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The Citizen, 2019-09-05, Page 5Other Views Cell phone ban doesn’t go far enough You’re voting with your dollars Shawn Loughlin Shawn’s Sense I’m going to step on some toes this week but you know what they say, to make an omelette you have to break some eggs. The provincial government recently announced that cell phones would be banned in classrooms for students, with the exception of situations when teachers feel they are conducive to education and I, for one, think that’s a wonderful idea, though not likely for the same reason that the provincial government does. The government feels that cellular phones and other personal mobile devices aren’t typically aiding in the education process throughout the normal course of the day. I’m not against digital devices in the classroom. Let’s get that settled right now. I think the fact that there are plans in place to have students receive and use iPads throughout senior elementary and high school is a great idea. It can save on paper, make sourcing information easier and, most importantly, provide an inexpensive way for schools to provide up-to-date information versus replacing large, expensive text books. I also believe that students need to learn how to use these digital devices. Nearly every profession uses some kind of digital device now-a-days, whether it’s for basic communication, typing, reviewing documents or coding the programs that other people use. All of that would seem to fly in the face of the headline though, wouldn’t it? If I’m against cell phones in the classroom, why would I be all for students using iPads? What I’m actually saying is that the cell phone ban doesn’t go far enough because we should be limiting cell phone usage for everyone in schools. Why? Well if you spend enough time on playgrounds taking pictures of children having fun, you’ll inevitably see, like I have on more than one occasion, a teacher staring intently at their cell phone instead of watching their charges. Heck, once upon a time, and I’ll not name names or locations here to protect the guilty, I took a photo of students doing something it turns out they weren’t supposed to. The students were playing a game I grew up playing on the playground but I guess it’s not quite as acceptable anymore because students could get hurt. In the background of the photo, however, was a teacher staring intently at their cell phone instead of stopping said activity. I’m not going to lie and say I’ve never got distracted on a digital device, but I’m not in charge of a bunch of impressionable young children when I’m on the clock. If I get distracted, I’ll have to answer to my editor, my publisher and The Citizen’s readers, but, odds are, no one is going to get hurt as a result. The Citizen was asked not to use the photo, which we obliged. We’ve made that call before too, because we’re not in the business of trying to get children in trouble. I’ve also seen teachers quietly checking their mobile devices when I visit in-session classes. Again, no names, but, as a professor of mine explained, everyone knows when someone checks their cell phone because very few people smile when they stare at their crotch. I’m not saying we should have signal blockers in schools that prevent cell phone usage (such devices do exist in some of the better movie theatres in the world). I’m not even saying teachers shouldn’t have cell phones at work. They have planning time and breaks just like everyone else and should be able to scroll Facebook, check Instagram or do online banking if they see fit. However, during class or on the playground, the devices should be left behind because there are very few people in the world who can keep an eye on an oversized classroom while simultaneously texting or posting to social media. Heck, I learned that as soon as Mary Jane was walking and that’s just with one child. So while I finally have found an educational change that Ontario’s Conservative government has implemented that I agree with, I do have to say that it doesn’t go far enough. Denny Scott Denny’s Den THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2019. PAGE 5. The culture of denial You have to wonder what kind of a strategy denial can be when it comes to some of the biggest topics of our time. When have denial, procrastination and delay ever paid off in a big way? The only example I can think of is the old, “the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese”, but I have always questioned the factual basis of that anecdote. Sure, there may have been a time or two when we found ourselves playing the role of the second mouse. Just last month, when Jess and I rented a car in Newfoundland, it took our luggage so long to get to us that by the time we got to the rental desk, they had sold out of compact (cheap) cars, which was what we had rented, so we received a free upgrade to an SUV. We were the second mouse there, but more often than not, denial and delay are not strategies upon which to hang your hat. Last week I attended the Blyth Festival panel entitled “What is a good death?” with various medical and palliative care professionals. One of the main topics of discussion was sheltering people from death. As one panelist said, death is the only 100 per cent certainty. (The saying goes that death and taxes are the only certainties in life, but it seems like U.S. President Donald Trump has done a pretty good job of skirting the latter.) Yet, people are uncomfortable discussing death. Parents shield their children from death and no one discusses it until they absolutely have to. And because of that culture of denial, when those discussions do take place, the participants are wholly unprepared because they’ve never discussed meeting their end. When you think about it, you really are doing your children a disservice if you shield them from the realities of death. Much like sheltering them from the real world, only for them to get metaphorically punched in the face with it when they move out, leaving death as a surprise that only pops up when absolutely necessary is no way to teach young people. Imagine if other parts of life were taught that way. Imagine if sexual education only kicked in when a young person is on the cusp of a sexual encounter or if soldiers were taught the ins and outs of their assault rifle only when enemies appeared on the horizon. The key to being successful in any field is training and preparation – and, of course, training is simply another form of preparation – so really it all comes down to preparation. We accept this in so many aspects of life, but when it comes to death, everyone expects to live forever. Death and dying will always be an uncomfortable conversation, but going back to that Blyth Festival panel, it’s truly one of the few experiences we are all destined to share. Think of climate change denial. Think of that feeling we’ve all had, warning us not to go to the doctor for fear of hearing bad news. Think of turning up your music just a few notches louder to drown out the sound your car is making. Denial gets us nowhere, it simply kicks a can down the road and whether it’s a small can like your car’s noisy brakes or a big can like death, no situation is ever improved by a strategy of denial. To glean even more wisdom from the Festival panel, the experts suggested that the solution isn’t a steep mountain to climb. All it takes is discussion. Talk with your loved ones about certain issues, get them out in the open and raise everyone’s level of comfort. Putting your head in the sand and pretending something isn’t happening has never been an effective strategy and yet examples of it continue to dominate our landscape. Hardly a week goes by without Shawn, Denny and Deb getting compliments about what a good newspaper The Citizen is. What the readers don’t realize is that they, the readers, play a big part in that success. Oh, I’m not downplaying the intelligence and hard work that The Citizen team puts into turning out this praiseworthy paper, but if that effort wasn’t being rewarded by readers subscribing, this wouldn’t be the only county newspaper that has a growing circulation, not a declining one. Consumers seldom seem to recognize the role they have in shaping their communities. While citizens vote once every four years for the municipal councillors who control their community’s infrastructure like roads and fire service, as consumers they vote every week with their shopping dollars about what the community’s main street will look like. From the days of horses and buggies through the days of primitive cars, even hamlets like Auburn and Ethel had busy main streets because people couldn’t travel far to shop. Even into the 1960s and early 1970s, when gasoline seemed expensive for people and cars weren’t as dependable, people travelled to their closest town or village to shop. The typical main street would have grocery stores, butcher shops, a drug store, hardware stores, clothing stores for men and women, shoe stores and appliance stores. Main streets were so bustling that it was often challenging to find a parking place. The presence of thriving merchants meant newspapers thrived. Seeking customers, these businesspeople would use their local newspaper to reach potential customers. With a change in printing technology in the late 1960s that allowed publishers to easily and cheaply increase the number of pages, newspapers swelled in size. More reporters were hired to cover more events and dig out more feature stories on interesting local people. Local newspapers reached their peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s when they provided a valuable service to their communities. But times changed – or rather consumer attitudes changed. Shoppers’ expectations rose. They saw what shopping opportunities people had in cities and they craved it. They wanted more variety, and they wanted it for less money. At about the same time, large corporate chain retailers began to look toward rural areas as offering potential growth. They selected the largest towns and built slightly smaller versions of their city stores. Their buying power meant they could offer prices lower than locally-owned main street merchants. One by one, customers began driving out of town to shop (probably grumbling all the time about the high cost of gas). A familiar downhill spiral begins. With fewer customers perhaps the merchant cuts back on his stock and soon frustrated customers drive to larger stores seeking variety. Stock gets out of date. More customers leave. Seeking to save money the merchant may stop advertising in the local newspaper, and his business shrinks some more. Since advertising pays most of a newspaper’s bills, the paper shrinks in size and its ability to provide news coverage declines. Perhaps reporters are laid off. Soon main streets were transformed from bustling community centres into sad reminders of what used to be. Merchants nearing retirement found no one willing to buy them out so they closed. Others gave up the battle to survive and closed shop. Soon communities were conducting “Win This Space” contests, offering free rent for business people willing to take over vacant stores. The merchants of those thriving days were also often community leaders, sitting on town or village council, the local school board, hospital board or service clubs. This source of community leadership was lost. Even in regional shopping centres, fortunate enough to be chosen by national or international retail chains, stores are usually run by managers dropped into the community who may not put down roots and assume community leadership. The newspaper business underwent a similar form of concentration of ownership outside the community. Beginning in the 1960s, local newspapers were sold to regional publishing groups which later, in the 1990s and early 2000s, were sold to national chains. When there were fewer merchants to advertise, newspapers became less profitable, but shareholders expected their dividends, so expenses were cut. The downward spiral began. Cuts were made which meant the newspaper offered less to readers and advertisers. People stopped subscribing, which meant more cuts were made which meant the newspaper offered less. And so on. Being owned by dozens of local shareholders who invested because they wanted a local newspaper in Blyth and Brussels, The Citizen has never been about maximizing profit but, rather, about maximizing service to the community. Still, it’s hard to keep doing what the gang is doing. Fortunately, they have a farm magazine, The Rural Voice (which also gets many compliments) to share the burden of their overhead costs, but even then, they must turn out specials like this week’s Thresher Reunion section or their home and garden section in spring and fall. It adds extra work for all the staff but it’s the only way to pay the bills and allow The Citizen to serve as well as it does. There are challenges ahead, such as a generation of news consumers that thinks all news should be free and on the internet, not realizing someone must pay so that reporters can go out and report the news. So, the future of local news will, eventually, once again have consumers voting with their dollars. Your choices will decide how much local news you get. Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk