Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1975-06-19, Page 3DEAR.,(DITOR Holme sviiie Pu 4 (continued from page 21 ' to talk to a group of third year , professional status by making students no,,,y_i going into the teachers common Jaborers in fourth year and who are now need of full labor union status. consulting for the summer. We certainly 'do not support While they are not full-fledged the legislation. landScaPe architects they are Mr. Davis is concerned ahout highly experienced and I am the teachers "right to strike." sure that they could be helpful I am concerned about the . to you. If you are interested in. children's right to be educated, this possibility you should write . arid that concern takes to Robert Hilton c -co School ef preedence over any greed or Landscape ' Architecture, political ambitions which may University of Guelph. Robert be held by a minority of has practical experience in the • teachers. landscape construction area The S.otial Credit Party win and has also done a con-, attempt to field a full slate Of siderable amount of ,..clesign provincial election. • We want At an educational workshop • every voter in Ontario, no of the Ontario Parks matter which riding he or she Association held at the /limber lives in, to have an.eppertunity College in February Councillor to show their disgust with this . Gower and I had seen im- retrograde step, taken by the pressive evidence of.landscape conservative government and architecture work done by supported by the Liberal -NDP senior siudents. In. the light of twins. . •that experienCe it was natural . By buckling' under to ,the to follow Professor Chanasyk's demands of a teachers labor direction. • union the Conservatives have R.T.R. Associates consist of , moved one more step to the left. die above mentioned Mr.' Under Mr. Davis we have had Robert Hilton plus two other several extensions of the landscape architecture welfare state, nationalization of students "now. going into the ., local government - through fourth (and final) year" and regional bureaucracies and working in their field in the restructured counties, and now surnmer to support themselves. capitulation to union radicals Penonally I do not see any bent ' on • destroying the good reason to use sarcasm credibility of teaching as a when talking about these young profession. . people. My own -attempt is Sincerely, always to upgrade myself and Sid Hamelin, Party Leader, the work I am dOing instead of Ontario Social Credit League. downgrading others, Dear Editor:,, ' There is a tendency to regard particularly the hometown newspaper as a community bulletin entirely at our service and to be . upset whtnever it N does not write ' about some matter of importanCe to us the . way we would like to see it. My own stand is that although a newspaper is of great importance as a means of conimunication and source of' information, it is essentially in le business to sell newspapers (like dress shops sell dresses) and jOurnalists have. naturally the' "sanie `fight to expregs,their personal views and preferences inevitable and natura that their reporting reflects their own attitudes, priorities and everything else that is com- bined' in the make-up of their We invited the R.T.R. Associates to Goderich for talks -with—Mayor —She-W161V,— cillor Gower and myself. We all .felt it was a good an . productive meeting, a starting point for some positive direction tO grow on. , Quite obviously a. suitable study of this nature would have to exceed the $500.-„ in cost 'any committee is allowed to spend on a new projeat at its ,own discretion. Therefore,' to authorize (or refuse) such a study to be undertaken, ' the matter had io be presented to the Council and could only be decided by the usual majority The next reasonably natural ., step ,in, the chain Of events was , to invite the R.T.R. Associates scope of a possible study and subsequent plans, with costs. • This involved a certain fair amount of preparatory work on their part (including con- sultation with Mr. Nick Hill of personalities. • the County Planning Depart - In the light of These views I ment) plus a visit to Goderich have no quarrel with your re- with a presentation to -Council, porter's editorial expression or verbally and in the form of an account of the affair of the eight -page typed brochure of $150.- parks'•account which was which coPies were distributed. selected by some Council , When • the committee members for special attention. requested the presentation We. At the same time I am aware, . offered to pay (and were within , of course, that as there was a our authority to do so) $150.00 to number of principles involved, cover the expenses. This was one had a choice which ones to accepted by the consultants as defend and what to attach. . a satisfactory arrangement. - - My lines are only intended to Although I am sure the young complete the picture from my men would have been glad to. point of view by adding a few. get the job ot preparing our explanations most of which' I , study, it was indeed the parks' had mentioned in , a shorter committee who was anxious to form at the meeting. • present the idea and to learn to At their meetings earlier in enhance the beauty of our town. the year the parks',, committee The R.T.R. Associates were members had several talks on merely instrurriental , and the subject" of the Ceurthouse supportive on our request. . Park, among other matters. Why should we so ,grandly Perhaps it should be mentioned expect out-ot-town students to that the parks' committee„ work and travel for the Town of • consists of the following_ per:- • Goderich just for the love of it sons : Mayor Shewfelt Coun-. when' our own Council' mem- cillor Dave Gower who is also bers (including nfygelf) are the Public Works' Chairman, entitled to. collect expense and ,myself as the parks'1,, money for travel on town We decided to look for the kind of ' professional help we hoped to be able to afford, in trying to come up with alter- natives how to create in the park in our unique ahd famous core a setting as eye-catching and .beautiful as possible while - keeping its essential character Finding no suitable land- scape architectural assistance locally we.contacted the Clinton office at the Ministry of Agriculture where we were business? As to Deputy -Reeve Bill Clifford comparisons with his real estate business, the most to -the -point comparison would be with appraisals. Perhaps it is true. that Bill Clifford Real Estate makes free appraisals available to anyene vdto' asks, particularly for out:of-town At the time I failed to see it, byt there is a great deal. of humour in the fact thatI in view of the overall workings of the councillors and committees - it, advised to get intotich with the is the Parks' committee who is University of ' Guelph. Our sirgled out for a mini -tempest request for , information on , It was that aspect of our work advisory services (free or alone which earned us even a moderately priced) in relation full-length editorial piece,. And to our park development all for the "low, low price of -bi-ought us a reply from $150.-", to quote from that ,Professor Victor . Chanasyk editorial! from which I quote: . . When we defend princiPles ..,,° "I am Very sorry,, to report we apparently, do not march to that the' University no longer the same tune, The basic and that they did aboutAtten years • 8oUncil,which I saw.,abused (not ago - in landscape develop•- for the first time) and defended ments. " This restraint was is the fact, that all council placed on us bY the Ministry ,of members are absolutely equal Agriculture and Food because by way of ,baying, exactfy the of the -fact that professional same rights,- 'privileges and consulting, services are now "powers" (except the Mayor akmilable by protessional who has additional rights as landicatie architecture firms. well as diities). We only differ "Perhaps the least costly and in our work methodet • , . most effective method rhight be Any committee is apthorized ne o Put a droup of 12 and 13 year olds 'together with as many m.usical instruMents, and you eXpect the racous 'din that results. What you doh't expect is the fierce con- centration on the tace of the freckled boy in blue -jeans and scuffed sneakers as he tries to get scales out of a tuba which is bigger'than he is. When, you meet Irla Stewart, the ambitious Music teachei. who made the dream of an instrument band in an 11 room country school a,reality, the dedication of her pupils is ex- plained. She has the invaluable te:aching ability to get students enthused about what they are doing, because she loves what she is doing. To some in this rural community near the shores of Lake Huron, a public scho9I band seems like an unnecessary frill. Mrt. Stewart sees it as an important part of the child's development. 0 "The band gives students an added dimension in music. Because he is in the band, he is aware of other instruments, he notices mus.c arotind him, This is an enrichment process which will last the rest of his life,"' Mrs. Stewart saYs. Up on the stage, the students are warming up their instruments,harsh scales echo throughout the small - gymnasium almost drowning out the conversation. , "It may not seern like it now, 13'0 , practice to learn and he has to work at it. In education' we tend to get away from the highly disciplined skills, bUt you don't get the great feeling of accomplishment without the effort," she said, amidst the confusion. The children On, the stage aren't thinking about these lofty goals, they enjoy what they are doing, even- if they have trouble explaining it. This is their show, even if there are only to spend up to $500.- "on any new project, without first having had the sanction of the Town Council". The -parks committee was well within the law when making the arrangements I have described above. Mayor Shewfelt, Coun. Gower and I - the full com- mittee - approved the account which was duly signed by the chairman, Every council member has a right to make speeches the style and nature of which depends on the per- ,sonality of the speaker, but beyond expressing . one's thoughts and objeotions neither Finance Chairman Deputy - Reeve Clifford (hArdentally, I am the second councillor on the finance committee) nor any 'other individual council mernber has the right to veto a committee's lawful decision. Mr. Clifford's •"power" refuse to sign the cheque is entirely imaginary. His signature is not even necessary. A finance chairman has his or her functions like any chairman of ,any committee, but it is pure nonsense to act as if some Council members were mat and others less respon- sible in their attitutd,es and actions. The parks' committee welcomes fair and constructive criticism from' . any quarter. There is much we have to learn. That part.of the experience did not bother me, but building petty little empires on make- believe foundations does not impress me. , I apologize for the length of my letter. Perhaps I should mention before I close that the cost of the project for Ale CourthOttie Park alone would have been $4,100.- plus some reimbursable expenses. If I remember correctly,' the so- called Sully Park plans which were presented some 5 years ago Were. said to cost $6,000. Without the preliminaries we would not have known the cost. ,It is a lot of money "and We realize we cannot afford' it at the present time. Whether it was poor Nidginent on our part to do anything at all is possibly in the same category as putting a summer dress on in_ the morning - and then finding. the weather turn cold in the at- ternoon. Now let Lis go and find other things to learn and to do. Yours sincerely Elsa Haydon Send your letter todayr . t rur five or six people at the practice, one of which is ,a reporter who knows lithe about music. Mrs. Stewart coaxes and cajoles them after every set of scales, gently prodding them to try harder.. "Flutes, let's try again. Ali we want is perfect, nothing' morel" she asks. The students work together like a team 'and failure is letting the 'group down. A small red-haired boy lost track of the notes on his trumpet and he clenshed his fists in disgust'. He couldn't have,appeared mo're pained if, he had just missed a chance to score the ' winning goal in a. school hockey 'Match. When Mrs. ,Stewart praised the clarinet .section, every face in the area lit Up, the tearri had come theough. George Collins, the freckle faced tyba player, said the group:ap- proach was most important to him. "You get to be with other people and do what they're doing. It gives you something special everybody can't do." Mrs. Stewart agrees. "These kids are in the band because they want to be. Too often in school we have fo push them to do things here we try to get them to try harder and so they get more out of it because they like Although the children have 'Only been in the band since October they they are dOing.Mrs. Stewart rein- forces that confidence, building them up, as one student said, "Until you can't help but do your best." In an age when education too often treats students as mass prod.ucts, Mrs. Stewart has turned the situat'ion around. We try to build up: students, to make them part of a respected group. This really 'gives them confidence in themselves especially 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111114011111111111111111111111111 with shy students. They lose their fears of making 'mistakes, because we don't put pressure on them. Confidence is important in everything you do/' she says: . The very existence of the band is a tribute „to Mrs. Stewart's per- severance and dedication -to music. She taught music in Toronto, where public school bands exist and decided to give it a try in the Huron County systdm. she sept out letters to all parents explaining the coSts of 'the band andf asking if enough in- terest was there to start 'such a project. "The" response was very favorable, so,we were able to ap- proach the board of education to get them to pay for muSic books and stands. The' parents of the children involved pay for instrument .rental and where that isn't possible, the Lion's,Club from Goderich is paying Story by Kevin Cox Photos by Jim Fitzgerald oimmommommomminomminiimimmimmommomoommommommihmummionommommoi for four student's who coUlfin't 4, "she said 'elithuSIOAtiCallY:, §o now F101fnesVille,a54,,cti„ about 350 students, ha$ schools hove not even consideroa, said she practices fhie si*,1,104M week outside of the- fhree ,S;,11O01-, "I do itany timemiVarentS don't have to, listdn,to it. I started playing because I thought I would like it, and Since the band is only putting on a few shoWs this year, the students s don't feel .the pressure:of practicing for a 'Show before'a huge' audience. They can relax under Mrs. Stewart's guidance, she can talk to them as - people not as numbers. As Pete DaVey, a sandy haired trumpeter Said; "Just getween ytou daondingm.,!, she sure knows what she's • • The driving force behind the Holmesville band is mtisic teacher Irla Stewart, who has been instrumental in developingthe band at the country school, making it one of . the few rural bands,in Ontario. blowing their hardest during a recent practice are, left to right, trumpeters Laura MacDonald, Danny Freeman and 'Jeff Surridge. Other trumpeters not shown are Janice Miller, Susan „ Goodwin and Pete Davies. There are 33 members in the band. 47)4 erof q. • selsion recently at the school. They have'been .1,ied:to at Several' totiO' Holmesville Public School can be justifiably proud of its band. Th' ey're very;good. Here under the dikeetion of teacher Irla Stewart. the band goes threugh a prfictlee