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Times -Advocate, August 1, 1984
imes
Times Established 1873
Advocate Established 1881
Amalgamated 1924
IORNE EEE)
Publisher
d vocate
Serving South Huron, North Middlesex
& North Lambton Since 1873
Published by I.W. Eedy Publications Limited
Y Bill BATTEN ROSS HAUGH
Editor Assistant Editor
JIM BECKETT
Adrertisinl; Manager
HARRY DEVRIES
Composition Manager
•.4 .1._
�JJL,.,JS
DICK JONGKIND
Business Manager
Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario
Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Canada: $22.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00
C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC'
Good...but don't test it
The work of personnel from the Exeter and area
fire department and Hoffman's Ambulance received
high praise from OPP Sgt. Ray Glover last week.
His comments were related to two accidents when
seriously injured motorists had to be freed from the
wrecks.
In one case, the victim had a severe back injury,
and as Sgt. Glover noted, any improper handling could
have resulted in even more harm to the victim. The
situation required proper appraisal of the problem and
the steps to be taken to free the victim without further
injury; both complicated by the need to work as quick-
ly as possible to get the victim to hospital.
It should be noted that Sgt. Glover's comments
were not made as a secondary note to information he
was supplying about the collisions. He called this
newspaper specifically to detail the fine work carried
out by those who assisted at the scene.
Highway collisions are frightening things and often
the trauma experienced by victims is increased by not
knowing the quality of help they are receiving from
those emergency teams dispatched to the scene.
In this area the quality is obviously excellent, but
is still a service that motorists should attempt not to
put'to the test.
Not getting caught
It's little wonder Canadians are concerned about
interest rates, which are rising again.
Homeowners have already been through the period
when 20 percent plus interest rates were the norm, and
many are still paying the price because they signed
5 -year mortgage deals at those exorbitant rates. Others
simply lost their homes because they couldn't afford
the rates.
The same situation faced the country's smaller
companies. Many lost money, so the firms were forc-
ed to cut staff, forget about expansion and try to hold
on until interest rates dropped. The impact was ex-
treme. In fact, Canada's bankruptcy rate reached
near -record levels.
For big business, those 20 percent rates were also
extreme, but some of the companies were bailed out
by governments, and the bakers allowed others to
postpone interest payments until they were better able
to pay.
The fallout among consumers was also extreme.
People stopped borrowing to purchase major items.
Instead of buying new cars and houses, debts were
repaid. Flea markets and discount shopping centres
became more popular.
Indeed, those high, high rates, together with the
sharp increase in unemployment, changed people's
buying habits. Canadians became a nation of bargain
hunters as they hoarded their cash for a rainy day.
• Now, it seems, every upward blip in interest rates
causes people to worry that rates may again reach sky-
high levels.
The economists and heavy thinkers tell us we won't
. have 20 percent interest rates this time,. al asst not
in the near future. Yet, we've become a nation of
disbelievers, and who can blame us? If the experts
were wrong once, who's to say they won't be wrong
again?
The politicians may be correct when they say we
have no choice but to follow America's lead in interest
rates, but one thing is clear: consumers, home buyers
and smaller firms may not understand the intricacies
of the economy, but those 20 percent interest rates
taught Canadians some hard lessons, and many are
not going to get caught in such a trap again.
Some coincidence
Item: "The Liberal MP for Manicouagan, Andre
Maltais, says it's a coincidence a federal park develop-
ment grant of $6.5 million has been announced for his
riding during the election campaign..."
The item is from a Canadian Press story appear-
ing in the papers this week.
Manicouagan happens to be the riding in which
Conservative Leader Brian Mulroney has chosen to
run.
Mr. Maltais, who won the riding in 1980 by 16,655
votes, says the grant could make the north shore of the
St. Lawrence River, which is part of the riding, a pro-
fitable tourist attraction drawing 30,000 visitors a year.
Some attraction. Some grant. Some coincidence.
St. Marys Joural-Argus.
An embarrassing welcome
Readers were taken to task last week
through a letter to the editor regarding
the disappointingly small crowd that
greeted the appearance of the Ontario
Youth Concert Band in Exeter.
1. S. Mannell estimated that about 40
area residents attended and this observer
would agree with the figure. as well as en-
dorsing the suggestion that it is sad that
such a fine group of young musicians
would meet with such a dismal turnout.
For some unexplained reason, 1 felt
rather embarrassed about the situation
and would terve hen quite understanding
had conductor George I (ouslander and his
group of musicians and dancers decided
that it was hardly worthy of their time
and talent to commence with the
performance.
However, continue they (lid, and the
superb quality of the performance added
to one's disappointment that so few were
on hand to enjoy it
The 45 musicians have been hand-
picked from across the province. Not on-
ly are they the hest of our young musical
talent in Ontario, tney are among the hest
of our musical talent of any age.
Our community is not often graced with
bands of this calibre. The response would
suggest that only a handful care.
• .
Most area residents,and those involved
in community fund raising projects of
various nature, will be watching with in-
terest the disposition of the situation sur-
f rounding the Ailsa Craig Gala Days tur-
tle races
! 1 i
Charges have been laid against some of
those involved for keeping a common
gaming house. Those charges arise from
parimutuel betting that was conducted on
the first night of the event.
it may all sound akin to a big lark to
some who are watching from the outside.
BATT'N
AROUND
with the editor
but the fact remains that the situation
could result in some serious implications
tor those charged.
My old weekly newspaper cohort.
David Scott (he succeeded the writer as
editor of the Clinton News -Record a few
decades ago) could he seriously
hampered in his present capacity as
travel editor of the London Free Press if
he should be convicted.
Hopefully the whole mess will be resolv-
ed with a happy ending, but there are
some lessons to he learned, regardless of
the outcome.
1•.
The first and foremost is that the cause
can not always justify the means and even
projects that are for charitable or com-
munity betterment can not be conducted
outside the law, regardless of how stupid
or unfair that law may appear.
Perhaps equally as important is that
people involved in organizing special
events are responsible for many aspects
of the event.
This is something that too few consider
although there have been precedents in
both civil and criminal law that should
make them consider more seriously the
role they may be playing and the respon-
sibilities which come with it.
Parade organizers, for instance, have
a responsibility to ensure to the best of
their ability that entries in that parade
will not endanger other participants or
spectators.
Being found negligent over an accident
in that regard could prove very costly.
Another aspect arises for groups involv-
ed in the sale of alcoholic beverages. They
have a responsibility. the same as other
licenced establishments, to ensure that
underage patrons are not served or that
people are not served in such quantities
as to become a risk when they leave to
drive their vehicles home.
Licenced establishments, even those
operated by community service groups,
have learned the hard way that civil suits
which found them negligent were finan-
cially devastating
There are other pitfalls to be considered
by volunteers but all can be avoided with
the use of some common sense and a
periodic review of their responsibilities.
"1 think our nest egg's been poached!"
Basic
In thirty plus years as
an editor, a parent, and a
teacher, I have been inun-
dated (though not quite
drowned) by several
waves of self-styled
"reform" of our educa-
tional system, especially
that of Ontario.
' Each wave has washed
away some of the basic
values in our system and
left behind a heap of
detritus, from which
teachers and students
eventually erberge, gasp-
ing for a breath of clean
air.
Most of the "massive"
reforms in our system are
borrowed from the U.S.,
after thirty or forty years
of testing have proven
them dubious, if not
worthless.
We have borrowed from
the pragmatist, John
Dewey, and American,
who had some good ideas,
but tried to put them into
mass producton, and
endearing but not
necessarily noble trait of
our cousins below the
border.
We have tried the
ridiculous,."See, Jane. See
Spot run. Spot, see Jane
vomit," sort of thing
which completely ignores
the child's demand for
heroes and witches and
shining maidens, and
things that go bump in the
night.
We have tried,
"teaching the whole
child", a process in which
the teacher becomes
father/mother, un-
cle/aunt, grand-
father/grandma,
psychiatrist, buddy, confi-
dant, and football to kick
around, while the kid does
what he/she dam -well -
pleases. And we wonder
about teacher "burn -out".
We have tried a system
in which the children
choose from a sort of Pan-
dora's box what subjects
they would like to take,
and giving them a credit
for each subject to which
values
they are "exposed",
whether or not they have
learned anything in it.
That was a bit of a
disaster. Kids, like adults,
chose the things that were
"fun", that were "easy",
that didn't have exams,
that allowed them to "ex-
press their individuality".
New courses were in-
troduced with the rapidity
of rabbits breeding. A kid
who was confident that he
would be a great brain
surgeon took everything
a
it ..
washed
pendulum. Parents
discovered that their kids
know something about a
lot of things, but not much
about anything. They got
mad.
The universities, a little
red in the face suddenly
and virtuously announced
that many high school
graduates were illiterate,
which was a lot of crap.
They were the people who
decided that a second
language was not
necessary. They were the
Aft :4<iiIrkr
Sugar
and Spice
Dispensed By Smiley
44411
from basket -weaving to
bird -watching because
they were fun.
And suddenly, at about
the age of seventeen,
he/she discovered that it
was necessary to know
some science,
mathematics, Latin,
history and English to
become a brain surgeon
(or a novelist, or a
playwright, or an
engineer, etc.).
There are very few jobs
open in basket -weaving
and bird -watching or
World Religions or
another couple of dozen I
could name, but won't, for
fear of being beaten to
death by a tizzy of
teachers the day this col-
umn appears.
The universities, those
sacrosanct institutions,
where the truth shalt
make you free, went along
with the Great Deception.
They lowered their stan-
dards, in a desperate
scramble for live bodies.
They competed for
students with all the grace
of merchants in an Arme-
nian bazaar.
Another swing of the
people who accepted
students with a mark of 50
in English, which means
the kid actually failed, but
his teacher gave him a
credit.
Nobody, in the new
system, really failed. If
they mastered just less
than half the work, got a 48
percent, they were raised
to 50. If they flunked every
subject they took,. they
were transferred to
another "level", where
they could succeed, and
eyen excel.
The latest of these
politically -inspired,
slovenly -researched
reforms in Ontario is call-
ed SERP, and it sounds
just like, and is just like
NERD.
Reading its contents
carefully, one comes to
the conclusion that if Serp
is accepted, the result will
be a great leveller. Out of
one side of its mouth it
suggests that education be
compressed, by abandon-
ing of Grade 13, and out of
the other side, that
educaton be expanded by
ajding a lot of new things
to the curriculum. How
can you compress
something and expand it
at the same time? Only a
commission on education
could even suggest such a
thine
There will be lots of
money for "Special
Education" in the nes,
plan. There will be less
money for excellence.
Special Education is
educational jargon for
teaching stupid kids.
Bright kids are looked
down upon as an "elite"
group, and they should be
put in their place.
The universities would
enjoy seeing Grade 13
disappear. That would
mean they'd have a warm
body for four years, at a
cost of about $4,000 a year,
instead of three.
I am not an old foggy. I
am not a reactionary. I
believe in change.
Anything that does not
change becomes static, or
dies. Idea's that refuse the
change become
dessicated.
I am not against spen-
ding lots of money to teach
stupid kids, or emotional-
ly disturbed kids. But I am
squarely against any
move toward squelching
the brighest and best of
our youth, and sending off
to university people who
are in that extremely
vulnerable stage of half -
adolescent, half -adult, and
turfing them into classes
of 200 or 300, where they
are no more than a cypher
on the books of a so-called
hall of learning.
And I have the proof
right before me, in the
form of several brilliant
essays by Grade 13
students, better than
anything i ever write, who
have had a chance to
come to terms with
themselves and with life,
in a small class, with a
teacher who knows, likes,
and encourages them,
rather than a remote
figure at a podium.
Temper with judgement
"i'll never stop again to
help somebody on the
highway . "
That was the comment
of a friend i;fter hearing
about the brutal slaying of
a woman on Highway 402
fest recently. She and her
amily had gone out of
their way to stop and help
an apparently disabled
vehicle.
1 must admit that the
same thought ran through
my mind. You're going
along the super -highways
at 100 kilometres per hour.
By the time y6ti-come by
a stalled car �rou wonder
whether there were People
still in it. There's a big
transport right on your
duster so you keep on go-
ing and of course, there's
always that nagging doubt
there about whether you
did the right thing.
One scorching hot day
discovered a lady and her
mother, plus three
children all under five
years of age. They had
been sitting there for
Perspectives
By Syd Fletcher
down near Woodstock we
spied a stopped car. There
were little kids bouncing
up and down in the back.
When we got back to it we
almost an hour and a half
and no one along that busy
road had stopped
i can remember being
stranded during several
terrible storms and hav-
ing people take me in,
feed me and give me a
place to stay overnight,
and then refuse to take
any money in exchange.
i would hate to think
that because some person
does a terrible senseless
thing such as this killing
that people will stop doing
the good things that make
the world a better place to
live in and that the princi-
ple involved in the story of
the Good Samaritan will
be forgotten forever.
At the same time it
seems that generosity will
have to be tempered by
one's good judgement at
times.
1