WMiIby Fiee Pres, W*iosdlay, Jwuuy 27,1M%3,Page7 PAGE SEVEN High expectations Noon hour in the scboolyard. A fourth grade student, large for bis age, bumpa into a small girl.- The girl feuls. The boy is upon hier. His hands grab her throat. He pushes bard, throttling, throttling. A parent standing nearby watches, . transfixed Anotber adult separates the èhildren. The incident is reported to tbe yard-duty teacber. It is several days before the incident is reported to the principal. It would be one more item in an already-tbick file on one child. It is an minor example of sebool violence. Aways of course, tbere have been schoolyard figts.Foty and more years a go I arrived at school to see Jimmy Walker, a seventb gader, fiat on bis stomach, uis head in bis hands. He had lost a brief contest witb Doug Foreman. But that was a fair fight, fought witb a rough idea of rules. And the greatest Ioss was of dignity. The choking incident was clearly an unprovoked assau.lt. A bigger, stronger person picked on and began infiicting pain on a smaller cbuld. Had someone niot interfered, serious damage would have been done. Children in tbe fourtb grade have been found carrying knives. Second gaders ignore teachers, defy tbem ta try punishment. l'mn not even going ta try ta list some of the regalar horrors that occur in high school corridors. Now I'm not talking inner city schools here. I'm talking suburban schools in middle-class neighbour- hoods you find almost anywbere in Durham Region. What is going on? Couple this increasing violence witb growingsicepti- cism about school standards. It is then not fcuit ta understand why increasing numbers of parents enrol students in private schools. Or even why some public boards now focus on academies -- publicly funded schools with high stan- dards dress codes, attendance requreents, and signeâ contracts between students, prns and the Schools. These schools are not only for bigh achievers. They are for any student. In some areas, such scbools have waiting lists. Parents enrol kids before birth. Violence on the echool grounds, or in scbool, is not talerated. Insolence ta the teacher would be grounds for dismissal. t# The results are predictable: student performance soars. Standards are hi h. Parents are pleased. Teachers love their jobs. Chidren like scbool. Every- body is happy. Riht? Well, almost. But if somehow we divert ail concerned parents with normal and brighter than normal children inta uprivate» classrooms, let us ask the rest of the question: What bappens toalal the other children? And what happens, of course, is that "ordinary" children remain in uordfrnary" scbools, where violence becomes a way of life. Where schoolyard chokings are real assaults. Where teachers spend their time keeping order, where littie tirne is left for teaching. Where less and les-s learning takes place. What we need are tough standards in every scbool. Higb expectations o! academic standards. (Experi- ments show it works.) High expectations of beha- viour. High expectations of student morale. Iigh expectations o! teacher performance. It means parents being involved in education. We should expect, for example, tbat parents be expected ta send cbildren ta school well fed, well rested. That parents be expected ta control a child's exposure ta television. I know, I know. There's Swan preaching again. But principals and teachers know what's wrong. We need ta demand standards of scbools, teaciiers, parents - and, of course our chldren. And we cant afford the selflshness of private academies. We need ta inake ordinary schools extra- ordinary. We have the knowledge, the people the. resources, yes, even the money to do that now. Ail we lack is the Will. Parlamenary epor IImproving the regulatory process By René Sotens Ontario riding MP When you think about Parliament, you probably conjure up images o! heated debates in Question Period or quick 15-second clips where MPs hurriedly express their views on a tapice Usually, tuis is all that the. media presents.Onec o! the. things that often go.s unreport.d is the. important ongoing committe work that happens b.hind the scenes. One such panel that I chaired is the subcommittee on regulations and competitiveness of the Houa. of Commons StandingCommttee on Finance, the. report o! which h as ojust been rêeased. The subeommittee was establishcd last April to examine federal regulatory programs and ta determine how they affect Canada's competitivenesa. The. subcomniittee aise suggested ways to improve the proc.ss. The report details the current environment o! regulation in Canada. Regulation is probably thi. most extensive form o! public intervention in the economy, yet effective control over its use is lacking. Regulations serve a wide range of goals, from environimental protection and occupational health and safety, ta improved information available ta investors and consumer.. But they aise, entail costs that increase the prioes of gooda w. buy, and cen erode the competitiveness of oui- economy. The reforms that w. have proposed in our report are designed ta, ensure that the regulators talc? these effects fully inta, account when decdng whether and how ta regulate., Some of the main recommendations include the proposai that federal and provincial governments adopt mutual 'recognition of product standards as a general principle of interprovincial trade. It aiso recommends that federal regulatars be. edta notify provincial governments of proposereguat nitiatives. Over the course o! my chairing this committe., I heard from many residents of Ontario riding who were eager to have their views of the regulatory process heard. I invite any constituents who are interested in the. findings of' this committee. ta contact my office for a copy of the. report. I ~I$~ LKSIDE MOTORS LIM1TEDO 1986 This garage was buflt in 1927 at the. corner of Dundas and Centre Streets bY MCol Brothers of Toronto. For many years, it was cyerated by Corb Stiner, who died in 1963. It in now much remodelled and used as a car rentai agency. WhItLy ArohlvSphoo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesda, January 26, 1983 edition of the JWIITYFEKE FES *Twenty-five washrooms at Fairview Lodge will not b. renovated, to keep deficits down. *Liberal Social Services critic Don Boudria toured tihe Durham Centre for the. Developmentally Handicappd which is due ta b. closed& *Parking fines ini Whitby wiI b doubled. *Tansport Minister James Snow is evasive about plans to extend GO Transit rail service east of Pickering. 35 YEARS AGO from the 'Thuraa, Jan 239 1958 edition of the WHITM YNEWS (TJ.his iffsue is rnissing.) 80 YBAMSAGO from the 1huraday, January 23, 1913 edition of the IITB GAZEIE AND CHIRONICLE He eashveiooe evrlbasementa in WhItby. aneyW~~ aiy *A lec;re on egg productio will b ve tthe okiniMasonc *A demonstration of hypnotism will b. beld at the Town Hall tomorrow. -, ý, e ("ý cý It e - , i - 1 , - !ý ýl ý Z- ý