A4 - Sunday, October 28, 1984 - North Shore News = strictly personal by Bob Hunter HERE WAS a wonderful coincidence on the news pages recently. In Ontario, the vice- chairman of the Royal Bank, a chap by the name of Hal Wyatt, pulled out his verbal gun and started blasting away at a helpless group of univer- sity deans. He attacked taculty unions, tenure, admission procedures that allow tin- competent students onto the campus, teacher training, and professors who graduate semi-literate hulks. He went so far as to suggest (gasp!) that professors should be held accountable if their graduates turn out to be in- competent nincompoops. It was an O.K. Corral situation par excellence, a dinner intended to. bring hungry academics together with lean, mean businessmen to politely exchange views on how to cope with our deteriorating educational position in the world. Meanwhile, back in Van couver, on the very same day. BC Employers’ © ounce chief Jim Matkin was com- plaining that) provincial restraint polreres were “yeopardizing the well being’ of our educational system Despite his background as an associate professor naturally prone to AMBLESID 1425 Marine Or. W.V. feel sorry tor his old triends in academia, Matkin was nevertheless mild in his com- plaints compared to Universi- ty of Victoria president Howard Petch, who says BC's educational policies **make no sense.’’ * teachers Academic OK corral trankly can’t see that he's getting anything more than the same old stuff. He hates it as much as I did. Even the fact that his can’t strap him doesn't impress me all! that much. At least, when they us- ed to torture us physically, you learned a bit about deal- ing with the nasty, unfree, totalitarian real world that lurked out there beyond the school grounds Banker Wyatt's point about the educational system “‘At least when they used to torture us physically, you learned a bit about dealing with the nasty, unfree, totalitarian real world.’”’ {1 tend to agree with both Petch and Matkin, but | aiso tend to agree with Wyatt over at the bank. | have been frustrated with our educa- tional system all my life and don't thnk ithas basically 1m- proved at all since my first day in Grade One Before you snort. on- dignantly at such an outrageous claim, let me add that I have been helping my youngest son with his Grade One homework lately, and I TV & VIDEO 926-7000 or 926-1400 churning out too many airy- fairy theorists and not enough qualified high tech or heavy tech worker bees can’t be dismissed as gob- bledegook The truth is, com- petition in the world ts more fierce than ever and our traditional cushion of a fabulous resource base isn't geeing to keep us afloat through another generation Yet Canada still seems happy (O praduate wimps. and basket weavers Meas. 6 HOUR TAPES?! Om Y Spas Of course, where does a banker get off knocking the educators? Who got the world into such a financial mess that the global debt is nearly a trillion dollars anyway? If there is a collapse on a scale that will make the Depression look like a bit of minor financial seismic ac- tivity, a will, have been the fault of the bankers more than any other group. In their greed, they forgot how to add. I’m not about to praise Victoria or Premier Bennett or Education Minister Jack Heinrich for what they've done to Brittsh Columbia's education system. Bad as it was — tn the sense of being sloppy and elitist — it hasn't noticeably gotten better since Socred ministers from Bill Vander Zalm onward started chopping and slashing. They've behaved in a clumsy and incredibly shortsighted way We need to be putting more effort, and that means more money, not less, into education, otherwise our kids aren't going to have a chance two keep up with the big, tough wave of smart. com- petigon abuilding around the world. The banker 1s right. Educa- tion has got to become useful, disciplined, directed. But don’t shoot the teacher The problem lies with provin- cial legislatures so intent on cutting that they mistake the frontal lobes for flab. At this rate, we'll wind up being the Third World of the future, kKowtowing to distant technological masters Microwave Ovens COST LESS AT COLONY INCREDIBLE SELECTION BUY WITH CONFIDENCE BUY WITH CONFIDENC! ry yt hoy oe FUN TALE . ry oe a ey heap OUR EEN TE LONY HOME FURNISHINGS Warehouse/Showroom OPEN TO THE PUBLIC (2 bikes behind the Avalon) at 1075 Roosevelt Cres N Van 900.5:30 980-8738 g Look Your Best ... NOW With Jazzercise ONE FREE CLASS gwith this ad. Biv. 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