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,Whltby'Free Press, Wednesday, November 20,199Q , Page, 7 iL!iZiz~ You may have read some bits and pieces about planned changes in high sehool curriculum Iately. If you have, you likely havent read enough. Some of the planned changes are laudable, some laughable. Làke the young girl in the mbank commercial, I too think that things have to change. Or else how would they get better? But the key to getting better may lie more in thoughtful, rational application of problemn-solving skills. The current changes may be too rushed to be rational. There are fine possibilities, wonderfiil ideas, long overdue. Other parts of the plan -- in its current vague forin -- offer less. First, the good stuif. * Co-op education expansion. Yes, kids should get out in the workforce,- see what life is really like, and whil e they're at it, develop some really useful skills. A hint to Snobelen: to- expand this from its present form, getting more from co- op requires tight- monitoring by an enthused group of teachers. * A teacher-mentor plan surely must be a great idea: every child in high sehool would have a personal mentor to steer herhjx through the confusing labyrinh of halls and policies and changing systeins. Just a warning: again, this works only if the teachers are enthused and make it work. Pile too much on the poor cainel and some day, one straw is too much. * Graduating students in four years instead of five has to be long overdue. It was being talked about 40 'years ago when I suffered through that final year. (There will be a difference inperformance and no one should petend there wil not be. Whether this will affect performnance in college and university remains to be seen.) Now the bad stuff.i * Reducing time in English classes. No matter how you slice it, John Snobelen will not improve literacy by reducing lime ini Engylish class. iàteracy levels are bad enough now. Hey! AnÎd rve got news for Snobelen: right now,' haîf of the students in the province are performing below average. A mandatory English test in Grade il may look good. But one-third of high school students will not pass that test. If we were to test John Snobelen and the >Tory caucus at Queen's Park, one-third of themn would not pass college-level litéracy tests. *Standards are good thiings, but' students aren't assembly-line products. Here's the ministry's version of standards: «When buying a car, we say t/sat t/w car muet be fuel-eicient. That ie t/w standard. To define exactly w/tat we mean by fuel- efflciency, we have in mmmd a range of fuel consumption levels. that are satisfactoy, or even really good. These are t/w Performance Indicatore. If t/w car ie more economical t/ian thie range, we rate it excellent. If it je less economical, we rate it unacceptable and refuse to buy it. T/w Performance Indicators ailow us. to describe w/vit our standard looks like ini reality.' I'mn not exactly sure I kno*w what that means. But the saine documents that spout this stuif also go on to state that students will also continue to be graded by percentages. Attempts te upgrade standards by repeating subjects will be discouraged. (Previous marks will remain part of the student record.), In other words, in John Snobelen's reformed education system, the system, will grade students not on what they've learned but how theyve learned it. Students who learn things quickly will be labelled tep quality, while those who require more time will be'labelled less than tep quality. And that when both have passed the saine test te the saine standard. That seems like two sets of Performance Indicators. If this were flot a classless society, ITwuld be oncrnd The good and the bad I MM@«ý WAW? CIVIL.UNREST? " le. .~~....... THEODOREMILIVRY'S LAW OMM C a lm89 Theodore McGillivray (1862-1925) is seated at left with a client and a secretary using an ina1925,yaed ie. Tieadore McGillvtay a uge for Ontario County from 1912 until his death in 925 an lvedinabose her te Haldmn Optical is now at Dundas and Perry streets. mis father was George McGillivray of "Inverlynn." 1 fro th P 100 ooYEARSAGO fro th Frda, November 20, 1896 edition of theJ WBITBmy CBRONICM *Zacheus Burnham, Ontario County Judge sinoe 1853, died on Nov. 15 at the age of 77. a James Pringle, tax collector, will be at ?&~. Henry's store on Monday and Thursday each week from 10 a.m. ta 4 p.m. ta receive taxes. a*RoertBarnes is preparing his skating rink for the upcoming skating and hockey season.