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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-03-22, Page 43PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1989. Opinion Principal moves symptom of real problem The controversy over principals being moved against their wills from one school to another within Huron County may be a symptom of why, after 20 years of operation, many people in the county still don’t think county boards of education are a step forward. After meeting with the high school principals involved Bob Allan, Director of Education said decisions about where people teach are made by the board on the basis of who board officials think is best suited to which school. “Each person works for the school board, not the schools.’’ For people of the community however, it is the school that matters, not the board. People have no allegiance to the board, only to the school they have in their own neighbourhood. If the education centre burned down tomorrow few people in the county would notice. If the school burned, it would effect people of the community first hand. “In general, changingjustbecause it’s the thing to do shows a lack ofunderstandingofthe community around the school,’’ Bruce Shaw, principal of South Huron Secondary School said after he was told he’ll be moving to Goderich. Mr. Shaw, who is also mayor of Exeter, knows something about the sense of community. What has been created by the county school system, however, is something that is bigger than the community. These moves only illustrate thefeeling many people in the community have: that education has become something so big they have no control over it. When rights collide Life would be so simple if there were only rights and wrongs. It gets complicated when two sets of rights collide. Two disputes ongoing show what happens when two things that are basically right come into conflict. The foremost is in Quebec where the ferment over the rights of English people to use their own-language continues to bubble. Only a relative handful of Canadians wouldn’t agree that preserving the French language in Quebec against the pressures of 250 million English speaking people around North America is a good thing. The difficulty comes when Quebec nationalists insist that the only way to protect the French language in Quebec is to totally wipe out any language but French in everything from street signs to store signs. Premier Robert Bourassa tried to come up with a compromise when he passed a law that did away with the basic rights in both the Quebec and Canadian Charters of Rights, of all non-French Quebecers to use their language in store signs. He proposed that English be banned outside stores but allowed inside stores. Even that ridiculously small notice of English Quebecers is denounced by the nationalists who marched in their thousands recently and burned a Canadian flag and said no English must be allowed at all. To protect the French language these people are willing to deny basic human rights to others. Professor Phillipe Rushton continues to draw headlines with his controversial theory that orientals are more advanced intellectually and socially than whites while whites are ahead of blacks. Many, worried about the effect these arguments might have on people who are quite willing to promote racial intolerance, have suggested Prof. Rushton should be fired, that he shouldn’t be allowed to say what he says. Similar calls have been made to prevent avowed white supremists from being allowed to speak out. It would be nicer if people who promoted racial tolerance were not heard,but if y ou believeinthebasichuman right of freedom of speech, you cannot deny these people a right to speak. Once you start deciding who can and can’t be heard you are opening the door to suppression of your own basic rights. Today we say Phillipe Rushton or Ernst Zundel can’t speak. Tomorrow this newspaper might be shut down and the day after someone may come to your house to say you shouldn’t have criticized the government to your neighbour in the coffee shop. Former Quebec Liberal cabinet Minister Richard French, who quit his post to protest his government’s treatment of English Quebecers, said it best: “I don’t think you can slice up rights like a salami. Once you don’t have the whole salami, you don’t have anything at all.’’ Whether it’s racial tolerance or the protection of a language, nothing should be allowed to stand in the way of the basic human right of freedom of speech. __ The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 Spring walk Understanding English in England BY RAYMOND CANON I shall never forget the first time that I landed in England. It was at Dover where I had taken the ferry from Belgium and I got off the boat realizing that I would be using my English for the first time in a long while. As soon as I opened my mouth and talked to the first person, I realized that I was going to be a minority of one; that is, everybody spoke with a different accent than I did. I must confess that one of my first reactions may seem rather humourous to you. I expressed myself as being amazed how well the little children could speak English; it only dawned on me gradually that such fluency was natural. The kids had been speak­ ing it ever since they had learned how to talk. 1 had a rough time the first few days. Many of the words and expressions were strange to me as was the accent in which they were spoken. Later on, when I stopped in a place in central England to fix a flat tire on my bike, I asked for directions as to how to get to the nearest bicycle shop. I found myself unable to understand what was being said to me and it occurred to me that perhaps the people here were from Holland since it appeared to have some­ thing of a Dutch accent to it all. The next time I approached somebody, I switched languages and said in Dutch “Kan U Engels spreken?” That only got me some puzzled looks so I switched back to English again. The next gentleman I asked replied in the finest B.B.C. accent; I had no trouble understanding him. Unfortunately he was unable to help me; he was just up for the day from London and didn’t know his way around either. He did, however, explain one thing. He told me that the local accent was extremely close to the Dutch of the Friesan Islands and it was because of that resemblance that I have been having difficulties with it. Incidentally, I never did find the tire shop, I fixed the tire myself. Because of my difficulties with the language, I was interested in a recent book by Prof. John Honey, a linguistic expert who has written on the problem of accents, a problem which still exists very much in England. According to Prof. Honey, accent differences still hamper social equality and he makes a few suggestions about what can be done to improve the situation. Standard English, or the Queen’s English, as some people call it, is generally considered as the brand of English spoken by BBC newsreaders. Its origins come from the early part of the 15th century when government records started being written in English rather than Latin. This went a great way in helping to standardize both vocabulary and grammar. The cur­ rent Standard English, or “receiv­ ed pronounciation’’ as it is fre­ quently called, grew out of the one used in both court and political Con tinned on page 22 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario, by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $17 OO/yr ($38 00 Foreign) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p m - Brussels, Monday, 4 p m - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscriptsor photographs Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Editor& Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, DaveWilliams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968