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Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Community news page 17 Choral Societys latest page 11 Wednesday Jaunry3l 1171 Page SECOND SECTION HALTONS PEOPLE Schools must keep pace Principal By MICHAEL Herald editor Howard School principal Eric Sal kind believes educators today cannot afford lo hide in ivory lowers He thinks that more and more those charged with educating Ihc young people of He says thai public ton is now definitely at a crossroads and it is essential tlui there be a dialogue within the community as to which direction or directions should be pursued There is tremendous public of here is great concern and some- confusion A problem with the leach profession is the some people think can com muni cue i he public because Roy la shown here with the new Chevrolet he was drii ins In the spring of 1938 Just after the first taxi union was In Toronto The building behind him Is the Royal York as seen from a side door The big hotels and Union Station were the best places to pick up fares he recalls New taxi union is not the first Herald sis If writer While union management and anyone else Involved with it was busily pointing out that they had set a precedent by establishing a taxi union in Georgetown last week one town resident was laughing up his sleeve at their ignorance of the past who lives in the Durham Street senior citizens apartment was one of three men who organized a taxi drivers union in the city of Toronto In which flourish until 1950 We wonted 50 a week and union recognition he says and we on strike for 1G days In the middle or the Depression to get what we wanted Prior to the formation of the union Mr Glllett says the companies had everything their way If you even looked cross ways at them they tell you to park the car against the wall Someone else would take it out You were fired immedlatUy The three men including Mr got together and made up notices and the drivers themselves the funds to rent a room in the Labour Temple In which the meeting was held The turnout for the meeting was tremendous he soys and the original men stepped aside and let the more intellectual types lake over once the meeting was convened We hired Mike Nichols as an organizer he says 1 11 never forget him He was a young Irishman asso ciated with the Teamsters Union We only paid him about a week You have lo realize how different things were then he says it was be middle of the Depression and we were on strike for 16 days We had a lot of married men with families and things were very hard for them We sent out a fleet of cars every morning to hit the vegetable market and the bread meat and milk begging donations he The public was really behind us Their support was surprising The goon squad as we calico the foragers came home their cars literally full of food every night Then we d divide It all up and send It to the married men with families The restaurants staked the single men to a meal voucher each day And a meal for then too We shut the companies clown completely he says Only the independent were operating and they were raking money In so kicked In a day to us A few of the bigger companies tried to keep their cabs on the road during the first couple of days but they either find their keys gone or their cabs rolled over or something so they gave It up pretty quickly NO RECOGNITION They offered us a week and no union recognition he says but we t accept it Finally they came around By the lime companies began selling out their cars we were up to a week Originally the union had a round members After the Initial problems Mr Glllett says contract negotiations ways went very smoothly Raises arrived they were demanded and there was any further need lo strike Union members paid a month In dues to the Teams and everything worked very well Until around 1950 At that time companies were ling radios In the cabs and many companies saw a chance to get out of the expensive part of the business and hang onto thelucrativeend their to drivers who became independent operators and kept only a dispatch office from which calls were to drivers For the privilege of having calls relay to them drivers paid the dispatch companies a set a mount it now up to a month on top of all their other expenses When he first began driving a cab in cabbies were gentlemen Mr says Noone tried to beat another dm out of a fare he says since the hotels downtown and the railway station were the best places to get fares you ilways tried to get back down 10 that area But if another driver passed you in the tunnel tnc Union Station you find him waiting for you when you got the station He have left a spot for you because he knew you should have been first in the line up to collect passengers While drivers weren about to beat each other out of fares they figured beating the com pany was a fair deal and everyone did It Mr Toronto was divided Into zones in the days before cabs had meters and every time a driver passed a zone line he added to the fare If you only went a block over the zone line you put it on your run sheet stopping short of that line and pocketed the25c he explains That was part of how you made your extra money The companies used to use Plnkerton men to try and check up on who was cheating them but they rarely caught anyone There was something about them You Just knew who they were They tried it on me once I picked this guy up and he wanted metotakehlm to some place and wait for him That jacked the fare automatically He was only a couple of minutes then when he came out I took him same other place and wailed again We drove to three or four stops and never went outside of the same zone It was a natural for not turning in the extra fores for all these stops but I was suspicious There was some thing funny about it all When I got in that night the boss fairly grabbed the run sheet out of my hand I asked him if he was looking for that Pinker ton run and he turned beet red d put and turned in all my money though so I had no trouble about it he chuckles Although there was no parti uniform drivers were required lo dress neatly wear a lie and above all remember to wear their hats They were forbidden to advertise on their cars There was no restriction on Ihe colour of the cars but they must be perfectly plain They were just allowed to put a cardboard in the window with the word printed on it when they dldn have a fare In the car We acted like chauffeurs he says opening doors for people and helping the elderly Of course we got more tips that way too but we thought or ourselves as gentlemen I re member one Toronto mayor I think It was Alan Lamport saying that Toronto cabbies were comprised of a bunch of thugs and crooks I remember But now I have to admit I think he right The business is really rot ten now he continues I m very glad to be out of it after 40 years It full of payoffs The Metro Licensing Board for example tells exatly who you con sell your cab lo and how much you can charge him and docsn I mailer who you have lined up as a buyer You sell to the v they soy or you don There arc people in the city who own cab licences or people at or so a month These people may operate cabs under these licences or they may release them for a higher fee In he end the poor drive who leases and operates the licence works like made to meet his bills let alone earn a living we ore teachers This is not necessarily so Mr acknowledges thai education is a con I rovers ml field today and thinks some of this controversy may have arisen due lack of landing by and failure In information thesyslems by teachers He thinks educators should not be afraid speak out about It is neccs for educators lo voice ihciropiniuns and he same time be receptlvt input fnm community he says Mr practises what hi and has become known as one of more principals since he began advocating that parent courses be added school curriculum In his proposal which is currently being considered by Ihe school board Mr Balkind thinks school children should be given formal instruction in thi science of being a proper Being a parent Is the most demanding difficult and re wording job one cm face yet wc give no training for young You need a license to drive iruck but nothing raise a child This might have been whin the grandparents w close by and I he extended family but we are very mobile loday and many young parents have no one to turn Mr ilkind thinks that par would help pro vide young parents with the knowledge and help they may have received from other fam members in ihe past While the school board has indicated In the idea not everyone agreed with Mr decisions lo speak out through the newspapers and public meetings ind speak up Mr would like to see schools become more Integra led with the immunities they see school buildings only building re mains i focus in the They eiuld become he help really UK I schools should be for human He thinks the community irje should more access and more use of school build Bui do that means nes no leasi of which uld hi in the design of Idins themselves Despite Mr passioned thoughts on ion In not always intend to pursue as a career in fact enter the field comparatively late in life Mr Balkind was born and raised in London England and says thai as a child university was n i really a consideration r him IIKVMI- When lie did graduate from school he became banker His Immigrated lo Ca nada in and Mr hi career in bink Howard Wriggles worth principal I ric Balkind here that It hai failed to keep up with aoclety rather than moved too In his school office wonders If the problem with la fast Herald photo by Michael ing Barclay in Canada for another IB months He Basically I wenl to work in bank because I really what else 1 wan lo do Schools then hive any real guidance programs for young people After leaving his bank Job in Can Mr went to wi rk for A Hoe my in Milton of ill Arrow jet filter He worked ihcre for IB months and then resigned be cause he fell there wnsn I much future in that job He wenl to teachers college in T where he was told I might make a very fine leather if only I could lose my I haven I managed 1 do i hai he smiles After one year Mr says he was three different teaching jobs Hi finally sillied on a job in Tr nins North York He siys leaching appealed to him as a profession because he viewed il as a challenge he also likes working with people especially yount people I hoped thai perhaps I could moke a contribution Mr laught in North York fir four years and Ihcn west teach in British In New iftcr a year Mr llalkind was back in Ontario tciching in North York for another year before being or feral he post of first principal the I School winch is under Ihc School Board Mr principal of school from until 1967 He I hen me a supervisor f tin Board and w is responsible for seven Is Thai position when the board be Into the Hallon board Mr then worked as an administrative assistant In the board s head office for year before becoming pal of Harrison School in Georgetown Mr spent one year on educational leave in Taron where he concentrated on child study He then returned to and look over at School where he has been principal for three years As a long lime teacher Mr has seen schools and criticism of Ihe change regul only of Ihc last years While Mr says today arc receiving critic ism from all sides he ledges majority of this criticism does come from the conservative sector In times of economic reccs n people become more con and draw back We are in now In limes of people look back Mary Ellen Bridge holds Georgetown library last week Week on Smoking The display WEEK me of the signs on display at the the Canadian Cancer Society part National Education Smoking and Health as set up by local chapter of part of the Council Herald photo by Maggie Hannah when things were better and hink the same for schools Mr acknowledges the need for fiscal responslbili but I believe cross the board cutting back of educational spending is a good approach He argues we should be prepared Invesl money now for savings later For example figures show something like per cent of the people In prisons had learning disabllil or had unhappy The cost of keeping someone in prison for a year is The same money would be in prevention Thai more than you would pay a special education teach We must be prepared to save money where we can but ilso be prepared spend where we must Mr readily ledges that there are problems with the educational system but says he think schools have strayed that far from three I more worried that wc haven kepi up The problem may be not that we have slraycd so far from the past but that haven kept up with the future ACL CHANGES To survive schools have to face changes II is Idle to leave schools in the century when the rest of us are living In the and Mr argues that schools have never really come to grips with television When he was a child reading was a common past time for adults and children but now television is the mosl common form of entertainment TV is new literacy He cites dealing with phenomenon of television as one example of where educat Ion must move into the century Mr Balkind Is also an advo cate or publicly supported alt Ive schools The diversity of public op I nlon Is a good argument for alternative schools so people within a community can tend their children to the kind of school they really believe In AIL CONCERNS Ah it stands now we con encompass all of Ihe public concerns Mr is an Acton resident where he lives his wife Peggie and their children Joe Nadlne to and