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ANOS TT C--O ATS WL i 1a } ! Lt 1 A Ta mh ---- Eo rm ron Ne v TE i So Tt the PORT PERRY STAR CO (MUTED 139 Quttw STREL! » O 80A NC POR! OtRRY ONT R&C (O08 WO 4'0) 98% 738) J. PETER HVIDSTEN Publisher Advertising Manager Member of the J.B. McCLELLAND ( CNA cn (=) Canadian Community Newspaper Association Editor and Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the CATHY ROBB Port Perry Star Co Ltd, Port Perry, Ontario News & Features Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for cash payment OVAN COM = wy G C) " ££» CO y ' WW Second Class Mail Registration of postage in cash Number 0265 Subscription Rate: In Canada $15.00 per year. Elsewhere $45.00 per year. Single copy 35* © COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the advertising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publishers. letters PORT PERRY STAR -- Wed. August 7, 1985 -- 5 Port Perry visit was good Dear Sir: My husband and 1 decided to take a weekend trip on July 27-28 to "Discover On- tario" and by sheer chance decided to make a trip to the Oshawa- Darlington area. It was all quite spon- taneous as we just wanted to get away from home for the weekend. We found the drive north of Oshawa remem when? 60 YEARS AGO Thursday, August 6, 1925 Miss Lois Lundy, a pupil of Mrs. J.E. Jackson, was successful in passing her Junior Harmony in music at Whitby Ladies College. Mr. George R. Davey was in Calgary atten- ding the Supreme Lodge of the Sons of England as a delegate from Old England Lodge, Port Perry. Mr. A.J. Carnegie has commenced work for a new house on Bigelow Street next to his residence. Twenty-five rinks were entered in the Port Perry Bowling Tournament this year. 35 YEARS AGO Thursday, August 10, 1950 The William Taylor Memorial Trophy is a handicap race trophy for sailing and was won by Georgia Brock at the Caesarea Regatta held this year. At the Port Perry Sports day over 3,000 peo- ple watched the sports events at the Fairgrounds, horse racing, baseball, racing car derby and a street fair and dance ended the day with much thanks going to the Business Men's Association for - the well planned events. Jean Griffen and Yvonne Chant of Blackstock, represented the United Church Sunday School at Oak Lake Summer School and Bill Ferguson at- tended for Y.P.U. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, August 11, 1960 Tommy Hadley, young son of Mr. and Mrs. Jim Hadley, who were holidaying in the Norland area, had the unpleasant experience of being lost in the woods. More than 50 people combed the area for three hours before he was found. Mr. E.A. Innis, President of the Holstein- Friesian of Canada was the guest speaker at the annual Ontario County Holstein-Friesian Twilight meeting held at the farm of Mr. Charles Hadden and sons, Blackwater. Mr. and Mrs. George Wolfe of Blackstock are spending a month travelling in England and Ireland. Port Perry are the winners of the J ack Bond Trophy, emblematic of the South Ontario Softball League Championship. Betty Noble of R.R.2, Uxbridge, was picked (Turn to page 6) beautiful and rolling -- with lush countryside and quiet meandering roads devoid of heavy traffic. Neither of us had ever been in Port Perry and as it was fast ap- proaching the late after- noon, decided that perhaps we should spend the night in this little town. We were not disap- pointed. You can be very Congratulations Dear Sir: As a former resident of Port Perry, 1 followed with great interest the preparations that went into making the world's largest pancake flip. I would like to say '""Congratulations" on achieving this and get- ting into the Guiness Book of Records. I would also like to let you know that in doing so you not only hit southern Ontario air waves but also southern Alberta. I was camping in Waterton, Alta (on the B.C./Mont. border) when the news came over the radio that Port Perry had been suc- cessful in flipping the largest pancake in the world. What a surprise! I thought I would have to wait for my next Star before 1 found out the results. I feel very proud living in the city that broke the Guiness Book of Records with the longest Cake in the world and hail from the town that flipped the largest pancake. Thank you to all proud of your town - with its attractive downtown main street shopping section. It was obvious that the store owners have so much pride in their shops. Those stores with the rejuvenated store fronts are so attrac- tive - and the window dressing is very profes- sional and classy. Other small towns with local history and antique store Brenda Hallett, Airdrie, Alta. P.S. This coming hockey season could you please publish the Junior's stan- dings along with the write-ups? We really en- joy following all the teams. Thanks. facades could take a long hard look at Port Perry and try to bring back the charm of yester-years. The "Strawberry Threads," the "Settle- ment House" and others - their names were cat- chy and the decor was eye appealing. I just wished we had arrived earlier so we could have done some shopping. Later we drove around the residential areas and they were also attrac- tively landscaped and well cared for. The entire town boasts a population of conscientious people who really care about Port Perry. We considered it our good fortune to have visited your town. Yours truly, A. Arlene Long, Mississauga, Ont. STARDAZE 4 involved. bill smiley In thirty plus years as an editor, a parent, and a teacher, I have been inundated (though not quite drown- ed) by several waves of self-styled "reform" of our educational system, especially that of Ontario. Each wave has washed away some of the basic values in our system and left behind a heap of detritus, from which teachers and students eventually emerge, gasping for a breath of clean air. Most of the 'massive' reforms in our system are borrowed from the U.S, after thirty or forty years of testing there have proven them dubious, if not worthless. We have borrowed from the pragmatist, John Dewey, an American, who had some good ideas, but tried to put them into mass production, an endearing but not necessarily noble trait of our cousins below the border. We have tried the ridiculous, 'See, Jane. See Spot run. Spot, see Jane vomit." sort of thing which com- pletely ignores the child's demand for heroes and wit- ches and shining maidens, and things that go bump in the night. We have tried 'teaching the whole child," a pro- cess in which the teacher becomes father/mother, un- cle/aunt, grandfather/grandma, psychiatrist, buddy, confidant. and football to kick around, while the kid does what he/she does dam-well-pleases. And we wonder about teacher 'burn-out.' We have tried a system in which the children choose from a sort of Pandora's box what subjects they would like to take, and giving them a credit for each subject to which they are "exposed." whether or not they have learned anything in it That was a bit of a disaster Kids. like adults, chose the things that were "fun." that were "easy." and didn't have exams, that allowed them to "express their individuality." New courses were introduced with the rapidity of rabbits breeding. A kid who was confident that he would be a great brain surgeon took everything from basket- weaving to bird-watching because they were fun. And suddenly, at about the age of seventeen, he/ she discovered that it was necessary to know some science, mathematics, Latin, history and English to become a brain surgeon (or a novelist, or a playwright, or an engineer, etc.) There are very few jobs open in basket-weaving and bird-watching or World Religions or another couple of dozen I could name, but won't, for fear of being beaten to death by a tizzy of teachers the day this column appears. The universities, those sacrosanct institutions, where the truth shall make you free, went along with the Great Deception. They lowered their standards, in a desperate scramble for live bodies. They competed for students with all the grace of merchants in an Arme- nian bazaar. Another swing of the pendulum. Parents discovered that their kids know something about a lot of things, but not much about anything. They got mad. The universities, a little red in the face suddenly and virtuously announced that many high school graduates were illiterate. which was a lot of crap They were the people who decided that a second language was not necessary. They were the people who accepted students with a mark of 50 in English, which means the kid ac- tually failed, but his teacher gave him a credit. Nobody. in the new system, really failed If they mastered just less than half the work, got a 48 per cent, they were raised to 50. If they flunked every subject they took, they were transferred to another "level," where they could succeed, and even excel. The latest of these politically-inspired, slovenly- researched reforms in Ontario is called SERP, and it sounds just like, and is just like NERD. Reading its contents carefully, one comes to the con- clusion that if Serp is accepted, the result will be a great leveller. Out of one side of its mouth it suggests that education be compressed, by abandoning of Grade 13, and out of the other side, that education be expanded by adding a lot of new things to the curriculum. How can you compress something and expand it at the same time? Only a commission on education could even sug- gest such a thing. There will be lots of money for "Special Education" in the new plan. There will be less money for excellence. Special Education is educational jargon for teaching stupid kids. Bright kids are looked down upon as an "elite" group, and they should be put in their place. The universities would enjoy seeing Grade 13 disap- pear. That would mean they'd have a warm body for four years, at a cost of about $4,000 a year, instead of three. I am not an old fogey. I am not a reactionary. | believe in change. Anything that does not change becomes static, or dies. Ideas that refuse the change become dessicated. I am not against spending lots of money to teach stupid kids, or emotionally disturbed kids. But I am squarely against any move toward squelching the brightest and best of our youth, and sending off to university people who are in that extremely vulnerable stage of half-adolescent, half-adult, and turfing them into classes of 200 or 300, where they are no more than a cypher on the books of a so-called hall of learning. And 1 have the proof right before me, in the form of several brilliant essays by Grade 13 students, better than anything I ever write, who have had a chance to come to terms with themselves and with life, in a small class. with a teacher who knows, likes, and encourages them. rather than a remote figure at a podium.