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p 4 the tribune thursday july 1 6 1 997 thursday july 10 1997 vol 109 no 38 the tribune com ment opinions st send your letters to the editor to the address below felines running free cause grief recently this newspaper received a complaint about cats we receive many complaints but cats are not among our usual coterie of subjects a resident called to complain that the number of cats rxmning around town was getting out of hand despite the best efforts of animal control cats are harder to catch than dogs after all the complaint came not only because cats were running all over the neighborhood howling when they went into heat and so on but also because they are spraying and stinking up houses and entire neighborhoods there is nothing worse nor more longlasting than cats marking their territory we agree while it has always been the norm to let your cat out on a nightly prowl this practice should be strong ly discouraged cat owners are being extraordinarily selfish by releasing their animal into our neighbor hoods cats not spayed or neutered are the absolute worst and it wouldnt be too much to suggest hefty fines for owners of such befoulers cats should be kept indoors for their own safety some may think they are doing them a favor by let ting cats follow their instincts to run wild but such owners are only setting themselves up for grief golf guide raised both funds and awareness dear editor on behalf of the lung associa tion metropolitan toronto and york region i would like to thank you for cartoon was punny reader dear editor i really enjoyed the cartoon on the editorial page of the tribune of july 3 i trust that the title of the document in snobelens hand is an intended pun roger glazin stouffville letters to the editor running our 1997 executive golf guide message in your newspaper as a result of contributions such as yours we have sold 244 golf guides to date in addition you have helped to raise awareness of the lung association in your community fortyfour percent of the money raised from the sale of each execu tive golf guide helps to support lung association programs and ser vices thank you once again for your time and support robin leibovitz the lung association richmond hill teachers federation furious over new publication dear editor our schools the new publication of the min istry of education and training is yet another example of government propaganda reading this one develops the distinct impres sion that all is well with education and that all chil dren will benefit from the new and improved education system remember snobelens speech to his staff july 1995 in which he declares the need to invent a crisis the crisis has hap pened a maelstrom at the ministry and these are their solutions met staff respond to questions about the need for reform with the need to reduce secondary school to four years better prepare our youth for todays world eliminate the many levels of bureaucracy and so on changes have not been methodically well thought out and are happening too fast we recall harris speech in which he praises ontarios education system as topgrade only weeks after snobelens address to teacher federa tions about fixing a system thats not working this system does work and it works well no one is disagreeing with change simply with the speed and the methods the fewer school boards act is not only about reducing the number of school boards it is more about finding ways to cut more money from edu cation to finance the promised 30 per cent tax cut to begin the process of privatizing education entralizing government control over education will not improve learning for children nor will it make the system better the education improve ment commission is a misnomer perhaps edu cation impoverishing commission is more appropriate school councils have existed since june 1996 and many parent groups across ontario are still struggling with that mandate since parents volun teer for school councils it is ludicrous for a gov ernment to think it can mandate volunteerism par ents certainly want to be involved in their childs education but there is no mechanism to force that involvement secondary school reform may be well under way at the mowat block but it is a long way from the classroom no mention is made that most of the 23000 responses to the ssr document were negative how a reduction in the total number of hours per credit will improve learning has not yet been determined the met believes that skills especially in lan guage will improve with fewer hours of instruc tion students in grade seven find that the new curriculum is the same as what they have been learning again snobelen has solved the crisis by dis missing the common curriculum changing a few words and renaming it the ontario curriculum the term performance standards simply replaces outcomes perhaps the met realizes that shuffling the deck chairs provides nothing new therefore there is no need forteacher training if in fact there is something new it is absurd to expect teachers to learn an entire k8 curriculum in one day where fools rush in provides ample warning for educators test results of the recent grade three testing should indicate that there is a problem because this test was not designed for a grade three level stu dent many grade three teachers were shocked by the difficulty of some of the questions the ministry will use this data to justify the need for reform and their new and improved curriculum the eqaq is not a parent organiza tion it is a product of the government lastly the ontario college of teachers this superfluous body was created by the government to take control over the teacher federations and teacher training the article fails to mention that teachers voted overwhelmingly against this organization and yet it was still imposed fees are deducted automati cally by the employer the figure of 180000 sur passes the total number of teachers in the province of ontario by about 30000 requiring membership by retiring teachers supervisory officers and anyone holding a teach ing certificate whether they teach or not is auto cratic and provides more evidence about this gov ernments real agenda enough is enough cyndie jacobs communications officer on behalf of the executive of osstf district 11 stouffville tribune patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief julie caspersen editor debra weller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager about us n 96402100 eteta sfth 905 6402100 lilt 7 sigfi 1 i rar ifrsmfifareffiftifntyi bsl 905 6402874 905 8405477 vlji 6244 main st v thti plirofliaie tribanr- psb- linked every tuesday thuraday and saturday is one of the and pistribulion group of ooramu- r sowpaflr which inclttdiasl ijapfcfceriibb new vmrorti auleion herald courier barrie advance brampton guardian burllntftod port cuyparenl fc8tnewkewaajbfa coir guardian goorgeiown indc- iimhseatiaeior free pk klnfston tola week lhulsay this wfiei martham bcimoahss a sun midleddpenntaagnfaiuma mirror erabanner northumberland fenetttneaimh3foroawj beaver orutia today oahawa- whilbyciaringtoopnrt perry this week peterborough thla week bichmo hiuthornmuvabgf aitedirithj ont vrittan permission from the publisher permit iuv the pub- jjbrr reserves the right to refuse or clauky an advertisement credit for bdvertkensoul limited tobpacw uie error occupied letters policy the tribune welcomes your letters to the editor please keep letters to no more than 300 words note that letters may be edited for space libel spelling grammar while we endeavor to print as many letters as possible we regret that not all letters may be printed