run by municipalities, voluntary schools by the
organizations that set them up. State supervision is exercised by the
schools' inspectorate.
Suffice it to add that in the Netherlands, although state and
voluntary schools are not on the same financial footing when it comes
to higher education, even at the university level voluntary institutions
receive state aid varying from 70 percent to 90 percent.
Those who cherish the spiritual heritage of our own country, a
heritag affirmed in the opening words of the Canadian Bill of Rights
which acknowledges "the supremacy of God", should be prepred to
do some very careful and vital thinking.
Those who would not hesitate to invoke this statute if they felt
deprived of justice even in an area under provincial jurisdiction, should
also be ready for vital and careful thinking about implications of
"freedom of religion".
There may be separation of church and state in Ganda. But this does
not mean that there is or should be separation between God and
Government, between religion and the state, between people and
public support to band together for education according to the dictates
of conscience.
It is an historic position which is at stake in a new ecumentical
climate. It is a primary position which is bound to be attacked by
various individuals or groups for a variety fo reasons.
(The United Church)
Summer stream
Remember the safety rule that it, so hard to beat:
Look lett then look right befOre CrOising the street:
If yoU're one of those people who think
sport is a dirty word and you can only get one
channel on television, C.B.C. you must be
going crazy these days with the Common-
wealth Games coverage on the tube. If
you're the kind of person who gets addicted,
like me, it's hard to tear yourself away from
the television screen long enough to eat.
Yes it's happened to me again just like it
did two years ago when the Olympics were in
Montreal.. I swear I'm not going to get too
interested in teh whole thing as it comes up.
Why should I waste all those hours in fron to
of the television in the beautiful summer
lime when I could be outside doing
something really exciting like scraping old
paint of the windowsills?
But somehow about the first day of
comp:Ation I end up near the television and
I shrug and say "well let's just see what's
going on. I'll only watch for five minutes."
And I watch for five days. *To he. with the
house. If the paint's peeled this long a few
more days won't matter.
I don't know what it is about top
competitions like these that are so addictive
but I know I'm not the only ones it affects. I
heard of people back in '76 who couldn't
stand athletics normally who sat glued to the
television for days watching Nadia
Comeneche perform her magic on the
various gymnastic apparatus. I know people
who claim to be too sophisticated to be
nationalistic who wiped tears from the eyes
when Grey Joy leaped for joy after the high
jumpbefore 70,000 cheering Canadians.
There are many reasons why top athletic
events prove so powerful I think. If you like
beauty, if you like drama, if you like bravery
and determination, if you like happy stories,
if you like said stoliets, it's all there. If you
like public spectacle, pomp and circum-
stance it's there too. The .sarn0 things that
draw us to music,art, theatre or sports in
general, make the appeal of top flight
international athletic competition. the dif-
ference is that the highs of victory and lows
of defeat are blown higher because fothe
importance of the occasion and compressed
into short periods because of the brevity of
the events. All the excitment and tension of
a World Series, a Stanley Cup or a
Canada-Russia hoCkey series is brought
down to a few 'minutes in a swimming race,
perhaps a few seconds in the 10cY metre
dash.
There's something about knowing. that
these people forth, all over the world have
worked long, torturous hours preparing
themselves for a few minutes in 'the
qxrtlight that will take them to the top of
the world or cast them to the bottom of
depression that makes each event extra
dramatic.
The too there's the pleasure one gets from
watching people who are among the best in
the world at their specialty, the same kin of
pWasure one gets in going to a concert by
Frank Sinatra or watching Bob Hope in
person or going to a play wit Sir Laurence
Olivier. There's an awe the comes over one
being in the presence of greatness.
All these are the things that draw people
to such events as the Commonwealth
Games. On top of that course is nationalism,
the pulling for one's countrymen to win an
event.
That, for Canadians has been a pretty,
disappointing- part of internaional com-
petition in the last 20 years or so. Oh we've
had our truimphs of course but they've been
few and far between. More often we've
tasted the bitterness of disappointment. Our
athletes prove !themselves between big
international events, but whenever the
spotlight was on at a big even ;such as the
Olympics or the Commonwealth Games, our
people seemed to leave there best behind in
the locker room. At the Olympics in
Montreal our top athletes failed to perform
near the top of their form and the home fans
were left disappointed (except in the pool
where the team performed well.)
But suddenly this year that too has
changed. the home fans in Edmonton have
had plenty to cheer about. Indeed for a while
it seemed we could hardly lose, especially
because most of the early activity was in the
pool where the Canadian Team has been
tremendous. It's just been victory after
victory to the point that they mustnearly
have worn out the recording of 0 Canada.
But probably the most dramatic and
heartwarming of the early victories was that
of Diane Jones-Konihowski in the Pen-
tathalon. She's an athlete who has known
the agony of not performing at her best when
the heat was on. At the Montreal Olympics
she was one of the greatest disappoint-
nients, placing far down the list when she
was expected to be near the very top. Now in
front of her fans in her home town she
completely dominated the event, setting new
records and losing only one of the five
events, and that to another Canadian.
In away she personifies what it's all about.
She is a beautiful, talented human being in
the drama of top competition who has known
what it's like to do badly who now knows
what it's like to be on top too.
Let the paint peel. I'm going back to the
television for the rest of the week.
JASPER, Canada ts Safety Bear