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Erosion of values
Regarding: OHL suspends Niagara IceDogs general manager and head coachApril 6
Not to accumulate, but so much has changed in just two generations.
What a horrible scene unfolds around the IceDogs.
Let me recall a scene from 1964, in a cramped and smelly box in the old Garden City Arena. There were 16 of us all. Our Lions Midget All Star team had finished second in a usually tough game with Niagara Falls. One of our players entered the room and threw a powerful F-bomb.
Eddie Parker, our trainer, stopped, then said sternly, “That’s the stupid word.” If anyone from this team uses it here again, they will be kicked from the team. For real.”
I often think about how lucky I was throughout my minor sports career in St. Catharines with the coaches I was lucky on. My first year of hockey, when I was 13, was with Ozzie Hill and Bernie Cibik, then Frank Coy and Eric Adamson. Andy Vasko took over in bantam. Gary Hassim was an excellent skills teacher.
In high school, Jack Nicholson and Dalt Clark from Collegiate lent us a few hours a week. And then Dick Blank for two years, at Sir Winston and at the Club. It was a lot of work for a few medals, but these coaches, all volunteers, were the best.
For high school football and basketball, our skilled and stern head coach was Jim Harrison. No swearing, no bullying.
Values are not taught. The values are captured.
Standardized tests needed
Subject: EQAO Testing—A Useless Rite of Spring?, April 6
Removing standardized testing in Ontario is absolutely the wrong way to go. While teaching in China, I noticed they had a culture of testing. Same thing with the United States while I was doing my master’s degree at Niagara University. Singapore, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, has strict guidelines for testing.
It is a meritocracy. This is a good thing.
If Canadians want to compete on the world stage, which they should, they better catch up and start testing themselves regularly. This means several times a year. At the beginning, in the middle and at the end.
Teachers will complain about the extra work. Unions will complain, mount attack advertisements and political campaigns. The fact is that rigorous teaching leads to rigorous learning.
Canada does not have a testing culture, but the rest of the world does. This casual learning mentality in Canada is of no use to us. The rest of the world, when they come here for post-secondary education, laugh at us for our lack of discipline.
Will Canada continue to be trampled? We better pull ourselves together and start competing on the world stage.
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