Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1983-06-15, Page 15S 4 and organization" sent ,retiring director of Mont John Cochran s. out of the elasseuoinnird into the front .. of administration. in TOW, foilowingthe tram- poline -accident, Mir Cochrane became vicer principal of Thomas Ia. siren- pedy.-secondary school in Cooksville, having' been the head of the physical educe- tion . department " at the school since 1953. As the day of his retire- ment nears, the Huron Coun- ty Board of Education's director, since 1969, recalls his own personal teaching career and the changes in the educational field. A native of. Toronto, Mr. Cochrane attended public school in East York. Asan aside, he noted that his Grade seven teacher was James Kinkead, now retired and living in Goderich. The Cochrane family mov- ed to Brockville in 1936 where John attended Grade eight and high school. Following high school he served in the Royal Cana- dian Artillery. The Second World War ended and Mr. Cochrane enrolled at the University of Toronto where he majored in physical education. The teaching field was appealing to the young veteran as he'd had a taste of the profession having served as an in- structor for a time in the ar- my. Mr. Cochrane met his wife while attending university. In fact he met the former Lina Campbell at a Paul Jones Hallowe'en dance. He started teaching in September of 1949 at the small high school in Kemp- tville, about 30 miles south of Ottawa. She started teaching at Fisher Park High School in Ottawa. John Cochrane The couple married in 1951 , and he went to teach at Port Credit High School and she taught elementary school in Port Credit. Two years later he moved to another school within the Peel school board's jurisdiction - Thomas L. Kennedy - where he made his change from classroom teacher to vice- principal. Mrs. Cochrane stopped teaching and started to raise a family. Having made the jump from classroom teacher to vice-principal, Mr. Cochrane went one step further as in January of 1960 he took over as principal of Clinton District Collegiate Institute, now known as Central Huron Secondary School. During his tenure at the school which lasted until 1965 he saw the enrolment in- crease from about 400 to 1,250 students with the number of teachers increas- ing'from about 23 to 63. Declining enrolment was obviously not a byword in the decade of the 60s. It was in fact, the era of a technical boom. As Mr. Cochrane recalls it, the U.S.S.R. had launched Sputnik, the first-ever satellite in 1961 and technology was growing by leaps and bounds. Up until that time, technical education (as an example, auto mechanics) could only be found in city schools. With Sputnik as a catalyst, the federal govern - Ment launched a program of its own providing the provin- cial governments with grants to provide technical education facilities. Huron County '° benefitted from this government money. F. E. Madill in .Wingham and the Clinton high school expanded to en- compass the students wishing to take technical education. An off -shoot of the technical facilities, in On- tario at least, was the Mail lady. returns from trip Mary Johnston, mail lady for R.R.3 Goderich, ' which Port Albert is part of, has just returned from a tour of Europe, visiting such coun- tries as Italy, Ge ny, France, Switzerland;. Holland and Belgium. When queried as to what country she enjoyed most, she was quick to reply, "I love Paris in the Springtime!" Mike Wales of London didn't have too long to wait Saturday morning while fishing in Nine Mile River at Port Albert, until he was the owner of a 10 inch speckled trout. Ernst and Jutta Elissat and children, Debbie and Dean from Kitchener are spending the weekend at their cottage in the village. Douglas and Helena Young of R.R.3 Goderich returned Monday from a two week visit to Thornton, Saskatchewan where they were visiting relatives. Daisy Bellinger of Goderich spent Sunday at the home of Roy and Bessie Bellinger, Port Albert. Sunday afternoon at the beach in Port Albert, many people were taking advan- tage of the warm Spring weather to do some swimm- ing. Several sailboats were also out. ' Ball News • Tuesday night at Ben - miller in a scheduled game with the Port Albert Pirates, Benmiller failed to appear with the game going to the Pirates by default. Sunday afternoon at the Port Albert/ diamond, the Pirates had lit - PORT ALBERT NEWS EWV.. Tom Livingstone, 529-7645 tie trouble in coasting to an easy win over Kingsbridge 11.6. Lodge News Morningstar Lodge, Carlow, held their regular meeting Wednesday, June 8 with Worshipful Brother Alfred Crow presiding. It was also the occasion of the visit of Milverton Lodge and their Degree Team. It was a capacity audience that greeted the Milverton Lodge as they conferred the. 2nd Degree on Brother Ronald Durnin of Morningstar Lodge. During the business por- tion of the meeting, several of the Morningstar members indicated that they would be attending Grand Lodge which takes place at the Royal York Hotel, Toronto on July 20 and would travel by bus. Following the work of the evening, members and guests adjourned to the ban- quet hall where Worshipful Brother Joe Crow expressed his thanks to the Master of the Milverton Lodge and his officers for the efficient manner in which they con- ferred the 2nd Degree. Morningstar Lodge will now recess for the months of July and August and will resume their fall activities on September 14. Church News ' Alma Black, Vi Petrie and Anne Livingstone from the ACWof Christ Anglican Church, Port Albert, attend- ed the Spring meeting Wednesday of the South Saugeen Deanery held at St. Paul's Anglican Church, Ripley. Joceyln Daunt of Fordwich was the speaker for the afternoon program. She showed a film showing the 90 -year history of the W.A. During the business pro- gram of the meeting, the Reverend G. R olds in- stalled Joyce VCamp as secretary -treasurer. The fall deanery meeting will be held at St. John's Anglican Church in Brussels on October 4. Communion Service was. observed at Christ Anglican Church in Port Albert Sun- day with the Reverend Robert Crocker conducting the service. Morning service will com- mence on June 26 at 9:30 a.m. July 10 will be the annual Cemetery Service, and on July 2 there will be a garage sale. Churches call for changes in sentencing of criminals Both society and the of- fender would be better serv- ed if more use was made of community alternatives rather than prison. This is one of the major recommen- dations by a Consultation on Sentencing which brought together 55 participants from coast to coast represen- ting 12 Canadian churches. The Consultation's Final Report was submitted recently to the Department of Justice. Sponsored by the 'Church Council on Justice and Cor- rections, the Consultation was in response to the federal Department of Justice's request for public input as it prepares revisions to the way sentencing is con- ducted in Canada. The Minister of Justice plans to introduce legislative changes to sentencing in the fall. The church represen- tatives, many of whom had extensive experience in the corrections field, were con- vinced that prisons do little to protect society, probably don't deter many future of- fenders, and have minimal rehabilitative ' impact. In- carceration " should be reserved only for offenders who are likely to commit violent offenses again. David McCord, Executive Director of the Church Coun- cil, said that programs of restitution and victim -off- ender reconciliation were proving quite successful, . particularly with people who had committed property crimes. Such community alternatives have a better chance of addressing some of the basic 'causes of the crone in the first place. Participants agreed that the present practice is unjust where courts across Canada dispense widely differing sentences for similar crimes. To encourage greater equity in sentencing, guidelines .should be developed for the use of judges. Judges must be allowed discretion within the guidelines but should be re= quired to give their reasons for choosing a particular. sentence. The Consultation also for- warded a variety of recom- mendations on the role of the victim in sentencing, proba- tion, fines, discharges, and parole. The Consultation was organized in conjunction with The United Church of Canada " and With support from the Department of Justice. "Robarts' plan" • named after then education minister and former Ontario premier John Itobarts, Teciuniical education; was reorganized wader the late Mr. Itobarts. "In my opinion, the best change was never/ giiven..a chance," said/Mr. Cochrane referring to- the Roberts' Plan or the restructuring of technical education. "It was just beginning to get off the ground when they • (Ministry - of • Education) brought in the credit system." He sees the educational system, particularly at the secondary level, completing a cycle and reverting to the Robarts' plan. Citing that when the credit system was first introduced it "had too much off a smorgasbord", Mr. Cochrane says the -credit system has settled down and now the Ministry is introduc- ing further changes with more compulsory subjects. In 1965, Mr. Cochrane was called by the Ministry to be an, inspector. He . moved to Woodstock and inspected secondary schools in Nor- folk, Brant, Oxford and Perth counties. Then in 1969 countchool boards came into effect and the position of inspector disappeared. Many in- spectors became either superintendents or directors of education. So it was for Mr. Cochrane as he came back to Huron County as its first director of education. He came • back because . his previous working experience in Huron had been a happy one. -- In that capacity he has dealt with such happenings as book banning, a mass resignation in 1971 by secon- dary school teachers over salary negotiations and the secondary school teachers' strike in 1977. These are still somewhat emotional issues in Huron arndwhile Mr. Cochrane said it will take time, for both the board and teachers to heal: wounds, relations are better now than immediately following the**. "It's something both groups will haveto work at," said Mr. Cochrane. ' Re has seen many changes in the educational, field since he started and one of the most recent is the emphasis placed op special education. Philisophicaily Mr. Cochrane thinks' the im- plementation of Bill 82 is great, but he does have con- cerns for certain practical areas such as costs. The director of education had originally planned to retire in 1984, 35 years after entering the teaching profes- sion. Instead he is retiring a year early... The main reason is 'because of the re- organization of the secon- dary education system. The increase in compulsory sub- jects and the changes to the graduation diploma are two of the major changes coming. in the next couple of years. "With that coming in, it's not fair to the board, my col- leagues and the kids for me to start getting into the change," commented Mr. Cochrane, noting he'd already been through similar changes in the 60s. The end of June looms closer and when asked if he had any hobbies, Mr. Cochrane responded joking- ly that attending meetings has been his hobby. Seriously, he is very proud of his Scottish -Irish ancestry and plans to incorporate a desire to travel and genealogy. Recounting his family history, Mr. Cochrane notes his father came to. Canada from Scotland as a boy of 14 and his mother is of a third generation Ottawa Valley Irish family. ' He also wants to take the time Ode some 011e things he hasn't been able to do -muse of occupational commitMents, "I owe my wile a lot of . tine,," said the retiring director. She stayed at home and raised their family of four children. Lipais .currently on the. Huron County Family and Children"s Services board, the Clinton hospital auxiliary and has done much volunteer work. All the children are pro- ducts of Huron County.The oldest child, Joanne, 25,1s a producer of television and radio commercials for an ad agency in Toronto. One com- mercial in particular she produced is the now -showing Becel margarine ad utilizing the popular Rubik's cube. The eldest son Mike, 23, also lives in Toronto, in fact the two oldest Cochrane children share an apartment in the big city. He works for Adelaide Personnel Services as a personnel selection and placement officer. The youngest children, 20 - year -old twins Lynne and Ian, are closer to home. Lynne is employed at a variety store in Clinton and Ian is employed at. the Bayfield Boatyard in Vanastra. Upon his retirement, it will be his colleagues that he will miss most. They have work- ed together to produce the kind of education system of- fered in Huron, one of which Mr. Cochrane is extremely proud. "People in Huron. County don't have to take -a back seat to anyone," said Mr. Cochrane referring to students leaving the county to pursue higher education or careers. After 34 years, his interest in education will not wane upon retirement. Bob Bedard received the student council executive award and John Peters received the outstanding contribution to music award at the GDCI awards assembly Thursday, June 2. (Photo by T. Marr) Repairs WINGHAM - The Wingham PUC faces the prospect of spending an additional $93,000 oder the next several years on repairs to its water standpipe, if it hopes to continue using the structure for another 15 to 20 years. That is the bad news contained in an engineer's report following the examination of the John Street standpipe earlier this spring. Shop and Compare on your next furniture purchase Compare price, selec- tion and service. You'll find the best for less, In Clinton at Ball & Mutch Home Furnishings 71 Albert Street i.,..CLINTON 4112.050f ., Open slse days a week 0- 6, Friday till • pin. OVING 4 411# 10th ANNIVERSARY u E E N S and OFFICIAL OPENING of the Patio Dining Lounge Wed., —Sat., June 22 - 25 HOTEL a r. Entertainment by !WINDJAMMER Fday-Night-Pyjama Party Saturday Night -Beach Party Appearing This Weekend Mark Spector Wed. ® LADIES NIGHT NO COVER PATIO NOW OPEN! Seaforth COMICOSIGIM1,67411,109NESppr,,MA1415,19.83—PAkin15 E174:41 rAzr4f, aorg orve wax Scott Bell received the Arthur Peachy Memorial Award and Teresa Donnelly received the Leadership Trophy at the GDCI awards assembly Thursday, June 2. (Photo by T. Marr) BATHTUB WORN OUT? See Our Classified IT'S WORTH. THE DRIVE! OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY 1-5 P.M. "Free Delivery Service" CLOSED MONDAYS OPEN ALL DAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY NIGHT '.T ILL a P.M. Main St., Dublin 345-2250 GCJ GOETTI_I:R (VI Wit Fins c` Furniture PICK UP ON MAZDA 82000 LOWEST PRICED IMPORT PICKUP. 6495. 1rt 46 MPG MOT HIGHWAY RATING M -W MO ORS 184 EAST ST. GODERICH 524-2113 . ,;,, TUE LIFEWlIO'S INFLUENCE 15 MEASURED BY DOLLARS 15 HOT WORTH MEASURIN6. Bluewater Coffee Shop Phone 524-4331 355 BAYFIELD RD. GODERICH Inventory Sale Thursday, Friday, Saturday Only LOWER LEVEL Lighting Fixtures 30% OFF Gift Selection... DECORATIVE !ACCESSORIE BRASS _. GLASSWARE CHINA DENBY STONEWARE '11 0°10 TO..,0 A'O ®FF SPECIAL GROUP A�� And PRICEless!