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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-09-06, Page 20PAGE 2A—GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6,1979 Essayists vie for .position inEditor4'or The Goderich Signal -Star is interested in children. Children are the nation's future. In the spring, The Goderich Signal -Star sent letters out to all the schools in its readership area. •Teachers were asked to have as many of their students as were interested, write an essay about their rights as children. The essay, in conjunction with The International Year of the Child, could be as long or as short as the student wanted it to be. The student was to express his own views on being a child In today's world, and how things could be improved, for children in the future. The teachers were also asked to make a selection of not more than five essays Jeff Bissett BY JULIE MEYERS Do you think children should have rights too? 1 do and so do many other children. Rights are a part of a child's life. Love, affection and understanding Make life loving. If a child is sick medical care is part of their need. Do you give your child protection from negiection? Every child needs a friend. If your child is handicapped, special care is a helping hand. Frightful happenings bring fear into a child's life so relieve your child from disasterous feelings. All children should learn to be useful, not spoiled or over worked. Education is needed to learn to read, write, use correct grammar and to learn how to have fun the right way. All children should have and know their name and nationality. The most important right, us, as children should have, is.to enjoy our rights regardless of colour -sex -religion -nationality or social origin. . Remember -Children Have Rights Too! Victoria Public School from among all those written in their school. These top essays were to be given to .The, Goderich Signal -Star for publication during the summer. Following publication in the newspaper of the winning essays from the schools, a panel of independent judges will judge the work of the children. One winner will be selected from each school. The judges are John Stringer, principal of Goderich District Collegiate Institute; John Penn, director of Family and Children's Ser- vices in Goderich; and Sylvia Brady, a Goderich housewife and mother who works with local Guides and Brownies. The winner from each school will spend a day at The Goderich Signal -Star later this fall. These students will each be Editor For A Day. They will work directly with the editorial •staff of Signal -Star for a full day and will be encouraged to ex- press their views on matters for publication the following week. BY JEFF BISSETT Some adults seem to think that children have no rights at all. - In a manner of speaking, children can do, almost anything that they want to within limits. Most grown-ups think that their children can only go to school to get an education and not be able to make decisions on their own. If they are not allowed a chance to'say what they think, what kind of a person will they grow up to be? Many questions have been asked by many a child for which an answer has never been given. Don't you think we have the right to know? There are many things some children are too young to know about and should these occasions arise, it would be better to wait until the parents think it is the proper time to tell them. Children think that their parents are being mean when they ask if they can cut the grass when he or she is only eight years old, but maybe that child is not mature enough and the parents are not doing it for the sake of mean- ness but for the good of their health. Many children at that age are over mature and could possibly do it as well as an adult but would he or she be as quick thinking if something happ.ened. Would your child know what to do?` Some children know how to drive but the law says you have to be sixteen years and over. Now it is different when it comes to sports or any other recreation because any child has the right to decide whether he or she wants to participate in the sport or not. There are many, parents that just push their children into different things that they really have no interest in. Don't you think if you were a child you should have the right to say no and join in a function that you would be interested in, and also enjoy? Every day at school and at home children are learning about life and how to deal with it. If they are old enough to eat, walk, and talk why can't they make decisions and know right from wrong? People should respect • the rights of children and not always be pd ting them down. At school teachers are teachingus how to do these things and a lot more that parents didn't learn when they were children. When your child comes home from school and tells you about something .he or she has learned„ that day shouldn't you respect his or her right by listening to,them. Every child has the right to say what he thinks is the right thing that concerns him in a family affair. Questions.upon questions will go unanswered for weeks, maybe years, maybe never, if children haven't the right to ask them. Children have rights too, you know. Victoria Public School John Empson BY CAROL MACEWAN I do not think it is fair for parents to say "Eat your liver all up" when they know you hate liver.(Or something else you don't like.) And I bet that when they were kids they didn't like it loo much either. On bikes they say that we are treated like other vehicles. But why do we have to move off to the side of the road? If we're supposed to be treated like vehicles shouldn't we get the same rights as cars and trucks? Such as: a whole lane.(or at least part of one) Going through 'intersections first if we get there first, and sometimes passing rights. • Around the house if you have one accident it ruins it all. ° Take my big sister. When she was little she ripped• her toe open when she was riding her tricyt:le. I wasn't even horn then and now in the summer .1 can't even wear hare feet to go across the. road. There are many good rights • too. We don't have to pay for taxes, (thank goodness for that ) we sometimes get allowances. We have a roof over our heads, not like the kids in India where the life expectancy is 35 to 50. Now that's not very old. We don't have to pay for groceries. (Except for some candy.) • - I'm even lucky enough to write this com- position. I have good parents and I'm pretty healthy. I have a doctor and a dentist and my parents can afford it. ADay contest They will be guests of The Signal -Star for lunch and will be the recipients o1 some soi ventrs of their day as editor. Signal -Star is pleased and proud this week to publish these prize-winning essays from boys and girls who at the time of the essay contest were students at Robertson Memorial School in Goderich; Victoria Public School In Goderich; Brookside Public School; and Colborne Central School. Others schools in the area did not participate. „ Watch later In the fall for the names of the winners. But first, read the thoughts of all these young people and learn from them. For indeed, children have rights too. BY JOHN EMPSON• Please give us a chance, use less fuel. You are lucky to have fuel now. Just wait, by 1980 fuel prices will be so high there wil be hardly any cars on the roads. You don't have to waste all the fuel now or what will be left for us? Why do they put all those horrible shows on TV? The monster movies, violence in cartoons, all those police shows when they're shooting people. Grown ups might like it but kids shouldn't want to watch them. Then when we grow up we will do things wrong. I would love to get away from my parents for a few weeks with my friends. We would go camwoods.ping or go swimming and explore the We should have our own rooms away from sisters and brothers. They get in your room and pull it apart. They wreak your toys and get you in trouble. - I wish we had a skateboard•park. My friends and I would love one. I have the equipment, but I'll just have to stick with my friend's driveway. Do you ever wonder what it would be. like to have no mother or father,' or every time you come home you get beaten. When you come home you don't see your parents at all? You guessed it, child abuse! Hundreds of children in Toronto sleep in doorsteps or live\•in the slum area. Millions of people are addicted to drugs smoking or drinking. They don't know why they do these things, but I think they do it to change their feelings or just that they want to be part of the crowd. Just remember these things fuel,,TV shows, parents, rights, abuse, drugs, smoking and drinking. These things count for us in the future. Victoria Public School Kids in Goderich have many recreational activities. If we get bored around the house, we can run over to the park or even the school. If something happens it's usually the kids that get out first, or to the hospital. So parents remember "CHILDREN HAVE RIGHTS TOO!" Victoria Public School BY BIRGIT SCHULZ I think there are some rights that kids should have that they don't have now, like having a horse or an indoor swimming pool or something they really like. • But some kids, like 'me, don't really want more rights because they have enough rights already. Too many rights might make people greedy. Victoria Public School Children have BUSINESS DFRECTORY rights too BY RHONDA BEAN Do you know who I am? I am one of your millions of children. But I am not only that - I am tomorrow. Yet somehow, you•don't seem to realize how important we as children are. We aren't afraid to want to take all sthe hate, poverty aid. Children change bad about -the' and greed in the world and place it somewhere to be forgotten. However, we are taught that our way is not the way to "succeed." Succeed • in what? Creating enemies, isolating ourselves from all positive emotions.' and destroying, what was once beautiful? We need help, understanding and trust. What we need best' from all people is love. Or did people ruin that also? We have used the world mercilessly, exhausted your golden treasure and then Overpopulated your land. - This only ledto discovery, starvation, disease and death. The people who suffered were mostly helpless children needing love and a better place to live: t.verybody talks of helping one another but nobody listens, People should listen 'to each other and settle their differences. Everybody was once equal and willing to help one another. Children today listen to each other and try to help one another anyway they can, If only older people would learn things from children and use ideas that children come up with. Look around you. What do..you see besides Pain and sorrow. Do you see any hope ` For the Children of Tomorow. Touch around you? What do you feel besides, Hate and frustration? Do you feel any peace For the Children of Tomorrow? Listen around you. What do you hear besides Cries and pleas, • Do you hear any laughter For the Children of Tomorrow? Look, touch, listen, feel for them The Children - their future Our Children of Tomorrow... Colborne Central _. BY TE,RESA CANNON Don't treat me like a child! Being treated that vyay wouldn't be so had if children got more respect. A lot of adults seem to think being a child today is great. Parents (especially grandparents) say .,things like, "I never had it so good," and "You should he more grateful. Let me tell you when I was a kid..." For children today, life probably is better than it was thirty years ago. There still are rights children deserve. Children are as human as anyone else. We deserve as much courtesy as other buyers in a store. There is no reason why someone old enough to shop alone should he turned away from a store. . Antique shops turn away their business because of disrespect for children. Sometimes we're accused of shoplifting. I was accused ,of taking something from a store by the manager because of a bulky object in my pocket. Adults con't have that problem in that store. First time, first serve doesn't always apply. In a busy restaurant often an adult gets served before •a child, even if the child enters the restaurant first. In another area there 'are apartments and motels with signs saying, "No children, no pets." We deserve better than that. When we can't do or have something we often ask why. Answers like, "because I say so," from parents are aggravating. Information shouldn't be kept away from,anyone without a good reason. This especialy goes for cases of adoption. Everyone has the right to know about them- selves. If a child found out he or she was adopted from another person (examples, neighbour, bully, aunt), he or she might feel angry and ashamed. If he or she was brought up in harmony with .the idea the child wouldn't feel as bad and unloved. For children to he treated better in this arca we need respect and support. When children are treated better everyone will want to be treated like a child. Colborne Central • 8 1 4 e 1 1 1 1 1 R.J. NEPHEW PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY 65 MONTREAL ST. 524-2029 CLOSED MONDAYS H.O. JERRY LTD. Complete line of PAPER PRODUCTS PARTY SUPPLIES Products for every user. H.O: JERRY LTD. "The Paper People" 185 Park St. GODERICH 524-2855 THE COACH HOUSE TRAVEL SERVICE 59 HAMILTON ST.. GODERICH 524-8366 OPEN: - Monday -Friday 9:00-5:30 CLOSED SATURDAYS DURING JUNE, JULY 8 AUGUST FULLY APPOINTED FOR BUSINESS OR PLEASURE TRA VEL r Ronald L. McDonald CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT 47 CHURCH ST., 524-6253 Goderich, Ontario 'DIESEL Pumps and Injectors Repaired For All Popular Makes Huron. Fuel Injection Equipment Bayfield Rd. 483-7971 THE OLD FASHIONED HARDWARE STORE -GARDEN SUPPLIES Fertilizers Hand Tools Seeds Dutch Sets -SWIMMING POOL CHEMICALS -C.I.L. PAINT -WALLPAPER -WHOLESALE CABLE -FIRE EXTINGUISHER SALES & SERVICE -HORSE SUPPLIES -MODEL RAILROAD SUPPLIES Free Delivery in Town Competitive Prices PHIL MAIN HARDWARE For Home, Farm d Industry 84 KINGSTON GODEIICH 524.9671 null'. st�■I■ VISA Man Aninimmunninumummunina acGillivray&Co. MONTR[AL TORONTO RRAMPTON HAMILTON CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS ST, CATHARjN[S PORT COLRORNE NALD E. TAKALO, C.A. N.�a RESIDENT PATNER CALGARYEDMONTON HE SQUARE VAac*WIDERICH, ONT. Sal -2077 000/11101 D.B. Palmer Doctor of'Chiroprattic • 73 Montreal St. Queen St. Goderich Blyth 524-4555 .523-9321 R.W. BELL • OPTOMETRIST The Square 524-7661 Cards For ' Ali Occasions Gifts *Books *Stationery Supplies *Records . ANDERSON'S BOOK CENTRE 33 EAST ST. GODERICH Durst, Vodden 8 Bender CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS 37 West Street Goderich, Ont. 524-2011 - @ecora inq fd 33 Huron St., Clinton Box 337, Clinton NOM 1L0 482-9542 529-7939 Paints, Stains, Min Wax products, Wall coverings, Draperies, Floor Sanding, Texturing Interior & Exterior Contracting FREE ESTIMATES Science and Fashion In Hair Care • M'Lady complete hair caro services • M'Lords hair cutting & styling — Tues., Thurs. evening • Senior citizens discounts Wednesday afternoons Plus • Nucleic acid & protein hair treatments AT Where??? The Beauty Lounge "Naturally" 81 East St., GODERICH 524-8994 MacEwen Insurance Agency Residential - Commercial Auto -Life 38 St David St., Goderich Ph. at -9531 or 524-2522