Saturday, January 30, 1993

PAGE ;’

INtON

S

Mary Ann Fullerton
Circulation Manager

Burt Camp

OurWiEWS

Adrian RAESIDE

When crime
pays...?

K, let’s see if we have this
Ore — a 27-year-old man
admits to breaking into five
Castlegar businesses but he won’t be
charged with any of these crimes?

Sounds strange?

You bet is does and the Castlegar
RCMP isn’t exactly providing us with
a sound explanation how an alleged
criminal can walk into our
community, violate our businesses
and face no punishment.

Sure, the same fellow is currently
facing a number of charges in the
Lower Mainland for other crimes, but
does that give the Castlegar RCMP
all the comfort it needs to close the
file on five break-ins?

Just because this alleged criminal
“will get a lengthy jail term
anyways,” doesn’t mean the crimes
didn’t happen. Or does it?

Perhaps there is something about
the criminal justice system the
general public doesn’t understand. If
there is, please tell us... perhaps we,
too, will get the urge to break into a
few buildings, knowing that it is safe
to do so.

Let’s face it, these five crimes — for
reasons unexplained by our local
police — are being ignored. For all
intent and purpose, they never
happened.

With that understood, how can the
Castlegar RCMP expect citizens to
help in its never-ending battle
against crime when it has clearly
demonstrated that it’s OK to look the
other way?

Sorry, it just doesn’t make sense.

\

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»

PAN Df) A

Year 2000 has parents pondering

Where’s our education
system headed? Good
question. Unfortunately, no
one really knows.

Not the teachers.

Not the principals.

Not the school district
administrators.

Not the school boards.

Not the © provincial
education ministry.

And especially not
parents.

Education in B.C. is
undergoing a major

Ron NORMAN

Comments
from the
Crossroads

aged child.

Even the most
supportive of the Year
2000 program — the new
education reforms
affecting students from
kindergarten to Grade 12
— have concerns about
some aspects of the
program.

And the most critical
parents of the Year 2000?
They shudder at the
prospects.

So just what are these

upheaval, the likes of which
haven’t been seen before.

It’s like being in the middle of an
earthquake where the ground is shifting
under our feet. No one knows what will be
standing and what will be in ruins when it
all ends.

What we do know is that there will be an
education system of some sort, but what
kind and how effective it will be is anyone’s
guess. That has parents worried. if you
don’t believe me, ask any parent of a school-

concerns? They’re vast and

varied, ranging from the
shift away from letter grades on report
cards (the most controversial), to co-
operative learning and a fear that the new
program will dull students’ competitiveness
at a time when the world around them is
getting more competitive.

I’m one of those parents on the side of the
Year 2000 — for the most part, that is. I
like it’s premise of individual learning.

please see NORMAN page 7

ete Pega |

Street TALK

Publisher Emeritus

L.V. Campbell
Aug. 7, 1947-
Feb. 15, 1973

Al Dollar
Calgary

“It’s been adequate.
They seem to be
making an effort.”

Petrina Mrazek
Blueberry

“They’re doing a

good job for the

resources they have.”

Julie Case
Castlegar

“Yes, but I don’t like
the way they block
your driveway.”

: will al
Patrick Lane
Robson

“I don’t think (it) is
up to par since they
privatized it.”

Question: Have you been satisfied with the snow removal service in Castlegar?

Chris Bogan
Castlegar

“The downtown
core is poorly
maintained.”

@ Saturday, January 30, 1993

OtherVIEWS |

Please address
all letters to:

or deliver them to
197 Columbia
Ave.

Letters should be
typewritten,
double-spaced
and not longer
than 300 words.

Letters MUST be
signed and
include the
writer's first and
last names,
address and a
telephone
number at which
the writer can be
reached between
9am. and5
p.m. The writer's
name and city or
town of
residence only
will be published.
Only in
exceptional
cases will letters
be published
anonymously.
Even in those
cases, the name,
address and
phone number of
the writer MUST
be disclosed to
the editor.

The News
reserves the right
to edit letters for
brevity, clarity,
legality, grammar
and taste.

Letters coWHE EDITOR

Overzealous Green gets failing grade — F

As per your sports page of Jan. 16 and Instructor Mr. J. Green; I have
seen a lot of hockey over the last 30 odd years and I have never wrote a
letter to a newspaper, but this “Making the Grade” feature is pure crap
and not worth the paper that it was written on.

Mr. J. Green you get a “F” for your mid-season report.

I feel that the Rebels are a team — win, lose or draw — and to give
anyone an “E” for his effort is an insult to the team and a slap in the face
to any youngster out there doing his best for his team and his commu-

nity.

I realize that these young hockey players are volunteers in their com-

pay a dime.

Thave spent these last 20 years as a volunteer in the local Lions Clubs
from the Queen Charlotte Islands to the East Kootenay and for the last

four years here in Castlegar, and if it were not for all the volunteers in

all these small communities no matter what their organizations this
world would be a lot more dismal.

So I feel that your Mr. Green and The News which pays this ‘non-
volunteer’ to write such crap should apologize to all the members of this

fine community, all of the members of the Rebels and particularly No.

19 Corey Ross.

munity and performing an entertainment for your dollar. I go to these
games, pay cash for my entrance and bet that Mr. J. Green has yet to

John D. MacPherson
Castlegar

Canadians must ensure refugees receive safe return

It’s with a mixture of hope and concern that
many West Kootenay residents are closely
watching this week’s organized return to
Guatemala of close to 2,500 people who fled
army repression and terror to a 10-year long
exile in Mexico.

If the accords governing this first return are
honored by the Guatemalan government and
army, the estimated 40,000 remaining in UN-
funded camps and the over 200,000 people
scattered throughout Mexico will follow in
months to come.

The returnees cross the Mexican-
Guatemalan border accompanied by a number
of volunteers from Canada, the U.S. and Eu-
rope.

Their presence gives some measure of pro-
tection against the still very powerful
Guatemalan military.

Waiting for them at the border were Cana-
da’s Ambassador to Guatemala, Brian Dickson,
together with two MPs Dan Heap and Beryl
Gaffney and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate,
Rigoberta Menchu.

Over the past 10 years, several West Koote-
nay residents (from Nelson, Castlegar, Grand
Forks and Balfour) have visited the
Guatemalans in the camps in Mexico. They
travelled under the auspices of a B.C.-based in-
terchurch coalition, the Christian Taskforce on
Central America.

The group has maintained contact and com-
munication with the refugees since they fled
Guatemala and has helped to build a solid net-

work of support for them in B.C. — a network
that certainly includes the West Kootenay.
This support has now expanded across the
country under the name “Project Accompani-
ment”, with many church and community
based groups working together on behalf of the
refugees and of the people inside Guatemala
who continue to suffer terrible repression.

‘There certainly is reason for grave
concern. There are reports that
the army has recently built bases
in the region where the returnees
are to resettle.

The support includes lobbying the Canadian
government to closely monitor the human
rights record of Guatemala and to respond di-
rectly as well as through the UN Human
Rights Commission to encourage the
Guatemalan government to gain control over
its army and to respect the fundamental rights
of its citizens.

The level of repression, especially of the
Mayan majority has not changed much since
the refugees first flooded across the border in
the early 80s.

However, because the funding from the UN
to the camps is ending and poverty and pres-
sures on land in Mexico are increasing, the
Guatemalans feel they have little choice but to
risk the return home.

On-going monitoring and support from the
international community is extremely impor-
tant and may make the difference between life
and death for these people.

There certainly is reason for grave concern.
There are reports that the army has recently
built bases in the region where the returnees
are to resettle.

Also, the President of Guatemala is appar-
ently reluctant to guarantee the physical safe-
ty of the returnees.

Those reading this letter are urged to write
Secretary of State for External Affairs the Hon.
Barbara McDougall asking that Canada con-
tinue to closely monitor the situation; to strong-
ly support the return; and to pressure the
Guatemalan government to protect the safety
and well-being of the refugees. her address
(postage free) is,

House of Commons,
Ottawa, Ontario,
K1A OA6.

For more information about Guatemala and
the return, why not attend the “Guatemala Sol-
idarity Day” event in Nelson on Sunday after-
noon, Jan. 31 from noon to 3 p.m. at the Wal-
dorf School.

There are activities for all ages of family
members.

You could also call a member of your local
Central America Support group or myself at
365-50787.

Ann Godderis
Castlegar

Norman

continued from page 6

That doesn’t mean each stu-
dent learns on his or her own. In
fact, there will be times when stu-
dents work on their own, times
they work in small groups and
times they work as a class.

What it does mean is that each
child learns-at a different rate, so
not every child should be expected
to learn the same things at the
same time as every other child.

An example is my own two
daughters. Each learned to ride a
bicycle at a different age. One was
ready to ride at age five. The other
wasn’t ready for another year or

80.

While I support individualized
learning, it doesn’t mean I don’t
have concerns about it. I would
hope, for instance, that expecta-
tions for the students would re-
main high and that students
would be expected to strive for

goals beyond their easy reach.

Again, my own daughters are a
good example. If I hadn't kept pro-
viding opportupities for one to
learn to ride, she might have tak-
en longer than was really neces-
sary. Would that have made any
difference?

Well, she wouldn’t have been
able to go on small cycling trips
and other such things. So, yes, it
did make some difference.

That raises another concern of
mine with the Year 2000 program:
that children realize what it is to
attain their goals, but also that
they realize what it is to fail to
reach a goal. And that reaching
difficult goals might entail three
or four or five or 10 failures.

I worry that by tailoring learn-
ing to individual needs, the learn-
ing might drop down to what the
child can do, rather than what the
child is capable of achieving.

And that is the greatest fear of
most parents: that standards with
the new program will somehow
fall. That’s why most parents don’t
want to see the letter grading sys-
tem eliminated.

Letter grades provide a tangi-
ble link with the old system — a
pillar that is still standing after
the earthquake, if you like.

The argument against letter
grades is that they don’t really tell
parents what learning has taken
place and that they affect stu-
dents’ self-esteem and success.
That’s true.

It’s also true that anecdotal re-
porting — the method much in
vogue in educational circles these
days and presently used in
Kindergarten and Grades 1, 2 and
3 — provides more accurate and
complete information about stu-
dents.

I can tell much more from a

page describing all my child’s ac-
complishments and failures than I
can from a single letter grade.

But the letter grade does some-
thing anecdotal reporting doesn’t
always do: it tells me that my
daughter is either doing satisfac-
tory work for her grade level or
she isn’t. And it is pretty accurate.
Much more accurate than anecdo-
tal reports.

A happy medium would be
what is going on presently in my
eldest daughter’s Grade 4 class:
letter grades with lengthy anecdo-
tal reports.

And while it is true that letter
grades can affect students’ self-es-
teem and success, they can also do
the opposite: provide much-need-
ed rewards for hard work; the
kind of rewards anecdotal reports
just can’t provide.

NEXT WEEK: More on educa-
tion changes.,