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Each year the Labor Day holiday weekend gives us all a few extra moments to enjoy the company of family and friends. Historically, Labor Day was established as a tribute to our country‘s workforce, the backbone of our nation. This year, however, even fewer people will be skilled enough, educated enough, and yes, lucky enough to be holding down permanent jobs. The realities of hard economic times will mean fewer job opportunities for all Canadians. The first to feel the pinch will be the ‘"employment disadvantaged‘‘ groups, made up of the young, the unskilled, the disabled, and women. As unemployment figures soar, women in particular are beginning to encounter changing social attitudes. This attitude would have women relinquish their recentâ€" ly won job status, and return to more traditional home and childâ€"rearing roles. Those who think the heady days of 1960s style ‘"feminism" is a thing of the past may be surprised by the emergence of a new ‘"pragmatic feminism." Individuals Children usually arrive at St. Jude‘s as a result of a referral from social agencies, a family doctor, optomeâ€" trist or audiologist or by a parent contacting the school on his own initiatives. Gore emphasizes that his Subject Performance tests to assess the child‘s grade level can be given to any child, on an annual basis, to assure parents that their child is making adequate progress in the public school system. From the tests and interviews, Gore offers the parents ‘‘hope and as many alternatives (for action) as possible.‘" Often students are able to return to the regular school system with additional tutoring. Others Gore begins by doing a complete assessment of the child. This is accomplished by an extensive series of tests and interviews with both parents and child. The tests are administered to determine at what grade level the student is functioning, to discover his learning strengths and weaknesses and to disclose any possible physical causes for the learning problem. ‘"‘"*A student doesn‘t stay here," he explained. ‘"We are trying to help students work better in the system, rather than take them away from it. We want to get them back on the learning track." + Problems he cited include lack of sufficient funds and the time factor coupled with the large number of students who need help. . Gore sees St. Jude‘s School as an assistance to the public education system, rather than an alternative. St. Jude‘s will accomplish this objective in a number of ways. . _ Gore estimates that 10 to 50 per cent of students suffer some type of learning problem. **School tends to bring out your weaknesses," he exâ€" plained. _ Only about 10 per cent of these students, however, are being given remedial Kelp in the regular public school system. Like St. Jude who offered help and hope to the hopeless, Fred Gore, director of St. Jude‘s School offers hope to parents of children with learning disabilities. _ The private school, which opened in June at 419 Philip St. in Waterioo, provides for parents of children with learning difficuities a complete assessment and educaâ€" tion guidelines or objectives for their education. The school has been in the planning stages since 1972. As a poor student who hated school, Gore says that he became a teacher ‘"to show students that learning doesn‘t have to be a drag. It can be very enjoyable." "It was not giving me satisfaction or fulfilment," he explained. "I would decide what needed to be done for thg students and then they would go away." Often his recommendations were only partly followed, or not followed at all. As a result, Gore decided to become more closely involved in the followâ€"up of his proâ€" grams. _"‘It‘s not that they don‘t want to (help)," he said, "but they are limited in so many ways." He soon decided, however, that he needed closer involvement with the students. Gore served as a Core Resource teacher for the Waterloo ‘County Separate School Board where he provided assessments and designed programs for children with learning problems. WALTER McLEAN St. Jude‘s brings joy to learning and women‘s groups are rallying to defend their right to a place in the labor force. * It is unquestionably too late to turn back the clock on the advances women have made in the job market. New studies indicate that 70 per cent of new labor force growth in the 1980s will be comprised of adult females. At present, 44 per cent of married women and 57 per cent of single women are working. Yet despite some improvements in performance and opporâ€" tunities for women in the professions and in middleâ€"management positions, women are by and large still restricted to lowâ€"paying positions in the servic:‘rroduc- ing industries (sales, clerical, and secreâ€" tarial). Rapidly changing technology threatens to render even these jobs obsolete within the next decade. Add to this the statistics which show that 41.5 per cent of all femaleâ€"led families live below the pouverty line, and three of five Canadian women over 65 currently live in poverty. Then one doubts all of the boid new literature which says women are getting ahead in the world. Women have will be registered in the day school (which will begin Sept. 7) where, with the help of a program designed specifically to meet their needs, they ‘"‘develop their weaknesses, enhance their strengths and learn a number of compensation techniques.‘" With a studentâ€"teacher ratio of 4: 1, students will be provided with the individualized attention they require to overcome their problems. e â€" Fred Gore, director of St. Jude‘s School in Waterioo, scores a ‘test as part of the assessment of a prospective student. The school, which opened in June, offersâ€"help and hope to children with learning disabilities. Learning ‘problems can occur at any age and Gore plans to provide instruction for students at any level, Grade 1 to adult. Those currently enrolled in the fullâ€"time program range in age from eight to 22 years. All classes will be taught in the school‘s one large classroom where students will be arranged in family groupings, rather than according to grade level. Gore hopes to have the more proficient students responsible for the teaching of the less proficient, guided, of course, by the four certified special education teachers that he is now in the process of hiring. St. Jude‘s strives to involve parents in the education of their children, as much as possible, by providing continual feedback in regard to each student‘s proâ€" _ ‘""Parents play a large part in the education of their children," says Gore. "Parents can walk in here anytime. They don‘t feel that they are butting in." When the school term starts in September, report cards will be issued once a week and parentâ€"teacher interviews will be conducted once a month to assess the child‘s progress. * As a group, parents, teachers and Gore will look over what has been accomplished in the previous month and set goals for the next month. If the child does not appear to be making sufficient progress, changes in the Challenge to Women inadequacies of our pensions system, affirmative action, equal pay for work of equal value, native women‘s rights, sexual offences legisiation, wife battering, the need for skills training, and basic equality rights are all decidedly "women‘s issues." They concern Canadian women as well as inflation and unel:rloyment. Unhappily, the crucial nature of many of these issues has yet to make a dent in the Liberal government‘s policies. As my party‘s former spokesperson on the status of women, I had an opportunity to learn more about the issues which touch on the lives of women. Day care, the sad Most recently, the government‘s public service wage restraint package produced cries of outrage from women‘s groups across the country. The "six and five" formula, proposed by the government for all levels of civil servants in Canada does not deal with the fact that the majority of not grasped the levers of power in either business or government. For example, in the House of Commons, only 14 of 282 seats are occupied by women. WATERLOO CHROQNICLE, WEDNESDA Y , $E PAT ARBUCKLE ‘‘You never give up on a student. There is always hope," Gore concluded. "Find a way to teach and a way Aor the student to learn and things will begin to hapâ€" _ Like its namesake, St. Jude‘s School will not give up on those who are in need of help. Although success seems assured for St. Judes, Gore maintains that.he does not expect to become wealthy as a result of his new venture. "I expect to make a living, of course," he says, but for him it is more important to see this longâ€"held ambition put into practice. The future is looking bright for St. Judes, according to Gore. To date, the response he has received from both parents in the community and area school boards has been very positive, and aithough there are places still open in the day classes, Gore expects to have a waiting list by the end of September. The number of assessments is growing, too, :=~d the s~*nol‘s director has received inquiries about the school n as far away as Sudbury, Windsor and Toronto. In an attempt to further involve parents in their child‘s education, Gore is also organizing a class for parents. The course, to be held three times yearly, will teach parents about learning disabilities so that they will be better able to understand their own child‘s problems, and hopefully, be more sensitive to his/her needs. He also plans to offer students in the Waterloo area something he wishes he had had as a kid â€" help with his homework. From 7:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, he plans to take calls from students in the area who are having problems with their homework assignments. The service will be offered free of charge and alithough he admits problems might occur in specialized areas, Gore feels he will be able to answer most students‘ questions. Tutoring is provided both individually and in small groups of six students and two teachers. The Saturday tutoring classes will be designed to help students maintain a level of success in the regular system and work in the group will be directly related to classroom assignments. Instructors will provide help with special projects, or show students how to prepare for tests. During the summer, Gore has also been running summer school classes to provide remedial training for students to help them retain what they have learned during the long summer break. ‘program, or in the expectations of teachers and parents, can be made. When a child appears ready to return to the regular school system, attempts will be made to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible. In the weeks preceding the switch to the home school, emphasis in class will be placed on the regular school curriculum and integration into regular classes will be made gradually, with the student returning partâ€"time and eventually fullâ€"time. Even then, the student will be monitored on a regular basis to ensure that progress in the system is maintained. Gore considers this a top prigrity. As he explains, ‘"you can give them help, but unless you can ensure that it is longâ€"term, you shouldn‘t have done it in the first place." _ In addition to day school, St. Jude‘s offers many other services. lowâ€"paying support staff positions in the government are held by women. In 1981, 59,965 women were employed at the support level with the federal government. ‘"In one swoop the federal government has told Canadian women, ‘We don‘t care‘," says an incensed Mayling Stubbs, chairâ€" person of the Kâ€"W Status of Women. "Six per cent of $60,000 and six per cent of $12,000 are a lot different, especially when a lot of those people at the lower levels are women, often single parents."‘ The Kâ€"W Status of Women, along with other national women‘s groups had urged the government to consider amendments to the legislation which would have offered some "breathing room‘" for those at the lower end of the wage scale. Stubbs notes that the new restraint package will also shelve the collective bargaining practices by which women in the public service gain assurances of equal pay for work of equal value, affirmative action programs, and improved maternity benefits. Stubbs conâ€" siders these matters, in particular, as (Continued on page 27)