The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-01-25, Page 31
GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1979—PAGE 3
Freedom of Choice fight for novel's reinstatement
cwt
BY JEFF SEDDON
The fledgling Huron
County Society for the
Freedom of Choice
decided recently if it took
a fight to have Margaret
Laurence's banned novel
The Diviners reinstated
•on the county board of
education approved list off
"English texts •it would
fight for the novel.
'.The group elected at its
last ,meeting, the second,
in its short history, to
officially request the
Huron County board of
education to not only
reinstate the novel but
also set policy to be used
by the board the next
time any novel or
material is taken to the
board for banning.
Elsa Haydon managed
to convince a dozen
members of the society
that a confrontation
between the board, the
Iluron C-oun-ty–ehapter- of
Renaissance Inter-
national, the group that
successfully had the
novel banned, and the
Society for the Freedom
of Choice over The
Diviners may not be as
bad as some members of
the group felt it would be.
Haydon told the group at
the outset of the meeting
that she felt a 'letter
should be sent to the
board asking that the
novel be reinstated but
met some oppostition
from members who felt
that a milk and honey
approach would get
better .results from the
board.
Haydon suggested that
the letter ask the board to
put .The Diviners back on
the list of approved
English textbooks for
high school, classroom
use adding that in the
future any time board
trustees are asked to ban
a book that the trustees
be -required to read that
book before they be
permitted to vote on the
issue. Haydon, said she
felt it was "absolute
nonsense" that trustees
voted to ban The Diviners
without first reading the
book,,to see if they agreed
with the people asking
that the book be taken out
of the classrooms.
Paul Carroll, principal
of Seaforth Public School
and one of the original
members of the Society
for the Freedom of
Choice, favored•the soft
sell approach. Carroll •
sa k felt -nothing would
be gained by "creating a
confrontation" with the
board pointing out that he
felt a lot of "positive"
things could be done by
the group by simply
meeting with the board
and making "our side of
the banning known".
Carroll said a "calm,
cool and collected" ap-
proach to the 'issue may
have better success at the
board level. He said the
book banning had already
run the "emotional
gamut" in the county and
there was no point in
getting into another fight
with the board. He added
that, if the board even
perceived a challenge,
whether there Was a
challenge or not, it would
amount to a con-
frontation.
The book banning was
an issue that has already
caused board , of
education trustees a
"great deal of em-
barrassment" according
to Dr..' Tony Miller, a
psyhotogist with the
Huron Centre for
Children and Youth, who
liked Carroll's approach.
Miller suggested that the
book banning had already
caused trustees more
unrest than they had
figured on when they ran
for office at election time.
Miller said trustees
probably "wished the
problem would go away"
and had indicated their
distaste for the con-
troversy. when it first
,;,came to light.
. marvelous Huron
County fashion the board
delayed their decision
until bean harvest to try
to avoid the issue," he
said. "I don't think it
would be wise to go back
to that awful time and
remind some people of
the bad taste the issue
gave them."
Miller proposed .a plan
that would make the
objectives of the society a
factor in future decisions
the ° boatd made on
material for use in
classrooms. He said that
rather than battle over
past decisions the society
should make the board
aware of Freedom of
Choice and advise them
that there is another
group "watching" the
board very closely and
one of the concerns of
that group is that those
people making the
decisions on book ban-
nings "read the books".
He added that the board
now has a group
available for an alter-
native opinion to
Renaissance Inter-
national.
"They (the board)
don't give a hoot about
whether or not The
Diviners is good or bad
but they do care about the
quality of education in
Huron," said Mill'e'r. He
added that if the board
were told the decision to
ban a novel may
"prevent a kid from
getting to university
because there is not a
good quality of education
in Huron -that 's what they
(the board) cares about".
NOTHING WRONG
WITH A FIGHT
Elsa Haydon said
"confrontation" was not
something she sought but
pointed out to the group
that if it "comes my way
I am there". Haydon
pointed out that the
Renaissance group has
been very, successfull
using confrontation to its
advantage adding that its
members are "not afraid
of going out and talking to
people". She said the high
profile has Made
Renaissance a household
Wheeler airport chairman
Don Wheeler was
appointed chairman of
the Goderich Airport
Committee fortheyears
• 1979 and 1980 when that
committee met on
January 17.
A motion to appoint
Chuck Reid as chairman
-was lost.
Dan Murphy was
present at the meeting to
speak to the committee
concerning correspon-
dence from Business Air
Services of November 29,
1978, regarding the
growth of trees. at the
west end of runway 10-28.
Murphy told the
committee ..that .the right
to cut trees had been put
to issue and therefore, the
town cannot trim the
trees as requested. He
told the committee that
three alternatives were
open to the town. These
alternatives were to do
nothing, attempt to
negotiate with Barrister
and Solicitor Cherniak on
the matter or expropriate
what air rights are
required.
HPSSB formulates...
• from page 2 •
ordinary expenditures
and 'controlled by the
maximum pupil ex-
penditure ceiling. The
new regulation imposes a
penalty on a school
without a gymnasium.
This seems to imply a
change in the minister's
phi,losopy, which
previously permitted, the
use of another school's
facilities where capital
improvements could not
be justified at the home
_school.
The _ board will send
copies to all school
boards. in the province
asking them to support
the resolution.
In other business at the
board meeting held in
Dublin Monday, John
O'Leary, chairman of the
property committee; was
granted $15,000 to carry
out maintenance work in,
the 'arious schools. In
asking for_the allowance
he said, "You are well
aware that there is Work
to be done and it is better
to get workmen in now
when they are not so
busy."
Albert Runsteller, a
member of Mornington
Township council and a
separate school sup-
porter, has asked the
board for permission to
put some recreational
equipment such as
swings, slides and other
outside games at. St.
Mary's School, Hesson.
He Said the Mornington
Recreational Association
would give $250 toward
the equipment, the Holy
Name Society, $500 and
the. Catholic Women's
League, $100. He said the
equipment would cost
approximately $1,400 and
he asked the board to give
about $600. This the
.trustees agreed was not
possible as board policy
will only allow them to
install baseball diamonds
and basketball, courts.
Mr. Runsteller will be
asked to seek .other
sources for the rel -gaining
costs or install equipi?ent
to the value of the money
On Murphy's recom-
mendation, the airport
committee passed a
motion to have. Murphy
attempt to negotiate with
Cherniak for the tree
trimming rights , or
replacement of trees on
the affected land at the
west end of runway 10-28
and that Ken Hunter,
Commissioner of Works,
supply Murphy with the
limits.
Airport co-ordinator,
Ed Scruton gave his
monthly report ' to the
committee stating that
now pledged.
The Catholic Parent
Teacher Association of
St. Joseph's School in
Clinton has written the
board to report the
Minister of education has
been asked to agree to
provide an addition to the
school in accordance with
the proposal in the five-
year forecast for such
work by the board. They
included copies of letters
from three local mem
bers of provincial
legislature, Jack Riddell,
Murray Gaunt and Hugh
Edighoffer saying they
supported the addition
and had requested
Minister of Education
Bette Stephenson to
approve the addition to
the school.
The board will en-
courage members of the
Grade 7 and 8 in the 19
schools- in the system to
write an essay on "Mary,
the Mother of God" as
proposed in the Catholic
Register.
The next meeting will'
be held on I'ebruary 12.
TIREECOF
SEX, VIOLENCE, CRIME,
ETC. ON TV?
THERE IS AN
ALTERNATIVE!
Please attend the
Special Meeting of
Interested & concerned citizens
at the
GODERICH PUBLIC LIBRARY
Thursday, Feb. 1st at 8 p.m.
Bea
'Concerned
Citizen'
for
DAILY
CHRISTIAN
- TV
The alternatives
ar6 up to
you!
December had been an
active month at the
airport with a fairly large
amount of runway and
field maintenance due to
snow squall and freezing
rain conditions.
He told the committee
that all snow removal
equipment had been
utilized at one point or
another. All of the
equipment worked well
with the exception of the
sweeper, he reported.
Although the sweeper
works, he explained, itas
small size and lack of
power makes the job of
sweeping, a very time-
consuming and inef-
ficient operation.
Scruton reported that
the fuel pumping
equipment was con- •
tinuing to give many
problems. The gallonage
meter on the turbo pump
has been out of service
since December I, 1978
Turn to page 6 •
word everyone knows and
that white Freedom of
Choice members "sit
quietly and patiently no
one knows us".
"While we're telling the
board we're watching
then,,, the Renaissance
group is ,coming up with
another list of books they
want banned," said
Haydon.
"I'm not saying we
should be so quiet and
patient the next time I'm
saying that we've blown
it this time," said Dr.
Miller. "I only wish we
were here a year ago."
Miller added that he
was sure Freedom of
Choice would face "lots of
confrontation- in the
future" pointing out that
Renaissance had in-
dicated it was not
restricting its efforts to
The Diviners and had.
JohnSteinbeck "out
there waiting in the
wings".
When the board banned
The Diviners it had been
asked by Renaissance to
remove three novels from
the approved list of
textbooks for secondary
school English classes.
The other two novels
were John Steinbeck's Of
Mice and Men and J.D.
Salinger's Catcher in the
Rye but the board left the
other two novels on its
approved•list.
EDUCATION
VERSUS MORALITY
Miller told the group
that he was very con-
cerned about the quality
of education in Huron
County pointing out that
book bannings • had a
great impact on that
quality. He said there
seemed to be a fine line
between decisions the
board made on a moral
basis and decisions made
on an educational basis.
He pointed out that in
some cases the moral
issue would be a strong
enough political- factor
for the board that it would
ignore quality of
education to make a
politically safe decision.
The psychologist saki
the board's banning of the
book without some
trustees reading it to try
to decide for themselves
if it were worthwhile
educationally upset him.
He. added that he would
like to be assured that
future decisions made by
the board would be based
on quality of education
rather than morals and
would like trustees to
know that there is a group
of ratepayers in the
county' that supported
them in their quest for
quality education.
He suggested that
Freedom off Choice could
attempt to have The
Diviners reinstated by
using a different tact than
simply asking for a
reverse of the earlier
decision to ban "the novel.
He said the group could
ask for a meeting with the
board or an appropriate
committee with the in-
tention of taking another
look at the decision and
its impact on education
here with the hope that
trustees have a change of
heart and lift the ban-
ning.
He supported his
argument by pointing
out that the banning was
"not based on good
education but was based
on somebody's self
proclaimed ideas of how
the world should run".
Miller. said one of his
basic concerns arising
from the book banning
was how the board of
education made decisions
on curriculum in its
schools. He said he would
like to see definite policy
established at the board
level that would ef-
fectively guarantee that
board decisions made on
educational matters be
made on an educational
basis and that morals not
be a deciding factor.
The group decided on a
split vote to ask the board
to reconsider the banning
of The Diviners with the
hope that the novel can be
put back in the
classroom.
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