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THE HERALD Wednesday February 1989 Page LETTERS from our files 30 years ago Georgetown will have a fifth public school in operation in September if things move as ex pected After a request from school board chairman Ed Wilson at Mon days council meeting the first step was taken for a 10room school estimated to cost some when council ordered a debenture bylaw prepared for bor rowing the money The school located on Weber Drive will even tually grow to an 18 or room structure Mr Wilson explained depending on how the town grows in future Improvements to the public library have been discussed at two recent council meetings It is the hope of the library board to put the basement m useable condition and chairman Lambert estimated this to cost when he inter viewed council In 1958 the library boards total budget of in cluded from town taxes or cents per capita Mr Lambert said If the per capita grant were raised to 125 taxes would con tribute and a provincial grant allowing the cost of improvements to be met The February meeting of the Womens Institute took the form of a Social evening last Wednesday In the spacious recrea tion room of Mr and Mrs Leo Jamieson The members and their husbands enjoyed a bountiful pot hick supper 15 years ago The Georgetown Raiders are playing like a championship club and with playoffs on tap in March in Intermediate A hockey thats understandable The Raiders cap ped a fourgame winning streak Sunday by downing the Merchants 81 in Georgetown On Friday the Raiders dumped das and during the week the home team walloped the DunnviUe Mudcats 101 Prior to that the Raiders scored a win in Georgetown over the Adanacs A Byres Is no longer alone in his fight against the Canadian Na tional Railways abandonment of a track between Georgetown and Cheltenham Park Recently Jack Lennox an employee of CN for eight years wrote a letter to Art Even for SimcoeYork outlining the problems of closing the line Mr Lennox listed a few of the companies in Simcoe County years ago A meeting in St Albans Church Hall in Glen Williams did little to discuss the proposed hookup of homes in the lower Glen to town water or to outline official plan proposals for the village and did little to resolve the confusion among the residents who attended The main accomplishment of the evening was to decide which ques tions had to be answered about the water installation to seven streets in tower Glen Williams before the residents on those streets could make a fully informed decision on whether or not they wanted the water Costs were a main concern for residents A neighborhood property dispute the Summit Lane Mountainview Road area of Georgetown has resulted in a recommendation to town council that would see a 10- foot wide easement reopened for public use as a walkway Members of the towns general committee conceded Monday night that a previous council inadvertently made a mistake by leasing a 10- foot by 200foot easement between Summit Lane and Mountainview Road to Summit Lane homeowner Klaus Hentschel and thus cutting off a much used access walkway from several abutting neighbors Bert Hinton of Acton was a guest at last Wednesdays meeting of Halton Regional council where he presented a watercolor painting to Halton Hills Mayor Peter Pomeroy as a gift to the Region 5 years ago Proposed changes to provincial riding boundaries could see Halton Hills sharing a new constituency with Brampton and a small sliver of The riding would be called Halton Peel while Milton and the northern section of Burl ington above Highway 5 Halton Hills current running mates would retain the name Halton- Burlington Crews of the Credit Valley Con servation Authority CVCA are keeping a close watch on the Credit River in Glen Williams an ticipating an ice break up some time this week if mild weather con ditions continue While the authori ty is not expecting any serious problems at this moment CVCA hydrologist Charlie Wort said crews have been touring the river taking photographs and noting if the ice is breaking As temperatures rose to nine degrees Monday Mr Wort told the Herald that the continued mild weather may prompt a 24hour monitoring of conditions Monday evening the Halton Hills Christian Womens Fellowship will host a fashion show of new spring styles by Carl in Enterprises at St Georges Anglican Hall Speaking that evening will be Mrs Nancy Barwell former chairwoman of the Fellowship Halton students deserve better EDITORS NOTE The following an open letter addressed to the Halton Board of Education to the Herald for publica tion Dear Sir It seems that the elephant Board of Education after 18 months of gestation has given birth to a gnat lam referring of course to the outcome of the hearings and recommendations for an outdoor education policy Every poll shows the public Is very concerned about the condition of the environment The causes and corrections of that condition are complex First must come a basic understanding of the mechanisms of the natural world Such understanding is unlikely to happen in a sterile classroom and a visiting van is little better It ap pears that students in the Halton public system will continue to receive inconsistent learning op portunities with inferior facilities planning and priority to those pro vided in surrounding regions Those boards have outdoor educa tion centres senior educators dedicated to the program and full curriculum development Halton is going to spend two per son years looking at program This seems like Ronald Reagans prescription for acid rain years of delay and study when the subject cries out for immediate action Why must Halton spend years developing a new curriculum when surrounding regions have them Why rediscover the wheel If the students of today most of whom are urban dwellers are to deal more responsibly and effec tively with the threats to the en vironment they will need a better understanding than this program can offer I am profoundly disap pointed by the boards meagre commitment The most charitable comment is that its a start I believe that Halton students need and deserve better Syrames College reunion Dear Sir Conestoga College of Applied Arts and Technology is now establishing its first formal Alum ni Association to welcome back to the Conestoga College community all of our graduates of the past 20 years We are seeking information on any and all graduates Graduates are asked to contact the Alumni Of fice to update their address If you know the whereabouts of other graduates please pass the word along to them Please write to Alumni Officer College Valley Drive Kitchener Ontario or you may telephone 519 Sincerely Mary Wright Alumni Officer Conestoga College Parents are childs first teacher By GERALDINE BARNES Herald Special The concept of or Family Literacy is becoming an interest and concern in Canada in recent years Both the US and Britain have programs in place on this topic and the Canadian perspective was presented at a conference I attended in Kingston in January 1989 It was sponsored by the Ministry of Skills Develop ment and the Literacy Link of Eastern Ontario A parent is the childs first teacher the physical and emo tional bonding that ideally takes place m the youngsters early years can be enhanced when parent and child curl up together with a good book Reading aloud to children pro motes listening speaking writing and imaginative skills as well as the awareness of the flow or rhythm of words The commentary and discussion that follows the reading stimulates comprehen sion and intellectual curiosity in the young listener and enforces the idea that the printed page is a source of information and enjoy ment The repetition of a favorite story or rhyme by the child as heshe reads the text is a good rehear sal for formalized reading in school later The joy of recognition of environmental signs and labels makes the learning process fun and encourages the young reader to look for other messages con veyed by the printed word from sources like TV or a toy catalogue or a newspaper All these discoveries help develop a childs positive response to school and learning generally Unfortunately the delight of reading to their children is denied to some parents because of their inadequate reading skills Recent ly a link has been established bet ween low literacy achievement and poor parenting Parents especially solo mothers who left school early feel agony and frustration when they are unable to assist their children with home work read report cards or other school communication or write a note to a teacher A sense of aliena tion from educational and other authority f gures may then develop and this inhibits learning on the part of both parent and child As the parent is the primary and most influential teacher the child may grow up in an environ ment where intellectually and emotionally there is very little stimulation neither is the parent able to access written material which helps one develop nurturing parenting skills in health and safe ty Consequently the family and ultimately society suffers Fortunately this scenario need no longer occur A low literacy level is neither hereditary nor per manent Family literacy programs like ours can help adult teamen become familiar with the printed word so that they can read their children a story Sometimes the parents own reading level is slightly ahead of the childs but the confidence and motivation which results from such victories impels the mother to work harder at her own literacy classes Reading classes for adults are geared to their needs and hopes as well as alerting them to their rights and responsibilities as citizens Parenting skills are also stressed in vocabulary that is meaningful to the student Promotion of adequate child day care is being advocated by the Ministry of Skills Development so that the parent is free to receive upgrading both in her parenting and employee roles knowing her child is being cared for in a safe en vironment The Ministry would like to get a sustained commitment from socie ty to help encourage literacy among those who up to now have been isolated from reading With the good will of community ser vices educational establishments from day care to colleges health business labour libraries and volunteer groups we can all try to reach the goal to make Canada a nation of readers The year 1990 is International Literacy Year Lets celebrate our democracy by enjoying our own right to read and sharing that right with someone who needs help with literacy Tutor workshops are con ducted by the North Literacy Guild Maureen or Ave will be delighted to hear from you Phone North Halton Literacy Guild at Taking the phrase shoot the messenger literally Tell me does the Ayatollah Kho meini sometimes strike you as a man who doesnt have much of a sense of humor The thought occurred the other day upon reading of the ayatollahs displeasure with a news story that had aired on Ira nian radio Apparently Khomeini felt the story insulted women and the Islamic religion So he promptly wrote a letter calling for the reporters execution Well Perhaps I speak from the limited perspective of one who is after all a journalist himself Still there do appear to be one or two disturbing implications here Let me hasten to say that no journalist would deny someone the right to object to something he had written or broadcast Like any col umnist I can live with the thought that I might write something that would inspire someone to fire off a letter beginning Dear Editor Please cancel my subscription All the same Id prefer to draw the line at letters beginning Dear Editor Shoot Weir Naturally its a fact of life that journalists and public officials have an adversarial relationship Most journalists are quite aware that there are politicians out there who would like from time to time to shoot them Still theres a difference bet ween wanting to shoot someone and actually doing it It may be a fine line but it means a great deal to the person whos being shot Now granted we should be careful not to overreact here Perhaps theres no reason for a Canadian print journalist to feel overly threatened by the ayatollahs desire to execute a radio reporter To begin with this is something thats happening over in Iran And besides its a radio reporter Print journalists as a breed are a pretty level headed bunch Thomson News Service and are unlikely to get too upset if the authorities decided to pop off the odd radio reporter a TV an chormai or two and perhaps Geraldo just for good measure Still the danger with these things is that they can so easily catch on and become a trend Lets face it governments are only too susceptible to being swayed by foreign examples and to following the lead of other coun tries The US elected Ronald Reagan in J960 and the Canadian political spectrum promptly shifted to the right Maggie Thatcher started privatizing British industries and suddenly everyone decided this was an excellent idea And now Iran has come up with a highly effective reaction to Un favorable press and one which doesnt even require censorship Ready aim go ahead Naturally you dont want to jump too hastily to paranoid con elusions Still its hard to avoid im agining what would happen should the ayatollahs new media rela tions philosophy gain widespread popularity News item Officials in the Prime Ministers Office said today they are hopeful they will soon be able to give their formal response to the reporter who broke the nsws last weekend that the government has plunged to a new low in the latest Gallup Poll A spokesman confirmed the reporter is still barricaded in his basement but added that he cant stay in there forever Orpernaps A spokesman for the prime minister reacted angrily today to media accusations that the govern ment reacted unfairly to a colum nist who had insinuated that several Cabinet ministers have im perfections What was unfair about it the spokesman demanded Didnt we give him a head Or perhaps An aide to President Bush to day rebuked other nations for adopting a policy of shooting reporters who write insulting stories America under George Bush is a under gentler nation the aide said Here in America we do not shoot reporters We just wing em a little Youd be amazed how quick they get the point