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Students attending the centre were instructed by the outâ€" door staff. Each student was given the opportunity to study nature, along with his or her own effect on nature, on the environment in the vast expanse of the Laurel Creek area. There are many trails and nature paths in the area which lead students on enjoyable educational experiences. Today, the 5scope of education has expanded far beyond the boards to recycle areas of Laurel Creek. The GRCA indicatâ€" basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Students in our ed that the area presently being used by the boards was in era are learning to cope with many wideâ€"ranging aspects of need of a rest. The area in question had been used for several life. One very important area is an appreciation of the enviâ€" years without a break. ronment and our impact on it. The GRCA proposed 100 acres of land which is not in use The Waterloo County Board of Education has embarked on â€" at the present to be reserved strictly for the two boards. It a program of outdoor education for all elementary school is at this site that the GRCA would construct an educational students. During the school year, students are afforded the centre, complete with two classrooms, a display area, opportunity to observe nature and the ecoâ€"system, and to~ washroom facilities, and staff office space. This centre learn of man‘s impact on the delicate balance of nature. would be used by both school boards. Until this year, the Board, in conjunction with the Waterâ€" _ Ownership of the structure would be retained by the GRCA. loo County Separate School Board and the Grand River Conâ€" It would lease the centre and about 100 acres of land for the servation Authority, has maintained an outdoor education â€" exclusive use of the two school boards for a 10â€"year period. program at Laurel Creek Conservation Area in Waterioo. The GRCA would also develop the display area as a permaâ€" The facilities operated by the county board at Laurel Creek nent fixture. During the weekerds and school breaks the consist of a portable classroom, staffed by a fullâ€"time outâ€" â€" facilities would be used by the GRCA. C _ The facilities operated by the county board at Laurel Creek consist of a portable classroom, staffed by a fullâ€"time outâ€" door education teacher employed by the board. Today, the 5scope of education has expanded far beyond the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Students in our era are learning to cope with many wideâ€"ranging aspects of life. One very important area is an appreciation of the enviâ€" ronment and our impact on it. Why the trend to living outdoors? It‘s cheap. Much cheapâ€" er than renting a cottage for a couple of weeks, and deâ€" finitely cheaper than seeing the countryside from motel windows. Camping seems to have become Canada‘s favourite pastime. From the May 24 weekend to the Labour Day weekend. thousands of city people pack up their weekâ€" end abodes and head for the north country. Provincial camps have been the hardest hit by the new influx of campers. Many times the parks have been filled and people have had to settle for private parks. which, during the last few years. have become just as adequate as the provincial ones. Trends in camping have changed. When I was somewhat younger. people camped in tents. A family could leave for Algonquin park or some similar destination after work on a Friday and have no trouble in finding a site. In fact, it was usually a tossâ€"up in choosing a spot to pitch the tent. The highways that lead to the camping areas were never crowded. Only a few campers and travellers, some businessmen. and a fair number of trucks. Today the roads. which have been widened to accommodate the inâ€" crease in traffic. are jammed up solid every weekend. with Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons and evenings preâ€" senting stopâ€"andâ€"go traffic along the main arteries. The vehicles that travel the roads have changed. No longer does one see a car with a rooftop carrier or a homeâ€" made trailer pulling the equipment. Today there are selfâ€" contained homes on the backs of pickâ€"up trucks, house and tent trailers, and motor homes hitting the highways in search of a weekend Valhalla. While the provincial parks have not changed in their makeâ€"up. the government has had to make some changes for the increase. Many parks have had more sites built into The GRCA recently approved a proposal from both school Students learning ~_â€" more than the basics Camping becoming a favorite pastime Both school boards have agreed to the GRCA‘s terms for the use of an education centre at Laurel Creek. This opporâ€" tunity will permit both boards to develop the outdoor educaâ€" tion program and make better use of the available facilities presently at Laurel Creek. ODr Schumacher is the Waterloo County School Board trustee for Elmura and district sary in a park. Walking is more ecological, and much more in line with ‘"getting back to nature."" Speaking of nature. the wildlife has reverted back into the brush. I can remember going to the dumps in Algonâ€" quin Park at sundown, and watching bears feast on the garbage. It may sound like an odd thing to do, but it was better than looking at the bears through bars in a zoo. Plugâ€"in electrical power was hard to find a few years ago. but the parks have had to install hydro for people who bring their barges into the parks and have to run all their appliances (and often a television). The same applies to the people who bring in their motor homes for a weekend of "roughing it." them, and overflow areas are quite common in the larger parks. Parks now have lavatories with sinks, flush toilets, and hot running water, something that was uncommon several years ago. There has been an influx of children riding bicycles along the campground roads, something that was never seen a few years ago. While there‘s nothing wrong with an ecological move such as bikeâ€"riding, it‘s not really necesâ€" I was always under the impression that camping was sleeping in a sleeping bag in a tent. cooking with a gas or propane stove. keeping the perishables in an iceâ€"box. and playing cards or Monopoly around those sturdy picnic tables with a lantern. People with trailers and motor homes might just as well stay at home: they seem to bring all the ~onveniences with them. And these people claim they‘re ‘‘*roughing it.~ Ever get into a long stream of cars on a twoâ€"lane highâ€" way? You get mad and curse and take your life in your hands passing slower vehiclies until you get to the culprit who‘s holding everybody up. Usually it‘s some ‘camper with a 25â€"foot house trailer or motor home doing 45 or 50 miles per hour. By Dr. Paul Schumacher By T. S. Miller Waterioo Chronicle, Wednesday, September 17, 1975 â€" Page 5 The chap was pretty sure it was Mr. Trudeau he heard and he was fairly sure the message had something to do with you and I and other citizens curbing what comes naturally, such as spending too much money or using too much oil. It was, then, a sort of reminder that in order to make participatory democracy work, citizens must acâ€" cept some responsibility and governments ought to point out particular areas where it should be exercised. That, however, was not the way my informant regarded the message. He scoffed at the idea anyone would heed Mr. Trudeau‘s plea. "Did Finance Minister John Turner get anywhere with his talk about selfâ€"control instead of mandatory controls", he jibed. Well, no, Mr. Turner has not had much visible success. Not as yet. But that set me thinking about some other idealistic endeavors that started out getting nowhere and ‘ended up getting accepted. An example of fairly recent vintage was business saying it could not possibly take on social responsibilities and a little later helping to write laws to make sure it did exercise them. + A few days, or it may have been a bit before that, Prime Minister Trudeau made yet another appeal to the public to use selfâ€"restraint . I am not sure exactly when it was, for I got it secondâ€"hand from a chap who seems to spend his waking hours watching television while twiddling the dials of a radio at his side. Business maybe got a bit of help in changing its mind. It may have been reminded that it derives its right to exist from governments and that governments here, if not in places like Russia, are responsible to the people. But as I recall it, and I was rather close tothat one, there were a good many senior executives who said that if businessmen did not know how to provide dividends for society as well as for investors, they just would have to learn, and quickly at that. As for me, I do not agree with him. I keep thinking of those businessmen who first said no, then thought maybe yes, and who now are well on the way to exercising social responsibilities. I keep thinking of all those labor leaders, and union members, who have learned to exercise restraint and social responsibility. Away from their jobs, all of them are plain Canadians and as a plain Canadian I do not hold that clobbering really teaches responsibility. What about you? There is another big group of people in Canada which also owes its right to corporate existence to government and so, ultimately, to the public. That is organized labor. Mostly, labor leaders are responsible people, but labor, like management has some throwâ€"backs to an era when leaders were ruthless and preached the doctrine that ‘‘what‘s good for us is good for the people."" You may still hear some of them say social responsibilities cannot be mixed with union business. Some even have been heard to say, to hell with the public. That chap who sits all day watching and listening to the prophets of doom assured me that there is only one thing to be done to straighten out our troubles. The government, he declared, should clobber business, should clobber trade unions, and clobber the public. He has no use at all for those who, like Mr. Trudeau or Mr. Turner, hope that there is something to be gained by appealing to the better element to set a good example. Anyway, he just cannot wait for results. For a good many years, 1 have moved considerably among businessmen and I have seen quite a change in them. In contrast to the storied tycoons, who only asked what was good for them and for their pals, executives now, for the most part, think a lot about what is good for the Canadian economy, for the public and for their emâ€" ployees. That is a lot harder, you know, than just looking after yourself. His career includes many years with The Toronto Telegram as business editor and columnist. followed by more than 15 years at the Globe & Mail as business columnist Fraser Robertson has been a business writer, editor, and columnist for more than 25 years Mr. Robertson won the Royal Bank of Canada National Business Writing Award in 1974 for his outstanding achievements and distinguished service as a Canadian business writer. Today. Mr. Robertson is a freelance business writer So the business have learned quite a bit and they are still learning and also are spending quite a lot of time and effort, as well as a lot of money exercising social responsibility . Some even have learned enough to be able, to tell governments a bit about exercising social responsibility when party interests are involved. Viewing the News l Exercising § Social Responsibility a business column by Fraser Robertson