The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

50 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday June 13, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Student tackles gender discrimination issue By Shailee Koranne Grade 6, Abbey Lane Public School G ender Discrimination is ridiculous. Girls can do whatever boys can. Of course, there are some things women are incapable of doing, but that goes for men too. I have heard boys at school exclaim to their friends in disgust, "You throw like a girl." Or even, "She can't play soccer with us, are you crazy? She's a girl. She can't play soccer here." In fact, when my gym instructor declared that we would be having a girls vs. boys volley-ball game, the boys in Grade 6 started making comments like, "The game will be forfeited by the girls because they'll break a nail serving the ball" and "They're going to get new outfits to play the game."" This whole Battle of the Genders was ended when our gym instructor found out about the ludicrous comments and put off the tournament. Did you know that women weren't allowed to play soccer in the Olympics until 1996? That's so sexist. Especially when you consider the fact that the record for most international goals scored by a woman in world matches is set by a woman called Mia Hamm from the U.S. with 144 goals. Whereas, the men's record is only 103 by Ali Daei from Iran. Mia Hamm scored 41 more goals that Ali Daei. Have you heard of the Boston Marathon? It was first held in 1897, but women were not allowed to run in the marathon until as recently as 1972. It took the U.S. government 75 years to realize that women should be allowed in the marathon. Well, actually, a woman did run the Boston Marathon in 1967 but she was being chased by a group of men trying to rip the contestant number off her back because she was an illegal entrant. The ancient Greeks invented the Olympics more than 2,000 years ago and women were not allowed to compete in them, let alone even watch the events. (But the fact that the men competed naked probably had something to do with this decision.) Anyway, back to the 20th century. In the 1928 Olympics, some women running the 800 metre race tried so hard to win they collapsed after the race and passed out. Today, we call that a great effort. In 1928, people called in `unladylike.' All races longer than 200 m were then outlawed for all women in the Olympics until around 1958. I'm not trying to say that women are better than men, or men are better than women. We're all the same in many ways but different in so many more but that's what makes us special. Okay, that sounded cheesy. But women can do absolutely everything men can and, if you all you girls and women out there do something, someday receiving the comment, "You throw like a girl," will probably be the best comment anyone could receive. So please help stop gender discrimination against women. CAA Member Appreciation Day Wednesday June 25, 2008 Special promotions, member deals and great prizes from 9am - 6pm! Enjoy cake & refreshments at 12pm. Join Carl Garbig from Manulife Insurance, Heidi Schnitker from Insight Vacations and Hilary Kudlatz from Universal Orlando from 10am - 12pm. CAA Store - 360 Dundas Street East (beside Turtle Jacks), Oakville 905-845-9680 ®CAA and CAA logo trademarks owned by, and use is granted by, the Canadian Automobile Association. The Regional Municipality of Halton www.halton.ca Summer Water Wise Landscape Assessments Tired of dragging the hose around the yard? Does your irrigation system come on in the rain? During the summer months millions of litres of clean, treated drinking water is used to maintain traditional lawns and gardens. Let Halton Region help you reduce your outdoor water use by signing up for a complimentary Water home and provide tips and tools to help you reduce outdoor water use, while still maintaining a beautiful and healthy lawn and garden. . 1151 Bronte Road, Oakville, Ontario L6M 3L1 130608