Huron Expositor, 2007-05-09, Page 4Page 4 May 9, 2007 • The Huron Expositor
Opinion
Proprietor and Publisher, Bowes Publishers Limited, 11 Main St., Seaforth, ON, NOK 1WO
Local kids can
educate all of us
when it comes to
character
While the Avon Maitland District' School Board has
recently focussed on character education, some kids have
definitely taken the attributes to heart already.
One only needs to look at the front page of the Huron
Expositor for the last two weeks to see some fine examples.
Last week, there were St. James students Zbmmy and
T mny McGrath who will be cycling about 500 miles - the
distance to Sault Ste. Marie - over the summer to raise
money for the Sandra Schmirler Foundation, and through
them, for neonatal units across the country.
Zbmmy is 13 and Timmy is 10.
This week, there's seven-year-old Ian MacGregor. Ian
raised $5,000 over the last year to build two wells in
Uganda.
Here's a kid who asked people to donate money to a cause
instead of giving him birthday and Christmas presents.
Twenty years ago, there weren't many seven -year-olds
who even knew that Uganda existed, let alone that people
there needed Wells for drinking water.
These young people seem to have listened when their
parents or teachers talk about how people should act and
what attributes they should display.
It is hard to imagine anyone so young doing these things
without a strong sense of all 10 of the attributes the public
school board and the community have identified.
Let's go through that list, checking off the ones these
kids have.
Empathy: Check.
Compassion: Check.
Optimism, fairness and responsibility: Check, check and
check again.
Respect, honesty and integrity Definitely.
Perseverance: You better believe it.
Courage?
Courage might be the hardest for an adult to see in
what these kids have done and are doing, but it's there.
For the McGrath boys, they're facing 500 long miles of
open mad. However you slice it, that takes guts.
And Ian . Imagine what it took for a seven-
year-old to ask that people not give him presents on his
birthday and at Christmas.
We could all learn a thing or two from the children in
this community.
The school board seems to be on to something with this
character stuff.
Aaron Jacklin
Your Community Newspaper Since 1860
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On Mother's Day, it all boils
down to a moment of peace
I'm sure I speak for
many mothers when I
say I'm waiting - with
equal parts of eagerness
and trepidation - for my
breakfast in bed this
Sunday when Mother's
Day comes around again.
Since my 10 -year-old
daughter has shown a
huge surge of interest in
all things culinary, urging me whenever I
have a spare moment to supervise another
cooking or baking project, I'm sure to be in for
a treat this weekend.
As the artistic one in the family, she has
always been the one with the stacks of home-
made cards - since one was never enough to
capture all of the ideas and artwork flowing
out of the end of her crayon.
In contrast, following the strong and silent
stereotype, my son lets the warm hug speak
the volumes of his affection and appreciation.
I also count myself among the moms who,
when surveyed, said that sleep was the one
gift they'd appreciate more than any other on
Mother's Day.
Sleep deprivation begins the moment they
hand you that sweet bundle of joy and I'm
warned it will continue on forever virtually as
your kids get their driver's licences and move
out into the scary and complicated world
filled with plenty of reasons to worry and lose
sleep.
All of us moms appreciate - not to mention
deserve - the extra bit of attention we get for
I'm trying to give
the strip a new a
avant-garde Zook..1 cos
14 9®1
at least the first hour .of
Mother's Day before it
begins again - the familiar
refrain of "Mom, where are
my socks?" and "Mom, can
you read over my report?"
and the ever popular, "Mom,
I'm hungry!"
But, while looking up
the history of Mother's Day,
I was interested to see that
the day's beginnings in North America were
not so much about wining and dining Mom
and showering her with gifts but about unit-
ing women in social activism against war.
Julia Ward Howe wrote the Mother's Day
Proclamation in 1870 after the American
Civil War as a call for peace and disarma-
ment.
In very poetic and dramatic language,
Howe calls for putting down the "sword of
murder" and ending "the summons of war."
In an excerpt, she says, "Let women now
leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail
and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each
other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in
peace..."
As recent polls show 54.6 per cent of
Canadians want the country's troops pulled
out of Afghanistan if casualties climb, the
beginnings of Mother's Day seem just as rele-
vant today as ever.
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