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Times-Advocate, 1999-01-27, Page 9Crol 1‘1).r\ ( "On' adS Exeter Times -Advocate Wednesday, January 27, 1999 Page 9 Learning to better understand your children Parents need to better understand their children. By Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF EXETER — In order to better understand their chil- dren, parents need to know what their children are learning in school, according to a parent education co- ordinator. To achieve this, Chris deBoer of Rural Response for Healthy Children has set up a course for parents begin- ning tonight at McCurdy Public School in Huron Park: Family Guide to Second Step — Parenting Strategies for a Safer Tomorrow. The course is a response to the second step curricu- lum taught in some county schools. The curriculum focuses on empathy training, impulse control, problem solving and anger management. deBoer said the course for parents was designed to ensure parents are teaching their children the same skills at home as they learn in school. The second step curriculum began a few years ago and, although it isn't mandatory for teachers to adopt the curriculum, deBoer said teachers are slowly seeing the benefits of teaching students things like empathy towards others and anger management. Such skills learned by students, she said, .can decrease the amount of discipline teachers have to dish out in the classroom. Parents have to be involved in their children's educa- tion, deBoer said. She said programs such as the second step parenting course are more important in today's society than in the past. "Parenting now is just so tough," deBoer said, explain- ing that the increase of divorces, separations and the breakdown in the traditional family structure have made parenting more difficult. She said the prospect of being a parent can be overwhelming for some people and the skills learned at second step parenting can pre- pare parents for child rearing. She added that the common belief that people learn all the parenting skills necessary from their parents just isn't true — additional training is necessary. "There's no such thing as the perfect parent." deBoer, who ran the parenting program: at Exeter Public School in the fall, said she now has seven people enrolled for the course at McCurdy. While she admits response has been slow, she said the parents who have taken part in the past have enjoyed the course and over time more people will -want to be involved. While deBoer's course begins by focusing on the sec- ond step curriculum; through a parent's perspective, deBoer said the group can discuss any parenting issue participants want to discuss. Such discussions are intended to make parents more confident in dealing with their children and to open the doors of communi- cation between parents and their children. deBoer, who has three children, said teaching the course has taught her new parenting skills. And while the course is primarily intended to help families with young children, deBoer said it also improves school - parent relationships by getting parents more involved with education. Rural Response for Healthy Children is a non-profit organization funded through Health Canada. deBoer, who has been the organization's parent education co- ordinator since July 1997, is also involved in four other parenting programs: the Parent -Child Mother Goose program, which focuses on the parent-child bond through nursery rhymes; Nobody's Perfect, geared for parents of children up to six years old, which teaches health, first aid, discipline and understanding children; • Early Childhood Steps, similar to the Nobody's Perfect program; and Parents on Board, which shows parents how to teach their children achieve academic excel- lence. Family Guide to Second Step — Parenting Strategies for a Safer Tomorrow runs on Wednesday evenings until March 3. -For more information, call deBoer at 1- 800-479-0716. Independent producers -processor partnership proposed By Kate Monk TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF EXETER. - Independent pork produc- ers shouldinvest in independent processors. That was the message of Ken Palen of Kenpal Farm Pro4ucts Inc. of Centralia to more than 400 farmers and industry people at the South Huron Recreation Centre in Exeter on Jan. 20. People listened. On Jan. 22, Kenpal released survey results from farmers at the meeting. Sixty-four per cent of the farms represented at the meeting com- pleted surveys and .97.4 per cent said they would support the Ontario Hog Producers Association. (Results_ were still being received after Regional Country News went to press.) Reviving the shelved Ontario Hog Producers Association would provide_. the vehicle for investment in the proces- sor industry. The OHPA would exist with full Ontario Pork Producers Marketing Board support. Ninety-one per cent of the surveys said the OPPMB should administer a check -off of their hogs that could be for- - warded to the OHPA to be invested in the Ontario meat processing industry with special focus on the smaller, inde- pendent provincial abattoirs in Ontario. The average check -off per hog indicated was $3.19. The investment will allow the packers to upgrade to the new HACCP quality control standards requested by the retailers and expand their facilities. There are 250 small to medium-sized abattoirs in Ontario. Under the plan, producers would invest and take equity shares up to a maximum of 49 per cent of the business so the entrepreneurs could maintain control of their companies. "It is critical that the entrepreneurs maintain control of their companies to continue to do the expert job of process- ing and marketing meat," Palen said. The OHPA would insist that any plant participating in the investment program • agree to adapt a HACCP Q.0 standard allowing meat products processed in the plant to trade provincially, inter - provincially and internationally. Producers would also ask that a large portion, if not all of the meat be brand- ed .so that Ontario consumers have the choice of supporting quality Ontario pork or consuming exports. To support marketing this brand label, the producer investor group may approach restaurants, institutions and grocery stores asking them to allow a certain amount of shelf space for their product. To further help the independent processor, the OHPA may provide a financial benchmarking comparison, done by a third party accounting firm, to the partners. Super;large packers in North America now have access to this information through a company called Agrimetrics. Palen believes all sectors of the live- stock industry will benefit through increased capacity from the investment. Local jobs will be creat- ed, increasing the tax base locally, provincially and federally. A more diversified meat industry will add major stability not exist- ing in the province today, resulting in more capital investment in the feed industry, trucking industry and other sectors that present- ly support independents at the farm and meatprocessing level. "It is imperative we not continue to rely on the U.S. to process our meats,", Palen said. "We are at big risk to trade disputes and border closing. The direct result of a U.S. border closing on live pork and beef would be total devasta- tion of the Ontario livestock industry as we know it today." • Therefore, the OHPA will be asking the provincial govern- ment for help with seed money for the project by matching producer check -off funds — two dollars for every one producer dollar in year one, one dollar for every one producer dollar in year two, and fifty cents for every one producer dollar in year three. Based on the survey results, Palen said, the project will move forward with a board of directors meeting followed by a_general.meeting when more infor- mation is available. "It is imperative we not continue to rely on the U.S. to process our meats," KEN PALEN, KENPAL FARM PRODUCTS INC. • More than 400 people attended a meeting in Exeter last week to hear Ken Palen's plan for investment in independent pork processors.