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

WBn'FREPIRSS, 'WEDNESDAY, MAY 29,1991, PAGE?7 PAGE S E EN NoCQMparisoný It sounds like agood suggestion: letes test, ail the children, in, our achools. Maybe not e very year but, saye threetimes before high ochool graduation: grades 3,6$,12. You filin the numbers. And'what 'are we going to* test?Wh mathematics English'okills, and um., oh, maybe geography. Or hiMsty. Does it matter? Not really. Perhapsà science. Yeah, science, we need te turri out more scientiat,,a test in science woufld'help. Selet u st uptandard y onss eu 9tests at key pins n he education. This' is -known as standardzed 'testing., Proponents»* demand it. Opponents caJI it a waste'of tim e. ,Suiepeoplemight wonder what it is al about. Those who favour tests dim heywouldke u schools,honest.' Without testa, they .sa y, one cari -nover know whâit learning- takes place' By statg clearly what would be- tested, we would be setting cboar gal or teachers. Touchers whose students didn7t perform could bo weeded .out. If the: scores are low, ~we can applIa ittle ~pressre here, a dollar or'two there and bm â;sup te The opponenta dcaim that "the test hmsewlves interfere with real learning. Educators Who, apply such tests would ho 11lk. ýfarmers who keep pulling up'the carr ots tfse if they-are, growing. You cari maure the fl carrot, but you stop the, groWth theproéess. Ministry of Edu cation oifficials recently airgued that atandardized tests ,Would "not-reflect the cultural Mix no* living in'. Ontario.' Who%&s right? W. once had province-wide exa me in grade 4. These were called entrarice exains, and ,qualified on. te continue ~te high- achool. The exaros were elimnatd about'1949. Gradle: sehool grade. continued 1to succed in high sidhool anyway. Il ~Stifl, for many years,-',. Ontario held- annual provi nce-wide examinationa for -grade113 students. 'h. Squahity of graduate acyoeathtii. province was unifom. Unverities knew what they weère gotting. Th., exama were eliminated- about 1967. Uivoîrsities compluined but continued te accopt high sholgraduates.. How about a compromise solution?ý <Lot us oagre. that standardized testing should be don. at the end of every grade. Maybo three areas would do: math, gr ammar and spelling. Once we define- what we wiil test it should b. asimiple matter te write the computer prgrmate administer and: grade the test. Computera are wodrat this. Mabew already have standardized computer testing aaiale. Ai IÏwe need is a little marketing and promotion. Butlees not lirit such, testing te children.,,You want your child tested? After- you, Alphonse. Publiuh ail th. results on the, schoolroomi wail, mma, dad's thé kids' scores. Teacher's. too. As- long as such testing is limited te once a yoar, a"d weè agreed that the results didntmean anything, thon we would have a great system. Everybody would be happy. But once we start testing, ebowill compare: moïmite dad, Maly te George, clasa to 'caosa, teacher te teaclior.' And once teachers start teaching te enhance performance, we achieve little.« Why such- a contradiction? Because the aim of math education lies not in memorizing numbers Math education aima at develomg an underatanding of numbers, and akilla at problem- solving. But you can't solve problems by rote learning. You have te bearn 'te think. And that is one skiil educators and tihe business community agree on: w. need people who cari think. Calculators and computers cari crunch numbera far faster than any person. T'he underlying asswnption behind the cry for standardized tests holda that our education system bas soehowjumped the.railsW. need testa te get it back on trock. Let's get bock te the ' good old days. But our good old days produced dropouta by the thousanda.ý Hundreda of thousaride of aduit illiterates wero created by the. old standardized testing . Sure, many brilitpeolethrived in this atmosphere - but. rote j MAY, COURT FEST'IVAL AT ONTARIO LADIE Y COLLEGE, MAY 249,1916' Tne coilege students are lined up for the processon of theý May Quseni, Mary Valentino of> Watrlo, ntrjo lh. dayCout estialbben an annual oyant at Trafalgar Castie School (fo rl naj Ldo1Clee) ic 97 WhiaIr Aradw. jiiol 10 TZARS 9A1odt ofh from the Wednesday, May 27, 18 dton c h Iw l REZ PRESS *Councillor Tom Edwards is upset that Wity wasleft out of. Ontario'a 1981 travel guide. *Ontario Deputy Premier Robert Welch wiil speak at an induBtrial semiinar in Whitby on June 3.«1/ *The town wiil spend $20,000 týo keep the Kinsmen Park swim*mm pool n this'summer. *Construction will begin tis summèr on the $60 million ILiquor Control board warehouse i WIitby. 25 TZARS AGO from the Thursday, May 26, 1966 edition -of the WHIIEYWEELYNEWS Chfldren. playing with fire on Victoria Day burned down sleveral sheds -on the Bcychyn farm on Anderson Street. *Whitby Public Utilities Commission. plans to build a patio outside its office at Brock and Coborne Streets. *Gordon Wakefield,presiei of the Ontaio Provincial Command of the Rcoyal Canadian Legion, challenged Whitby'a9 service clubs to give leaderéhip for the1967 centennial year.. *Town council is planning to elose Gilbert Street between Byron and Brock Streets to make extra room for development of the old buckle factory site. pli teARAGO frmthe Thura, May. 25, 1916 édition ot the WMT13T ZEf EAND CHRONCLE, " Nearly1,000 people attended the -Brooklin Spring Pair atb Viponds Grove. " Miss Mary Valentine of Waterloo is the 1916 May Qusen at the Ontario ILadies' College. " Tomorrow wiil be a halit.hàliday so citizens con wolcome, the llGth Battalion on its march tfluh Whitby. " A suppoeely mad dog on thée base M"i Brooklin has already bitten two childron.