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Core needs to be more attractive s someone who lives and A:urks in uptown Waterloo, 1 ave been eagerly following the plans for redeveloping the space around WaterJoo Town Square. In order to keep the core vibrant and healthy, it needs to be made more attractive. I‘ve heard many complaints that consumers will stop shopping in the core and go to suburban malls because they will have to walk too far. I have difficulty with this arguâ€" ment. I beheve the plan to create a meeting place/public civic square surrounded by greenery would help accomplish this. For the record, it took just under a minute (57 seconds to be precise} and 124 steps. with _ my stopwatch and pedometer in hand, I measured both the distance and time it took me to walk from the Caroline Street entrance to King street, just oppoâ€" site the Ali Baba Steak House. kven if the new parking spots are slightly less convenient, given rising abesity tates it wouldn‘t hurt the vast majority of people to walk a few extra steps. 11 you‘ve had child, been a child, or even known a child. then this thought has probably popped into your head at some point: How do you even function as a human being? This is especially appropriate when you have chilâ€" dren of your own. The first dozen years are pretty good, once you get past the constant wondering of what parâ€" ticular item is coming from what part of their body. | Pl | Then they reach 12. | Now I‘m no doctor, but given my own . J B experience with three children, I can confiâ€" . | dently say that many incredible changes _ | happen to children of that age. I It‘s not that they don‘t have one. If they didn‘t have a brain, they wouldn‘t be able to do anything â€" except maybe run for office, but I digress. None of them appears to relate to the brain, or its function. I‘m sure some very capable scientists have been given copious amounts of govâ€" ernment money to study what happens to children at that age. "We‘ve looked at them," they say, "and everything appears to be there â€" a brain, some eyes, some ears. We‘re just not sure they‘re connected." I‘m here to tell you they were listening, and they were thinking, even though it wasn‘t perfectly clear at the time to us. But function they do, and all the way through their high school years we repeat the same quesâ€" tions: What were you thinking? Are you listening to My wife and 1 have asked those questions. We‘ve stayed up late at night, worrying if they were doing the right thing. We‘ve had the battles over homework and pro jects. And we tried to help them with the benefit of our experience. After all, they already are suffering from our parenting _ the least we can do is provide some advice‘ In the end, it‘s all worthwhile Shirley Lichti Waterloo LETTERS TO THE CHRONICLE _ | Documents for the piloted Balâ€" anced Day throughout the province. the Minister of Education‘s Parents Voice in Education Project and the board‘s own documents all state that parents need and should be involved and consulted in such matters. n regards to Brian Bourke‘s comâ€" Imvnls in the June 15 edition of the Chronicle, 1 think he missed the mark! The issue is not whether or not kids will be able to come home for lunch, or the fact that even though for years children have been able to learn the importance of getting dressed for the weather appropriâ€" ately and in a timely matter to enjoy a break from the classroom by burning off steam and building snowforts, as these are just two of the many "side effects" of the Balâ€" anced Day. The real issue is how the board has unilaterally decided to impleâ€" ment this across the board without any parental involvement. If our school board can make such an enormous decision such as this without consulting parents. what‘s next? Bourke‘s column missed the mark BRIAN BOURKE COMMENT Cariâ€"Lin Thurlow WaterIoo It seems to take a very long time when you go through the process, but in the blink of an eve, almost, it‘s over. We‘ve managed to get two through postâ€"secâ€" ondary school, and the third has just graduated from high school. In the space of just a year, all of those worries have been answered. F The girl who always seemed so laid o back, so willing to accept things as s they came has shown a resolve and a * work ethic we never knew was there. IAN On Monday she got a letter telling her JRKE she has passed her nursing exam and could begin her career as a caregiver. I know there are thousands of kids in the region this week who have done the same thing â€" graduating from one school or another, securing a diploma, moving on through their apprenticeship. _ For all of you parents who are going through that tight now â€" it feels pretty good, doesn‘t it? We did something right! For those who are still a few years away, trust us. It may seem unbelievable right now as your kid stares at you with a blank look usually reserved for zombie movies, but they usually turn out OK. They‘ll make it interesting, but that‘s what makes it feel so good at the end * Hear more of Brian‘s thoughts on life with the KOOL Morning Crew every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m on Waterloo radio station 105 3 KOOL FM The one who always seemed resisâ€" tant to change has moved halfway around the world, and is comfortably living in Japan, of all places. The one whose primary goal in life appeared to be to rebel and swim against the current has suddenly shown up on the honour roll , won an athletics award, and managed to get into the college program of her choice. ear Ms. Bailey: 1 am sorry to Ddu this but I can‘t let this go unsaid. 1 have been reading your editoriâ€" als (columns) for months and all 1 can say is that you must be a sadist! Your editorials {columns) are drivel. The monotony never seems to end. Can‘t you find anything interestâ€" ing or thought provoking to write about. I mean I have read better blogs from ten year olds and this comes across as a blog not an editoâ€" rial (column}. Editor‘s monotony is never ending Do you really think we want to hear that some young lady can buy a house at your young age? Most of your readers spent many years scrimping and saving to finally own a wee chunk of the Canadian dream. You make it sound lamentaâ€" ble that poor you have to move out of some crappy apartment into a lovely home? I know this comes across as harsh critisism (sic} but there are genuinely talented writers out here champing at the bit for a venue like you have, it‘s a shame to see such an opportunity squandered. The Chronical (sic} and the peo ple of Waterloo deserve better. S. Abrams Waterloo Sometimes organizations do this on purpose and other times it is done unintentionally. Often groups are afraid that the public may respond negaâ€" tively to the truth when it is given straight up. A case in point was a couple of weeks ago when I wrote about the Region of Waterloo‘s water restrictions. Water officials wanted us to believe that a five per cent loss in water supply meant we could only water our lawns and garâ€" dens once a week. Later, under some public pressure, councillors relaxed the water restrictions somewhat, which is a seemingly reasonable course of action, but it does make you wonder about the ratioâ€" nale of the tight restrictions in the first place. t bugs me when large corporations, governments and instiâ€" Imtiuns obfuscate when it comes to trying to communicate to their various publics using unclear obscure and confusâ€" ing language. A preferred action would be for the region to clearly communicate to the public that we have lost five per cent of our water supply; water system upgrades are currently underway to increase our supply but will not be completed until 2006; our community is growing and prosperous and will continue to grow, but we are also one of the largest communities in North America that relies almost 100 per cent on groundwater; in order to maintain our prosperity we need to conserve water now and into the future; therefore we are instituting stage 2 water restrictions that will more than likely be the norm for the future in order to preserve and mainâ€" tain our water supply. Of course this is just my opinion, and to be fair all these pieces of the message were communicated at one time or another; but it was left to the individual to really try and piece the message together. Straightforward and honest communication often results in straightforward and honest reaction, and when it comes to conserving water I think area residents are willing to do what it takes. Similarly the Waterloo Region District school board‘s hanâ€" dling of the new lunch breaks could be a little bit more straightforward. â€" New lunch breaks coming to an elementary school near you Their spin around changing the traditional 15â€"minute recess, 60â€"minute lunch, 15â€"minute recess to two 40â€"minute breaks a day because it is better for students is true; but if this was the only reason for the change, it would have been done a long time ago. The traditional breaks have served the school system quite well for a number of years, and the real motivation for changâ€" ing it is to decrease the kids‘ break times by 10 minutes and increase the teachers‘ lunch time by the same 10 minutes. So why not tell people that? Example: For the past 10 years our public schools have endured strikes, job actions, and massive change that have affected your children‘s education and brought instability to the education system; in order to provide more stability to the system and allow teachers more time to adequately prepare for the classes, changes have to be made to the school day; henceâ€" forth rather than having. two 15â€"minute breaks and one hourâ€" long break per day, we will have two 40â€"minute breaks; this change is part of a new collective agreement with the teachers‘ federation and will bring stability to the classroom for the next four years; coincidentally studies have also shown that two 40 minute breaks a day will ensure that your child has an approâ€" priate length of time to eat properly and also engage in a highâ€" er level of physical activity everyday. It seems to me that it isn‘t so much what you have to say but rather how you say it. With thanks to http / {unabridged.merriam webster.com Eâ€"mail vour q\ll‘\“(lfl\Y'(‘(H“I“l‘l\‘\ to sean@seanstrickland.com. Sean Strickland‘s column will return July 6 Just say it already! ‘I STRICKLAND