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PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - 7 of the Question Week... ties, as Premier Mike Harris has suggested? Should teachers be forced to participate in Anne Domalik extracurricular activi- Yes, teachers should be more involved for them. than just teaching. They should be there Erin Malcolm Yes. Kids have homework, teachers should do something extra too. Gail Ferguson No. | think that extracurricular activi- ties are less of a pri- ority than education. No one should be forced to do any- thing. Debbie Fudge No. No one should be forced into any- thing they don't want to do. Rick Clancy Yes. It helps and gives the kids some- thing else to do. | Can public system learn from others? * To the Editor: I recently spent two days as a guest in a local Montessori school, where | was pleasantly impressed by welcoming and relaxed teachers and their director. | was delighted by enthu- siastic, polite, very respect- ful students, not only in the classroom, but outside on the playground. All this was in direct con- trast with the noisy, up- tight often disrespectful confusion | have experi- enced over the last few years in the other school systems in Durham Region. Perhaps there is some- thing in the Montessori system that is missing and would be advantageous in the public and separate school systems. Perhaps, as parents, we should look into it very soon. After all, our children are at stake here ... aren't they? Owen R. Neill, Port Perry Be prepared for emergencies To the Editor: After taking First Aid and C.P.R. recently, | saw a car involved in an accident near my home. | yelled to my husband to call 911 and ran to the vehicle. Luckily the driver was just shaken up. | feel good knowing | would have been prepared to do my part until a pro- fessional arrived. Our instructor stated in our course that 70 to 78 per cent of people that we would perform First Aid on would be either a family member or someone in our home. With these odds | encourage everyone to learn this very useful infor- mation, and to have a First Aid Kit in their home and under the front seat (pas- senger side) of their car. Richelle Kinley-VanDyk Scugog Island i) because, Mar Break, ; because a a bom deal of them, and hey sy seem confronted with adversity, and oe are react to the attack in a most hysterical fashion. Once the target is selected, it is important to find ~ Has he been known to don fashions which were not specifically designed for those of his gender? Have you rifled through his mailbox and garbage cans? This is vital, because -- well, look: You wouldn't go into battle without a change of socks and a lot of ammunition, would you? If the first charge is proven to be utterly false, you've got to have something in store as a back-up. "Okay, maybe you didn't embezzle the money... but you did bounce your last four child support pay- ment cheques, didn't you?" their vulnerabilities, and exploit them mercilessly. Does your subject tend to hit the bottle a bit much? e Seven by Jeff Mitchell Once they' re in retreat, they are as good as dead. ~ One thing all the best muck-rakers are aware of, naturally, i is that you don't go out and start blasting away on your own. That's much too dangerous. No, the trick is to get someone to do it for you. A source. 'A spokesperson. A patsy. ~The media is a most efficient means of getting the ball rolling. Once you've got a baying, slavering press on board, the stories, as we say in the news- room, tend to write themselves. George Dubyah Bush tried this recently during his primary battles with John McCain, and it was ~ stunningly effective. In advance of several primaries last Tuesday, he had his people hint in ads and in comments to the media that McCain was opposed to funding for breast cancer research. There wasn't a hint of truth to it, but that doesn't matter, see? Closer to home, you've got that awful Diane Ablonczy woman ranting away in Ottawa about Jane Stewart's "billion dollar boondoggle", in which it is.charged the human resources ministry lost gazillions. The money was not lost so much as poorly managed, and, in some cases, maybe mis- appropriated. But lost sounds better. You know who's running the show; but Ablonczy is the pit bull that's been assigned to attack this particular limb. So if you're going to do it, get it right.. Intelligent, reasoned debate is fine, but who's got time? The best way to overcome opposition is unabashed character assassination. It's all the rage. Random Jottings by J. Peter Hvidsten WAITING FOR THE GOLDEN GOOSE Just how much money Scugog Township will reap from the slot machine revenues at the Great Blue Heron Casino after they open next month is unknown... but whatever the amount, it will help a township struggling to make ends meet. One should never count on the "golden goose" to bail us out of tough financial times, but the fact is, Scugog's portion of the proceeds, a mere 1.5 per cent of the revenues, will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for the community over the coming years. Scugog's plan to create a special fund and sock away a $1 million or more for future use is not a bad idea, although | understand they already have a size- able reserve fund. Banking for the future is great, if there is no need for the money today. But this is not the case in Scugog. We shouldn't forget there are already many, organi- zations, facilities and projects in this community that could use an injection of cash. This was pointed out last week when officials from Scugog's library and museum announced the need for more funding in order to keep pace with the needs and demands of the public, as well as the technological changes taking place in the world. The library has been forced to cut staff, despite more users, and the cost of books is on the increase, as well as the public's demand for services. At Scugog Shores Museum, staff have always worked in less than ideal conditions, tucked away in the basement of a century-old schoolhouse. They store irreplaceable historical items in a run-down building, and can barely make ends meet at times. We have roads and bridges that need repairs, an arena that's been crying for a second pad for almost two decades, our only public swimming pool was closed last summer, and our municipal offices are the most inefficient and out-of-date in the éntire region. In the township's zeal to "save for a rainy day", they must not overlook the needs of today. If the slot machine revenues come even close to what is expected, Scugog will indeed have found the "golden egg" and should take some of those new-found funds to upgrade and improve the facilities that the resi- dents of this community so rightly deserve. Our library should be provided with the funding nec- essary to keep this community at the cutting-edge when it comes to library services. Knowledge is a right, not a privilege, and our library must be given the ability to provide our residents with this knowledge, not only through books, but electronic means as well. The museum not only requires but deserves a new building, in which it can protect our precious heritage with climate-controlled rooms, and provide bright rooms for historical displays and offices. Scugog needs a new public swimming pool to replace Birdseye Pool. There are already two indoor pools in town, so a large outdoor pool would be ade- quate for our youth to enjoy throughout the summer. Obviously it's a little early to issue a wish list, when the funds haven't even begun to flow, but it's important we don't get so caught up in saving the money, we for- get that there are many projects which have been shelved, delayed or underfunded today. They could all use an injection of cash!