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

page 2 the tribune thursday april 23 1970 its your meeting be there i wonder what your reaction would be if tomorrow morning you turned on the cold water tap and a thick slimy liquid oozed into the sink naturally youd be alarmed you and a few thousand others in stouffville youd phone the puc the clerk or the reeve demanding an explanation oh yes you had heard something about a liquid waste disposal site somewhere north of town but the location was in whitchurch not stouff ville how could it possibly affect the water here veil it hasnt at least not yet but theres no guarantee that it wont and to make sure that it doesnt a public meeting has been called for next tuesday night at 8 pm in the high school auditorium to learn just how much of a threat this problem poses we say the dumping of industrial liquid waste on this property less than two miles from stouffvilles water reservoirs must be stopped not next month or next year but now so far all pressures exerted by municipal officials have been in vain the time has come for action at the citizens level be there and show that you care worth a try the york county board of education will consider a summer program whereby schools or at least some schools will be utilized as dropin centres for young people throughout the vacation period we feel the plan is worth a try at least on an experimental basis and we wish it luck but we dont think it will work this rather pessimistic approach is based on the fact that in stouffville at least there just arent enough teenagers around with nothing to do to make the scheme practical in larger centres like richmond hill aurora and newmarket the need may be apparent in stouffville its not but nothing ventured nothing gained as the saying goes and a program properly organized could surprise us all time to organize a downtown businessmens organization is needed in stouffville it isthe only practical way to cope with any project be it large in magnitude or small the obvious lack of executive leadership was noticeable at a meeting april 14 called by planning board only eleven business places were represented although the topic an important one dealt with re development of the entire downtown business area just how important does any discussion have to be to create interest certainly nothing should capture the imagination of merchants more than altering the centre shopping core it has always been our opinion that one association not two would be best for stouffville for on most occasions the programs proposed effect all the village and not just a part of it also it tends to bring the plaza and main street mer chants closer together instead of one pulling against the other as has occurred in so many municipalities whatever the decision one organization would be better than none at all and the time to get it organized is now for all that a better teacher a good teacher made better through one year of university the minister of education william g davis thinks so we dont it has always been our opinion that teachers are born not made par ticularly is this true we believe in elementary ranks where excluding principals the prestige of listing letters after ones name should not be of prime importance according to the ministers most recent edict the new ruling becomes effective sept 1 1971 fortunately it is not retroactive it is apparent that more and more stress is being placed on book learning it is obvious too that increased significance is attached to that almighty ba degree but this does not guarantee that knowledge gained through this means is knowledge that can be im parted to someone else say a child in grade 3 or 4 and does the minister realize that higher qualifications will also bring demands for higher salaries if more teachers are to spend more time in acquiring more knowledge then it is safe to assume they will demand more money and rightly so but can we the people afford more with almost sixty cents of every tax dollar now going towards education any added burden for such an impractical purpose is unacceptable editors ma lilj dear sir the letter concerning the operation of the whitchurch highlands school which appeared in your april 9 edition merits a reply in the early part of january my husband and i became quite alarmed when we found that our 7th grade daughter was doing very poorly in grammar and mathematics and little or no work at all in any other subjects mr gray gave me an appointment for an interview at my convenience on january 6 when he told me there was nothing to worry about as both children were doing fine and that our fifth grade son was working above his grade level he did not seem to know that our daughter was having serious problems with her mathematics he denied having said that our son was at the end of grade six level in january 1969 until i showed him a letter which he had written to me at that time after he had given the child special tests if the child was at that level while enrolled in grade four a year ago why has he been kept sitting in grade five all this year when this school is supposed to be allowing each child to progress at his own speed sir since my husband and i have seen no evidence of any progress having been made by our son in more than a year we question this progressatyourownspeed theory as it applies to this school in february of this year i contacted mr ron hall mi sam chapman and mr arthur starr mr starr was the one who finally got an adequate course of study for our children he telephoned me on the evening of april 25 to say that he was very upset by what he had read in the local press as he had been led to believe that the situation at the school regarding our children had been satisfactorily remedied immediately following a meeting of four parents mr chapman and mr starr on february 19 and that we were now very happy with the conditions at the school in fact nothing had been done at the school as a result of that meeting the first day the children returned to school after that telephone call they were given desks text books time tables and a planned course of study this course includes grammar 5 creative writing mathematics history science geography french spelling music art and phys ed the children also have the use of the library facilities and so are not missing out on anything they now sit at desks with their feet on the floor and their posture correct instead of sprawling on the floor in an unladylike manner the teachers mark their books and insert written in structions which the children must follow yes i may be old fashioned as your correspondent states but i wonder if she knows about the marble games on the classroom floor during school hours or the grammar and mathematics tests given to the grades seven and eight about a week ago where the class average for grammar was about 12 percent and the pupils were not even established 1888 c h nolan publisher jim thomas editor noel edey advertising published eveiy thursday by inland publishing co limited at 54 main st stouffville ont te 6402101 single copies 15c subscriptions 500 per year in canada 750 elsewhere member ot audit bureau of circulation canadian weekly newspapers association and ontario weekly newspapers association second class mall registration number 0896 told their mathematics mark but merely that they were very poor i wonder too why your correspondent did not state that she is a teacher i agree that we do have good teachers at this school but still feel that some cannot teach to the best of their ability in this open type system true as your correspondent says our children are not fools but they are making fools of us when they say yes we like the new school because we can do as we please last week a town councillorhigh schcol teacher was quoted in the local press as saying that the children are telling us what to do one high school student had questioned why he should be nailed by this teacher over his spelling when he had never passed a test in that subject since grade four this teacher said that the children think that they should be allowed to do as they like at home because they have been allowed to do their own thing at school i have noticed a similar unwelcome change in the behaviour of our children this year this is not what my husband and i want for our children we could take the easy way out and close our eyes instead of becoming involved as many parents are doing but it is not we who would be hurt by that silence but our children i wish that more teachers would speak out and tell the truth about the need for further research into the open concept schools before they experiment with the minds of our children these schools should be open only to those children whose parents express a desire to have them attend such schools we feel that we have the right to choose the type of education that shall be given to our children this right is stated in the declaration of human rights which was adopted by the united nations and is quoted on page 11 of the halldennis report on education we feel that the members of the county school board should read that report and then give all parents an opportunity to choose bet ween open and conventional schools for their children mrsharry rawluk rr3 newmarketont out fishin a feller isnt thinking mean out fishin his thoughts somehow are mostly clean out fishin he doesnt knock his fellowmen or harbor any grudges then a fellers at his finest when out fishin the rich are comrades to the poor out fishin all brothers of a common lure out fishin the urchin with his pin and string can chum with millionaire and king vain pride is a forgotten thing out fishin a feller gets a chance to dream out fishin he learns the beauties of a stream out fishin an he can wash his soul in air that isnt foul with selfish care an relish plain and simple fare out fishin a fellers glad to be a friend out fishin a helpin hand hell always lend out fishin the brotherhood of rod and line an sky an stream is always fine men come real close to gods design out fishin a feller isnt plotting schemes out fishin hes only busy with his dreams out fishin his livery is a coat of tan his creed to do the best he can a fellers always mostly man out fishin compliments of morley symes sugar and spice by bill smiley hugh broke his middle finger can you whistle a bach prelude and fugue without a memory slip can you hum a beethoven sonata without sliding into falsetto or basso profundo darn right you cant but i can almost and it cost me only about 12000 trouble is and this is a touchy point in april none of it is deductible thats what it has cost me over the years to provide a musical education for my family after all that i can whistle and hum both of which i could do before theres something wrong here but i cant quite figure out what it is i wish i had thi 2 gs in bonds at eight per cent but my wife doesnt agree we could have taken a trip around the world for that but she still doesnt agree as far as im concerned i could have taken that 12000 thrown it off the end of the dock and been just as far ahead once again the only one who agrees with me is i both my kids have degrees in piano both were talented near but not quite at tie concert pianist level both eschewed i like that word a career in music because they wanted to be first and they wanted to be free wcii theyre free hugh broke his middle finger and can play i went down to st james infirmary with only a few bum notes i think kim could play the happy farmer with a couple of days practice but perhaps its all been worth it theyve learned something hugh has realized that you cant practice the piano when youre waiting table at the chateau fronterac or selling vacuum cleaners in calgary and kim has realized that her piano wont quite fit into a three- room pad in toronto unless you want to sleep on top of it what brings all this to mind and without bitterness is the fact that my wife a former piano teacher has become hooked once again after a lapse of a couple of years on the local music festival shes going every day and listening intensely to her former students but her reports have cheered me things are just the same as they always were i went through years of them and i know the scene intimately the festival mothers are still as friendly as an rc bishop and a mormon lay preacher the adjudicator is still rotten giving the firstplace certificate to the girl who played worst except when its your daughter or your pupil then he or she shows an insight into music that is superb the kids are still sailing into their pieces at breakneck speed which they cant possibly maintain and breaking down in the middle while their mothers and teachers turn purple as the youngsters fumble and throw up their hands and burst into tears but perhaps the old lady is right those moments at the music festival in other years were the closest to heaven and hell that ive ever experienced with the possible exception of shooting at a concentration of german tanks which i were firing back at you with bigger guns than you had ive stopped breathing for as much as a dangerously long two minutes while my son or daughter weaved through a sonatina i have gone out afterwards and smoked a complete cigarette in two drags i have called the adjudicator a slob a cretin moron and sometimes a brilliant judge of music maybe the old battleaxe is right maybe ii was worth 12000 anyway i can whistle three bars of tschaichov- skys something or other portraits from the past so you thought the what about 1960 this a few memories several st digging themselves winter season just con- picture at hodgsons hill days following the storm out j thomas eluded was long and hard west of altona may revive feb 19 residents were ffinilni daddy what is war by jim thomas every home has one a storage room where everything you dont need but refuse to discard is packed away for safe keeping at our house this private domain is located in a littleused section of the basement with the exception of mom and dad no one ever enters this area its not that it holds any deep dark secrets at least none that im aware of its iust that a child can often find trouble during unsupervized escapades but all laws are made to be broken and the curiosity of a seven year old can only be contained so long on saturday he yielded to temptation and embarked on his own private treasure hunt what he found was his fathers old hockey duds sweater pants shin pads the works while the socks were holey and the sweater smelly he didnt mind in fact the realism of wear and tear appeared to impress him all the more he paraded the motheaten regalia around the yard showing it off to every boy in the block what a sight barry thats his name is not a good skater at least not yet but what he lacks in physical prowess he makes up in spirit he loves the game and watches it on tv at every opportunity it only goes to prove what a tremendous in fluence television has on people today but while he was rummaging about for odds and ends of equipment he un covered something else something he hadnt seen on the tv screen or heard about from his parents he held it up the discolored remains of an old scrap book the cover missing but most of the inside pages still secure say dad he said what is war his question shook me a bit but i recovered quickly hoping he hadnt noticed i held out my hand to take it but he hesitated to give it up lets sit down here together you and i and look at the pictures he insisted ive never seen anything like this before i knew he hadnt and i hoped he never- would v the book was one i had pieced together myself the year was 1940 i was 11 at the time the photos some actual and some artists conceptions related events that included the fall of france and the battle of britain that was thirty years ago how soon we forget barry sat very still unusual for him as i thumbed through the pages dog eared and yellow i read the following items some out loud and some to myself germans capture paris and the government of france has been moved to bordeaux the french high com mand has decided against a street by street defence of the city in hope of saving it from destruction despite severe losses the germans have not ceased their pressure apart from the loss of boulogne the allies have withstood it everywhere according to latest reports received france has capitulated and has asked hitler for an armistice to discuss peace terms paul reynaud has appealed to the president of united states for aid in reply president roosevelt said the united states would do its utmost to assist the french republic but that only congress had the power to declare war the battle of france is over and the battle of britain is about to begin winston churchill told the house of commons prime minister mackenzie king voices canadas determination to fight nazi tyranny to the bitter end his words go straight to the hearts of the canadian people and so on while such clippings may have meant very little to a 7 year old the pictures made a tremendous impression he stared wideeyed at a now historic photo of five german planes plum meting earthward in advance of long trails of smoke and flame pictures of the battleship hms hood her 15 inch guns trained out across the north sea whole sections of cities levelled by bombs barbedwire barricades around the london house of parliament the sinking of a german submarine following a direct hit and long lines of refugees searching for food and shelter he sat in silence for several minutes trying to understand enough to ask more questions i interrupted his thoughts now i asked do you know what is war i think so at least a little bit he an swered slowly but why who can explain that one