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¥ RA AAR OH QTE id Pra SRS HSA PAI LURE OUR COR PASE ERY ARES ARE SERRA de A SAUER editorial com The Strap Durham Board of Education trustees voted last week to effectively eliminate use of the strap in the public schools. Good for them. The trustees were told that the strap has been used on rare occasions over the past few years, and only with the consent of the parents of the youngster involved. Even though the vote was close with some trustees feeling that use of the strap should be retained as a last resort, the strap has no place in today's educational process. Surely, with all the advances that have been made in the science of pedogogics, there are more constructive methods of handling even severe discipline problems than corporal punishment. If the practise had been to only use the strap under rare circumstances, it would appear as if the discipline problem was a deep-rooted one, and the strap would do nothing to correct it, anyway. Unfortunately, the public these days in demand- ing more discipline in the schools, a return to basics, and a tougher approach to teaching, will likely view the abolition of the strap as just one more example of the public education sysfem gone soft. But those who adhere to the old adage of 'spare the rod and spoil the child' are either living in the past or don't understand the nature of the problems these days. More discipline in the public school system + should not include more liberal use of the strap or even the threat of the strap in extreme circumstan- ces. Surely, when. one talks of more discipline, the "reference is to more rigid standards of academic, athletic and social excellence; the need to tap to the fullest each child's intellect, to stimulate a climate for teaching and learning which will at the same time be both tough and positive. If it is fair to say that the most severe discipline problems have their roots outside the classroom and the school itself, then can we expect teachers and principals to solve these problems through the use of the strap? Not likely. And any parent who would consent to have a child strapped by a teacher or principal is shirking parental responsibility. Corporal punishment, if it - has any merits in the care and raising of children, should be confined to the home. What Now, Joe? Joe Clark is at more than just a cross-roads in his five year career as national leader of the Progres- sive Conservative Party. He is a man standing on the edge of a precipice. But his feet are more in thin air than they are in the safety of solid ground. pp =r = == { CCS = About 33 per cent of delegates at a weekend Conservative "meeting" In. Ottawa voted for a leadership convention, which means they are less _than thrilled with the performance Clark has turned in as leader. T In the-face of it, Clark is maintaining a stiff upper lip, saying in fact that 66 per cent voted in favour of him. In conventional terms, that may seem like a rather comfortable majority of support in any election. But not so In the rough and tumble, cut-throat business of internal party politics. As party leader, Clark has been wounded by the vote last Friday. Not mortally, perhaps, but more than enough to start the blood flowing. And certainly enough for the Liberals and New Democrats to ridicule and attack him during the crucial parliamentary battles over energy and the constitution. After all, what credibility does a leader have when fully one-third of his party has voted him a lack of confidence? For the Conservative Party itself, the vote Is the worst of all possible worlds. It was not strong enough to force automatically a leadership convention in the next six months to a year, yet at the same time It left Clark hanging, giving him enough confidence to proclaim that he can indeed continue to lead and unite the party. If there is confusion and dis-unity within the party itself, little wonder that the Canadian public has not exactly been inspired or awed by the "... JUST IN CASE we EXPERIENCE ALITTLE TURBULENCE |" Conservatives over the past few years. And just a year ago last month, the voters told Clark and the party what they think. - Clark has no other choice but to accept the bitter . pill and agree that a leadership convention in the near future would be in the best interest of not only his party, but the country as well. His initial, brave posturing'in the face of the vote is understandable, but the cards are clearly on the table. Canada at this time needs a totally effective opposition in the House of Commons; an opposition party that stands a chance of forming a government after the next general election. The New Democrats, even with all their elo- quence and dedication to principles, simply do not have the power base In Canada. That leaves the Conservatives. But they can't do it with a leader who enjoys substantially less than total support from the rank and file, or his colleagues in the oppositjoh benches. Clark's problems in five years have been mul- tiple: some his own doing; others the result of less than a fair shake from the media; and still others from the inherent dangers of trying to lead a party that is fractious and uncertain of where it is going ideologically. ~~ : For all intents and purpose as far as Mr. Clark is concerned, the vote last Friday might as well have - been 51 per cent. He really has no other choice but to consider it so. a bill smi But, somehow, as department head, my colds are not as bad as my teachers' colds. My dizziness is just a slight buzzing in my ears when my wife talks a blue streak. Theirs makes them stagger from wall to 'wall and take six days off. y TEACHER BURNOUT I remember writing something about teachers' 'burnout rate" in an early column. With the eager help of my English department, I'm rapidly approaching the condition of a cinder. The original article, written by Calgary teacher and psychologist Stephen Truch, gave the symptoms for teacher burnout, which is third only to surgeons and air traffic controllers. Here they are: Constant fatigue, insomnia, and dépres- sion. Ihave the first two. I let my wife look after the depression, though she's also got the other two, just from living with a teacher. + Every thine I start getting depressed, I think back to the late fall of 1944, when I was locked in a railway freight car. I didn't have rings on my fingers, or bells on my toes. I had bars on the windows, and wire tying my wrists and ankles together. And a face that looked as though I'd challenged Muhammed Ali when he was in his prime. That always makes me immediately undepressed. It also makes me turn up theheatandgo sions. ° out and buy a lot of food. In those days I care. slept on a wood floor, no pillow, no blanket, shivering like a dog with rabies. Daily meals were four slices of bread and two cups of burnt-barley coffee. But that's all behind and forgotten now. The cellar is piled to the ceiling with canned ff. goods, and when the oil runs out, or becomes too expensive to buy, I have two huge oaks and a bunch of maples to see me through until St. Peter says, "Where's Smiley?" I'll never be hungry or sleep cold again, if I have to murder. However, I have all the other symptoms of teacher burnout, and that causes a little concern. As the learned psychologist said, we also suffer "frequent minor complaints such as colds, dizziness, headaches, diarr- hea, loss of appetite arid loss of desire for sex." These are minor? I've had 'em all, in varying degrees during this cruel winter. Not all at once, thank goodness. If I had, they might as well put me in a green plastic bag and throw me into a snowdrift on one of the back conces- toast with jam. hurricane. Diarrhea? Theirs, to hear them tell it, is ten times worse than my mere six or eight times a day. It's a hundred times worse than what I had in Normandy, 1944, when 1 had to be carried to the facilities. More days Loss of appetite? Even though I gag over my breakfast of toast with peanut butter and half a banana, they think they've lost their appetites if they don't have juice, . cereal, bacon and eggs, and hot buttered Item. One of my teachers has developed insomnia, not to mention chest pains, and frequent bouts of flu. Combine them and ately hanging on. Item. A young English teacher, in great physical shape, plays hockey, soccer, golf, totters in practically weeping and self-pity, behind in his work, determined to move to My headache is created by their con- B.C. stant absence. Their headaches are mig- raines, demanding three days off, with all the lights out, medication, and tender loving Item. A solid performer, male English teacher, never sick, got terrible "cramps" in his stomach, thought it was the flu, because that was one of his symptoms still had a horrible soreness in his abdomen after the cramps; and wound up with a burst appendix - three weeks off. The idiot. Add to that the fact that, to preserve jobs for people, my department contains one science teacher who swears he has never read a book, one art teacher whom I know hasn't, one family studies teacher, one teacher of Spanish, and various dogsbodies, and you know what I'm up against. Supply teachers come to me on their knees, begging me to tell them what my Loss of desire for sex? I have to have missing t somebody explain to me what it means. 08 leathers Sere Going whan they And all this is not because I am burned Shakespearian sense of foolishly) believes out, IL pesiuss my ig hoy " hp fist I know what every teacher was doing on are. nk that what's done it is trying to fourth peri keep up with their Chief. They just Ny do period last Friday, and can help out. it, and they're breaking down and falling apart like a leaky old ship caught in a went sick. The administration fondly (in the If you see an odd-looking piece of charcoal next summer when you are doing your barbecue, something that vaguely resembles the outline of a human, don't throw it in the flames and douse it with gasoline, ' It might be me. Burnt-out. Still waiting you have an eighty-pound shadow desper- for St. Peter to speak up has been plagued by flu and migraines and. NT NC TRAN i tines a BH i AT NE