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a ama i oN Lica fd "A Family Tradition for 133 Years" The Poet Povey Slag Question of the Week... | "What do you think of the i \ province's new vehicle emissions Peter Crawford Michelle Nowick Mary Piil Harry Sisson Bill Harper testing program? Although I agree with It is a good idea, but they It's a great idea to be test- It is good. It should have If it is done right, it would | controlling emissions for should have free testing ed for emission controls. been done long ago. This be to everyone's advan- the environment's sake, available so that you can We should try to keep the may help the environ- tage. But it is not attack- Do you have a suggestion that our provincial govern- know if your car is unsafe air as clean as possible. ment, but it might not. ing the big problem. 1 you think would make a good ment has found another and needs to be fixed. think that big factories are question of the week? way to take our hard- the big polluters. Call us at 905-985-7383. earned dollar. LETTERS Phys ed in schools not just a 'perk' To the Editor: With all the media attention and public debate surrounding the release of Ontario's new high school curriculum, the absence of dialogue relating to the curriculum's Health and Physical Education (HPE) component highlights a disturbing trend in our society -- a worrisome tendency to view school- based physical activity as a non-essential "perk" of the education system. : In fact, helping students develop a commitment and positive attitude toward healthy, active living should be as integral a part of the school experience as mathematics or science. Consider what we now know about the short and long-term benefits of physical activity for -young people. Regular exercise -- in whatever form it takes -- reduces overall feelings of depression and anxiety; promotes psychological well-being; fosters a greater attention span and improves memory; enhances problem-solving and decision- making skills; and improves attitudes, discipline, behaviour and creativity. Taking into account these powerful benefits, HPE should hold equal importance when compared with other traditional subject areas. Schools alone, however, do not bear sole respon- sibility for providing our children with viable opportunities to build healthy, active lives. In an era of budget and program cuts, the broader school community -- including parents, health-care agen- cies, business, and government -- must step in as partners to help develop and implement opportu- nities for students. Some steps are already being taken. Active Schools, for example, is a newly-developed, gov- ernment-funded initiative -- poised for province- wide release this spring -- the sole purpose of which is to support Ontario school communities in adopting, implementing, and maintaining school- based physical activity programs. Readers interested in finding out more about how the Active Schools initiative can help students in your community become more active, contact: Alan McFarlane Manager, Marketing and Communications Ontario Physical and Health Education Association The Foundation for Active Healthy Kids (416) 426-7375 phone (416) 426-7373 fax alan@ophea.org : Dr. Andrew Pipe, M.D. Associate Professor, Ottawa Heart Institute; Honorary Chair, The Foundation for Active Healthy Kids Ka } by Jeff Mitchell SNAPSHOTS OF GENERATIONS For a few days last week | was away from this desk, choosing to romp with the kids while they were released from school on March Break. During some of that time | was at my mother's house in West Lake, near Picton... but that's of no interest to you, or what this missive is about. | What | am thinking about here and now is the collection of old, old, photos | looked through late one night while everyone lay sleeping. Old relatives, ancient farm equip- ment, horses that had seen better days, houses that are still here with porches that arent. | was struck repeatedly by how -- well ---ugly all the folks in those old photographs looked. Grim-faced, dour-looking matriarchs and patri- archs, looking glum and dyspeptic, glaring from sepia- coloured photos that were faithfully engraved by the pho- tographer, unfortunate soul that he was. Ramshackle cabins running downhill amid seas of mud from which one would surely never escape, were he foolish or unlucky enough to become entrapped. Things sure looked miserable then, eh? We have numerous examples. Why, on this very page we are fre- quently viewing scenes of unimaginable dreariness. Remember that picture last week of all those guys shoveling away at mountains of snow deposited by a March storm? Take a look in Town Hall 1873: There's a painted portrait of old Joseph Bigelow, one of our founding fathers, on one wall. Across the hall there's his wife, the rather lugubrious Elizabeth Paxton, scowling furiously. Who knows? They may have been a barrel of laughs during their lifetime together, but now they just hang there, glowering away at one another for all eternity. It was that way throughout the early years of life in Canada, most likely because death in the form of disease, invasion or industrial accident awaited just beyond the edge of the camera's vision, or the portraitist's studio. By the 40's and 50's people were cheering up signifi- cantly, despite World War Il and the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. Women with movie starlet hairdos and red-painted lips tilt their heads playfully and just beam, while the guys, either in uniform or leather jackets and dungarees, most often with a cigarette plugged coyly into the corner of their mouths, grin sheepishly or confi- dently... it's often hard to tell. | By the time we reach the early 60's, there are black and white photos of a blonde little boy, running naked among the sand dunes at Lake Ontario. Why... that's me! Until this time | was confident that no nude photos of yours truly existed. But that goes to show you, doesn't it? The camera doesn't lie. Life has its moments.