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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1999-03-03, Page 10*0 ExallerTimes.Advocate Wednesday, March 3, 1999 Opinion&Forum LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Remember when... On June 30 to July 1, 2000, South Huron District High School will celebrate its 50th Anniversary. The Exeter Times Advocate would like to join in the celebrations by sharing arti- cles or pictures which have appeared over the years. Pat Rowe dropped this letter off to our office. This letter was sent to Joe Wooden concerning the upcoming reunion. It is an enjoyment to read and exemplifies the difference in education from years ago. Dear J. L. Wooden I was interested in reading the news of the SHDHS coming 50th reunion in 2000. I was on the staff of the old school 1927-29. In September the school had an overload of grade 9 students and an extra teacher was needed to take over. I had graduated from 0.C.E. in Toronto of that year and there was a great surplus of teachers & I was left out. My forte was languages but I was game to try anything. I saw the ad in the Globe & Mail for the extra teacher and my father who was a hardware merchant in Dublin knew• �a member of the Exeter Board of Education & contacted him. So we went over and I was hired immediately for a salary of + $1700.00. Mr. E. J. Wethy was the principal and was known to be a great admirer, of the girls I was then 21 years old and for the two years I was there I was terrified of the man. However, I survived and taught English, history, geography, French, Latin and Spanish after four o'clock to Eugene Howey and girls phys. ed. After 5 years of nothing but lan- guages at university, it was quite a challenge. The other teachers were Margaret Ross, Mamie Bayne, Anna MacKenzie and a Miss Gill. I don't know if I'll be around for the year 2000 as I'm in my 94th year now and in comparatively good health & look after myself in every way. If I can contribute anything to your book, I would be glad to help. Just send me a list of questions. I'm really hoping to live to 2001 to celebrate 75 years since graduation. There may be a few people around the area who may remember me. I can think of lots of names but they are all in the next world. Yours sincerely, RUTH (HILLS) DAVIS Folt MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SHDHS "ALL -YEARS REUNION" CONTACT KENDRA ARTHUR 235-4006 (11) OR 235-4587 (W) Our children need to be our first concern Dear Editor: I'm a parent and a representative of the Exeter Public School Parent's Association. I'm very disap- pointed with the Avon Maitland District School Board's decision to phase out Core French for grades 1-3 in Huron County. We, the Exeter Parent's Association made the commitment to carry the Core -French Program at an approximate cost of $600.00. I don't think that this proposal was even given any considera- tion. The Avon Maitland School Board has a total of nine trustees - five from Perth and four from Huron. The vote for the Core French issue was 5-4 in favour of phasing out Core French. A new trustee from Perth county has just been appointed, Margaret Laprade. She made a visit to our school and was very impressed with the program but when the vote came she voted against the Core French Curriculum. Why? One of the concerns of the Avon Maitland School Board was for equality in Perth and Huron counties, and since Perth doesn't have this French program Huron shouldn't as well. Now my question is "Are we going to get a music program which is currently being taught in Perth schools and not in Huron schools?" The board has taken Core French away. What are they. going to give us in return ? If the Board wants equality in Huron and Perth coun- ties, maybe we should have equal numbers of trustees. The Board wants parents of South Huron District High School, Exeter Public School, and Usborne Central to establish a cluster of school committee that is to suggest options for solving excess capacity prob- lems within these schools. They want these suggestions by May 18. Who is going to look like the "Bad Guy" here. the parents or .the Board? This is pitting school against school and could create bad feelings. The Board seems to want to place the responsibility of the decision on to the parents where an unbiased decision might not be possible. There should be a ,joint commit- tee between the Board and the parents concerned, to address this issue. Our children need to be our first concern. A frustrated parent, TERRI REID, Exeter Juvenile behaviour is imbedded in memory an example, if one of the principal's children didn't eat all their vegetables at dinner and all of the children were denied dessert. Where is the learning curve in this illustration? I would dare say at the parent. Having said this, I will agree that the "bar of behav- iour" (synonymous with acceptable behaviour?) has certainly eroded In these scant few years. Students receive a message as they watch their peers and the adults in their community (parents, teachers, religious leaders) acting out what is acceptable. and what is below the bar of behaviour. This reminds me of a short time ago, when the teach- ers and their aggressive Union leaders, were walking on the whole sidewalk in front of the MPP's office. I was forced to walk on the road because none gave me access. They were loud, belligerent and boisterous. They were in a fight with the Provincial Government; to protect the students. In my view they were acting like a mob out of control. The teachers' actions and lack of civility in this spe- cific fight with the Provincial Government was an absolute fortification to any onlooking students of the fact that, if you don't get your way, cause a fight and act like a mob! The principal is quoted as saying, "I can't just turn a blind eye to it". I agree with this and support her in her area of authority. When I witnessed the juvenile behaviour of many teachers, in Exeter and elsewhere, I wished I could have turned a blind eye to it. I couldn't and it is now imbedded in my memory. Yours very truly, J. WILSON THOMPSON Dear Editor: Re: Scott Nixon's reporting of "Bad student behaviour causes principal to cancel school events". I was quite bemused during my reading of this article and the reported comments from the principal of this school. Firstly, I would suggest that there are possibly no "bad students" at this particular school but rather stu- dents that sometimes resolve their differences in a way not totally acceptable to our society's guidelines. I feel that the choice of "punishment" cannot ever be intended as "a dramatic response" as the principal is quoted as saying. I consider this type of global school punishment somewhat archaic in its concept and absolutely unfair in its application. Somewhat like, for Please stop the rumors Dear Editor: We are writing in response to the article in Last week's paper about our two dear friends who tragical- ly, and without cause, lost their lives. In small towns, it is often the case that a group of small-minded individu- als will attempt to share what they assume to be true about the individuals involved, when in fact their story is based solely on what everyone else is saying. This may be so that the person may feel a part of what has happened, or maybe that someone could be truly heartless. Whatever their reason, as a result, peo- ple like our cherished friend Lawrence are denigrated and degraded without a chance to defend themselves. In a situation like this, friends of the young men want to be able to mourn the loss, rather than worry about what people have to say, people who may not even have known them. To all the people who have heard alcohol was a cause of the accident, think to yourself that the person telling you this doesn't and didn't know Lawrence Cole at all. Lawrence was one of the most responsible men in our group and would never take part in an act that would harm anyone. To all the • gossipers, we, a group of friends, would like to say, what goes around comes around, but we choose not to stoop that low. In fewer words, don't believe everything you hear. Our thoughts are with the families of Lawrence and Chris. TARA CAMPBELL, CATHERINE BERGMANN AND FRIENDS The•bernessage of restorativegracesote lowed, limp and unattractive. So she purchased what you will. With a shock, I realized she was and presented a new nightgown and matching finally asking me what 1 thought about her illness. She was asking me how long she would live. She was, in fact, asking me if I thought she would live even six months. And she was telling me that if I showed 1 believed she would live until then, then she would do it. She would not let that expensive purse go unused. That day I returned the gown and robe and bought the summer purse.. That was many years ago. The purse is worn out and long gone, as are at least half a dozen others. And next week my mother flies to California to celebrate her 83rd birth- ' day. My gift to her? The most expensive designer purse 1 could find. She'll use it well. The gift of restorative grace to a broken - In the Journal of the American Medical Association a few years ago Jane McAdams told the story of her 69 year old mother who had lived a life deeply marked by the Great Depression of the 1930's. The evidence showed in her frugality and utterly practical perspective on all material things. The only extravagance she had ever per- mitted herself, McAdams wrote, was a frilly night- gown kept in a bottom drawer, "In case I should ever have to go into the hospital." That day had come. All the symptoms that made her visit to the hospital necessary spoke of a seri- ous cancer, and McAdams feared that moment when she would have to tell her mother that the prognosis was very poor. The daughter wondered, "Should I tell my moth- er? Did she already know? If not, did she sus- pect...Could 1 give her any hope? Was there in fact any hope?" As she wrestled With these questions, McAdams noted that her mother's birthday was approach- ing. Perhaps she could brighten her mother's days by purchasing a new nightgown because the one that tad been in the bottom drawer was yel- robe. "If I could not hope to cure her disease, at least I could make her feel like the prettiest patient in the entire hospital." McAdams described how her mother stud- ied the gown after the package was opened. And after a while she pointed to the wrap- ping and the gown and said to her daugh- ter, "Would you mind returning it to the store? I don't really want it." Then picking up the paper she pointed to a display adver- tisement and said, "This is what I really want, if you could get that." What she REN. pointed to was a display advertisement of VERNON expensive summer purses. POINT TO My reaction was one of disbelief. Why would my mother, so careful about extrava- gances, want an expensive summer purse in world person is the gift not of a nightgown that January, one that she could not possibly use until announces death but of a summer purse that says June? She would not even. live until spring, let there is life' after failure. That is the message of alone summer. the Cross and the empty tomb. And it must be the Almost immediately, I was ashamed and appalled message of the church to the broken -world per - at my clumsiness, ignorance, Insensitivity, call it son.