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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1999-03-31, Page 1010 Exeter Times -Advocate Wednesday. March 31, 1999 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 articles or pictures which have appeared over the years. YEARS 1947TO 1950 - HI HIGHLIGHTS Gleaned from Exeter District High School Students to Occupy Modern New School Within Few Days High school students will move into the big red schoolhouse shortly after the holidays. School officials have announced classes in the new Exeter District High School will start a week from next Monday. "We know definitely the entire student body will be attending classes in the new school on Monday, January 9," Charles S. MacNaughton, chairman of the building committee of the dis- trict high school board said yesterday. Principal H. L. Sturgis and Board Chairman, Dr. H. H. Cowen agreed. Earlier this week, officials had hoped to move in on January 3 but they postponed the date when it was felt that students would interfere with workmen who are finishing the building. Premier of Ontario, Leslie M. Frost, will official- ly open the new building of Wednesday, January 25, in a public ceremony. Principal Sturgis said plans were incomplete as yet, but he expected there would be an open house held for the public the same night. Men are working hard to get the school ready in time. Even board members, teachers and stu- dents are taking time out from their holidays this week to move desks, tables and chairs for the classrooms. Workmen have finished painting rooms on the second floor and are rapidly putting the ground floor in shape. Mr. Sturgis said,"There have been very few hold-ups for materials andthe work has gone right ahead. We are moving in sooner than we expected." The gymnasium, cafeteria and home economics rooms will not be completed when the students move in but these rooms are expected to be fin- ished in time for the official opening. Brightness and attractiveness in the classrooms are the themes of the architecture. In each room there is almost one solid wall of windows, sup- plemented by strong, indirect lighting from 600 - watt bulbs. The modern classrooms are finished in light colors, pastel with a dull gloss paint. No two rooms have exactly the same color scheme. The trim is hardwood with a light, natural finish. Another modern feature is the increased amount of built-in equipment and storage space. Individual student lockers along the corriders, 395 in all, replace the old cloakrooms. Book cases, and storage cupboards for project materi- als are built-in in each classroom. The flooring in the rooms is mastic tile to keep noise -level down. The floors of the corridors and of wash- rooms are terrazo. Principal Sturgis will inaugurate a complete rotary system of teaching in the new building. Each teacher will have his own classroom and the pupils will move from room to room. "This will save the teacher from carrying around illus- trative material, supplementary books etc. all over the school," the principal said. A two-way public address system will broad- cast throughout the school. This will facilitate announcements and make possible reception for Department of Education broadcasts and records for music appreciation classes. The wide window doors at the front open into the main corridor where birch panelling outlines glass trophy cabinets. The corridor,. marked off by 4 large. pillars, leads straight into the gymna- sium, which will be one of the last rooms fin- ished. The main floor houses the principal's office, reception desk and vocational guidance rooms besides three classrooms, cafeteria, science and agriculture laboratories. Dressing rooms, lock- ers and showers are located at either end of the gym. Five of the eight classrooms are on the second floor, along with the library, two home econom- ics rooms and teachers' lounges. For more information about the SHDHS "All - Years Reunion" contact Kendra Arthur 235- 4006 (I-1) or 235-4587 (W) or Pat Rowe 236-7167 OPINIONS & LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Ignore truth, then keep porch light on By Cpl. Dale Martel RCMP OFFICER. FIELD, B.C. I want to address parents of young people every- where. I am writing in response to some of the ques- tions you ask me daily. I am not one police officer, but I represent every officer in every city and town in Canada. You may know me only as the cop who gave you a ticket last summer, but I am also the guy who lives down the street from you. I am the parent of three children and I share with you the same hope, ambi- tion and dreams that you have for your children. I am faced with the same problems you have. I share with you those moments of agony and ecstasy. I share with you the feeling of shame, guilt and dis- appointment when my boy or girl gets into trouble. The scene is a long stretch, of highway with a sharp curve at one end. It has been raining and the roads are slick. A car travelling in excess of 80 mph missed the curve and plowed into an embankment where it became airborne and struck a tree. At this point, two of the four young persons were hurled from the vehicle, one into the tree, the other into the roadway, where the carlanded on him, snuffing out his life, like a discarded cigarette on the asphalt. He is killed instantly, and he is the lucky one. The girl thrown into the tree has her neck broken and although she was voted queen of the senior prom, and most likely to succeed, she will now spend the next 60 years in a wheelchair. Unable to do any- thing else, she will live and relieve that terrible moment over again many times. When I arrive, the car has come to rest on its top, the broken wheels have stopped spinning. Smoke and steam pour out of the engine ripped from its mounting by a terrible force. An eerie calm has settled over the scene and it appears deserted except for one lone traveller who called it in. He is sick to hisrstomach and leaning against his car for support. The driver is conscious but in shock and unable to free himself from under the bent twisted steering column. His face will be forever marked by deep cuts from broken glass and jagged metal. Those cuts will heal, but the ones inside cannot be touched by the skilled surgeon's scalpel. The third passenger has almost stopped bleeding, the seat and his clothing are covered in blood from an artery cut in his arm by the broken bone end that protrudes from his forearm just below the elbow. His breath comes in gasps as he tries desperately to suck air past his blood-filled airway. He is unable to speak and his eyes bulged and fixed on me pleading- ly, are the only communications that he is terrified and wants my help. I feel a pang of guilt and recognize him as a boy I let off with a warning the other night for an open container of alcohol in his car. Maybe if I had cited him then; he wouldn't be there now. Who knows, I don't. He died soundlessly in my arms, his pale blue eyes staring vacantly as if trying to see into the future he will never have. I remember watching him playing basketball and wonder what will happen to the scholarship he will never use. My mind focuses on a loud screaming and I identify it as the girl who was thrown from the vehicle. I race .to her with a blanket but I am afraid to move her. Her head is tilted at an exaggerated angle. She seems unaware of my presence there and whimpers for her mother like a little child. In the dis- tance, I hear the ambulance winding its way through the rainy night. Iam filled with incredible grief at the waste of so valuable a resource, our youth. I am sick with anger and frustration with parents and leaders who think a little bit of alcohol won't hurt anything. I am filled with contempt for people who propose lowering the drinking age because they will get booze anyway, so why not make it legal. I am frustrated with laws, court rulings and other legal measures that restrict my ability to do my job in pre- venting this kind of tragedy. The ambulance begins the job of scraping up and removing the dead and injured. I stand by, watching, as hot tears mingle with rain and drip off my cheeks. I would give anything to know who furnished those young people with that booze. I will spend several hours on reports and several months trying to erase from my memory the details of that night. I will not be alone. The driver will Principal's message Last week our school's imple- mentation team for Secondary School Reform met with repre- sentatives for the Ministry of Education and Training to pre- pare ourselves for next September's restructuring of Ontario's_secondary schools. Part of the time was spent on assessment and evaluation and the need to improve current practices. I do think we have improved the way we assess and evaluate stu- dent learning over the past five years but I rec- ognize that there are still examples of the "acad- emic gotcha" game where students try to guess "what is on a teacher's mind". Too many kids, upon receiving back their test paper look to see what they got wrong. This deficit approach to assessing academic progress pits students and teachers against each other and really has out- lived its usefulness. In The Unschooled Mind (1991) Howard Gardner argues that students must apply their learning to a new situation to show that they really understand. This perspective of assess- ment implies that assessment should be perfor- mance based. What really matters in education is understanding and the habits of mind that a student uses to show what he knows. Gardner's work emphasizes that intelligence manifests itself in many ways and we must allow .for stu- dents to use their unique intelligence in order to demonstrate what they know. If you start watching for it, as a parent or as „a. teacher, you will see just how intelligent so many of our young people really are. Visual -spatial intelligence uses the language of shapes, images, patterns, design, colours. Bodily -kinesthetic intelligence uses the language of physical movement. The language of musical- rhythmio intelligence is, tones, beats and sounds. The language of interpersonal intelligence is human relating, cooperation, teamwork and reaching concensus. The language of intra per- sonal intelligence is intuition, and awareness of self. Naturalist intelligence uses the natural pat- terns of flora, fauna, animals and weather. The logical mathematical intelligence uses problem - solving, numbers, words and other abstract sym- bols. While verbal linguistic intelligence is the spoken work, reading, writing and storytelling. Learning to assess student learning using mul- tiple intelligence presupposes that we value equally all these ways of being "smart"! Historically, schools have not valued each of these intelligences equally. It's really too bad if you think of the lost potential. Perhaps, sec- ondary school reform will show us how to do a better job of really learning how to assess stu- dents' understanding. Many years ago William James cautioned us to be sympathetic with the type of mind that "cuts a poor figure in examina- tions. It may be, in the long examination which life sets us, that it comes out in the end in better shape". DEB HOMUTH PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE recover and spend the rest of his life trying to forget. I know the memory of this fatal accident will be diluted and mixed with other similar accidents I will be called upon to cover. You ask me why did this happen? It happened because a young person stoned out of his mind, thought he could handle two tons of hurtling death at 80 mph. It happened because an adult trying to be a "good guy" bought for or sold to some minor, a case of beer. It happened because you as parents weren't con- cerned enough about your child to know where he was and what he was doing; and you were uncon- cerned about minors and alcohol abuse and would rather blame me for harassing them when I was only trying to prevent this kind of tragedy. It happened because as people say, you believe this sort of thing only happens to someone else. For your sake, I hope it doesn't happen to you, but if you continue to regard alcohol abuse as part of growing up, then please keep your porch Light on because some cold, rainy night, you will find me at your doorstep with a message of death. This opinion piece was written as a public information article.