The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

"Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, May 2, 2000 - of the - Week... What do you think of the province's new code of con- duct for students? Ariel Hopkins | don't like it at all. pushy. We don't have a choice. The teachers are too Justin Carroll It's great. More discipline. The teach- ers are afraid to use the power they have NOW. Grahm Baxter | think it's a good idea. A slap on the hand and a warning are not good enough. Claire Death "Sherry Danson | really couldn't care. It's a good idea; | Either way | don't think the kids need to mind. give teachers a little more respect. Opting out of Grade 6 testing To the Editor: I am a parent of a grade 6 child who has been withdrawn from the provincial tests that are soon to be under way in local schools. Many parents will ask how I can do that when the booklet from the Education Quality Assessment Office says, 'Students are required by law to participate in EQAO's province-wide assessments'?" A phone call to EQAO resulted in a sheepish admission that there is no such law. How many parents have been duped by the provincial government yet again? The very name of this group -- "accountability" says it all. These tests are not about how well this "rigorous new curriculum" is working. They are about rating schools and teachers, under the business world misnomer of accountability. If it were about curriculum, tests would be anonymous, with no student or school names. L will not allow the results to be placed in my child's file to be used in the future to possibly place him in a particular stream at high school or in any way limit his future choices. I have the utmost confidence in my child's abilities and in the skills of his teachers. But these tests are not about ability, aptitude, attitude or effort. Studies have shown time after time that standardized tests are not good indicators of a student's ability nor do they truly assess learning. Instead, my child will spend some of the time practis- ing basic math skills. Some of that time will be spent in reading challenging and exciting material, and writing creatively. My child will not be a pawn in another scheme from this deplorable government. | challenge other parents to stand up on behalf of their child. Alison Wallace Port Perry In this kooky old world of ours, - it's nice to know that some things il never change. Or maybe more accurately, always resurface, strong as ever. 1 refer, of course, to book burning. 'And book banning. ~ With Canadian Book Day having Sassi quite silently last week, | find myself thinking about the by children the world over. some public school board trustees, who feel the ~ books are inappropriate for youngsters. Apparently references to sorcery are seen by some as especially sinister. They don't want the kiddies reading these books and then running off and spending their time a-weavin' spells and devil worshippin' and such. being several years removed from elementary school, but | can attest to the perils of exposing young minds to imaginative, interesting prose. Why, | recall how my entire Grade 9 class took to living in the woods and trying to worm our way down rabbit holes after just a few chapters of The Hobbit. C.S. Lewis turned us all into zombies, and a few kids were hurt trying to fly out of their bedroom windows. | personally slew several people, appar- BOOK BURNERS : that even though some traditions may fall out of favour from time to time, they I current debate over the Harry Potter series. It's a ~ wildly popular set of books, which are being devoured And so it Is that it's attracted the attention of- Well, shucks. I'm not familiar with Harry Potter, by Jeff Mitchell ently out of blind ambition, after Macbeth became part of the curriculum. People don't seem to realize that just because their fevered adult minds can construe evil just about everywhere, it's not necessarily the same way with youngsters. Kids, even really little kids, are capable of interpreting fantasy for what it is - 'make-believe - and have no trouble separating story time from real life, Trustee Jane Weist, who is sounding the alarm 'about Harry Potter, argues that the board shouldn't allow books that contain references to sorcery, especially when her efforts at reinstating school prayer are being rebuffed by a bunch of nay-sayers 'hiding behind that darned old Charter of Rights thingy. - She's seriously out of touch. The point is that kids love the books, and many of their parents do, too. Most important, kids are being encouraged to read, by themselves, and with parents. If author J.K. Rowlings' books encourage children to read, they should be regarded as an asset, not a threat. If parents object to the content and don't want their kids exposed to it, that's their choice. But Ms Weist's thinly-veiled attempt to ban a book that offends her Christian tenets and her accompanying reference to prayer go beyond her mandate as a trustee. Because she's promoting an agenda, not acting as a guardian. It's a public school board, and a public system. And kids are enjoying reading. Random Jottings by J. Peter Hvidsten BUYING BACK A PIECE OF OUR YOUTH Last week's news that one of Port Perry's longtime residents, Bill Brock, was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident was a shock to many people around this community. Since retiring a number of years ago, Bill had taken a great interest in motorcycling, and for the past five or six years has logged literally thousands of miles on his Honda motorcycle. His bike was not a big one, | believe a 350 or 400cc model, and although a dependable motorcycle, it is not the most comfortable bike for long trips. | always won- dered why he hadn't purchased a larger one for his travels around Canada and the U.S. A few years back | owned a Honda Goldwing for a couple of years, and during the time | owned it, headed out on a trip to California. | never did make it all the way, ending up in Texas instead, but the bike ran like a dream. The Goldwing truly is the Cadillac of motorcy- cles when it comes to highway travel. | would image that's one of the reasons we see more and more of these magnificent machines on the high- ways these days. I've been told Bill had just purchased a 1984 Honda Goldwing, to continue his escapades this summer, and it was shortly after he bought the bike his unfortunate accident happened. | extend my sincere best wishes for a speedy recov- ery to Bill. Hopefully we'll see him up and around in the very near future. While on the topic of motorcycles, it's more than obvious there is an insatiable appetite among baby- boomer aged men for these two-wheel freedom cycles. One has to believe, many of these "older" new motorcyclists owned bikes when they were young men, and for the past 20 or 30 years, while focusing all their energy into their jobs and raising families, put their cycling passion on hold. Now into their 50s and 60s, and many with savings accounts that can stand the drain of up to $25,000, they're marching into motorcycle shops with toothy grins from ear to ear. They're almost like dogs waiting for a steak bone; as they look over rows of big, shiny new bikes, they leave a trail of saliva along the floor. In a way, throwing down their cash buys them back a piece of their youth, if only for a little while. I've always enjoyed motorcycles, and since purchas- ing my first one when | was 18 years old, I've owned six different models. It's one of those things you just can't get out of your blood. I've had two motorcycle accidents in my life. One when a car turned in front of me when | was about 20 years old, which resulted in scaring the hell out my par- ents, and putting me in hospital overnight with minor cuts and bruises. The second was about eight years ago, when | had to put my Goldwing down while travelling 60 mph along 401 in southwestern Ontario. Fortunately it was a grassy, sloped ditch and | was able to walk away. Since learning of Bill's accident last week, I've decid- ed to give up biking. I'll never get over the thrill of riding along an open highway with the wind in my face, but that familiar old saying, "three strikes and you're out," surfaces far too often in my mind.