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Times-Advocate, 1999-03-10, Page 1010 Exeter Wednesday, March 10, 1999 1 Opinion&Forum 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. YEARS 1947 TO 1950 - HI HIGHLIGHTS Gleaned from Exeter District High School High Carried Cadet Inspection is Carried out by Lieut. J:E. Malone At the annual inspection of the Cadets of the Exeter District H.S. held in front of the grandstand at the- community park Wednesday morning the Cadets went through their paces with the efficient smoothness of trained soldiers. Before the critical eyes of military officials, students and a goodly number of parents and interested spectators, the Cadets gave a very creditable performance in marching, drilling, rope -work and first aid work. The Cadets were formed up by platoons and moved to the mustering area under Sergeants John Cann, Jim Cann and Gordon Cann, where C.S.M. Musser made a, final check and turned them over to Capt. Don Southcott. Platoon officers were Cadet Lieutenants Bill Tuckey, Don Davies and George Rether. From the mustering area they proceeded to the inspection area in front of the grandstand where under the critical eye of Lieut. J.E. Malone, assistant cadet officer of Western Ontario area, they marched past in columns of platoons, in columns of route and advanced in review order. Following the formal inspection and march past demonstrations were given in Company drill„ physical training drill, first aid and knot tying. The inspecting officer in compliment- ing.,the Cadets said that the drill had gone over with a bang, the P.T. with zip and all in all it was a good show. The Strathcona Medal was presented to George Dobbs for being the best shot during the year. Prizes to the smartest Cadet in each platoon went to Cadet Grant Case, No. 1; Cadet Glenn Belling, No. 2; and Cadet Gib Dow, No. 3. St. Johns Ambulance Certificates were presented to 23 cadets of No. 1 platoon. They were William B. Armstrong, William H. Armstrong, . Don Bedard, Elmer Campbell, Jack Cann, Grant Case, Doug Cook, Don Harrison, Fred Dobbs, Geo. Dobbs, Ivan Hunter-Duvar, Campbell Krueger, Glenn Love, Milt McCullagh, Murray May, Bill Mickle, Maurice O'Dwyer, Uel Schroeder, Ray Snell, Don Southcott, Orv. Taylor, Bill Tuckey and Claire Wright. In the half -mile race Fred Wuerth, Gerald Webb and Andrew Campbell, all of No. 2 platoon finished in the above order. The senior girl's relay team of Betty Green, Marjorie Hoffman, Francis Taylor and Marion Brintnell and the junior girl's relay team of Betty Love, Audrey Harrison, Anna Turnbull and Evelyn Wright were the winners in their respective groupings. Grade XI boys won the three -inning baseball game by a 5-0 score. Sgt. W.D. Stewart, of London, assisted with the inspection and was in town for a couple of days grooming the boys for the inspection. For more information about the SHDHS "All -Years Reunion" contact Kendra Arthur 235-4006 (H) or 235-4587 (W) or Pat Rowe 236-7167 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR • LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Students upset with stereotyping Dear Editor, We are grade 12 students currently attending South Huron District High School. In our media class, we have been studying the media's portrayal of teens as bad; irresponsible people. We would like to address the article written last week, "Bad Student Behaviour Causes Principal to Cancel School Events". Our main concern is this poor portrayal of teens in your newspa- per. v. The teens of South Huron are not all causing the problems, but in the article it clearly represents us as bad people: "South Huron students have been bad- and they are paying for it" says Scott Nixon, a writer for the Times Advocate. We are not all bad students and in fact, it is a very small minority of the students who cause problems. Instead of just focussing on the negative issues in our school, take a look at the vast number of good things our students accomplish: a lot of students hold down part time jobs which compete with homework from school and helping out around the house, students par- ticipate in Peer Mentoring, our OSAID group is a great. organization, we have 30 Hour Famines to support World Vision, we raise money at such activities as Fun Night for United Way and Cancer research, we support the Christmas Bureau; have the Christmas Shoebox campaign, and the list goes on. When the public thinks about the teens at South Huron or teens in general, they should think about the good things teens are capable of and not focus on the bad which is displayed frequently in the media. Remember that not all teens are bad and the few who do wrong do not represent or speak for all of the teens in society. BY: NATHAN ZIMMERMAN, MATT EAGLESON, JOHN GREGUS, JOE BYLIs Dear Editor: We are a group of senior students at South Huron D.H.S. We are writing in regards to last week's issue of the Times Advocate. We feel that your front cover story was very (misleading. "Bad student behaviour causes principal to cancel school events" centred out all South Huron students. There is no reason why this incident involving the fight should have reflected the whole school. Why should the whole school suffer for some- thing that only a tiny percentage were involved in? Your opening paragraph reads "South Huron students have been bad- and they're paying for it". It is true- we are paying for it. Because of the actions of a small number of students, along with the so called "instiga- tor" who doesn't even attend our school, the whole stu- dent body has been punished: Not only by losing the privilege to participate in school activities, but also by being looked down upon by the community. Teens have a hard enough time trying to prove stereotypes wrong, without being discriminated against by their local newspaper, and punished by their school principal. Thank you for making us famous on the cover of our community newspaper. Unfortunately this is the type of fame we could do with- out. Sincerely, KIM MACLEAN, NICK REGIER, JODI TRUEMNER, ELIZABETH FITZGERALD, BECCI HODDER Volunteer telephone support available Dear Editor: As a new mom again and member of the Huron Breastfeeding Network, I would like to remind expectant and new moms of our volunteer telephone support service. We offer a friendly voice of support, encouragement and information at no cost. A list of volunteers in your area is available at all local physicians' offices, hospitals or through the Iluron Health Unit in CLinton. If you would like to join us, volunteers are always welcome. Call the Health Unit. We meet approxi- mately eight times a year. PAM BIEMAN, DASHWOOD Huron Breastfeeding Network Dear Editor, We need your help! Nowadays teens are stereotyped as kids who are all bad. Sure, there are the few who are bad, but most of us are not! So this means that if there are 5 people out of 900 people doing something wrong, we are all labelled as "bad". Society needs to talk about the good things teenagers do, to. show the community who we really are. Look at all the good things we do: We hold events like Pop Concerts, Cabaret, Arts Night, S.P.A.M. and school shows. We belong to voluntary groups like Peer Helpers, Hall Monitors, Student Impact, OSAID, and Student Council. Students give blood and take first-aid courses (just because). There are a lot of great clubs and groups like sports teams, choir, and band. There also are a lot of good things we do out of school. Teens belong to Youth Group, teach Sunday School, babysit, mow lawns, shovel driveways, and hold part-time jobs, all while trying to acheive a good mark in our studies at school. So you see there are a lot of good things teens do. All we want is to be seen the way we are, not as "bad teenagers". We would appreciate it if you could help us show everyone who we really are. SigneS), AMANDA CHAMBERS, LANCE PFAFF, JEANINE MEI.ICK, DAWN CORBETr, AND CHRISTINE WEDGE Principal's Note The world of relationships is rich and complex. In 1980 Gregory Bateson wrote about the need to shift our priorities in teaching so that learning many facts, the "things" of knowledge is balanced with a focus on relationships as the "basis" for all knowledge. What we.learn from a focus on relationships is that they pos-. sess a tremendous power to make us think, to make us grow and to make us change. Different set- tings and people evoke some qualities from us and leave others dormant. In each of these relationships we are different and new in some way. One of the powerful elements a secondary school has is the ability to expose students to a wide variety of opportunities to experience different hands of relationships. This last week our students travelled to London to com- pete in the Music Festival. They did such a wonderful job that the choirs and bands all won gold and silver medal standing. It never ceases to amaze me how so many students at our school are able to turn into such fabulous singers and musicians, very often with no for- mal training in their background. Similarly, we have had a wildly successful wrestling team this year made up of dozens of kids. Several students even made it to WOSSA this year which is terrific considering they haven't wrestled before and ouli school hasn't had a team for about 20 years. The midget boys bas- ketball team had an amazing win -loss season record capturing the Huron league title. The Reach for the Top team continues to post strong winning scores. We are really proud of these students and their teacher -coaches. Perhaps, these are just some of the examples of those kinds of relationships that make our kids new and different because of the oppor- tunity. Because, as much as those music stu- dents' success is about knowing how to play their instruments well, it is also about the relationship with their fellow musicians and conductor. It is well known, after all, that the era of the rugged individual has been replaced by the era of the team player and the skills of teamwork are best taught .through the lessons of relationships. Schools are literally brim- ming with opportunities to try on and practice these new relationships. This week with the launch of the new sec- ondary school policy document called, "Ontario Secondary Schools" the groundwork for yet more opportunities for a variety of relationships was laid. The new policy docu- ment requires students to do 40 hours of com- munity service •- providing new opportunities for relationships for teenagers as they serve their communities. The document mandates that students will have a teacher advisor up to the end of Grade 11 who will counsel, mentor, advise and encourage students. As well, the new policy requires students to choose a desti- nation as a 15 or 16 year old and prepare carefully and deliberately for that destina- tion. These changes will be implemented in September and will open doors to all kinds of new and exciting relationships for kids. One of the things I love best about teenagers is that they are so willing to enter into new relationships and into such a wide variety of them. As adults, maybe we have forgotten what we once knew about relationships and that is that we don't have to know all the rules ahead of time we just have to be willing' to open ourselves to new experiences. Secondary school reform will help us stay viable by keep- ing us a little off balance so that we will change and grow as a school and as educa- tors. We will follow the lead of our students by trying out these new relationships too. Margaret Wheatley said it better, "The dance of this universe extends to all the relation- ships we have. Knowing the steps ahead of time is not important; being willing to engage with the music and move freely onto the dance, floor is what's key." DEB PRINCIPAL'S NOTE