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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1964-03-05, Page 9a a Edadd Oftwout A New Look At Education Education Minister William Davis' an- nouncement last week that the total number of elementary school boards in the province will be sharply reduced was received with mixed feelings, to say the least. The 3,900 school boards are to be cut down to no more than one or at least two to a township. The cries of fear and anger are likely to resound across the land. Mr. Davis must be a courageous minister for he un- doubtedly knows how intense are the c feelings aroused when innovations are suggested where children are concerned. Our own district has witnessed some very determined and even bitter campaigns for the establishment of large school areas and central schools, Indeed, several municipalities are at this moment em- broiled in the pros and cons of this very question. Education has changed a great deal in the past 20 years. Though it is hard for parents to accept the fact that their children will not be permitted to attend the little red school houses which served the mothers and fathers, the department is apparently determined that its wishes in this regard shall prevail. Those parents who oppose the central school plan have many sound arguments to support their contentions. They point to the early hour at which some children must leave home in the morning to get onto the school bus. They resent the closing of schools which hold many fond memories for them. Educationists, however, can present a vast and convincing set of reasons why the central school must become the basic element in education of junior grades. • Foremost among these reasons is the fact that a better grade of training can be provided for today's youngsters in larger schools, where there is more money avail- able for modern equipment and special- ized teachers. They point to the pro- grams of training in music, drama, phy- sical fitness, etc., which become quite feasible in a central school and are out of the question in the one- or two -room country schools. They state, quite logically, that a teacher who handles only one grade can do a much better job than the country teacher who must try to get children in all eight grades through their June ex- aminations. In the long run, the new system will be accepted, The Province has all the authority it needs to enforce the change in administration because it pays such a large proportion of the costs. A few years hence, as youngsters move on into secondary schools from the background of the enlarged central schools the wis- dom of the change will become apparent. They will find the climate of the big high school in town much easier to endure than would have been the case had they noth- ing but the little brick at the corner as their sole experience. Few of us who have reached our middle years are yet fully able to com- prehend the nature of the world in which our children will have to live and work. The acceleration at every level of human knowledge is so great that we dare not deny our children any oppor- tunity to fit themselves for the challenge. We commend the courage and fore- sight of the department of education and its minister in taking the bull squarely by the horns. A New Form Of Public Service We were deeply interested to hear re - 4 ► cently of a plan which is being worked out with great success in London, On- tario. In that city a number of teen-age girls have been organized, under the leadership of the Red Cross Society, into a group known as "Volunteens." The girls volunteer for late afternoon • and early evening work in the hospitals and nursing homes, where they feed help- less patients, read to those who cannot see, and assist with many non -nursing duties. In addition to the work in the hospitals the girls are assigned to many other duties of a similar beneficial nature • throughout the city. The comfort and companionship they bring to sick and unfortunate people is, of course, the first dividend realized from e e the plan. In addition they are freeing trained nursing and welfare personnel for more urgent tasks. One of the most interesting and im- portant aspects of the entire project, however, is the benefits which accrue to the young workers themselves. Most of therm are reported to be enthusiastic about the tasks they undertake, and they are learning, early in life, that service to others brings a deep personal satisfaction, unmatched by the supposed pleasures of more typical teen-age activities. It is safe to predict that there will be few de- linquency problems among these young people who have learned to face some of life's more serious problems and are de- voting their spare time to the alleviation of loneliness and suffering. Crime And Punishment We have wondered a bit about the judgment handed down by a Sarnia magistrate last week. Two young men who were convicted of wilfully shooting a valuable German shepherd dog were • ordered to purchase a pup of equal cali- bre and spend the next few months rais- ing and training the animal, after which they are to present it to the owner of the dog they destroyed. It seems the two were returning from a hunting foray when they found the dog. One held a flashlight on the animal while his companion pumped four shots into its body. Perhaps the magistrate is right, but we do feel some pity for the poor pup which is selected for their experiment in animal training. Great Waste Of Effort Nearly every week we are in and out of both the local police office and that of he Ontario Provincial Police, which share adjoining space in the basement of • the Wingham town hall. Usually one or more constables in these offices are pounding away on the typewriters, getting out the multitude of reports which mo- dern policing requires. To us it seems that trained policemen are wasting their time -- No officer can be office -bound by dozens of reports and at the same time be' out on the street doing police work. • It is obvious that each office could use the services of a stenographer, who would do the office work, probably more speed- % ily, and at the same time free the officers to do the job for which they are trained. Make no mistake about the amount of clerical work that is necessary in modern e law enforcement. As an example, the lo- cal police force had to report on 75 accidents this past year, and the O.P.P. boys had over 150. To this must be added dozens of other office procedures that keep them tied to their desks. In our opinion it would be advisable for the O.P.P. authorities to get together with the town of Wingham and split on the cost of hiring a girl who could do the clerical work for both offices. It follows that the office work would probably be done better and more rapidly, and the police officers from both detachments would be able to do a lot more policing. If it happens that there actually isn't enough work from the two police offices to keep a girl busy, no doubt Town Clerk Bill Renwick would be only too happy to have a little clerical assistance in his office on the upper floor of the same, building. THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited W. Barry Wenger, President - Robert 0. Wenger, Secretary -Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulation; Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Associ- ation; Member Canadian Community Newspapers Representatives Authorized by the Post Office Department as Second Class Mail and for payment of postage in cash Subscription Rate: One Year, $4.00; Six Months, $2.25, in advance U.S.A., $5.00 per year; Foreign rate, $5.00 per year Advertising Rates on application EXECUTIVE OF W.H.S. LITERARY SOCIETY 1912-13. Front, left to right: G. Spindler, J. Webb, H. Geddes, asst.-treas., J. Johnston, E. Tipling, F. Spence; second row: W. Buchan- an, E. Taylor, 2nd vice, G. W. Geddes, pres., F. Buchanan, hon. pres., B. Kennedy, 1st vice, D. Geddes, sec., E. Stewart; �sry,+.^>,w•.� ..«"�.at 'sr�k.',.'.i'�.u...:..•_"7-"M s :: 4' third row: H. A. Percy, C. E. Brewster, B.A., G. R. Smith, B.A., J. Allen, treas., J. C. Smith, B.A., principal, B. E. An- derson, P. Muir; back row: G. Rintoul, J. Dickson, G. Muir, S. Donaldson, C. McLean. — Photo loaned by Mrs, W. Brydges. tthancvZimit Wingham, Ontario, Thursday, March 5, 1964 SECOND SECTION SUGAR AND SPICE Oh, How We Danced! By BILL SMILEY Have you watched teen- agers dancing lately? If you haven't, and you are old-fashioned, and your blood pressure is high, take my advice. Don't. Saturday afternoon, through sheer inertia, I found myself before a t e 1 e vision set showing one of those teen-age dance pro- grams. For- tunately, I am neither old - fashion- ed nor high - blood - pres- sured (it says here). But I must confess, I was wishing 1 were 25 years younger. Today's kids dance dole- fully, but sweetly, to the slow numbers, heads knuckked together, bodies scarcely moving, intent, serious, tender yet strange- ly impersonal. But when the music be- gins to clang and thump, they come into their own. They laugh; they bob and bounce; they wiggle and and jiggle and giggle, Their faces light up. Their feet weave and shift and trace peculiar patterns. They are very young and very much alive, and completely caught up in that most ancient means of communi- cation—rhythm. Watching them, I was sad. It's a pretty bitter thing, after all, to have been too young for the Charleston, too old for the Twist. But I couldn't stay sad. Letting my mind drift back over the years, I actually began to feel sorry for the youngsters. "These kids," I thought disdainfully. "Ilow many of them have mastered a step as I did? Sure, they can do the Cha -Cha and the Twist and the Bossa Nova. But is there a single one of them who can base Bill Smiley a whole era of dancing on one step—the fox-trot—as I did?" There are ample - bosomed middle-aged ladies across the land who will testify that Smiley was a corker, if not a terror, when he tripped the light fantastically. There are grandmothers in Canada, England, France and Belgium whose eyes still light up when they remember the way we whirled about the dance - hails, a symphony of smoothness, afantasyof fox-trotting. "How many of these kids," I wondered, "have ever danced with a Brazil- ian beauty who couldn't speak a word of English and was doing a dreamy tango while you were doing a brisk fox-trot? "How many of them," I queried, "have ever been to a real old country square-dance, where the sign that the dance was over was not the band play- ing 'The Queen', but the stovepipes coming down when the fight started? "How many," I thought, "have ever tried to fox-trot with a brawny Land Army girl who was bound she was doing a waltz, and could lift you right off the floor in the process? "How many of them," I considered, "have walked up to a flashing -eyed young French matron in Brussels, ata nightclub, bowed to her, bowed to her husband, asked her for a dance in impeccable Grade Eleven French, and received a slap in the face from her, a kick in the groin from her husband?" No. Let them have their fun. I have my memories. Long before these kids were running around with their diapers dangling, I was cheek - to - cheeking it on enchanted summer eve- nings, and breathing heavi- ly into the ears of their Aunt Mabels. Reminiscing MARCH 1914 While engaged in the work of thawing frozen water pipes in the home of Mr. Abner Cos - ens on Monday morning, the house caught fire from a torch. The fire gained such headway that it was necessary to call out the firemen, who were prompt- ly on the scene and soon had the fire out. At Toronto, on Thursday. February 19th, Miss Violet Mary Sherk, daughter of Mr. U. Sherk, of this town, was mar- ried to Mr. Robert D. Jordon, a form. r member of the Times staff. The dwelling house of Mr. Geo. Orvis near Zetland, was completely destroyed by fire on Tuesday evening about six o'clock. The fire is supposed to have started at the chimney, and spread so rapidly that very little furniture was saved. The loss is partially covered by in- surance. A big convention of the Great Waterways Union and the Ilydro Electric Radials is being held in Ottawa this week and large delegations are in attend- ance from all places in Western Ontario. The Wingham dele- gation is composed of Mayor Ir- win, Reeve McKibbon, Coun- cillors Bell, Currie, Isbister, Patterson and Young and the party left here via G.T.R. on Wednesday afternoon. MARCH 1928 While Eldon Renwick, of the Howick-Carrick townlinc, was cutting wood in his bush recent- ly, his dog sighted a young deer and gave chase. The deer took to the open field, hut, being pretty well exhausted by the chase through the deep snow, was unable to clear the high rail fence that surrounded the field, and the dog caught it. Mr. Renwick's timely arrival, however, prevented the dog do- ing the deer much injury. The deer is a female, and looks to he icss than a year old. Fear- ing that it might fall victim to other dogs in the neighborhood, Mr. Renwick tied up the cap- tive's feet and took it house to his stable, where it is now com- fortably and safely housed. It was too timid to eat during the first few days in captivity, but it now eats out of Eldon's Maud and is becoming quite tame. MARCH 1939 The Curling Rink resounded with plenty of noise on Monday evening when a local Colts' Bonspiel was held. The skips on each of the six rinks had no previous experience as heads of rinks. The winners were: 1st, J. E. Currie, Geo. Orvis, F. Mc- Cormick, 11. L. Sherbondy skip, 2 wins plus 11; end. Dr. Torrance, W. Currie, E. M. Snell, 0. Ilaselgrove skip, wins plus :3rd, J. Fry, Dr. G. Ross, D. Kennedy, Bert Por- ter skip, 2 wins plus 5. Mr. and Mrs. T. J. McLean quietly celebrated their 4f'th wedding; anniversary on Thurs- day last week. Mr. and Mrs. McLean are both life-long resi- dents of Wingham. • Miss Margaret Copeland, who has been a clerk in Greer's Shoe Store for 15 years, has accepted a position with the Rupert Legate shoe fine at Owen Sound. MARCH 1949 In honour of Mr. W. F. Burg - man, who retired from C.N.R. service in March, his fellow employees met on Friday rvc- ning, Feb. 25th, to present hint with a token of remembrance and wish him and Mrs. Berg- man many years of health and happiness, Their association with the retiring agent had al- ways been pleasant as well as beneficial to all who had oc- casion to work with him as his knowledge of railway work had always been available to any who cared to seek it. All members of the council were present Monday evening for their regular meeting and before commencing the business period 'Mayor Reayie read an address to ex -Mayor Kennedy, who had been invited to attend, expressing the appreciation of the council for the valuable ser‘ ice he had rendered the town, especially during the past year, when new houses were being planned and erected. Reeve Johnson made the presen- tation of a Gladstone hag. Mr. R. E. McKinney of Lon- don, has bought the property on Ntinnie St., formerly owned by Mrs. A. Taylor of the Queens and at present occupied by R. R. 1lobden of the Hank of Com- merce.