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c'~~~~~';~3 P ~ybd~2.t9.1age 7 .1 Educational fog This being the final weekofcassor os elementary sehools, it may be pertinent to talk of education. And since I just last week received my 1993 tax bill, of which education makes up more than haif, it may be doubly pertinent. Education, of course, Maj be as Mark Twain said about the weather: Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. Before educators start jumping up and down and frothing, let us clarif .:tht s not true. It just, to some folks, may seem tobe true. And public enterprises, when under attack, become the easy butt of barbs. And education endures a growing attack . 0f that let there be no doubt. This column should pass for the jottings of an interested participant. J Let us, for this discussion, break ail interested parties into two groups: the professionals, who get paid for involvement in education; and the customers, who pay for and receive the service. The professionals should include teachers (obviously) and administrators. And perhaps school board trustees. The customers include the students, to whom supposedly ail this is done; the parents, who for the most part pay; and the business community, which somewhere at the end of the line takes students off near the end of the conveyor beit and gives them jobs. Board trustees usually cone from those last two groups, and supposedly represent them. If you want to examine the strength or weakness of this whole system take a look at 0W the education system sets its goals.1 Well, for one thing we don't have 'an éducation system. We have sc7ools (elementary, public or separate or private); we have schools (high public, separate or private); we have colleges; we have universities. Each layer is independent, sets its own goals, reporting structure and graduation standards. This is not a unified system. (Super minister Dave Cook promises to change ail that.) For the student, especially in elementary grades, the goals may be dloser to opes: that each day in school will be positive and enjoyable. For parents the goals may be to build skills in reading, 'rîtîn and rithmetic to top standards, whatever they are. Teachers hope to teach some facts, but also to light little îninds on fire. Administrators may hope to run schools free of debt and incident; trustees to do so with little tax increases. And the business community may see the gal of education as providing graduates with employable skills. The difficulty with ail this lies in the fog it creates. Since every group sets different goals, the schools must fail. That does not mean children don't leamn. People -- especially littie people before schools knock it out of them __ have a built-in drive to learn. But to learn anything, three elements are necessary. First, one needs a model (humans are ver imitative). Second, one needs practice (caîl it 917l, activity, what have you). And third, one needs feedback (immedite and positive; negatives don't work). The feedback can be reinforced later, when the work is praised and clamped to the fridge. Ail of this is pretty, well, elementary. Our problems in education stem from lack of a clear model. We have to know where we are headed. And how will we know when we have arrived? Often that is not clear. Think of this for a moment. Our schools are capable of delivering any quality product we require. What we (as parents, community, businesses) must do is clarify the gals. Ifwe *give mxed messages, the results may be mixed. And even that may be a blessing. Educators being the dedicated professionals most are, the product is quite good. We just can't decide how to, measure it. But enouigh.. For children, vacation beckons. And that, innîy bocks, is the nîost valuable learning time of the whole year. Few adults to get in the way of what really matters. 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, June 22, 1983 edition of tne WIIITBY FREE PRESS " Sor.y of Canada opened its Whidtby factory yesterday. " Discount niovies are ofi'ered by Cinema Whitby. " Rev. Canon Arthur A. Chote, rector of St. John's Anglican Church from 1948 to 1950, is retu-ning to preach at the 137th anniversary service. " A walk-a-thon by the Whitby Rotary Club raised $ 12,000 for the Dr. J.O. Ruddy Hospital chranic care unit fund. 35 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, June 19, 1958 edition of the WIIfITBY WEEKLY NEWS " Ray Conneil, Minister of Reform Institutions, oficially opened the new Whitby Jail on Victoria Street today. " Fred Ing is the new chairman of the Whitby Public School Board. " Plans are completed for a summer day camp at Camp Hood, sponsored by the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire. " Town council has rejected a proposaI of a poll tax on unmarricd girls over age 21. 80 YEAIIS AGO from the Thursday, June 19, 1913 edition of the WIITBY GAZETI'E AND CIIRONICLE " A tender of 35 cents per foot has been accepted from Thomnas Cunningham te extend water mains at the east and west ends of the Towvn. " Seventy loads of earth were durnped at the Towvn park to level it for the Whitby Horse Show in July. " Dr. Klopp of Pennsylvania State Hospital for the Insance visited the Whitby hospital site last week. " W.J. Luke and Son are selling new Ford automobiles at their garage at Dundas and Centre streets. 4- t L!!~TI~I lji d '~iIIIII1!t Il -~ ~ fi gOGO <t k 4 I ~ Ž~ j! ~ M RESIDENCE 0F WILLIAM IHENiLXHOPPRri, U.i..i This stucco house, bricked over in the early 1900s, stili stands at 410 Henryî front are William Henry Hopper, his son Arthur Graban Hopper and his Christina Hopper. Notice the picket fence and plank sidewalk. Whi'i Il St. Standing in wife SusannElh itby Archives photo