6 — Wednesaay, September 14, 1994 — North Shore News

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Choice education

E NEED more choice in public edu- cation. Demand for that choice is ¥ moving from grassroots to reality, but not fast enough.

Surrey Traditional School, which opened this month, is the first concrete result of pub- lic demand for a school run on such tradi- tional education values as structured, skills- based learning, competition and discipline.

When the Surrey School Board initially approved the establishment of the kinder- garten-through-Grade 7 school at the end of the iast schoo! year, response from Surrey parents was immediate: all 211 student spaces in the school were filled in a matter of days. And according to the school’s founder, John Pippus, in a Sept, 11 News article, the current waiting list for entry into the school is as long as the entire ¢nrolment again.

Now parents are pushing to establish pub-

fic education choice on the North Shore.

More power to them, because the status quo approach to so-called progressive, non- structured Year 2000 education does not work for a lot of students.

The foggy ideals of left-leaning education experts have infected our school system with a chaotic, non-competitive atmosphere that promotes blurry thinking, vague goals and bankrupt values,

it might werk for some students and par- ents, but the status quo does not work for everyone. Thus the call for choice.

We need it on the North Shore. Install a traditional school in West Vancouver’s Inglewood facility, which will be empty when the YMCA’s lease runs out at the end of this year, and watch it fill.

The move would be an education for more than just North Shore students.

Steering around the hype on the infobahn

Dear Editor:

Noel Wright is absolutely cor- Tect in stating that you won't actu- ally need access to the “information superhighway.” We don’t need access to telephones, newspapers or libraries either. The point is we want access to them.

It is important not to get mes- merized by the side-shows of the information superhighway and thereby’ miss the main event.

Electronic shopping and video om demand are very much on the periphery of the infobahn (although unfortunately not the infohypeway).

They are to the information super- highway as advertising is to a newspaper.

The main attraction cf the infor- mation superhighway for me is not access to 500 or even 5,000 chan-

nels, it is the replacement of all of -

those channels with just one chan- nel. My channel.

As Noel Wright says, I too am already drowning in information, but 1 see in the information super- highway an opportunity to reduce the flood and concentrate just on the rivers and streams I’m interest- ed in.

Display Advertising 9280-0511

Classified Advartising 986-6222 Fax

Newsroom

Distribution Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Subscriptions

985-2133 Administration

As Nicholas Negropohte of the media lab at MIT says, “When I hear ‘anything, anywhere, anytime’ I try not to choke. My goal is to have ‘nothing, nowhere, never,’

-unless itis Gimely, important, amus-

ing, relevant or engaging.”

Let me assure you that most “cyber-nuts” are building the info superhighway not just becaose they can, but because they have 4 visxon of the future that is very differznt from today.

John Janzen North Vancouver

986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 985-2131

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to avery door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope,

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Entire contents © 1994 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

Changed anglo attitude could still sink P¢

SO THE poils (all but one) were right on. Today Quebec has a new government dedi- cated to breaking up Canada by making La Belle Province an independent nation by 1996, What happens next?

Not to worry, say the self- appointed pundits. All the polls made it equally clear that Quebecers also oppose separation. By electing Jacques Parizeau and the Parti Quebecois for a term they were merely voting for a new gov- ernment — NOT a new country.

According to this theory, Quebecers know on which side their bread is buttered. As one of the seven “have-not” provinces, their living standards are main- tained by taxpayers in B.C., Alberta and Ontario. No way will they kiss this handsome revenue from equal- ization payments goodbye — nor any of Confederation’s numerous other goodies — just for the fun of issuing their own passports. So Parizeau’s referendum next spring will fail and we can all relax once more.

Dream on, if you insist. But preferably wake up and think again.

For starters, the current polls on that question show no really DECI- SIVE rejection of the PQ’s sepa- ratist platform — the “against” fig- ures vary from 49% to only the mid-50% range.

JACQUES PARIZEAU ... blus- ter hidirig a problem.

Since the 60-40 defeat of Levesque’s 1980 sovereignty-asso- ciation referendum, separatist sup- port has undergone numerous wide swings. Immediately after the failed Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords the polls showed nearly two-thirds of Quebecers in favor of quitting Canada. And now Parizeau has eight to 10 months in which to rekindle separatist enthusiasm among PQ voters.

He'll launch the process with an early declaration in the Quebec national assembly of the intent to create an independent country — followed by a bid to open exploratory negotiations with Ottawa and a start on drafting the new nation’s constitution,

All this, months in advance of the referendum itself, is intended to exert heavy psychological pressure on the PQ faithful. It will demon- strate that their new government is dead serious and thus force them to face their own moment of truth on the separation issue.

It will also compel Ottawa to descend {from the neutrality fence on which it has nervously perched

HITHER AND YON

during the election campaign and begin to defend federalism in earnest. As weil, all other nine provinces will be enteving the fray, this time with no holds barred.

As Parizeau and his Commons sidekick Lucien Bouchard insolent- ly thumb their noses at Confederation, tempers will inevitably rise in The Rest Of Canada. Harsh words will be said, and even threats delivered, to Quebec — greatly to the delight of the separatists.

For this is how Parizeau plans to win his referendum. He figures that the more‘hostile rejection of Quebec’s goals he can provoke in angio Canada, the better his chance of a separatist majority by next spring. A few Quebec flags burned before TV cameras in Thunder Bay, Moose Jaw or Yellowhead would be icing on his cake.

At jeast, that’s the lesson of |. Quebec history so far. But despite conventional wisdom, history does not INEVITABLY repeat itself. For all his confident blustering, Parizeau faces a very real problera in the new attitude to Quebec that’s emerging, Canada-wide, today. It says: “We want you to stay. But if you do, forget about any more’ blackmailing. And if you leave, you'll do so on OUR terms!”

What PQ voters wil! make of that message remains for now any- one’s guess. But one thing Quebecers are definitely NOT is dumb.

WRAP-UP: Starting tonight and continuing until Oct. 1, Wednesdays to Saturdays at 8 p.m., First Impressions Theatre Company presents the hilarious British comedy Noises Off at Deep Cove Shaw Theatre, 4360 Gallant Ave., Deep Cove — call 929-9456 for info ... Help in the battle against cancer by joining the 7.5-km West Yan Terry Fox Run this Sunday, Sent. 18, starting at 8:30 a.m. from Arnbleside Park — to participate or volunteer contact John Doherty, 986-2722 ... And that, dear reader, is the last you’ll hear from your faithful scribe for the next month, during which he will be poking around various European countries. Later in October we'll peek at how the restless natives over there are behaving themselves. Take care!

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Those

who think they know it all are very annoying to those of us «ho do.