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

A6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday August 29, 2001 T h e O a k v il l e B e a v e r Ian Oliver Publisher Ned Oliver .Associate Publisher Norman Alexander Editor Kelly Montague, Advertising Director Steve Crazier Circulation Director Teri Casas OfficeManager Mark Dills Production Manager Riziero Vertolli Director ofPhotography Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd., includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser. Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Barry's Bay This Week, Bolton Enterprise, Brampton Guardian. Burlington Post. Burlington Shopping News. City Parent. CtoWngwood/Wasaga Connection. East Vbrk Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian. Flamborough Post. Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press. Harriston Review. Huronia Business Tmes. Kingston This Week. Lindsay This Week. Markham Ecnomist & Sun. Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton Canadian Champion. Milton Shopping News. Mississauga Business Tmes, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide. Newmarket/Aurora Era-Banner, Northumberland News, North Vbrk Mirror, Oakville Beaver. Oakville Shopping News. Odtimers Hockey News. Orife Today, OshaMvWhrttoy/Clarington Port Perry This Week. Owen Sound Tribune. Palmerston Observer. Peterborough This Week, Picton County G'uide, Richmond Hill/ThomhillAkughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror. Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune. Forever Mxng. City of Vbrk Guardian cca 13 O THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: T ^M H RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Jinge Bell Fund ° T V tP JM cm TV AUCTION United Way ot Oakville O ^ © JAward OahriUe FOR BUSINESS EXCELLENCE . 467 Speers Rd., Oakville O n t L6K 3S4 (905) 846-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-2809 Circulation: 845-9742 f `· ` C N . Canadian Community A Newspapers Association TH E BRONT E BUT T ERFL Y O N T A R I O I oakville galleries | T h e O a k v ille . M ilto n a n d District OPINION SK Suburban Newspapers of i Children's Choir REAL ESTATE BOARD h rb k rU H t E d ito ria ls Progressive move It should come as a surprise to few parents of boys, that many of their `little guys' have reading problems in elementary school. But it appears that only now are some school boards actually trying to deter mine what's going wrong with how they teach the sexes. In other words, what teaching style could be Boys and girls learn great for a girl simply turns off a boy. differently and one The Durham District School Board believes that its disastrous scores in 1999-2000 writing tests school board is were skewed because of the overwhelming failure rate of boys taking the standardized writing test. In addressing that fact. that school year, alm ost h a lf o f the D urham Board's grade 6 students failed to make the provincial standard. What makes the Durham case unique is that it intends to do something about the abysmal showing by its boys. Other boards, it seems, are willing to shrug off their own gender-based results which fully verify the Durham experience...that boys lag behind, sometimes far behind girls at every Ontario school board. We dare say there are hundreds or even thousands of studies and reports out there outlining the different learning styles of boys and girls. In other words, the idea is not new. What is new is that some educators are now standing up and call ing the historic results unacceptable. As they are. Some forward-thinking types in literacy circles have always believed that it's not what boys read that's important, it's that they read....period. That means comic books, hockey or other sports books etc. If they're reading anything on a continu ing basis, their skills will accelerate; it's as simple as that. Educators have been addressing learning concerns of girls for a long time. They have been aware of lower math scores in girls so they went about boosting math programs with the result that girls in the Durham system are outperforming boys in math. Now it's time to pay attention to the boys. I'LL TAKE MY TEST W H ENYOU TAKE Y ours, Letters to the Editor The Oakville Beaver welcomes your comments. All letters must be typed, signed and include the writer's address and phone number. Send to: Letters to the Editor, The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, Ont. L6K 3S4 Traffic meets philosophy on Bronte Road I am writing because I am con cerned about the speed of traffic on Bronte Road, between Speers Road and Lakeshore Road. I am also concerned about the increased number of roadkill in this area (last week alone, within a fourday period, I saw three raccoons, one squirrel and a possum lying dead on the road). The greatest speeding occurs on Sunday morn ing when traffic is lightest. I don't know where everyone is going, but I am sure that if it's to church and that if there is a God, I don't think he/she would want anyone to speed. Disturbed by this trend, I set out recently to videotape the volume and speed of traffic in front of my house. My goal was to show the tape to members of council to get .them to beef up police patrols and maybe even put in speed bumps. The minute I started the video cam era, I observed something remark able. the mere presence of a record ing device was enough t o slow traffic drastically. I have repeated the experim ent several times by first filming from behind a bush and then in full view of the motorists. The results are always dramatic and always the same. Most people trav el between 15 and 20 km./hr. slow er (the actual speed limit, no doubt) when they are being watched. This scenario rem inds me of w hat the p o litical p h ilo so p h er Thomas Hobbes talked about in the 17th century. Wring amidst social anarchy and political revolution, Hobbes felt that humans, by their very nature, couldn't' be entrusted to internalize a sense of what it is to be a good social actor. His famous quote, that the life of man (sic) is "...solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" became the basis of a politi cal theory which maintained that people would behave communally only if they were kept in a state of fear, and under the condition of awe, by a sovereign leader. In other word, the best society is the one w ith the b iggest police force, because man is competitive with his fellow man and will watch out only for his own interests, unless he is under the threat of punishment to do otherwise. I don't adhere to Hobbes, theory of human nature. Instead, I believe that it is culture, and not nature that prom otes selfish n ess and se lf absorption. It seems that the widen ing of Bronte Road between Speers and Rebecca (considered to be an "improvement") has been construed by many motorists as an invitation to speed. What was once seen as a road, as a place of residence for many of Bronte's citizen, is now simply a piece of pavement (a thor oughfare) designed for greater vol ume and speed. All day long people speed on Bronte Road in their selfcontained SUV, family vans and sports cars, with little regard for the noise that they create. The rare per son who does the speed limit is often honked at and tailgated. The screeching of tires is now common place; there is more garbage in our ditch. I can't help but think that the creation of so many new subdivi sions in Halton is also in large part responsible for what is happening in Bronte. Comprised of row up on row of homes with two or three cars in every driveway, these new subdi visions are designed so that people must commute significant distances to shop, attend school or work and to recreate. More and more people seem to move from the privacy of their homte to the privacy of their car, and to wherever they are going, completely cut off from the world that exists around them. The lakefront too is changing. Once a place where local people walked and picnicked, and where others came to visit and experience our community, the outer harbour and its new facilities are creating a `destination', a tourist site that exists independently of the village in which it is situated. I guess that if the tow n of Oakville were better able to enforce the traffic laws I'd be happy about not feeling as if I was living on a highway. I'd much prefer it, howev er, if everyone would obey the speed limit not out of fear of being punished under the law, but because they care about the safety and well bing of people and animals, the members of a community. As the urban planners proceed to widen our roads and develop our lands, I hope they give som e thought to the quality of life that they are promoting. Rather than "development" (which focuses on quantity and volume and purely for financial gain) perhaps we could create sustainable com m unities where a sense of place and collegiality replace transience and the selfish experience o f tim e and space. Karen Birkemeyer Letter of the Week H o n e s ty liv es o n a n O a k v ille b u s My name is Carlos Bobillo. I am a spanish stu dent who lost his w allet on Aug. 20th in a public bus in O akville. I lost it in O akville and on that day I went to Toronto. W hen I saw that I didn't have it, I was in Toronto. I stayed all the day without money but when I cam e back to O akville, the leader o f my organization said that a person found my w allet and gave it to the bus driver. W hen the mother o f my host family called to the O akville T ransit to see if anybody had found my w allet, they said yes and one o f them kindly brought it to my host family. I want to say thank you to the person who gave it to the bus driver. I'm so happy because I think I'm v ery lu ck y . N o rm a lly , a p e rso n w o u ld ta k e the money because that would be easiest. For this reason I want to say thank you again to this honest person. C a rlo s B obillo P l a n e a d v e n t u r e r e c a l l e d A terrifying m em ory relived after viewing the Aug. 24 news broadcast of an emergency land ing of Air Transat flight enroute to Lisbon. At that moment, I knew what those passengers were feel ing and what was going through their minds. This brought back terrifying m em ories and nightm ares o f a flig h t fro m T o ro nto to Faro Portugal (March 9, 2000). We w ere on our way, along with 30 fellow parishioners, to a pilgrim age in Fatima, Portugal. Our Air Transat flight also experi en ced `m e c h a n ic a l' problem s. After boarding more passengers in Montreal, we were ready for take off. As we were taking off there was a loud band and the plane shook u n co n tro llably. A ll you heard were scream s and people crying. It felt like the plane was going to break apart. Some of our fellow parishioners, sitting further back, behind the right wing were horrified to see fire coming from the w ing. A fter a few m inutes (which seemed like an eternity), the captain announced we were tu rn in g aro u n d to head back t Montreal. As we were on approach to the airport, there was a dead calm in the plane...peace and quiet, you looked around to see strangers holding hands com forting each other, people with rosaries praying and people with their eyes closed, tears streaming down their faces. The feeling that overcom es you at this point is unexplainable to live through it is to experience it. That's an experience, I would n't wish on anyone. We were very fortunate, as were these passen gers on th e ir w ay to L isbon. Som eone w as w atch in g o v er them. That goodness, the captain was ab le to lan d the plan e safely. Having been to the Azores and knowing the area, I know the cap tain and crew did one heck of a jo b to ensure a safe landing. I highly commend them. W hy a re n 't th e ir p lan e s grounded until a full investigation is completed? Learn by those who set an example of the Concorde, those planes were grounded until their investigation was complete. Why does the government and Transport Canada allow this to happen? Transport Canada and others involved m ust take action now befo re a tragedy h ap pens and many lives are lost. M. Silveira Locomotives fuel-efficient A recent letter to the Editor (Seiler-A ugust 21) concerned the proposal by CN to develop a modem, state-of-the-art intermodal terminal in South Milton. Unfortunately, the letter con tained some serious misinformation about the quality of diesel fuel used by trains compared to that used by trucks. Canada's railroads have an emission "cap" agreement with Environment Canada and over the past decade CN has sub stantially reduced emissions to a level well below the cap. In fact, last year CN reduced its overall emissions by nearly seven per cent. Much o f the reduction has been achieved through more efficient operations and through the introduction of new, modem locomotives that use less fuel. Furthermore, CN uses the same diesel fuel as trucks. But rail moves traffic much more efficiently than trucks. For exam ple, a typical double stacked CN interm odal train removes as many as 300 long haul trucks from our roads and the net effect is that rail is three times more efficient than trucks for this same amount of traffic and this translates into lower emissions. It may be of interest to your readers to know that there are about 2,000 main line locomotives in service with all railroads and more than 500,000 heavy-duty trucks operating in Canada today. In total, about 21 billion litres of diesel is consumed each year. Trucks account for 18 billion of those litres, while trains use about 3 billion litres. CN uses about 1.5 billion litres of diesel annually. Trucks generate about 27 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions while rail produces only 4 per cent while transporting goods to the market more efficiently. Therefore, for every truck that CN removes from our roads, there is a reduction in diesel fuel used and fewer emissions. C N 's Intermodal terminal near Milton will be the most modem and efficient terminal in all of North America. The ter minal will effectively remove tens of thousands of long haul trucks from our highways and it will move traffic safely, effi ciently and with much less impact on the environment. A close examination of the facts supports efficient trans portation options such as rail. I believe your writer can now feel comfortable being more than theoretically supportive of CN's proposal and any other proposals that will remove long haul trucks from our highways and ease congestion - the real cause of substantially increased emissions and declining air quality. Ian Thom son Director, Communications Canadian National Pud can i so ¥ Kindergarten To school!) doesn't start Today, II until next hAOM ? 19 m i W AN N A (S O T O NOW SCH O O L by steve nease W A TS WRDM 5 , , lcv pieAse cm x so .f r lE lt LEARN. TbSCHOOtf t PLEBEE?; 'rfj Z isA . ' <£>