HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1988-09-21, Page 3THE HURON EXPOSITOR, SEPTEMBER 21, 1988 — 3A
Italianate details make Britton house stand out
Aside from being a designated heritage
property and an example of late 19th cen-
tury domestic architecture, the Britton
House is remarkable in that at least two
graves are present on the property.
The Britton House, this month's featured
heritage home, is located at 12 Church
Street, directly behind the Northside United
Church, and is currently inhabited by Terry
and Alic Short and their children.
The graves located on the property have
never been found, but the evidence of their
existence is in a small tombstone which can
still be found on the property. It reads:
Laving, Died April 29, 1873 at 17 years and
2 months. Edward, Died July 15, 1867 at 10
months, 15 days. Children of Isah and
Eliz'th Ingram.
They have gone to worlds above
It's here saints and angels meet,
To realise their saviour's love
And worship at his feet.
Exactly how these children came to rest
on the property of the Britton House, each
buried six years apart, is something of a
mystery, especially because the original
owner of the building's name differs from
theirs - Phillip Spading.
Mr. and Mrs. Short say the trtmhstone will
remain on the property as long as they stay
there.
"If they were buried here it should stay
here," says Mrs. S ort, "there's no reason
to get rid of it."
The Short family has been in the Britton
house for the past five years They say they
were uneasy about moving into a heritage
house because of the possible restrictions on
renovations, but both enjoy antiques and old
houses because "They have character and
they're built well" in Mr. Short's words.
Mr. Short will be restoring the verandah
which extends the length of the front of the
house next year. He plans on lifting and
leveling the entire porch, re -doing the roof,
replacing trim where it is rotted or gone,
and putting new pine along the bottom of the
verandah.
The Britton House is a spacious, white
brick, centre hall, centre doriudr Ontario
farmhouse which was expanded both south
and east through later additions. It is known
that Dr. W. Bruce Smith added the south
portion of the house for office space in 1886.
Some of the architectural features which
earned the Britton House its heritage
designation are the round headed Italianate
style window on the upper storey, Italianate
detailing about the front entrance, and the
verandah with the curved roof which il-
lustrates the craftsmanship which went into
the house.
•v1
GONE HOME - This tombstone found on
the property of the Britton House is engrav-
ed in the memory of two children who pass-
ed away in the late 19th century, and who
are probably burled somewhere on the pro-
perty although the grave has not been
found. Corbett photo,
THE FRONT ENTRANCE to the Britton House, with its Italianate detailing, is a feature
of the house's designation. The entrance was restored by Mr. Short recently. Corbett
photo.
THE FINE VERANDAH on the Britton House was one of the reasons for its designation,
and it extends the entire width of the front facade. Mr. Short has plans to completely
renovate and restore the verandah next spring and summer. Corbett photo.
1
Education boards big
BY NEIL CORBETT
GIFTEDNESS is: "an unusually advanc-
ed degree of general intellectual ability t, t
requires differentiated experiences of depth
and breadth beyond those normall' t Tid-
ed in the regular school program to satisfy
the level of educational potential
indicated."
At least this is how the Ministry of Educa-
tion defines giftedness. But there are a lot of
people who work with "gifted" children in
our schools, and each one of them will have
a different definition for the term. Similarly
each of these people will also have varying
theories about how these gifted children
should be treated and, perhaps more impor-
tantly, how they should be educe 'ed.
Need for Big
The Big Brothers organization is coming
to Seaforth.
September is Big Brothers month, and the
North Huron Big' Brothers have launched a
campaign to open offices to serve more
towns in their area. They were looking for
someone to act as a coordinator in Seaforth
and were referred to Harry Denhaan.
Mr. Dent, an had been a big brother in
Hamilton :. ,on 1978-81, and when he moved
to Seaf `h was involved with reviving
Scout town.
Mr. Den a„n says he initially got involved
with P' thers because he felt a respon-
s-lit „Wins he was from a well -to-
r o is doing well in education, and
la(' satisfying family life. "And I sat back
nought `not everyone has that, and
A ve got a responsibility to help them.
We '-^ always involved in take, take, take,
song mes it's time to give something
back.”
Mr. Denhaan's role with Big Brothers in
Seaforth will be to set up the initial structur-
ing such as a committee to handle fundrais-
ing, advertising and activities. Mr. Denhaan
will also do interviewing for big brothers
and try to find little brothers, and will be in-
volved in the process of matching the big
and little brothers.
Mr. Denhaan says his goal is to have six
matches at the end of a year -the number of
matches which there currently are in
Goderich.
A little brother is someone between the
ages of six to 16 who does not have a male
role model in the home, or not often in the
home. Ralph Smith, president of North
R ' 182, handed to educators across On-
tario about five years ago, guarantees every
-ceptional student in the province will get
uucational programs suited to his needs.
Gifted children are found by a variety of
means, and a child is classified as being
gifted based on grades in school, rate of
learning, creativity, and problem solving.
This can be verified by regular curriculum
test results, standardized test results,
recommendations from teachers, parent in-
terviews, interest surveys, and by a number
of other methods. Multi criteria are recom-
mended in establishing whether or not a
child is gifted, and at least three of these
criteria is needed.
The way the Huron County Board of
TNS BRITTON HOUSE is located on 12 Church Street, and was built in 1871 by a Phillip Sperling. It is a large two storey house
which was was designated for its exterior Victorian decorative details, and is said by the LACAC committee to be "a good example
of a substantial domestic property of the late 19th century. Corbett photo.
on enrichment programs
Education has opted to deal with students
with exceptional intellectual ability is
through enrichment programs.
The HCBE enriches its students in
basically three ways: in the classroom
through individualized instruction, extra
work or extra projects related to what is go-
ing on in the class. The second way enrich-
ment programs can take place is over an en-
tire school, involving multiple grades, as a
sort of mini -course in some extra curricular
activity. And the third and most involved
type of enrichment activity is regional in
nature, and usually involves students who
have been identified as gifted.
Enrichment activities can be anything
from a course in diving to stamp collecting,
Brothers to be met 'in Se
and they can involve those children iden-
tified as gifted, or the student populace in
general. These activities are for the most
part planned by teachers, resource teachers
and administrators at participating schools,
and are as varied as the personalities of the
people who organize them.
Jill Johnston, who is the Area Resource
Teacher for Enrichment in Huron County
this year, helps teachers design programs
for their classes. These programs are
specialized to answer the curricular needs
of all the students in the classroom, while
allowing for activities to answer the needs
for those students who need enrichment.
Mrs. Johnston has been involved with
enrichment for a number of years, and says
aforth area
BIG .. ...i
BROTHERS -September is Big Brothers month and as part of North Huron Big
Brothers campaign to spread- their organization it is coming to Seaforth. Harry
Denhaan will be the Seaforth organizer, and will be looking for both little brothers who
need a male role model, and big brothers who have time to devote to a boy. Seen here
is Ralph Smith, president of North Htiron Big Brothers, with a promotional balloon. Cor-
bett photo.
Huron Big Brothers, says there are a lot of
boys around who fit this description. There
is one confirmed little brother who is involv-
ed with the Seaforth Big Brothers.
Mr. Denhaan says a Big Brother is simply
someone who likes kids.
"Someone who can donate one hour per
week minimum to a young boy," is what Mr.
Smith says they are looking for.
Big Brothers can be from age 19 right up
to senior citi7Ans.
What the..e 'brothers' do will be up to
them. Movies, bowling, hiking, going to a
hockey game dr just going for a walk are
some common activities, although some
matches share hobbies together. Mr. Smith
says he knows of one match where the big
brother enjoyed woodwork and the little
brother was a computer hobbyist and they
both taught each other a new hobby.
The North Huron Big Brothers try to pro-
vide the brothers with something they can
do for free once per month, such as bowling,
skating, a movie etc. Generally most of
these activities are done independently and
are arranged between the matched brothers
and the boy's parent. The organization only
makes the matches, provides some ac-
tivities, and checks how things are going
periodically.
The businesses in Seaforth have had a
positive reaction to the new Big Brothers
movement in town, and Pizza Train and
Starlight Lanes will be offering discounts
for brothers. The organization will also be
hoping for donations from service clubs, as
they are funded entirely by donations and
fund raisers.
The organization will also be looking for
about three people to sit on a Seaforth Big
Brothers committee.
Generally little brothers are easy to find,
as a lot of mothers show interest in the pro-
gram, but big brothers are harder to come
by. In Goderich, for example, there are
three little brothers who have yet to be
matched.
Anyone interested in Big Brothers in
Seaforth can contact Harry Denhaan at
527-0557, or 527-0057. North Huron Big
Brothers can be reached at 5244361.
the board's enrichment program has had
excellent development over the past few
years.
Mrs. Johnston is well aware of the many
issues surrounding enrichment. Such as the
worry some gifted children have that they
will be looked on as different.
"Especially at the age of 14 to 15 they
don't want to be singled out, so they closet
their abilities," she explains.
This problem is most evident in high
schools, so gifted students are encouraged
to work in the classroom with their peers,
but to work a little harder and do different
activities than .the other students on the
same subjects. Mrs. Johnston says this isn't
hiding the student's abilities, his peers will
catch on, but it does downplay the
distinctions.
Mrs. Johnston says there are fewer peer
problems among the gifted students at
lower grades. They are "strong little
characters" who want the extra knowledge
offered by the enrichment programs.
Because the enrichment programs are so
varied, with some involving entire classes,
some taking gifted students out of regular
classes and some leaving them in, one would
ask if enrichment programs were still in the
experimental stage. But Mrs. Johnston
claims this isn't the case.
"I think if you had five or six little enrich-
ment packages that you used continuously
you'd be making a big mistake," she
says."Kids have different interests, and you
have to be flexible and keep changing."
One enrichment activity which has been
very popular is called Treasure. It is a three
day workshop, and it sees gifted students
learning new skills and getting new in-
terests and activities such as scuba diving
for treasure in a pool, and burying treasure
and making a map for another group to try
and follow back to it.
You may ask couldn't any student do
these activities, or do they have to be
"gifted?"
Mrs. Johnston agrees any student would
get something out of these activities, but
can't accomplish the amount the gifted
children can. Teachers have tried orienteer-
ing -part of the enrichment activities involv-
ed with Treasure- with their regular classes,
and found it was just too difficult for some of
their regular students.
"Usually teachers teach somewhere in
the middle level and hope the stragglers
catch on," she says, "but with a
homogenous group together they can teach
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