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Page 3, News, Tuesday, February 26, 1991 Lake Superior High School & Prineipal's Perspective by Balan Menon Today - perhaps more than ever before - our schools are being given increasing responsibility for Values Education. The Ontario Ministry of Education has set down the teaching of "values" as an essential part of education, and has vested in schools and teachers an obligation to promote and teach them in schools. This added responsibility has devolved upon schools because of the changing structure of society and especially the family. The fundamental pattern of the family is dictated by the two- income syndrome, with the emphasis being placed more and more on fulfillment of material needs. Consequently, the home seems to recede farther from being the centre for teaching and learning values. In fact, the home itself is becoming more and more fragmented, as the economic and social pressures increasingly drive families apart, thus multiplying the single-parent family structure and making it almost impossible for parents to have the time or moral certitude to develop and promote the values needed to guide the young through life. Caught up in the struggle for material well-being, the family is becoming increasingly isolated from what used to be the centre of stability and harmony - the church. Values that used to be crystallized and inculcated in children by the harmonious blending of the church and the home are being suspended in limbo by the break-up of the relationship between the church and the family. And so, too many children are growing up in a moral vacuum. Thus, society has now found it necessary to demand that the school take on another major responsibility - one that the home can no longer find the time to handle. From being the reflector and reinforcer of social and family values, the school is being asked to take on the job of instilling and shaping values in children. This added dimension of responsibility makes it imperative that the school and the teachers foster a moral climate in schools. Teachers have always been required to model the morals and values that the home and society inculcated in children. But now, going beyond being role models, teachers are charged with the task of identifying, teaching and fostering societal and personal values in children and teenagers. This is a job made difficult by the increasing complexity of the ethnic and cultural mosaic that our society is being shaped into by national policy and demographic realities. And yet, teachers are being required to take a stand on moral issues. The new reality, therefore, is that we, as teachers, must deal with the moral basics before we deal with the complexities of world issues. In other words, we must teach our students to place personal and human values above academic and material attainments. It is important, as a start, that we make our students aware of where we stand and what we stand for. Perhaps it is no longer enough to say, "here is our vision"; it is important to say, "here is what we will not tolerate". We abrogate our responsibilities to our students when we stop struggling against poor attitudes and behaviour - when we accept insolence, laziness, carelessness and indecency. It is not enough merely to lament helplessly, with Matthew Amold: And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night It is imperative that we, as teachers, hold up the torch and lead our students in the search for Values in these dark times of moral incertitude. We can and must lead them on to the brave new world of Truth and Beauty. "Equality is more than appearance" Canadian Human Rights Commission « Dégalité va au-dela des apparences » Commission canadienne des droits de la personne The 48 participants in the 5th annual Dance for Heart received the benefits of a three hour workout at the Terrace Bay campus of the Lake Superior High School last Wednesday night and raised approximately $7,400 for heart disease research. The event was a great success and the participants are to be congratulate for their efforts. The right information will help children make the right decision Continued from page 1 children, they gather information through the back door, Kidder continued, and this information becomes very difficult to dispute. "They .distrust you and they distrust what you say," he said. The comic book is something children can take off by themselves and get the facts without anyone lecturing them. They can then come back to mum and dad and ask some questions. "I hope when they do ask those questions that they get good answers," Kidder said, "and if parents don't have answers, I hope they will call me." Tony Costa has agreed to distribute the comic books, he said, and they are available, free of charge, at Costa's in both Terrace Bay and Schreiber. The Terrace Bay Police Services is organizing a week of drug awareness programs April 22 -26. The programs, sponsored by the Lions, The Royal Canadian Legion, the OPP, the RCMP, Kimberly- Clark and Minnova, will include sessions in the schools and sessions for parents. THE LAKE SUPERIOR BOARD OF EDUCATION PARENTS! It's Registration Time for Junior and Senior Kindergarten the weeks of February 25 and March 4 each day from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ..Visit Terrace Bay or Schreiber Public Schools during those weeks ...Bring your child's birth or baptismal certificate as proof of age .. If you are unable to visit the school, please call -- telephone registrations will be accepted. WHOIS ELIGIBLE TO ATTEND KINDERGARTEN? *JK: Children born in 1987 *SK: Children born in 1986 * Children currently attending JK classes are not required to register for SK Parent meetings and classroom visitations will be dogs! by each school during the month of May. For further information, please contact your local public school: TERRACE BAY PUBLIC SCHOOL, D. DAVEY, Principal 825-3253 SCHREIBER PUBLIC SCHOOL, G. CONRAD DAVEY, Principal 824-2082 P. Richardson Chair D.|. McQuarrie Director of Education