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wetoeorlcochrenfcle =â€" MMMquWMd~O.W.MW'“ MMWMMSMUhMMMMQ Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The ministry of education deserves a round of applause for their latest decision to make English instruction comâ€" pulsory for secondary school students in grades 11 and 12 in 1981. When officials refer to English instruction they are not only referring to the study of Shakespeare, canadian literaâ€" ture or films. They are referring to essay writing, grammar and composition â€" subjects which have been history in too many schools for too long. This policy change, and the one made in 1977 making Engâ€" lish compulsory in grades 9 and 10, are long overdue. Ask anyone who went through the secondary school system eight to ten years ago. Oh sure, we had English classes, those of us who weren‘t so fond of the maths and sciences that is. But our English classes took the form of creative writing. If we could con our teacher into believing that our apparent lack of grammatical knowledge was all a put on in the inâ€" terest of creativity and art, it was still possible to pull off an ‘A‘. It was the age of ‘"do your own thing."* A teacher daren‘t argue with such reasoning. From our back pages In my particular case they were stifling a student who had a desire to be a journalist â€" a journalist who knew better than to mix past and present tenses in the same sentence; the correct use of the semiâ€"colon and where to place comas. We studied the works of good old William Shakespeare. Class after class we pondered over his famous soliloquies. What did it all mean? It was simple. If in two paragraphs or less, you could spew out the teacher‘s translation you were headed for another ‘A‘. Who could chastise a student for a simple grammatical error when they had the ability to see things in the same light as the teacher? _ Grammar classes, straightforward compositions and essays were unheard of. S As they handed out the grammar and spelling texts during my first year in journalism school, a sudden terror seized me. And that panic and resultant leafing through grammar and spelling manuals remained with me throughout my colâ€" lege and university days. It didn‘t take me long to discover that my professors were of the ‘"old school."" They were not only interested in what I thought but how I conveyed these thoughts. Faulty grammar combined with the greatest of translations could still earn me an ‘F‘. I was not alone in my dilemma. There was a university full of us. We have been classified as illiterates. We were all products of an educational system where we were allowed to forget the basics and ‘"do our own thing." Hats off to the ministry of education for realizing its misâ€" take but for me it was a decision made 10 years too late. 10 years too late . King Street at the turn of the century had conâ€" crete sidewalks but was still a gravel base roadway. Note the horse and buggy on the road opposite where Waterloo Square now stands. a division of address correspondence to Waterioo office: 92 King St. South, Waterioo, Ont., telephone 806â€"2830 subscriptions: $10 a year in Canada. $12 a year in United States and Foreign Countries. published every Wednesday by Fairway Press, 195 Fairway Rd. S., Kitchener, Ont. Editor: Terry James Executives of Waterloo‘s four insurance companies take the risk of getting muddy shoes in posing for this early 1900 photo. The 20 underwriters represent the management of The Ontario Mutual Life Asâ€" surance Co., Waterloo Mutual Fire Insurance Co., Mercantile Fire Insurance Co. and The Dominion Life Assurance Co. The exact purpose of the combined photograph is not known. WHAT ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT, ~ IT ONLY TOOK FOUR DAYS TO GET HERE! | Che 16| (7