HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-05-11, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1988.
Opinion
Learning goes on
outside the classroom
Sometimes when adults see school students who don’t spell
or do arithmetic as well as the students of yesterday (or at least
as well as we remember students of yesterday doing it), there is
a tendency to think that there is too much time spent on
non-essentials in school these days and not enough on basics.
At this time of the year many of our students are spending a lot
of time out of the classroom and it’s hard to imagine them
learning better lessons.
If you live near any of the five area elementary schools these
days you may look out your window to see classes of students
scouring streets, parks and river banks, picking up litter that
others have foolishly left behind. It’s part of the Pitch-In
campaign all across the province.
Less visible are the numberofstudentswhowill be helping to
plant trees in various parks and conservation areas. Staff at the
Hullett Wildlife centre, for instance, depends on students and
other volunteers to help with everything from planting trees to
cleaning nesting boxes for wood ducks because there just isn’t
enough money to pay enough staff to do all the work that needs
to be done.
For students, who getrestless cooped up in classrooms when
spring’s warm weather hits, these outdoor activities seem like
a joyous break from their lessons. But the lessons they may
learn in these expeditions may be more valuable than anything
they learn in school. In many ways they are also more practical.
Those hours spent cleaning up trash or planting trees may
not help the student earn more money in his or her career but
it’s a good investment for the rest of us. If we can convince
students, even a few of them, of the stupidity of littering, teach
themtorespecttheirenvironment, itcansave millions of future
taxpayer’s dollars needed for clean up. People who learn
respect for their environment in grade six may think twice
before letting their companies pollute when they are in the
business world. Students who plant trees now and see how
those trees have grown in future years may learn something
about the importance of looking, not just at today or tomorrow,
but years down the road.
And hopefully the students are also learning the value of
getting involved to make things better in their community.
The students are providing a vluable service now with the
actual work they are doing in the community but also in the
lessons they are learning for the future that will make them
better citizens. They may learn that there is a different kind of
math, where little actions can add up to big benefits.
Turner, Peterson pay price
of Meech support
More than a year after the federal and provincial leaders
worked out the Meech Lake deal, the public shows less interest
in accepting it than w hen it was first announced. Some political
leaders are paying the price for their quick support of a flawed
agreement.
Most conspicuous by the trouble his support for Meech Lake
has brought him is federal Liberal leader John Turner who
leads a party split by his support of the deal. His quick support
of the agreement to win the approval of nationalist elements
from his Quebec wing has lost him the support of many of his
own party across the country, not just the men who have been
termed the “dinosaurs” of the party, men like Pierre Trudeau,
Jean Chretien and Donald Johnston.
How deep the split in the Liberal party is could be seen this
past weekend when the OntarioLiberal party held its first
convention since winning 94 seats in last fall’s election. Despite
Ontario Premier David Peterson’s support for the Meech Lake
agreement and his warnings that a demand for amendments to
the agreement could destroy it, Liberal party members still
voted only 259 to 246 to keep the deal intact.
Chances are if a vote was held among the members of any of
the three major parties the same kind of split would be shown
despite the unanimity among party leaders. It would reflect the
fact that support among the general public has dropped by
nearly half in the last year. Politicians like Mr. Turner and Mr.
Peterson who supported the deal are now paying for it in loss of
support. Better they should pay for it now when we can still
hope the deal will be ammended than for the rest of us to pay for •
it by having this misbegotten deal tie the hands of governments
for years to come.
Mabel’s Grill
There are people who will tell
you that the important decisions in
town are made down at the town
hall. People in the know, however
know that the real debates, the
real wisdom reside down at
Mabel's Grill where the greatest
minds in the town [if not in the
country] gather for morningcoffee
break, otherwise known as the
Round Table Debating and Fili
bustering Society. Since not just
everyone can partake of these
deliberations we will report the
activities from time to time.
MONDAY: “This,” said Julia
Flint, “is what I’ve been waiting
for. ’ ’ She plunked down a clipping
from the newspaper that said that it
is now technically possible for a
man to be pregnant.
Ward Black looked at the
clipping and sniffed that this
wasn’t anything new: Jean Dra
peau proved it in 1976 with the
Olympics.
Julia said that she thinks there
should be a new law once this
technique is perfected, that half
the children in each family get born
from the father’s pregnancy. “It
would change the way men think
forever,” she said.
Billie Bean said he sure wasn’t
going to line up to offer to be the
first guinea pig. Hank Stokes
looked at Billie’s belly and sugges
ted that it looked like he already
had. Tim O’Grady said that unless
they got a new law in quick
covering the situation there’d be
some looney doctor somewhere
willing to do it and some even
loonier man. (probably in Califor
nia) who’d want to get his name in
the Guiness World Book who’d go
along.
Lookonthebrightside, Ward
told him. It’s bound to bring lots of
new business for lawyers like Tim.
TUESDAY: Isn’t it nice, Hank
Stokes said, that we can have our
very own ridiculously rich people in
Canada doing sickeningly spend
thrift things so we don’t have to feel
inferior to the Americans. Who
needs Dallas when you can watch
the wedding in Toronto of the son of
Mel and Marilyn Lastmand. Mel’s
the guy who used to be “The
Badboy” of furniture selling and
now is that mayor of North York.
Hanks said he hoped Mel made his
money in the furniture business
because he hated to think he made
enough money as mayor to give
this kind of bash.
Marilyn, Mrs. Mel, wore a
flowered headpiece that cost
$4,000. Nobody estimated how
much the rest of her clothes cost.
Julia said if she’d spent that much
on a headpiece there wouldn’t be
any money for any other clothes.
Seems they had four technicians
just to work the light show at the
party they threw afterward, they
had a huge fountain built in the
middle of the ballroom and the cake
cost $5,000.
Julia said it sounded like fun and
she wished she’d been invited to
go.
Oh no you wouldn’t, Tim said.
By the time you dressed to fit in and
bought a gift you’d probably be in
debtfortherestofyournatural life.
THURSDAY: Billie Bean said he’s
got the feeling he’s missing out
when he hears about the construc
tion strike in Toronto and some of
the people wanting a raise of $8 an
hour over two years. “I’ve had lots
of jobs where I’d have been glad to
Continued on page 25
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