A4- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 12, 2003 , TERRACE. STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 WEB: www.terracestandard.com EMAIL: newsrcom@terracestandard.com Wal-Mart IT’S ALMOST as if there was some unwritten contract struck years ago. “OK, Kitimat. You have Alcan and Eurocan. And Methanex, Prince Rupert. You have the pulp mill and those fish processing facilities, That leaves you, Ter- race. You get all the stores.” | By and large in the northwest, that’s the way it has happened over time. Kitimat and Prince Rupert were blessed with large and dominant single-source employers providing both the comfort of a tax and income base. In the absence of those kinds of employers, Terrace developed instead an entrepreneurial culture which encouraged a certain amount of tisk taking and spurred the search for different ways of making a living, As a city, that culture turned into a tradition of welcoming new retail and service enterprises, something that was lacking in Kitimat and, to a lesser degree, in Prince Rupert. . To be sure, geography has also helped in that Terrace is centrally located in the northwest. It is within relatively easy driving distance for workers from Prince Rupert and Kitimat who, recent economic conditions aside, have lucrative union contracts providing ample time off to spend the money they earn. All this helps explain why, for example, 1997 was a pivotal year in Terrace’s economy. It was the first year of the seemingly endless Skeena Cellulose agony. But it was also the year Cana- dian Tire and the Real Canadian Warehouse Club opened. It was not so much what they sold,. but what they represented. Their very presence created a demand which brought an increased . number of people to Terrace from around the region. Much the. same took place last year when Overwaitea converted to a Save-On Foods and it will be repeated whenever Safeway makes its decision to renovate and expand, And now the stage is set for Wal-Mart. Again, it’s not so much what a Wal-Mart will sell, it’s what it will represent — another magnet for northwest shoppers. , Overall, it will solidify Terrace’s position as the retail and service headquarters for the northwest. Will it harm existing businesses? To some extent. But it is interesting to note the ar- rival of Canadian Tire did not result in a signif- icant dislocation. Instead it created a monetary boost to the area, resulting in spinoffs to other businesses. The resilience of Terrace entrepreneurs has already been tested over and beyond any impact of a big box retailer and they have responded. The arrival of Wal-Mart will not so much be a test but an opportunity to embrace the inevit- able continued evolution of the city and its place in the northwest. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS: Jeff Nagel NEWS/SPORTS Sarah A. Zimmerman 2002 WINNER NEWS/COMMUNITY: Jennifer Lang CCNA BETTER FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping & Carol McKay NEWSPAPERS CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Tern Gordon COMPETITION ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: sd Bert Husband & Stacy Gyger TELEMARKETER: Stacy Gyger COMPOSING: Susan Credgeur AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (+$4.06 GST)=62.00 per year; Seniors $50.98 (+$3.57 GST)=54.35; Out of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73 . 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Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents 1 “ €p'S RETHINKING WIS POSITION OPRIE B= Boys can t be turned into girls VICTORIA - And now for something completely differ- ent. Somebody actually fig- ured out that you can’t turn boys into girts. All the efforts of educators and psychologists and psy- chiatrists, who for decades have tried to solve the pro- blems of perceived social ills such as war, domestic vio- lence, greed and male asserti- veness by teaching little John- ny to be more like little Mary have not been very successful. So says Dr. Leonard Sax, a family physician and psycho- logist from Maryland and a leading advocate for boys' education. Boys often respond well to a confrontational classroom style. Boys need to be yelled at by their teachers every once in a while, teachers from across North America heard at a major education conference in New. York, a a “Where did we. get this no- tion that a teacher should never yell at a fourth-grade bay?” he asked during a ses- sion at the conference for about 5,000 educators from in- dependent schools. “'We have to come around again to a recognition that maybe in certain cases you need to raise your voice. It doesn’t work with girls, bul '». My teachers -woul “agreed wholehearteilly"In'fact,. FROM THE CAPITAL : HUBERT BEYER with boys, you raise your voice and you energize them.” Sax’s talk at the National Association of Independent Schools conference highligh- ted how boys and girls are pro- grammed by nature to respond in different ways to specific situations and teaching me- thods, jt have they would have considéred Sax a little on the permissive side. If we did something a bit wrong, our teachers would tell us in no uncertain terms, usu- ally at a fairly high decibel, that they were not amused. If we really stepped over the line, we assumed the posi- tion. *, Sax just says that And even though we often planned our misbehaviour way in advance and wore four pairs of underpants, knowing full well what would happen if we got caught at whatever mis- chief we might dream up, the four strokes on the derriere were still an effective tool to keep us from doing really bad stuff. Enlightened western sociely has, of course, outlawed such treatment of the little darlings. During Dave Barrett’s NDP government in the early 70s, Eileen Dailly, the education minister, proudly nixed the strap in British Columbia. So, 30 years later, along comes the gaod Dr. Sax and says it’s not just alright, but beneficial if the teacher occa- sionally raises his or her voice when dealing with boys in the classroom. He doesn’t advocate a re- turn. to the strap., Neithen am.) oyS musi occasionally be treated différ- ently from girls. He said boys are missing out because the confrontation- al teaching approach has lar- gely been abandoned in ele- mentary schools where the profession is dominated by women who are opting to treat students the way they would prefer to be treated them- selves, ignoring the fact that boys are programmed to thrive under confrontation - As an example, he pointed - to the male response to siress, the “fight or flight” principle, - which shows an increased heart rate, increased blood flow to | the brain and a boost in alert- ness that collectively triggers a . desire to fight or run away. However, the female re- sponse to stress is completely different, and prompts instead a decreased heart rate and blood flow to the brain, dizziness and nausea, all triggering a desire to hug and be hugged, he said. “Most boys will experience confrontation as arousing and exciting, they enjoy it. Girls, however, experience nausea — and dizziness; they are not that interested in being under fire,” said Sax. , There is no way we can era- Attempts to do so have led fue idk yaa i ee aed Lee to ridiculous no-folérance ‘rules that forbid even verbal confron- _ tation between boys in school. Little Johnny will never be like. little Mary, no matter how hard the folks who profess ‘to feel everyone else’s pain try to tell us. Beyer can be reached at: E-mail: hubert@coolcom.com; Tel (250) 381-6900 Students get dirty end of stick MY YOUNGEST granddaugh- ter often asks about my child- hood experiences, comparing them to her own. _ How things were for me at school. always silences her as she considers what it must have been like with 42 kids and up to 12 grades with only one teacher. No gym. No phys ed except for recess, baseball or skating on a community created out- door rink, Every day her school life becomes more like mine, de- spite the 60 year difference and advances in educational philosophy. Already her classroom has too many students and at least two grades. Her gym equip- ment dwindles by the week. Computer equipment unre- paired is no better than my classroom with none. Now the board has decided come September the schools will compress to a four-day week with longer days and some cancelled bus runs. Before you know it, kids will be walking or hitching a tide to scheol with neighbours THROUGH BIFOCALS. CLAUDETTE SANDECKI just as I did in the 1940s, With one big difference. We knew we were a no-frills school; that’s how things were. But my granddaughter has had better. Now we expect her. to make do with lots less. Pro- gress, indeed. The board’s decision to switch to a four-day week is no surprise. Anyone who at- tended last spring’s schoo! closure meetings could have predicted how the board would act. All those parent group brainstorming to save money and January reconfiguration meetings simply distracted up- set parents while the board forged on with their plans. Last March, when I jested with chairman Peter King that the school district would be fine if it just got rid of all the students, he scoffed. But the one fly still in the board’s ointment is student en- rolment: not enough to bring in the necessary dollars, too many for the staff they can af- ford. A few Colorado school dis- tricts near ski resorts have been on.a four-day week for several years. High school stu- dents say they're tired, have trouble staying awake by -the end of the day. They have to get up earlier, arrive home later, cram in supper and homework before falling into bed. Next morning they climb on the same treadmill for another day at the mine. They have no free time for daydreaming, hobbies, part time work, or hanging out with YouVE GoT A TAPE WORM CYST IN YOUR LUNGS! VERY COMMON IN TRAPPERS WHO oem -EED RAW NOOSE oF mm CARIBOU To THEIR DOGS ! HEV LRESENT YOUR 7 INSINUATION THAT & IWEGALLY FED RAW GAME To MY Docs! family. I can picture the after school ° scene in the average home. “Have you done your home- work? Turn off that CD and practice your piano, Look at the time! Quit goofing off.” Fun, I’m sure, Daycare for the fifth day is a concern,- and another éxpense - the education ministry is down- loading. We have a shortage of qualified: daycare spaces now. What will happen when more children, older children, need looking after on that fifth day? Call Christy Clark The Alfred E. Neumann of education, “What, me worry?” So long as the education minister collects her year-end bonus from Premier Campbell, why should Clark worry? I pre- dict the minister of health and the solicitor general will have difficulty . collecting their budget bonuses. Expect more demand on’ the health care’ system to treat stressed families, and more po- licing costs for longer week- ends with an extra night to drink, drive, and vandalize. T ALWAYS COOKED IT UP REAL Good ! DIDNT, ISKooK ? 3 el Ky APPARENTLY Not! =)