www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, November 3, 2011 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Letter to the Editor NEIL OLIVER Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director ANGELA BLACKBURN Managing Editor RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver is a division of Name new high g school after Juno Beach veteran Centre says name suggestion short-listed The Juno Beach Centre Association is pleased to announce its nomination of Garth Webb as namesake for a new Oakville secondary school opening in September 2012. "Our nomination of Garth Webb's name for the new public secondary school supports our belief that Mr. Webb is an excellent role model for students in our community, staff who will be inspiring learning at the new school, school councils that will be interacting with the school, and our community who will be supporting the staff and students," says Don Cooper, vice president of the Juno Beach Centre -- Canada. "Naming the new Oakville school, Garth Webb Secondary School, reflects the community's pride in Mr. Webb's past accomplishments as a Second World War veteran, and for his continuing efforts in promoting education for today's youth." Garth Webb, D-Day Veteran, and president and director of the Juno Beach Association is now in his 90s. He was one of the thousands of Canadians whose contributions in the Second World War helped establish an Allied presence in occupied France. Webb has also been instrumental in the development, opening and resounding success of the Juno Beach Centre in Courseulles-sur-Mer, France. This educational museum and cultural centre presents the effort made by all Canadians, civilians and military alike, both at home and on the various fronts during the Second World War, as well as the manifold faces of contemporary Canadian society. The Minister of Canadian Heritage has designated the Juno Beach landing site to be a site of national historic significance to Canada. "We appreciate the community's support for the nomination of Mr. Webb's name for the new Oakville secondary school," says Cooper. The Halton District School Board will be making its decision regarding the name for the new secondary school in Oakville at its board meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011. We would encourage everyone to show their support by letting their trustee know what an appropriate name the Garth Webb Secondary School would be for our students, families and our Halton community." Submitted by Marion Brown, Juno Beach Centre -- Canada Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville ATHENA Award ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER TRACKING COYOTES AMONG US: On Saturday, Oct. 29, Oakville Beaver r photographer Eric Riehl spotted this coyote on the track at St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic High School at Fourth Line and Upper Middle Road. The coyote checked out the track then ran off down a path toward a residential subdivision. Teenagers are dragging weary bones across the landscape I 'm tired of teenagers being... tired. Forget Generation Y, this group should be tagged Generation Ex for... exhausted. Seriously, at the stage in life where these youngsters should be brimming with enviable energy, today's teens seem to be dragging weary bones across the landscape, dreaming not so much of saving the world as sneaking off to steal some sleep. Don't get me wrong, I'm not teen-bashing. I think the current crop of kids is fab. Rather, it's society -- and the way we treat teens -- that needs, if not a bit of bashing, at least a little retooling. Let's start with school. Let's touch upon homework (oh, don't get me started). Let's look at the average day in the life of a teenager like, for instance, our daughter: Up at 6 a.m., rush to get ready, and then on the bus by 7 a.m. She then puts in the usual long day at school, hops back on the bus and arrives home nine hours after leaving. Then comes the homework (I warned you not to get me started). Having recently brought up the whole nutty, out-of-control homework issue at parent-teacher interviews, teachers explained they rarely issue more than 30 minutes homework per night. Yes, and over the course of four subjects that adds up to, minimally, two hours nightly, and does not include additional time allotted for special assignments, studying, etc. I have to wonder how adults -- teachers, included -- would feel about having, minimally, two hours extra work every night after the regular work day? And that includes weekends. Of course, we also want our offspring to be active: socially, physically. Our Andy Juniper daughter Irish dances, which is an incredible workout three times a week, but it takes her out of the house two weeknights. Which gets her home around 9:30 p.m. and has her wrapping up homework at some point between 10 and 11 p.m. If, heaven help her, she decides to relax for an hour before bed, she's getting about six hours sleep. Ah, so that's why she's so tired? Further, our teens are being driven to distraction by the ceaseless demands of the Internet Age and its idiot accomplice, social media. Imagine the stress of being `on call' and accessible 24/7. Facebook. Twitter. Texting. Teens have been found to sleep-text that is, fire off texts in the middle of a night's sleep. I know what you're thinking, you prudent adults: Well, that's their fault. Tell them to just turn off their computers and phones. Right. Like you would have when you were that age. You would have just announced to your network of friends (who you were trying to impress) that you were going offline at 10 p.m. to get into your pajamas and get to bed so you could get eight hours sleep. Right? Our teens are under pressure from all angles. They're overworked and overtired. Sleep-walking through life, their most-used refrain being: "I'm so tired." The other night my wife and I were out and we contacted our daughter to see if she wanted to join us for dinner. She replied, saying she was going to pass in favour of going home for a nap. We had to hope that she was really just trying to avoid a night out with her embarrassingly old parents, and not really that ridiculously tired. We're so tired of teenagers being tired. Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail. com, found on Facebook http://www.facebook.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters.