The Goderich Signal-Star, 1986-12-10, Page 210
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GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1986—PAGE 1A
SECTION
BY
WILLIAM
THOMAS
v
Students enjoy theme
day at Robertson
Activities designed to help children learn about themselves
were part of Robertson Memorial Public School's first theme
day held recently.
School resource teacher Arlene McMillen acted as co-
ordinator for the "I'm The Only Me" theme day held last
Wednesday at the school.
students from Grades 3 to 6 participated in the day -long
nture, attending five out of 10 activities. The students were
elided into 10 teams consisting of pupils from each grade,
IVtrs. McMillen said,
The day began with Mr. Floyd Herman, vice-principal of
the school, teaching the theme song to the students. He was
followed by Mr. Angus MacLennan, principal, who welcomed
visiting teachers from the Edcuation Centre in Clinton. The
students were then shown a film entitled "The Wizard"
$ which dealt with self-concepts.
Each group of students then moved to their first activity.
Among the list of activities were painting murals, making big
books, drama, music, role playing, horoscopes and bir-
thdays, computers and math, puppet making, lessons in
social skills and cooking.
'This is our first venture into this type of day -long activity.
The reaction of the children seems to be that they are enjoy-
ing it and having a great time. We hope to have another
theme day again in the near future," Mrs. McMillen said.
Many of the children supported Mrs. McMillen's views on
the theme day.
"The activities are fun," Grade 5 student Colin Pickett
said, adding that he enjoyed the role playing activity the
most since it allowed the children to"act out other people.
Robin Adams, also a Grade 5 student, said "It's fun; more
fun than homework and it's really exciting."
"We get awayfrom school and have no homework," was ,
Grade 4 student Jeremy Cook's contribution.
At the end of the day, all of the students met in the gym-
nasium to end the day with the theme song. Projects com-
pleted during the day, such as murals and big books, were
distributed among the classrooms so that all of the children
could see what had been done by other groups. •
were Mr.
Teachers from the Education Centre taking part
•'° Warren Robinson (drama), Mrs. Didi Graham (puppets),
Mrs. Carol Simons (role playing) and Ms. Charlotte Fanjoy
(soci skills). Parent volunteers included Mrs. Clutton and
Mrs. arsh. Robertson teachers also assisted with
some of the activities.
•
1;r1A 6114 "I IS
conservative
in death
In places like Wainfleet where time
passes slowly, death is a means of
measurement.
I'm not so much fearful of death as I
am fascinated by its final trappings.
I guess you could say I'm sort of a part-
time scholar of burial rites, a student of
stiff disposal if you will.
Canadians generally act as conser-
vatively in death as they do in life and
with about as much enthusiasm. Cana-
dians don't truss their corpses upon
wooden platforms and encourage
vultures to have a go at them. We don't
bind them to public biers, and set fire to
them or tightly wrap them up in bed
sheets and feature them at family func-
tions as some countries are accustomed
to do.
The manner in which we inter our
deceased must reflect our national
character. The ceremony must be expen-
sive; the greater the expense, the
greater the self-inflictedguilt in paying
the whole thing off. The ritual must be
the standard funeral service, for
anything different reflects creativity and
individuality, things a good Canadian
would rather take to the grave with him.
Canadians do not grieve openly, question
the why of it even secretly or make pay-
ment lately.
In short, we bury our dead the way we
pay our taxes and for the same reason -
because we're supposed to do it that way.
Death and taxes are two of the three
guarantees of life in Canada. The third is
that we will always elect politicians who
will raise taxes, `"end when it comes to
solving a problem without raising taxes,
hope the politicians will remain essen-
tially brain dead..
But Americans are different than
Canadians - in some ways better, in most
ways worse - but usually different.
A recently deceased American is much
more likely to be seen confined in the
back of a big black hearse adorned with
"I'd Rather Be Sailing" bumper
stickers,
' Perhaps it's because they've been liv-
ing .and, therefore, dying longer than
Canadians, but whatever it is, when it
comes to death they really live
news
A few years back, I clipped
item which reported that Stanley ZalazrY
of Sunnyvale, California' had invented .
and was marketing the first-ever talking
tombstone, For $10,000, Stanley and com-
pany would install a solar -operated
recording device in your headstone and
you, uncertain even of your own destina-'
tion, could tell friends and family where
to go'after you'd gone.
I don't know whatever happened to
Stan's talking tombstones but I imagine
some mischievous kids with those elec-
tronic garage door openers had a ball set-
ting off all the recordings at once, turn-
ing the entire cemetery into one big
chaotic conversation not unlike a local ci-
ty council meeting.
I would have loved to have heard some
of the messages: "I'd like to thank my
wife and kids for driving me here."
A contemporary contraption of the
talking tombstone was the coffee table
casket. To ease the anguish of death, the
manufacturer stated he would build a
beautiful hand -tooled casket you could
get to know like a piece of the furniture.
You could serve lunch on it, store your
albums in it and, when the time came,
ride it to the great white Graceland in the
sky.
Certainly, it was a tacky idea and not
everybody wants to take the final ride in
a container marked by cigarette burns
and coffee stains. But you have to admit
being buried with a coffee table would be
a real conservation piece once they'd
hooked up your talking tombstone.
And recently yet another American
creation in the art of interment has sur-
faced: the drive-through funeral home.
At •the Frank Givens Funeral Home in
Detroit, Michigan, you pull up, putyour'
John Henry on a condolence card, pass
the viewing window displaying the guest
of honor, stop for an appropriate and
heart -felt moment of silence and you're
out in 30 seconds flat. The Frank Givens
Funeral Home is "The McDonald's" of
mortuaries; it's take-out mourning with
respects t� go. It's the kind of place
where a bad driver could make a wrong
turn, become part of a funeral procession
and still get back on the street without
having missed the changing oft
stoplight.
Just beyond the bay window the
deceased in conveniently displayed at a
45 degree angle for maximum visibility.
And not unlike McDonald's double
cheese/double burger special, two bodies
at the Givens Home can be displayed at
once. I guess the idea here is that if you
got real lucky you could attend two
funerals simultaneously and cut your
Mourning time in halt, 15 seconds a stiff
so to speak.
And the fact that it's open after mid-
night means the whole family can enjoy
the last respectful ride. "Come on now
kids, turn that music down, show a little
consideration, that's your of grandpa up
there in the box." is 81
And Frank Givens, by the way,
yearslseold,tand as aasuch, of his own display
closer and
closer to being a p
Turn to page 4
Grade 2 student Michael Otterbein works on a mural entitled My Favourite Per-
son, one of the activities available to students during "I'm The Only Me" theme
day at Robertson Memorial Public School last week. (photo by Lou -Ann Hope)
In the photo above, Grade 8 student Aaron Duckworth (sitting) teaches Grade 4 students
Scott Deveau and Jamie Redmond how to work a computer. At left, Nina Romano, a
Grade 6 student who recently came to Canada with her family from Yugoslavia, paints
leaves on her section of a mural. Below, Grade 4 student Eric Chisholm
his 11l Vdasplaays f or and
cookies made by a group of students while Christopher Jermyn,
Hope)
burh
Angie Campbell sample the home-made cookies. (photos by
wJ
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