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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-06-15, Page 1Shorter runway seen as solution About $120 was ra sed at a car wash held in the Assessment Offices parking lot on Saturday. The money raised will go toward the Leisure Buddy Program, a program offered through the Goderich Recreation Office, in which volunteers work with mentally handicapped children and adults in recreation programs in town. Co-ordinator Jane Netzke said the car wash turned out better than she had hoped. She lost track of the number of vehicles the leisure buddies washed but says there were boats, vans, trucks and station wagons as well as other cars. Here, Karen Melady gets the roof of this van wet as Karen Willis and Jane Netzke scrub down the back and Robin Campion looks on. (Photo by Joanne Walters) Asks for BY JEFF SEDDON The Huron County Board of Educatiion will be asked to consider a policy at its August meeting that should prevent further con- troversy about books used in high school classrooms. John Cochrane, director of education, asked the board's school programs committee Monday night to permit teachers, principals and senior education administrators to prepare a policy statement for the board to outline procedure for choosing and defending what material is to be used in classrooms. The school programs committee was asked by the board to investigate the use of three novels in English literature courses in county high schools. The three novels --Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, The Diviners by Margaret Laurence and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck were condemned recently by a number of interest groups in' the county that felt the novels contained "objectionable material" that was considered obscene. The dirty book issue has been a thorn in the board's side for the past few years but this year's effort to have the three novels banned has been the most fervent. Cochrane told the committee the issue should be dealt with once and for all and the board have some sort of policy to cover any future issues. Cochrane said he had sent letters to the province's 60 boards of education to try to find out how others are handling the situation. He said he received 50 replies to his letter and received a wealth of material ranging from suggestions to policies passed by boards. olicy The director told the committee that of the 50 boards that replied half had the Diviners (considered by the plaintifs, to be the worst of the three novels) on their list of approved books and 80 percent used the other two novels He said the boards appeared to have an approved list of books from which teachers choose having those choices accepted by their board 'of education. Cochrane said the dirty book issue had caused the county enough embarassment pointing out that the board had received calls from newspapers in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver and that the issue had apparently become a national one. The director suggested that the policy the board adopts set up a procedure to be followed when a ratepayer has a complaint about a book or some,other classroom material. - He said the teachers and school department heads request the material for use and it should be them, not necessarily the politicians, that defend the choice. He said teachers are trained to make those choices and shouldn't have their choices questioned so freely. He said the procedure would start with the teacher and move up the administrative ladder until the plaintif is satisfied. Cochrane said teachers in, the' county were upset with the number of people questioning their work. He said what ultimately has to happen is the board says one way or another whether it has confidence in its teachers. Dorothy Wallace, trustee from Goderich and Turn to page 18 • 1 BY SHIRLEY J. KELLER Town councillors met in open committee Monday evening and effectively cooled the 'airport committee's recommendation to at- tempt to carry out the Transport Canada conceptual project of a 5,000 foot by 100 foot asphalt runway, built in stages. After long' debate, it was agreed that the airport users should be polled to determine if a. 3,700 foot runway. would be of any use -in the • future. Councillor Don Wheeler of the airport committee insisted that a shorter runway in addition to the existing 4,875 foot runway would "make the airport more usable to a wider variety of aircraft under a wider variety of conditions". Wheeler 'said the four lots in the vicinity of the airport which for a while appeared important if the Transport Canada plan was followed, would not be needed by the tows if the shorter runway was built. Mayor Deb Shewfelt questioned this, saying that it was his understanding no grant money was available if anything was ever to be built on this land. "All that is required to qualify for the grant is the proper zoning for the airport," Wheeler told the meeting over and over. This ' was sub- stantiated by Dick Wright, chairman of the airport committee who was in the audience. It has been estimated that the four lots in question would cost the town $100,000 plus legal fees. Some members of town council felt that if the lots are needed, even for future expansion, they should be purchased now, before they are improved and become more costly. It was agreed the town solicitor will be contacted regarding the legal aspects inyolving the four lots. -At the same time; Transport Canada will be contacted to clarify whether or not a grant would be available to the town for airport expansion without having acquired the lots. UNDER SUBSIDY Wheeler told council a runway 3700 feet by 75 feet would come "with some subsidy and be affordable". Furthermore, he claimed such a Turn to page 18 • Buy land Following a closed committee -of -the -whole council meeting last week, represent tatives of Goderich Town Council signed an offer to purchase on the land owned .by Mrs. Sophia Glousher which will facilitate the proposed extension to Suncoast Drive from Highway 21 to Highway 8. The agreed price, negotiated between Clerk Larry McCabe and Mrs. Glousher over a period of about one month, is $5,000. There are also a few stipulations on the agreement for the 100 foot by 1,aO1.T5 foot strip of property, in the - favor of Mrs. Glousher. The road and the services (lights, sewers etc.) are to be in by 1980 and Mrs. Glousher is to be allowed free hookup of one single family dwelling. As well, legal and survey costs are to be paid by the municipality. There are to be no further expropriation proceedings. Closing date on the deal is June 19, 1978. The strip of land represents about one-third of the length of the proposed extension to Suncoast Drive. The rest of'the necessary land is already owned by the town. Clerk Larry McCabe ' said Wednesday Morning work on the extension could begin in 1979, but stressed this will be a decision by town. council and the works and engineering com- mittee. McCabe suggested the work would have -several stages before completion in 1980. There is no cost estimate at this time on the project.. 131—YEAR 25 THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 1978 30 CENTS PER COPY ssue attracts 500 .BY JEF1+ SE•DDON Close to 500 people sat through an emotion charged .public meeting in Clinton Tuesday night to hear arguments for and against the use of three English literature novels in Huron County high schools. In a public meeting organized by a concerned group opposed to the ,recent campaign to have the novels banned 'from county high schools parents, students, grandmothers and authors -debated for almost three hours on the merit of the three novels or the reasons they should be removed from the list of approved high school textbooks. People came from the four corners of Huron and from areas outside its boundaries. Many came simply t'o witness the debate but became deeply involved as the audience ran the emotional gamut. Some wept openly. Some shouted. Some pleaded for cool heads to prevail. Some argued and one man asked the audience to settle down and listen to their hearts as he prayed. The meeting was arranged by a group op- posed to the removal of the three novels — The Diviners by Margaret Laurence, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger — and to support their cause imported four noted Canadian authors to defend the books. June Callwood, a non fiction writer, Alice Munro , a fiction writer, Janet Lunn a. children's writer and Steve Osterlund, a poet, composed a panel that keynoted the debate and each wa's'givenrten minutes to -outline reasons the books should not be removed from ap- proved lists of textbooks. REVIVAL MEETING Munro 's comparison of the alleged por- nographic materia] in the novels to material in The Bible sparked an audience reaction that began to resemble a faith healing session. She used several stories from the Bible to make her point that, when taken out of context and highlighted by someone suggesting the book is pornographic, exerpts from many hooks, the Bible included, could be grouped with the three English texts. Monroe pointed out that if she lifted exerpts from the Bible and was angry about them she could list them, mi'rrieograph them= anti' Send them' anound to people and have them think the book contained nothing but "sexual escapades". She made it clear that she loved and respected the Bible and was not suggesting it was pornographic. She explained that the story of King David and Bethsheba could not have been told in the Bible unless the Writer was not explicit in his depiction of David's develop- ment. "You couldn't say he and Bethsheba were good friends," she said. She said a serious writer has a responsibility to get as close as possible to the "shifting, complex realities of human experience". She explained that to depict a character in a book the writer has to say what the character would say. The writer has to "have the character talking". She said the exercise is not an at- tempt to please 'people or offend them but to allow the reader to become familiar with the character. Steve Osterlund told the audience it was vital to permit writers, artist and musicians to work freely. He said the artist cannot be asked to' write something to please a group of people because that is an impossible task.He said the writer can't be concerned about people's reaction to his work but can only hope that his efforts "move" a reader emotionally. He said he respected people's right to accept or reject an author's work but not their request to have him write a certain way. The London poet said he wouldn't ask a musician to write music without using drums which have a "primitive sexual rhythm". He wouldn't ask an artist to paint a picture without "using the color red" and would not ask a ballerina to perform a dance "without showing her crotch". He said "he is not expected to write but chooses to write",( Janet Lunn told the audience she felt art was the "truth of the human spirit". She said she did not feel children would he adversely af- fected by material in the novels pointing out that well written books permit readers to share emotions with the author and learn of the complexities of human feelings. Lunn said the alleged pornographic material was a description of a "very ordinary part of ernotional people human t weren't we wouldn't be here". June Callwood said she was very "sym- pathetic" towards parents in the audience whose children are being "exposed "to something the parents wish they wouldn't see". She said parents "raise their children with the hopes that they can instill in the youngsters the moral standards that they believe in. She saidit is very difficult when the children come to a point in their lives when they go out the door and the parents are left with nothing to do but wait and see if that teaching was successful. Callwood said teenagers -will turn parents' hair "snow white" assaulting everything the parents believe in. She said it doesn't matter what the parents believe in the teens will assault it at some point in their development but if the moral teachings are strong the youth will return to them. Callwood said parents can't trust books to teach children but haveto do that teaching themselves. She said books Will help the children become aware of human realities but the •effect of the material will be based on the moral values instilled in the children by their parents. She said one saving grace about using the novels in question in a classroom at- mosphere is that parents have an opportunity to talk with their children about the books before they leave home. "When they walk out the door they'll be good friends if you're lucky but you'll have very little opportunity to offer them guidance through life once they leave home," she said. Callwood said she did not feel as concerned about the effects of English textbooks on children as she did cartoons. She cited The Road Runner as an example pointing out that children watch the cartoon and continuously .see a character "smashed to smitherines" and get up and walk away. She said children can get the impression it is alright to hurt someone because they can just get up and walk away. "I can't believe that the Road Runner can erase the belief instilled in children that you can't hurt people", she said. I CAN DECIDE David St. Jean, a Grade 13 student at Goderich District Collegiate Institute, said he felt a double standard was being applied by people wanting the 'books removed from classrooms, He said -he is considered an adult legally and is old enough to decide if he wants to drink and how he wants to vote "yet people tell me what I can read and what I can't read". St. Jean said he can't make up his mind about the novels unless he has the material in question presented to him, something that will be impossible if the books are removed from the classrooms. "Why can't you trust me to make up my own mind?" he asked. Another student said if students are old enough to fight for their country 'they are "mature enough to handle mature literature". Colin Lowndes, an English teacher from South Huron Secondary School in Exeter, acted as moderator for the debate and pointed out to some angry parents that the students teachers see in classrooms are not made by teachers but are products of society. He said the material used in classrooms is not held up as models for students ,but used as examples of society. He said students are taught to use "sound judgement" in confronting the social issues. He said students are taught about Adolf Hitler in history class but teachers don't ask students to go out and emulate Hitler. A 60 -year-old twoman from Exeter who said she was a third year student in South Huron Secondary School said she had read all the "so called dirty books". She said she resented watching television and seeing sex in tooth- paste advertisements. She said she resented ads where women are told they can send a picture of themselves to a gynecologist and never have to show up for an examination. "I love young people more than people my age," she said. "At least they're honest." She pointed out to parents that if children are "not taught the facts of life by the time they reach high school then it is you that have failed as parents not the children". LISTEN TO YOUR HEARTS Elmer Umbach, a pharmacist from Lucknow, said he had been listening to com- ments throughout the meeting and felt people on both sides were "very sincere in their beliefs". He said he felt the people that were Turn to page 18 • anks resigns as hospital administrator BY. DAVE SYKES Jim Banks resigned from his position as administrator of Alexandra Marine and General Hospital Friday, a position he held for three years. Mrs. ' Jo Berry, hospital board chairman, announced Friday that Banks tendered his resignation to the board, citing personal reasons for the decision. It was effective immediately. Following a board .meeting Tuesday evening, Mrs. Berry said that assistant hospital ad- ministrator, Bill Ducklvorth, would carry on in his current capacity and the board would seek help from the County administrative staff on a one -day -a -week basis if possible. Banks' resignation followed an audit on the hospital's annual operation that showed a deficit of $253,000. '1 he hospital's fiscal year was previously calculated on the calendar year, but the latest audit was done on a 15 month period, January 1977 to March 31, 1978, to bring the hospital's fiscal year in line with the provincial' budget. The board was not aware of the nieax financial picture that evolved from the audit, which will be made public at the hospital board's annual meeting Monday. Mrs. Berry said the deficiency in the budget could be attributed to accruals in the past Ontario Nurses Association contract such as retroactive pay and the calculation of overtime hours. There were 6,300 more nursing hours than was budgeted for. Mrs. Berry said the closing of 16 beds and the layoff of eight full-time employees, that was previously announced as a cost saving measure, will be delayed. Those measures were not taken to make up any deficits but rather to keep the hospital's 1978-79 budget- within the Ministry's allotment. "We will have to take a serious look at the financial situation every month." she said. But while the employees will retain their jobs and beds will not be cut the deficit hangs heavy over the hospital's operation. A capital fund of $150,000 is gone but Mrs. Berry said the hospital will be able to recoup some of the loss through equipment depreciation. Berry said the 'management committee will oversee the operation at the hospital and will make a plea to Ministry of Health for assistance. At a board meeting Tuesday it was decided to. advertise the vacant administrator position. inq Banks.,..resigns