HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1999-01-27, Page 18PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1999.
For Teens, By Teens
Media courses could vanish along with OAC
By Amy Crawford
Barry Duncan, the father of
media said, "I trust that they (the
government) won't eliminate media
literacy education. They might
reduce it, but I think they would be
foolish to eliminate it. It would be
horrifying."
As soon as the new education
plan to eliminate Grade 13 is
implemented in high schools across
Canada, you won't see media as a
senior course in the curriculum.
The government has planned for
many changes to the curriculum but
none so seemingly drastic as what
they plan for English courses. The
main objective is to break down the
senior media course and disperse
the general knowledge throughout
the four-year English curricula.
Students should be priority
By Ashley Gropp
An article in People magazine
was brought to my attention recent
ly. It peaked my interest.
The story was of a Grade 1 stu
dent named Daiki Saito in Ichi-
nosetakahashi, Japan. Normally, an
article about one child's schooling
in another country would give me
little reason to care, but this story
has real meaning in the midst of all
the cutbacks that education is cur
rently suffering in Ontario, and
Huron County in particular. Ichi-
nosetakahashi is a village made up
of 19 people and Daiki is the only
schoolkid.
Although the village's school has
been closed for 10 years, education
officials in Japan did not give a
thought to handing over $100,000
(American) to renovate a part of the
building and brought in a principal
and a teacher at a combined salary
of $175,000 (also American) annu
ally. The reason? Education for
their young is a priority in Japan.
Daiki has a computer in his class,
can send e-mail and has his own
web page. Weekly he spends one
day with his peers at the school in
Exam preparation takes time
By Becky Nethery
I have really noticed that some of
my friends are starting to get
stressed out about exams and
pressures to finish the semester's
work when so many snow days
have put us behind in our work.
I’m in Grade 9 so this whole
exam thing is foreign to me. But,
despite this being my first year in
high school, I am taking the advice
and helpful words from teachers
and older friends with a gracious
heart. I have already begun to
prepare for the exams and I know
that most of my friends and peers
have also.
Right now, I know that some of
my friends are having a hard time
with trying to prepare for the
exams, plus the regular chores at
home. Many also have sports, or
play an instrument.
When all of these pressures and
commitments are thrown down on
your shoulders at the same time, a
lot of teens feel intimidated and
don't know what to do about it.
I think that if the student is
responsible enough to be
attempting to prepare for the
exams, then the parents should
"The reason for these changes is
that we realized it is important for
all students to develop knowledge
and skills in media literacy," said
Helen Johns, MPP for Huron
County, through a faxed interview.
It seems that because society has
become more easily susceptible to
media and its implications, we
should all be better educated.
"Students in the 21st century will
have more technological
information at their fingertips than
any generation before them. It is
important that they have frequent
opportunities to analyze media
communication and to develop
critical thinking skills, which will
enable them to understand how
media messages are designed to
influence readers," said Johns.
the next district, a 30-minutc trip.
In contrast, here in Ontario, a
place perceived to have one of the
best standards of living in the
world, excess space in schools has
to be eliminated or filled, to ensure
that the school can remain open.
Every penny squandered is at the
educational expense of Ontario stu
dents. Schools that are not 'cost
efficient' are being closed. For
example, F.E. Madill Secondary
School in Wingham, which is not
in any major threat of being closed,
is considering the destruction of an
entire wing or renting it out to
make the school look more than 86
per cent full. Since the school does
exceed the province's standard of
80 per cent full, they are also look
ing at taking about 150 students
from the Brussels area and moving
them to Seaforth District High
School to help fill it.
If this last option docs happen, it
is my opinion that almost everyone
will lose. Although a couple hun
dred Seaforth students may be
relieved not to have to ride the bus,
the bus ride for the Brussels stu
dents will not be any shorter.
maybe try to slow down and help
the teen through this time.
Cut them some slack. Be there
for them. Realize that this is a
stressful time in the teen's life.
I know personally that once I
explained the circumstances to my
parents and helped them
understand, they gave me the study
time that I needed.
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But the question arises, do teens
at age 13 and 14 have the mental
power to understand the
fundamental concepts of media?
Beverly Smith, the media teacher at
F. E. Madill Secondary School
said, "Senior students have better
analytical skills to be able to
deconstruct media."
Media studies isn’t just watching
TV and talking about what you
think it means. You also have to be
able to use the media concepts
taught, to see through advertising
tactics, and use these concepts to be
better consumers and citizens.
Media also helps you decide what
is valid in your life.
The new plan for media is to
incorporate the course in Grade 9
through to Grade 12 as two
Seaforth is also a smaller school
which offers less course selection
and extracurricular program.
Class options are limited, espe
cially in Grades 12 and OAC. I
have spent my first four years al
Madill preparing for the OAC
options I can get there. Interest in
subjects other than the basics is
suppressed by the lack of numbers
willing to support the classes. As a
Brussels resident, I may be forced
into choosing subjects that hold lit
tle relevance for my future and pos
sibly having to return for a sixth
year to high school.
The other irony, however, is that
such a move might even be a com
plete waste of time, as many of the
parents of Brussels students have
said they would continue to drive
their kids to Madill if the change
occurred.
It all seems so sad for our future,
really, when you look al Japan's
willingness to do everything it can
to educate just one child, while our
government is doing everything it
can to provide the cheapest and
most basic education it can for
many.
Although this is a stressful time, I
am still encouraged to have fun and
go out with my friends. Studying is
good but you still need a break
once in a while.
As I conclude, I would like to
leave you with these two thoughts:
hard work pays off and "all the
flowers of today are in the seeds of
tomorrow."
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separate avenues, applied and
academic. Both will be taken and
each will have one credit value.
It seems that there will be an
extra amount of English being
taught but not necessarily in every
school. In the preliminary plans it
looks as if there will be a minimum
of six compulsory English courses
and as many as nine optional
Englishes to choose from. Now,
none of these classes are just
focused on media, therefore
students will just get small sections
at a time.
Smith said, "If media is scaled
down, students won't be able to
look at things in the depth of topics
they would if it was a specific
class. Students would be given
examples but not necessarily the
time to see how it really affects
their lives."
Johns said, "By integrating media
studies into compulsory core
English curriculum, it ensures that
more students will be exposed to a
subject than if it was just a stand
alone course."
Even though exposing everyone
to media studies is a great idea,
they won't get much more than the
basic ideas. Why not make the
* media course a compulsory credit,
therefore everyone will be exposed
to it and learn a lot more?
These changes may mean that the
government has some high hopes.
This change is going to cost them a
lot of money to be able to give
students and teachers all the
resources they will need.
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"In order to do English media
correctly you need the resources for
the course," Madill Principal
Wayne Tessier said.
Schools will need TVs in just
about every English class, access to
more than just a couple of video
cameras, computers and the
equipment to edit video, also the
extra resources to teach the
teachers everything they need to
know to effectively teach students.
This will be very costly in the
long run because it is not just one
or two schools who need all this
equipment. This cost will be
extremely great compared to just
having media as an optional or
compulsory course. Also, with
more students using the equipment
the cost of repairs will be very
high.
Media is a very important course
to which everyone should be
exposed. But the whole revamp of
the course will jeopardize the
impact of what media can really
teach us.
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