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p4 weekender febrdary13 1993 our opinion mm- tmm mrxw rrrwprrm heart campaign needs our continued support its no coincidence that the heart and stroke founda tion chose february as its month for fundraising valentines day helps to focus the community on love symbolized by big red happy hearts and happy hearts are what that founda tion is all about cardiac disease is still the number one killer in north america and perhaps because of its familiarity does not attract the media coverage that more sensa tional diseases do but as if on cue this week the media spotlight shone on a scottish surgeon with viewpoint jo ann stevenson exciting innovations in heart surgery he used one of his patients own back muscles to restore the function of his heart still attached to its own blood supply the back muscle now squeezes the ventricle of his heart although in the experimen tal stages the procedure has tremendous potential for heart patients there would be no waiting for a suitable donor no risk of rejection and no vigilant monitoring of the immune system we do live in astounding times medical break throughs are giving new hope to those who wait death rates have decreased 50 per cent in 40 years but heart disease and stroke claim more than 75000 lives each year in canada 40 per cent of all deaths thats why its important to continue to support the heart and stroke founda tion of ontario by donating or by volunteering as a can vasser in markham can vassers are sorely needed although the need is not as great in stouffville more canvassers are always wel come markham and stouf fville volunteers can call the newmarket regional office at 8536355 uxbridge campaign chair ron herrema says uxbridge residents can expect an appeal in their mail boxes this week his number is 8527249 markham economist andsun stouffville tribune uxbridge tribune weekender edition ameiroiand community newspaper patricia pappas publishes joann stevenson editowrkdiief paulackowelleditor andrewmaireditor debba wbller director ofadratising jennifer hutt director of distribution vivian weil business manager pam nichols operations manager markham 2942200 sales 7887624 classl- fled 2944331 stouffvflte 6402100 uxbridge 8529741 2948244 distribution and administration 9 heritage rd markham isp 1mb fax markham 2941638 stouffvflte 640- 6477 uxbridge 8624365 the markham economist and sun stouflvide tri bune and uxbridge tribune published every wednesday and saturday is one of the metreland printing publishing and distributing groupof subur ban newspapers which includes ajax pickering news advertiser barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post couingwood connection etobicoke guardian the liberal georgetown inde pendentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week milton canadian champion mississauga news north york mirror oakville beaver onllia today oahawawhitbv this week peterborough this week scarborough mirror the era banner contents not to be reproduced without written permission from the publisher student is in favor of destreaming gossip keeps the life form informed dear editor as a high school student i feel that the decision by the ndp to destream grade 9 is an efficient and productive answer that will aid rather than hurt students the high school system today is made up of four levels of difficulty gifted or enriched advanced general and basic each level is tailored to a specific students needs but are these various lev els necessary in the final year of high school oac a student is not offered these choices instead all final year credits are constant all at one level if the preceding grades are meant to prepare you for your final year of high school why do they offer such a wide spectrum of various levels of difficulty to accept the system of general basic etc means you are short changing students the general and basic levels of courses are designed for students who cannot handle the workload required by advanced level courses unfortu nately to be even remotely suc cessful in your oacs or final year credits you need a back ground in advanced level courses what the school system is doing is undereducating an entire gen eration of students who will not be able to cope with the rapidly changing workplace of the twenti eth century colleges trades and universities are consistently demanding better educated stu dents and general level courses are not the answer although destreaming offers a type of bandaid solution to this problem it at least exposes stu dents to the workload needed for university before entering grade 10 this type of approach allows students to participate within a program that can help them rather than hurt them gifted students may need a sepa rate individually tailored pro gram to relieve them of academic boredom but it should not come at the expense of taxpayers they are in a minority and by the fourth or fifth year of high school many departments do not offer gifted or enriched courses at all the gifted students are also being cheated they are being forced into a tiny world where their social skills are only developed by interacting with other students of their calibre it is very hard for some gifted students to relate to others socially in senior grades destreaming is not a flawless option when it is implemented some students will suffer howev er if the class sizes remain small below 20 and teachers are trained accordingly destreaming will be an advantage to high school students in 1993 tyler powell markham wmmmm wmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm i m by brian basset i i 8 v gossip thats when you hear something you like about someone you dont earl wilson ah yes gossip dishing the dirt alice roosevelt longworth was an aristocratic barracuda who haunted the shoals of wash ington high society from the turn of the century to the rule of the reagans rumour has it that alice had a silk cushion that sat on a chesterfield in her drawing room and on the cushion was embroidered the words if you cant say anything good about someone sit right here next to me we all love to hear gossip whether we pretend to be above that sort of thing or not we love to hear about buffoons like don ald trump we cant wait for the next installment of the battles royal will chuck divorce di did that texan boll weevil really suck fergies toes arid we shiv er with expectation over the lat est rumour about mulroneys wrestling match with the whiskey bottle and we dont much trouble our selves about whether the rumours have a shred of truth to them but did you ever ask yourself how it came to this how a species of life that could build the taj mahal paint the mona lisa write the music to rhapsody in blue and put a man on the moon did you ever ask yourself how is it that a life form that can do all this still trembles in anticipation of the latest rumour concerning the queens corgis the reichmansbank account and k d langs sex life the answer it seems is more edifying than you might think robin dunbar is a professor of biological anthropology at uni versity college in london eng land hes been looking at the phenomenon of gossip under a microscope for years his conclu sion gossip was as necessary to the evolution of humans as large brains the apositional thumb and the ability to walk on two legs professor dunbar says that prehistoric humans gathered in rather largeish groups stone avfljagesaumbeje4 about 1sq people while armies from basic black arthur black roman times to modern times insist on companies that number anywhere from 130 to 140 sol diers the problem with crowds that size is that its difficult to have a face to face relationship with 12 dozenodd people every day thats where gossip comes in contrary to its frivolous appear ance gossip has a purpose it gives us information about oth ers that we wouldnt get from them first hand in other words says professor dunbar by talking to one per son gossip we can find out a great deal about how other indi viduals are likely to behave how we should react to them and what kinds of relationships they have with third parties makes sense when you think about it if i hear a rumour that an airline pilot smokes crack i certainly want to check it out before i strap myself in for a flight to sault ste marie with him at the controls speaking of gossip heres a morsel for you last week on a hike i met a woman whos charming lilt betrayed an irish background we fell to chatting as hikers do and pretty soon she was telling me all about her hus band and how they met he was the only man who could get past the hallstand she said in a belfast singsong the hallstand my brother would meet any one who called for me at the hall stand just inside the front door and he would say to them whos your father where does he work how many brothers and sisters have you where do you work my husband was the only one who didnt tell him to stuff it idle curiosity deadly serious curiosity more like the brother was making sure the suitors intentions were honourable the womans name oh i cant tell you that thatwouldbe-gos- siping