A8 Terrace Review — Wednesday, April 11, 1990

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Do you think the local school board

Joe Murphy

should tell the govern-
ment what the area needs
and should object to
block funding if it doesn't
meet those needs. I am
opposed to refereridum
because it is a hardship
on local taxpayers and

the rich and the poor.

acted responsibly in its budget
decision to stay within the funding —
block provided by the provincial ©
government?

I think the school board

widens the gap between

Barb Hickey Sylvia Macdonald
I think the schoo! board Yes. It is a difficult
should have asked for situation — the taxpayers
more money. are paying a lot, but it is
not cut and dried and can

change. according to the

area’s needs.

F. Gagnon
Yes. They should not
get more money through
referendum, but go to the
government.

Mel Anderson
| think the school board

Karen Martin
It’s hard to say — the
whole school system
should be revised. by the provincial govern-

ment.

should have its needs met.

the Canadian Diabetes Association
provides health and nutrition information
pamphlets on a number of issues?

For more information, contact your local Branch
of the Canadian Diabetes Association or the National Office,
78 Bond Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 2U8.

Canadian
Diabetes @
Association °

Association
canadienne
du diabéte

Letters to the Editor
The Weebers go green

I To ‘the Editor;

The Weebers have gone green.
Saturation exposure to CBC
programming has convinced us
to recycle. Now that is not easy
in New Hazelton. So far we have
been unable to arouse anyone’s
interest in our garbage, no mat-
ter how well we sort or package
it. The obvious answer therefore
was to use everything at least
twice.

Luckily our cat will eat most

table scraps, which saves us.

some less than epicurian recycl-
ed meals. But our biggest head-
ache is paper. Being prodigious
readers, especially of news-
papers such as this one, they do
pile up.

Apparently in the big cities
they will come and take them
away to be metamorphosed into
useful things, but in New
Hazelton we have to be more
resourceful. There is the cat lit-
ter box to be lined, of course
and, some substitution of paper
towels with newspapers is possi-
ble, but still they piled up.

And then we remembered
placing old issues of your fine
paper in the washrooms instead
of the-store-bought rolls. There
was some initial resistance from
family members and friends as
tissue-pampered backsides
rebelled against the coarser tex-

“ture of the newsprint, but a

gradual toughening of our skins
and the thrill of reading your
paper a second time in the cubi-
cle completed the greening of the
Weebers and caused our belea-
guered planet to sigh with relief.

There have been times when,
at the last minute, some well-
thought-out comments made us

hesitate to apply that particular

_ section of the paper to our back-

sides, but the overwhelming ma-
jority of newspaper contents are
ideally suited to that purpose.
To -introduce more of our
friends to the pleasures of
recycling, we encourage your
paper to continue to print some
airheaded or temper-provoking
material. The more atrocious,
the more readily our friends. par-
ticipate in our recycling pro-
gram, We have found Mike Har-

court speeches and some of Jim ©

Fulton’s revelations especially
helpful to get people into the
greening spirit and to apply that
section of the paper to their
rumps with even more vigor
than required for mere sanita-
tion.
Pete Weeber,
New Hazelton, B.C.

Editor’s note: We are pleased
to hear about Mr. Weeber’s
newly found commitment to a
healthy environment and pleas-
ed to inform him that the Ter-
race Review recently switched
from petroleum-based inks to
non-toxic vegetable oil-based
inks. This move will perhaps
also spare our health care system
an added burden by preventing
indirect ingestion of hydrocar-
bons by the Weeber family.

We haven’t, however, printed
speeches by Mike Harcourt or
speeches by any other politician,
and the “‘revelations’’ by Jim

Fulton that appear in this news-

paper are simply the observa-
tions on local issues normally
associated with an elected
Member of Parliament. Perhaps
Mr. Weeber was thinking of
some other publication.

Children teaching children?

To the Editor;

Well, the latest news is that
the School Board is not going to
referendum to ask taxpayers for
more money. They have decided
to cut instead.

What are they cutting? Pro-
bably the G.A.T.E. Program —
the only concession by this
School District to fast learners.
Children with learning problems
have aides and learning assis-
tants, deservedly so. Unfor-
tunately, some of these will be
cut too. But what do ‘‘over-
achievers’’ get? The chance to
motivate lesser-achievers in
group work? How thrilling.
Classroom teachers can hardly
be expected to teach more than
the set curriculum, whatever
that is, when their hands are full
with behavioral problems and
learning difficulties.

This School Board spends ap-
proximately $50,000 on the
G.A.T.E. Program — roughly
the equivalent of keeping one
teacher. In comparison, the lear-
ning assistants and teacher aid
programs (none of these for fast
learners) cost over $1 million.

if one classroom teacher costs
the School Board $50,000, im-
agine how much the adminis-
trators cost? I think the public
has no idea how much our

school district administrators

make. I therefore suggest that,

instead of cutting learning assis-

tants and the G.A.T.E. Pro-
gram, we cut the wages of the
administrators, starting with the
superintendent. I cannot believe

that those administrative jobs

are more difficult than a
teacher’s job. Why the huge dis-
crepancy in pay? Cut a little off
the top and let us keep up the
quality of our children’s educa-
tion.

With regard to the issue of
group learning in classrooms,
comments on group based
marks have reached me from
many people over many years. I
have also participated in group
activities and I hated them —
hated them at every level of lear-
ning. I have never been afraid of
change but I am brave enough to
question and challenge inap-
propriate changes and present
learning conditions.

In a draft of the Year 2000

curriculum, it states: ‘‘small,-

mixed-ability groups facilitate
increased use of peer tutoring
techniques’’. It is time, after 37
years or more, to speak out on
this issue. lam not sending my
child to school to be taught by

other students or to teach other ©

students. Are you?

- Brenda Silsbe _.

- ‘Terrace, B.C.

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