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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1983-11-16, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, November 16, 1983 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILI BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Think he knows something we don't? 1 Yeah! Where the button is! • Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 235-1331 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $21.00 Per year; U.S.A. $56.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC' Rights vs responsibilities SHDHS math teacher Joanne Young has given clear indicaton she's prepared to wage a test case over her right to take time from her job to attend an anti- nuclear demonstration in Toronto this week, and unless she has an unexpected change of heart, will put the Huron board of education and its appointed officials in a delicate position. While a previous editorial outlined our opinion on the propriety of Mrs. Young's actions and example to her students, the legal aspects could be quite another issue. Under terms of the collective agreement with teachers, the Huron board entitles staff members to three days off during the school year as "personal days". Only boards of education would allow themselves to provide such entitlements, and while there may be stated or implied guidelines, they are left open to interpretation. That is clearly evident in principal Bruce Shaw's handling of the situation. He indicates that he views each request from the standpoint of whether he would grant it to himself. Even using the same guideline, another principal or board official could quite con- ceivablyhand down a different ruling on any specific request. If Mrs. Young decides to defy school officials, the REAGAN CONCERNED ABOUT AAM46EDDON 1-7 latter must recoginze the implications of any action they would initiate. It would be unwise for them to con- sider it merely as a case of insubordination that would appear easy to substantiate. In fact, the primary cries - tion could well be whether the denial of the request for time off was proper. School officials have only to look as far as their neighbors in Bruce County to realize the costs that could be involved in settling the issue before the courts, if they or Mrs. Young chose to do so. By the same token, Mrs. Young is mistaken in her suggestion that the next move is up to the board. She still has time to reconsider her planned action. She may be correct in noting that her rights are at stake; but so too are her responsibilities. She has a responsibility to adhere to a reasoned ruling from her superiors, a responsibility to her fellow teachers who could be adversely affected by her ac- tions, a responsibility to teach math to students on November 18, a responsibility to clearly think of the costly implications to her community and, perhaps more importantly, a responsibility nct to impune or weaken the reputation and support for the anti-nuclear movement through a questionable action on her part. She also has the right to resign. That would remove most of the aforementioned responsibilities they ap- pear too difficult to accept. -7J Saved from what? People who questioned the propriety of the U.S. in- vasion of Grenada must now be wondering about the type of order that President Ronald Reagan wanted restored when he attempted to justify his country's actions. Governor-General Sir Paul Scoon, backed by the U.S., has moved quickly to restore that order and pro- tect island residents from the rule of the Cuban and Soviet thugs who were over -running the country. Among the steps taken by Scoon are: a ban on public meetings, arrests without warrants and press censorship. Those who gave of their lives or were seriously wounded in the invasion must wonder if their sacrifice was in vain. The gains for which they fought appear small indeed. Time to look at all the costs The request from Goderich to have the Huron police communication system han- dle the town's fire calls is proving more difficult to decide than most would have imagined. Statistics would indicate that the system is capable of handling those extra calls without much difficulty or additional expense and in fact the five member municipalities have been given assurance that it could be expanded to handle all the fire calls in the county if that need arises. The main question, as it often is in such situations, is that of the charge to be made to Goderich for the extra service. Their offer of $2,000 per year appears to be ex- tremely low in view of the cost municipalities are paying to have the system handle police calls. In Exeter's case, the cost is $27,000 per year, a figure which is rapidly reaching the point where, combined with the pre- sent cost of handling local fire calls, that this community could provide its own communication system at a comparable figure. That obviously leads to the question of why the entire system is so expensive to operate. That'appears to be a question that the five municipalities should be answering before they approvefurther obligations to the system. Exeter is currently paying at least three times as much as the total bill for police and fire answering service when that was being provided privately, and even given the increases for inflation, the total bill now appears to be totally out of line. In fact, it's reaching the point of being an emergency for budgets and hopefully someone will answer the call for a total review of the situation. Ontario MPPs have done it again: set one set of rules for themselves and another for the remainder of us. It came to light last week that they had approved a 12 percent increase in their living allowance, an increase most people will quickly recognize as being greater BATT'N AROUND with the editor than that which the majority of those same MPPs think is required by other On- tario residents. To make matters even worse, the MPPs didn't bother to tell their Long-suffering constituents about the hike; it came to the public attention rather inadvertently via minutes from the board of internal economy in the legislative library. That board, by the way, includes representation from all three parties, so it is fair to suggest that all MPPs were well aware of the situation. While the decision is being investigated by the restraint board to determine whether the increase is consistent with the legislation, the answerin moral terms should already be abundantly clear. Elected officials who repeatedly follow a "do as I say, not as I do" philosophy must surely recognize it undermines fur- ther the dwindling faith in their credibili- ty, sincerity and integrity. Despite their avowed differences, it is strange and repugnant when one con- siders the quick accord that can be reach- ed whenever politicians decide to collec- tively stick their hands in the taxpayers' pockets to fill their own. Now that Remembrance Day has been removed from the list of school holidays, the question arises as to when the few re- maining employers who grant the day off will follow suit. Many people were caught off guard when they found the doors at most finan- cial institutions closed on Friday and the majority of ratepayers who had to work must wonder why their hired hands in some municipalities were given the day off. The answer,of course, is that existing contracts called for the holiday and the government's edict regarding schools was handed down after other people had already been granted the day off under the terms of those contracts. Presumably, employers will move to eliminate the day off and will probably get little opposition from their employees who will recognize that any such preferential treatment is unwarranted. It has always seemed strange that elected officials who as employers or employees in private enterprise have done without IF e holiday for a number of years and yei have continued to grant it to municipal staff. As employers or employees in private enterprise, how do they justify that? Oh well, it should be fun watching it anyway, particularly when it is noted that the education minister 'didn't remove Remembrance Day as a holiday entire- ly, she merely switched it to another date to keep the total number of days off intact. .N„q .(I( • 7 Pain, boredom, frustration "So foul and fair a fall I have not seen." that's just as good as anything Shakespeare wrote or Macbeth said. The only word that is changed is "fall" for "day". And you can blame the three wit- ches: Pain, Boredom and Frustration for that. Fall fairs. Fall festivals. Excitement. Color. A last fling before the dreary days of November and the icy, endlessclutch of a Canadian winter. It's been the fairest of falls. After a summer so fine that no Canadian can quite believe it, we had a September and October that have made us wonder why anybody would want to live anywhere else. Sun. Few bugs. Incredi- ble August. Superb September. Glorious col- ors. Corn and real tomatoes stretching into October. Rotten kids back to school. Great golfing. Fine fishing. Utopia. Well, I'm glad you en- joyed it, you rotters. I can see you, sitting in the nur- sing home arguing about it, years from now. 'Yeah, the fall of '83 was the best we ever had. Sun shone near everyday. Fuel bill was nearly nowt. Didn't put on my long johns till October first." "Yabbut", counters another old-timer, "that's the fall Trudeau decided to stay on." Heavy silence. Well, if you look back to the first paragraph, you'll find the word 'foul'. It's been a foul fall for yours truly. Oh, we intended to enjoy the fall. Go to the Fall Fair, go to a Festival. We went to a Festival, but we didn't make the Fall Fair. Me and the Old Lady, as we say at the Legion, took a late -summer shot at the Shaw Festival. No tickets, Sugar and Spice Dispensed By Smiley • no room reservations. We just played in by ear. It worked. It was a fateful decision. Naturally, we didn't see any Shaw, but thoroughly enjoyed "Private Lives" and "Vortex" by Noel Coward, and the musical "Tom Jones." Everything went well. The shows were good, bet- tei' than lots of Stratford stuff we'd seen. Francis Hyland, that excellent Canadian actress, never really appreciated because she hasn't gone to the States, was accosted, interviewed, and praised by my wife, was sweet, gracious, and laughed heartily at a reference to her first husband, George, an old friend of ours, who succumbed to the Hollywood fleshpots. The "Prince of Wales Hotel" at Niagara -on -the Lake offered everything any big -city hotel could, at the same rates, but with much more personality. Their bellboys are human beings, not insolent louts with nothing more than a tip on their minds. Waitress, desk clerks, the same. Well, as usual, it was too good to be true. Getting cocky, God's favorite angel was hurled into Hell, according to Milton, there to pull himself out of the h�4 fire and swear eternal vengeance. I guess I got cocky too, things were going well. We came back from a show, hadn't eaten dinner, and I proposed to bring up to the room a tray of food from the cafeteria (dining -room closed.) No problem. Started up with my big tray of hamburgers wird other connoiseurs, like mustard and french fries, caught my toe on the stairs, and catapaulted, backwards, down two flights. Still had the tray in my hands when I landed, but nothing on it. (Reminds me of the time when I came in with two bags of groceries, slip- ped on a fresh -waxed floor and broke my nose on the kitchen counter, because I didn't have enough sense to drop the groceries.) Anyway, I wasn't hurled into hell for my pride, but have had a hell of a time since. Separated shoulder. As far as pain goes, I'd just as soon lie for a while in the eternal flames that Satan endured, until he pulled himself together. Football players. Hockey players. They get "separated shoulders", and are expected to be out of action for a while. That never bothered me, because it just doesn't happen to an aging teacher -columnist. Picked up, a bit startled, but not worrying, by two great bellhops, taken to emergency, sling but on, and doctor saying it would be a "week or more" before it was healed. Not to worry. That was just before school re -opened. Spent most of September in a sling with something worse than a chronic toothache and earache combined. Tried to resume teaching in late September. Kids wanted to know why I was wear- ing a sling. Between moans and grunts told them several versions, all of which they believed. Said I went to a disco and these two old ladies, about 65, each wanted to dance with me. One was stronger than the over, and pulled my arm right out of the socket. Told them I'd taken a swing at a little girl in Grade 9 on first day of school, not realizing she knew karate. Said I'd been arm - wrestling with my grand- son, aged nine. They are a little dubious, but, "That's too bad, sir", was the general reaction. Don't ever get a separated shoulder. If you do, tell the doctor to cut it off at the joint and sell it to a limbs -bank. It would be less painful. Answer little too, pat I've been reading the column written by Ann Landers for many years. I find her honest and for- thright, willing to speak out on many sensitive issues, usually with a brand of good humour that is interesting enough to bring you back again. Most of the time I find myself agreeing with her comments, and if not agreeing feel that she put a little thought into an answer. • For this one though I find her answer just a lit- tle too pat, almost flippant in nature. The reader asked why children were being asked to memorize all the capitals of the fifty states saying that she was not against upgrading the geographic skills of children but that who real- ly needed to know that the capital of Montana was he be taught the value of Helena,and if it was real- memorization by assign- ly necessary why not ing things that are useful Perspectives By Syd Fletcher nit teach the child how to use good reference books so that he/she could find it out for himself. Ann's flip answer was that memorization is a skill requiring mental discipline and therefore had value. Case closed. I agree that it is impor- tant for every child to realize that he indeed has the power, the ability to memorize things. Then it is equally important that in nature. At one point in our school history, children were forced to learn the names of every major river and every country in the world. If you've ever compared a map of Africa of 1950 with a present one you would see how useless that task has become. Memorization of a piece of beautiful poetry or a geometric proposition though can be fairly easy to justify. Both of them can be applied to the child's future life in a variety of useful ways. Teaching the names and capitals of some of the states is not such a bad task. Most children could certainly do it in an hour or so. Perhaps it would be better to assign ten or fif- teen of the ones closest to the child's home state for general knowledge. Memorization just for the sake of sharpening the brain is nonsense. All you are doing is filling up a file folder of a verylarge filing cabinet. In this day and age you had better be teaching your child how to be keeping that filing cabinet in good order with a variety of ways of assessing the information within it, instead of filling it up with useless garbage. There is only so much that it can absorb.