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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1972-02-24, Page 9t yS ri At Whose Expense? There was an, interesting discussion at the, recent meeting of the Ontario Liberal party in Ottawa. It had little to do with parti- san politics. Rather it was hingedupon a,so- cial development peculiar to the timesin which we live. C. M. Drury, president of the federal treasury board, said that Canada's unem- ployment problem is aggravated by the fact that a person can easily survive these days without a job. Any Canadian who reads a daily newspaper can verify the truth of that statement by scanning the employment columns of his paper and noting the tremen- dous number of ;help wanted" ads and then pgndering the incongruous fact of 580,000 un- employed acrdss the land. ° Mr. Drury amplified his remarks: "Whether you participate in the labor force or not, you can still survive in this country. People now are looking more for the kind of work that is satisfying in terms of personal development rather than mere survival." The federal welfare minister, John Mun- ro, suggested that Canadians should be pre- pared to widen the definition of the word job to include worthwhile activities other than production with a .dollar value. When a few courageous people on the floor of the meet- ing rose to mention the fact that a lot of Canadians have abandoned the. work ethic and want hand-outs rather than jobs, Mr. Munro said their attitude smacked of "hard- hatism" as found in middle America. The ministers certain+y°have a point. It is a stagnant society in which no values are meaningful unless they have a price tag. In fact, civilization as we know it was born in the fertile valleys 'of the Nile' and the Eu- phrates, where men could raise enough food for their families and have at least a few moments left in the day for thoughts and dreams of a better way of life. The big difference today is that in all too many cases, obviously so with the two minis- .ters, the possibility of mixing hard work and. progressive thought has been forgotten. Our own maternal grandfather was one of the ,best educated, men we -have ever known, pos- sessed of a keen intelligence, ready wit and a • brand of Udrgnity which is rare in, our own day -yet he had been forced to leave school in Grade 6 to help support his widowed mother and the younger children. He never worked less than 60 hours a week and didn't own a car until he' was approaching 70. Abraham Lincoln, a man who split fence "rails and operated an unprofitable general store, somehow found. the time to work his way through law School and emerge as a na- tional leader with` international repute for wisdom and foresight which has endured more than a century beyond his death, Then, too there is the final, and all-im- portant question. Who providesthe bread and butter and the free time for those who will not work unless the job is'''fulfilling"? They must be fed and clothed and their chil- dren -must go to school and to the doctor and the dentist_w Someone, obviously, has to pay their bills. Those costs, staggering in their total dollar volume, are being met by all the unimaginative dullards who still believe that they would rather keep on working at a bor- ing task than accept hand-outs from their neighbors. • Money Where It's Needed Most A° group of male 'elementary school teachers in London are protesting the pres- - ent department of education .grant system 1r which allows $595 per public or separate 'school pupil and $1100 for each secondary school student. It is their contention that the grants should at the very least be equal. We could not agree more heartily. When the education system was 'first established in this province- the require- ments for -teachers in the elementary schools were not very stiff. In fact many communi- ties 'wer,e satisfied to leave the teaching of ,o% their children to anyone who could spare the time, quite often a person who had, some physical handicap which left him 'unfit for the hard 'wo' k 'of a pioneer sodiifty,_ PtibriC school was more a house of discipline' than an institution of learning. We have come a long way from those days but sometimes it would appear that we still have a. long way to go. Educators know., or 'at 'least should know, that a child's learning ability is at. its .peak by age six and unless properly nurtured by understanding teachers, declines at an alarming rate as he matures. How else can one explain the fact that a baby learns to speak and understand all the •basi_c.words of his parents' language within the first two or three years of his life. In fact, if his parents happen to be bi-lingual and use both lan- guages freely., the child will invariably learn two tongues at the same time. Try that in high school years and note the results. The baby can outdo' the teen-ager every time. The years , of elementary school edu- cation are by far the most important in any student's life. If his teachers are wise and well trained the pupil will quickly absorb the .most productive mental attitudes .and will unconsciously , begin 'the self -education pro- cess which is the total purpose of formal schooling. It is in elementary school, too, that the child must be oriented to life as a member of a vast and competitive society. He finds -that - he must survive and excel! an his own) with- out the protection of a mother and father. The youngster, becomes a person -a human being with all the potential for good or evil, • • • for greed or generosity, for usefillness or ° sloth. By the time the student has reached sec ondary school his work habits, his degree,of perceptiveness and his relationships with his '1 schoolmates have become established. The secondary school teacher is dealing with a person who has most of the characteristics which will be his'for. the remainder of his days. If ' the student has reached that level with an open and eager mind, a healthy body and well-balanced, attitude to life in general the secondary school teacher can achieve tremendous results -but there is, little the teacher can do if the student's experience in elementary school .has failed to make the most of his potential.. . The educational requirements for ele- mentary school teachers have been up- graded within recent years. A bachelor of arts degree is needed if the teacher is to re- main in the profession over a long period; it is supposed to be compulsory for principals. But what, after all, does a B.A. mean? New and" more meaningful courses are drastically 'needed, so that ' elementary schoolteachers will be better equipped to deal'with the complex problems of the learn- ing processin young' children., They need training in psychology, deep 'training of the sort which permits greater understanding of their pupils. Classes should be smaller -or; as an alternative, the' department should open a new employee classification for teachers' aides, persons who could'look after such tasks as marking work books and test papers, so that'the.teacher would have more time for the important job of individual stu- dent training: " - Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in Ontario over the past 20 years to provide palatial schools, new classrooms, shops, gymnasia and equipment -but the all- important aspect -teacher training -re, mains almost unchanged. All' of which casts no reflection on the men and women who staff our elementary schools at the present time. They do a fan- tastic -job in the limited circumstances under which they work. It is time they had a better opportunity. Equality of grants would be'a meaningful first. step. A Foot in the Door Do you remember that story in the.old public school readers about the Arab who lis- tened too sympathetically to the complaints of his camel? The beast asked to be allowed to sleep with his head inside the tent because it was 'cold outside. It wasn't long before the camel had the tent and his owner was out in , the cold. That seems to' be the way government regulations sneak up on a freedom -loving people. The big difference is that we do the asking. Admitting that the whole thing really amounts to creeping socialism, one mer- , -chant recently mentioned that government is about to legislate store hours and he said' that is great for the businessman. He is right of course. The perennial question of store hours is a bugaboo to every retail business association and an unending source of bitter argument. However, the alternative as pro vided by a provincial law is, not all joy and gladness. Would merchants be equally happy with a law which" sets their prices and fixes their margin of profit? Self -regulations -looking after one's own problems without assistance from big governments -is one of the ,freedoms we have enjoyed. Of' course, such a freedom carries with it the responsibility for handling the difficulties too. If government can inter- fere with private business to the,point of tell- ing merchants when to lock and unlock their doors they will soon be telling them a great deal more about what they can and cannot do. There's a lot of camel left after that little 'head is under the edge of the tent. THE WINGHAM ADVANCE -TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario., b3' Wenger Bros. Limited. Barry Wenger, President Robert O. Wenger, Secretary -Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulations Member Canadian and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Associations. Subscription Rate: Subscription $10.00 a year; $5.50 for six months, in United States $12.50 in advance Second Class Mail Registration No .0821 Return Postage Guaranteed THREE OF THE principal characters in the Alice in Wonderland production at the skat- ing carnival were April Moore, Joanne Wood and Cheryl Gavreluk. -Staff Photo. • ingbain Atitanct lute Wingham. Ontario, Thursday, February 24, 1972 SECOND SECTION News Items from Old Files FEBRUARY 19:t7 At the inaugural meeting of the Public Library Board, Abner ,Cosens was elected chairman'. Other members of the Board are W. S. Hall, Wm. Robertson, Mrs. F. A. Parker, Rev. ,Kenneth Mac- Lean,'G. S. 'Kidd and Mayor John W. Hanna. There are 8500 books on the library shelves. Rev. T. W.•Mills'who has been the minister for the past . four years at Belgrave, Blyth and Auburn Presbyterian :Churches, has accepted a, call .to Nairn and Beechwood. He will leave in about two weeks 4o .take over his new charge. r Mayor John W. Hanna, Reeve F. L. Davidson and Reeve Roland Grain of Turnberry left on Wed- nesday morning to attend the -On- tario Good Roads convention in Toronto. - The engagement is announced of Evelyn 'Elizabeth, only daugh- ter of N. Chapman of Brussels, to Roy Wilson Kennedy', editor of the Brussels Post. The wedding will take place early in March. Capt. Adams, proprietor of the Lyceum Theatre, has installed new acoustic tile to the walls and back of the theatre to soundproof the building'for talking pictures. New sound 'equipment has also been installed and the walls are being re -decorated.. Citizens of the Belmore area are signing up residents to be- come members of the hydro fam- ily. The Wroxeter line extends to one and a half miles south of the village and a sufficient number of subscribers has been secured to' extend the line to Belmore. Nancy Cameron of Brussels was named queen of the carnival and Melvin Brunsdon° of Londe.s- boroking at the Coronation Car- nival held in the local arena. Mrs. S. A. Murray's family took first 'prize for the largest family on skates. Betty Rae and Jim Thompson were the best skaters and Ronald Brown the youngest skater. FEBRUARY 1917 The centennial of Alexander Graham Bell's birthday will be observed on March 3rd. A coast- to-coast broadcast direct from the Bell. homestead in Brantford will be carried over the local 'taw come ? radio station that evening. Elgin E. Coutts was successful in passing his first "year at Os- goode Hall, Toronto. • The annual World Day Of Prayer was held in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Leaders were Mrs. H. Mitchell and Mrs. M. Swanson of St. Paul's, Miss Marjorie Falconer of the Baptist . Church, Mrs. W. W. Gurney of St. Andrew's, and from the United Church, Mrs. A. W. Irwin, Mrs. L. Hiseler, Mrs. N. Underwood, Mrs. W. Heughan, IQIrs. G©'"Bu- . chanan'and Mrs. J. Reavie. Mrs. M. Shoebottom was elect- ` ed 'president "of - the Belgrave Anglican Ladies' Guild at its an- nual meeting. Mrs. Archie Mont- gomery is vice president, Mrs. William Brydges is secretary and treasurer is Mrs. C. Nethery. Mr. 'and Mrs. Joe Kerr are at- tending the Good Roads Conven- tion held in Toronto this week. Miss Hilda Pletch was the win- ner of. the Lions Oratorical con- test. Don Lloyd and Jim. Hall were runners-up. The children of S.S. 10, Kinloss, were called to school on Saturday as they missed the' first three days of the week on account of the storm. Mrs. Ann Warrell of Washing- ton, D.C., has received the RCAF Operational Wings posthumously awarded her late husband, Fly- ing Officer Frank Warrell who lost his life over Germany in 1945. Frank was a grandson of Mr. and Mrs. John Warrell .of the 12th concession of Howick. A. E. Purdon of Whitechurch purchased a house in Lucknow last week. Elizabelh Patterson ,was named Queen at - the Howick Lions' Carnival held in Fordwich, Davey Edgar was the youngest skater in costume. Prize winners fbr costumes included Paul Schaefer, Shiela Denny, Marlene Schaefer, Phyllis Keith, Bob Strong and Marion Doig. ' FEBRUARY i 95 Members of the Kinsmen Club are busy making plans for the Wingham Trade Fair which is to be staged at the local arena early in June. Cal Burke is the general chairman for the event. John Leitch, four-year-old son 0 HOW COME you &i -A MM Efl ME boo e So HA ie tb , AA ,D 2 " • of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Leitch, Wingham, narrowly escaped serious injury Saturday when he ran into the path of a car. -Ie suf- fered minor injury to his left, arm. The Wingham District High School Board welcomed a new member, Gordon Moir of Gorrie who 'represents the township of Howick, replacing T. V. Edgar. Attendance at the school is now 528. ' Mr. and Mrs. Wendell McCal- lum were surprised Saturday on their return from Wingham to be informed by neighbors that their home in East Waw$nosh had been completely destr ed -by fire. They also' lost all their per- sonal possessions and. their dog in the blaze. Mrs. George Skinn is the presi- dent of the Catholic Women's League. Other officers are Mrs. John Hatina, Mrs. Frank Caskan- etre, Mrs. Gerald O'Brien and Mrs. Harold Ross. Marvin Howe was. the unani- mous choice of the Wellington - Huron Progressive Conservative Association when they gathered for their nominating convention in Harriston. Cliff Heffer was named asses- sor of Turnberry Township at their council meeting last week. The new me bar of council, re- placing Percy ' ing, is Alex Mac- Tavish. Mrs. K. J. Hueston and family moved last week from •Gorrie to their new home in Wingham. A class of eight commenced new classes to become registered nursing assistants at the Wing - ham General Hospital. The Harold David farm on the .outskirts of Gorrie has been sold to Ralph Tompkins of Listowel. You bet you. life! You', e a big g.' mbler if you don't eck our r'ome regularly fdr fire h. ards, earns the Indus- trial 'Accident Prevention Asso- ciation. You're staking the lives of your family against high odds; the certainty that a fire won't break out inyour home. Here are some fire precautions to take in your home: -Furnace, stoves and flue pipes kept away from combus- tibles, and checked annually by servicemen. • Portable heaters properly lo- cated and maintained.' -Clothes, curtains and furni- ture kept away from stoves and heaters. -TV antenna placed away from power lines, and grounded. -Rubbish cleared from- the attic, cellar, closets, yard, gar- age and stairs. - Flammable liquids stored in approved safety cans, away from heat, and out of children's reach.' - Paints kept` iii tightly closed metal containers. -flammable liquids (like gasoline) never used for cleaning clothes, or kerosene for starting fires. -Your family knows two es- cape routes from each room. - -No smoking in bed, and plenty of ash trays handy. The Way N Was fir Billy t,ii kM In a nostalgic mood today. I've been thinking that, with the on- slaught of the Speed Age, many of our fine /old Canadian traditions have fallen by the wayside, died on the vine. or simply lain down and curled' up their toes-. One of the first to go, of course. was the blacksmith. It hurts me to face the truth: that most people today under thirty have never known the sensory joys of a blacksmith's shop. At this time of year, small boys Used to squeeze through the ram- shackle _door, and edge as close as they could to the fire, freezing their bunts" and roasting their cheeks. There was a' fine acrid stench of horse manure and scorched hooves. There was the leaping flame as the bellows blew. There ' was .the ringing clang as the smith beat out the white-hot ,metal between ham- mer and' anvil, and the satisfying hiss when the hot metal Was , plunged into the cold water. Al a. certain age. most male kids would have settled 'happily for the life of a blacksmith, a free soul who spent his days doing the most fascinating work in the world. The decline' of the smithy, of course, was brought about by the gradual phasing out of another ' tradition- the horse-drawn ve- hicle. I wonder how many kids of this generation have ever spent a winter Saturday "catching bobs". This wasour term for jumping on the backs of farmers' sleighs. All.day long the farmers came and went to and from town. And all day long we hopped on behind a load of grain, left that for a load .of supplies going the other way, picked up a sleigh piled with logs for the return" trip, and shivered with delighted fear as the farm- ers shouted at 1' , and even some- times flourished their whips in our direction. As we grew a little older, about 12, we graduated to catching' on the wing of a cutter. This was more daring and more dangerous because they could really fly, the ru'finer was much smaller, and the farmer could turn around and -belt you one on- the. -ear... Most of them, of course, were pretty decent. I know now that they were more worried about us getting hurt in a fall than they were about the extra weight'their " horses had to .pull. Then there were the butchers' cutters. These consisted of a sprt of box with runners beneath, and . a step at the back for the driver to stand on. The 'horses were 0,0 plugs, but real roacklinnera th t went like a bat out of hell. ' ,3 were every bit as exciting as 4 Roman chariot, and the tjvers, were the'envy of every boy, in.fur caps, reins in one, hand, whip in the other, as they tore through the town like furies. And I wonder how many boys have played hockey all day .on ,a frozen river, when a hard shot the goalie missed might slide for a quarter of a mile: We never had to , worry rabout . ice -tune, ,or changing lines. We could'play un- til we were pooped, then sit by the bonfire until rested, and have an- other go. And there were always twenty or thirty playing at once, so .everybody got a whack at the puck. Some great stick -handlers came out of that era. . Think of the depths to which we have sunk. The. smithy, with its light and sliid4l ws, its reds and blacks, its ua 'thy smells, its sense of life, 'has been replaced by the garage. a sterile thing with -its cement floor, its reek of gas and oil, and its .unspoken assur- ance that !this -is -gonna -cost -you - plenty -buddy. . The cutter, swift and light as a bird, iolongiet; skims the snow. It. has, been replaced by a stinking, snarling, skidding beast that only modern man could. abide -the - snowmobile. No more meat -cutters, careen- ing around the corners on one runner, delivering in any weather. Now, we plod like zom- bies through the supermarket, to moronic piped -in music, and pick up the odourless, antiseptic,, eel- lophaned packages the great gods Dominion, Loblaws or Safe- way have assigned to us, and carry them humbly to our cars, three blocks away. Our kids have to get up at five a.m.' to play hockey and if they're not real "killers", get about four minutes ice -time. Ah, those were the days! And t haven't even begun on the most vital of all winter equipment -the puck•consisting.9f a 'frozen borse- bun. . A sktnik ehn'lllengecl.. combat. The lion refused. "Why," said the skunk, "are you afraid?" "Yes," admitted the Lion. "For you would gain fame by -having the honor of fighting a lion. But for months everyone who met me would know that I had been in the company of a skunk." • TODAY'S CHILD BY -HELEN ALLEN- HE LLEN- HE LOVES SPORTS Eric is Iu, a sturdy. healthy boy with lovely dark eyes. brown hair and medium complexion His background is Irish and French and his language is English Eric is a co-operative boy who tries hard to please He gets on well with children. especially younger than himself and. is friendly with adults He is proud of. his achievements and treasures any praise that comes. his way. A sports -minded boy Eric' likes vigorous outdoor activities He swims all sul)nmer in a lake near his foster home and now spends most of his playtime skating or playing hockey on'the lake He's also keen on baseball. Hockey games on TV are his favorite programs and he 11kes to make little bets on the' outcome Not with money. though Eric is very thrifty about his savings Eric is not academically minded, but he tries hard and is doing well in Junior Opportunity ('lass, He needs a home where he will receive much love and reassurance, where the father will share his interest in sports and where intellectual achievements- are not a major concern. o inquire about adopting Eric. please write to Toda'v's Child, Box 888. Station K. Toronto For general adoption information ask your Children's Aid Society