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p4 nrandermpllyq i993f stux write us or fax us numbers at right stay in school takes on whole new meaning advice for the 70s stay in school advice for the 80s stay in school but get good grades advice for the 90s get into a school stay there and get real ly good grades parents will do their children the biggest favor since offering them life by forcing them to attain the highest grades possi ble and to stay in school for as long as they can stand it the competition for first year college and university students has always been stiff but it just got a whole lot tougher declining funding fewer postgraduate positions more stringent grant and loans poli cies and enormous unemploy ment figures have driven young people back to school in record numbers viewpoint andrew mair and the simple fact is that if you dont have the marks you wont make the grade as well even if you do per form well in high school and beyond your chances of land ing a plum career are slim to none college applications amount to 105000 this year for a mea ger 70000 placements in ontarios 23 community col leges the rush to get into the col lege system seems to be coming from those high school students unable to attend university because they signed up for gen eral courses or assumed there would be trade apprenticeships out there when they graduated destreaming of high school students may buy some time for those who have not made up their minds whether they wish to attend college or uni versity or enter the trades by the tender age of 13 actually young apprentices do very well and can attain a lucrative career in the trades however it should be every parents goal to have their chil dren attain as much education as possible regardless of career aspirations parents who are resigned to having their children leave after high school are deluding themselves and their children in 10 years a high school edu cation will only be the begin ning retraining will take place constantly and adult education will have to be ongoing no longer can we be compla cent about our childrens edu cation it is the most impor tant gift we can give them and those parents that are not preparing their children now may find that they will be sup porting their children long into their old age markham economist and sun st0uffville tribune uxbridge tribune weekender edition a metroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher jo ann stevenson editoruhchief paula crowell editor andrew mair editor debraweller director of advertising barry goodyear director of distribution vivian otieil business manager pamela nichols operations manager markham 2942200 sales 7987624 classi fied 2944331 stouffville 6402100 uxbridge 8529741 2948244 distribution and administration 9 heritage rd markham l3p1m2 fax markham 2941538 stouffville 640- 5477 uxbridge 8524355 the markham economist and sun stouflville tri bune and uxbridge tribune published every wednesday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing group of subur ban newspapers which includes ajax pickering news advertiser barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post couingwood connection etobicoke guardian the liberal georgetown inde- eendentacton free press kingston this week indsay this week milton canadian champion mississauga news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawawhitbv this week peterborough this week scarborough mirror the era banner contents not to be reproduced without written permission from the publisher when a student hurts a knee wholl give a hug m mmmmmmmmammmm fpmijiiiijm myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy mmmrnmmxmmwymi mmmmmyymmmmz vvxvvi tmltetkekds asiehonpf y if r boo of snwimapiie clothes b brian basset i i w 1- frtv v tr you know the pc thing politi cal correctness wherein a bunch of selfappointed good taste arbiters tell us whats acceptable and whats not vis a vis culture fashion language i get nervous when i see what the thinlipped pc police can do to culture and fashion how they can geld a stratford production of the merchant of venice or torpedo a north york revival of showboat i dont much care for what the pc movement is doirg to language either redefining short people as vertically challenged insisting that a quadriplegic isnt crippled merely differently abled denouncing school dictionaries as racist because one of the many definitions of the color black is evil well thats okay eons after our humorless and soulless semantic monitors have turned to dust dame english feisty old broad that she is will right herself like a gyroscope and sail on when it comes to the new intol erance its not language im wor ried about its behaviour take for example the hug among the simplest of wordshug from the old norse hugga meaning com fort soothe its a simple basic word for a simple basic human activity hugging except its not so simple any more astc a teacher any teacher when i was a kid in grade 5 1 had a teacher by the name of miss sanford she hugged if you got something right on the blackboard or brought her a praying mantis or finally mastered the nine times table or if she just felt like it miss sanford was apt to fling her chalk skyward and throw her arms out ward and plant a great big hug on you girl boy janitor principal well not the principal but just about anyone else especially her kids i got some of the best hugs of my life from miss sanford shes retired now and a good thing too if miss sanford went around hugging her students nowadays shed probably wind up serving three to five im joking but just barely i know a master printmaker and art instructor who answered a knock at his door last year to find a couple of policemen standing there yes he said youre under arrest they said and they cuffed him and popped him in the back of a cruiser and took him basic black arthur black downtown without a word of explanation to his family bosnia no nicaragua beirut nope small town ontario his crime well he had been playing a game of pickup basketball with his ado lescent son and a bunch of kids in the schoolyard that evening one of the kids had complained to his parents that the teacher had touched him during the game thats all it took to go from respected pillar of the community to accused pervert in the lockup that teacher spent two nights in jail then one year of hell waiting for his case to come to trial dur ing that time eggs were thrown at his house his kids were harassed at school there were obscene phone calls when his case came to trial the courtroom was packed the mans minister was there so was his doctor and a platoon of loyal friends who knew he was inno cent just about everybody this side of mother teresa testified to the sterling character of the man the judge was furious with a laser glare at the police and a sul phurous lecture about wasting court time on a case that was without a shred of evidence he threw it out of court which brings me back to hug ging if a person can get arrested and humiliated for an alleged acci dental elbow in a game of pickup hoop ball what would the sen- tence be for a miss sanford who hugged us all with or without a basketball more to the point where does the new intolerance leave teach ers nowadays is it worth their career to ruffle a kids cowlick when hes just scored a touch down would they dare to comfort a student who crumples weeping under the stress of impending exams if your kid falls in the schoolyard and comes up squalling with a bloody knee is the teacher going to be there to administer the obli gatory therapeutic hug kptbloaiylikely t