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Some teachers still believe that kids fail exams â€" that they don’t get enough marks to pass. It never occurs to them that if they would ask the right questions all the kids would pass. Let me give you a brief example. Here are ten words from a new grade four speller, one from each of the first ten exercises â€" field, fruit, shiny, together, twelve, wheat, gnaw, sound, glasses, wooden. Here are ten different words from the same speller, one from each of the same exercises as before: barn, pick, gay, heat, cave, fork, drum, test, feet, pile. Now I guarantee that there’ll be a dramatic difference if you die- tate the two lists to a weak or even an average speller. The point is this; if the teacher dictates words like the last ten for the exam then every- one in the class will get good or excellent marks. But if she uses words like those in the first list then there’ll be a lot of failures. In order to avoid either extreme, examinations at any level are set this way; to get a good “spread” of marks teachers ask a few easy, some average, and some very difficult questions. “Why did my kid fail his spelling?” I was prepared for his frontal attack. I showed him the exam paper. Terrence had been given 40 words and 14 had been wrong. Counting four for each mistake and deducting,r from 100 this left a failing mark of 44. Case closed. “Why do you take off four? My teacher used to take off only three.” Now I rarely worried about why the sun rose, why the stars came out, why the wind blew, nor why my old teacher had always deducted four for each spelling error and why I did too. This base, crude attack I attempted to meet with a wan smile and a “Because . . .” I never really recovered. When I suggested his boy should study harder. he asked, “Which words ?” I said, “All of them." “Would you still deduct four if you gave all the words in the speller?” This seemed unfair even to me so I replied quickly, “Oh no â€" just two if all words are dictated.” I wanted to give the impression that occasionally I did give all the words for dictation. Mr. Kelly persisted. “How many words are there ?” Ment- ally I multiplied 36 weeks by 20 words, added an extra zero for some idiotic reason and grandly said, “About 7,000”. “Do you give them all at once?” “Certainly”. When I started calling him Mr. MacRae again, he mumbled something about “making sense”, took the speller I offered him for home help and left smacking it on his thigh. I never allowed Terrence to fail a spelling exam again. I can remember when as a beginning teacher I had my first parent interview. I was only 20 and in those days still too young to vote. At that time parent-interviews usually spelled trou- ble. I had been foolish enough to fail one of my students who parents were influential in the community. The father was rushing from work at the sawmill to hear my explanation. For some reason I felt guilty that the kid had failed. I felt somehow thatI must come up with the excuses. My day book was finished, I‘d wiped the boards for the third or fourth time and now just sat worrying ’til the irate father appeared. He was smaller than I but still I must have been a little up tight because I stuck my hand out, gave him my warmest smile and said “How do you do Mr. MacRae.” He kindly pointed out that my name was MacRae, his name was Kelly. Very alertly I recovered by advising him that the Scots had come from Ireland. His expression didn't indicate any joy at this disclosure. He launched right in. But examinations are over and reporting to parents will begin soon.. Now it’s your turn to ask questions. Here are some I’d ask as a parent. How did you arrive at this mark? Were all the marks low? Was this a difficult exam? How difficult? Have you covered all of the work on the test? Did they understand the question? Have they had this type of question before? Did they know what you considered to be the most important parts of the course? Then you ask the most important question of all, “How could my son improve his marks?” Listen very carefully to the answer to that one. LIBERAL CLASSIFIEDS GET RESULTS ELECTION RESULTS MONDAY, DECEMBER 4th All the Vaughan - Markham - Whitchurch- Stouffville and Richmond Hill Municipal Election Returns and 2-H Newkirk Rd.. Richmond Hill - 884-8111 CLASSICDMM Your Turn To Ask Questions CABLE IO Municipal All ATV at 8:00 pm. LIVE 10 News Program the candidates ing contest. starting time January 1 - January 10. 1973. j Sponsored by the area Lions \ Clubs. c5w22 8:30 pm to 1 am, Thornhill Lionettes Gray Cup Party at North Thornhill Community Centre. Tickets or informa- tion, 889-9545. c1w21 DECEMBER 3, SUNDAY â€"â€" 10-6. Antique show and sale. Lions‘ Hall, 106 Centre Street East, Richmond Hill. Furniture. china. glass. sil- ver, jewellery. brass, pic- tures. Bargains galore. Sale held first Sunday every month. Donations to Leuâ€" kemia Fund. c1w22 noon. Richmond Hill and District YWCA Re-Sale shop Rummage Sale. 25 Yonge Street North. Richmond Hill at the rear. clw22 DECEMBER 2, SATURDAY. 1:30 pm. Christmas Bazaar, Ladies of Saint Andrew's Presbyterian C h u r c h are holding their annual sale of Christmas baking. handwork, preserves and tea room, in Maple Masonic Hall. Maple. c2w21 DECEMBER 2, 10 a.m4 to 12 DECEMBER, 3 SUNDAY â€" The other five hopefuls include incumbents Robert Houghton and Warren Bailie plus newcomers Douglas A]- len, Catherine MacDiarmid, and Peter Sale. Present Trustee Deena Simpson is DECEMBER 2, SATURDAY Aurora and District Kennel Club, All breed Sanction Dog Show, Bradford Arena. Brad- ford. Information. 727-5407. €1W22 Thompson was one of six candidates making public pleas for election to the three Richmond Hill seats open on the county board of education December 4. The shattering glass rous- ed any heads that might have been nodding in the wake of some 30 previous speakers at Richmond Hill High School Auditorium. CENTENNIAL beard grow- Thompson paused four times in his speech to heft a hammer and smash small panes of glass magically produced for him by young helpers. York County Board of Ed- ucation trustee hopeful Rob- ert Thompson was the last speaker on a marathon list at Richmond Hill's all~candiâ€" dates night Monday in Rich- mond Hill High, but he cer- tanly wasn’t the least. The sound of breaking glass dramatically punctuat- ed Thompson's five-minute tirade against the rising cost to the taxpayer of money required to repair broken school windows and other vandalism every year. School's Speaker Smashes Glass The workings of a modern municipal government are complex â€" I am glad to be able to bring to those problems an extensive engineering and legal education. Now more than ever we need to communicate with and respond to the citizens of our com- munity â€"â€" I pledge to fill that need by deed as well as by word. RESPONSIVE AND RESPONSIBLE FOR ELECTION DAY ASSISTANCE CALL 884-1441 887-5803 884-8216 He advocated that the taxpayer‘s dollar should be concentrated on providing an excellent teaching system and a subsequent better edu- cated student. Allen pointed to the great period of population growth ahead for Richmond Hill and the school sites that would follow in its wake. “I think as an experienced architect in handling the construction of schools I can be of great assistance in no- gotiating school sites with developers." he said. Speaker Allen emphasized his experience with new school construction as an architect which had involved “designing these schools as economically as possible, eliminating any frills. and in general seeing that the tax- payer's dollar isn't spent un- necessarily.“ He also urged that the board of education should endeavor to ensure that they use school buildings “to their maximum.“ He urged greater control of vandalism pointing out that only $20,000 of this to- tal amount would enable every “school to be opened for community usage at no charge to you." Thompson finished his “physical” speech by telling the school janitors that he would “sweep up any glass on the floor after the meet- ing." Mr. Baillie said one of his immediate objectives was to have a “meeting of the minds" between the munic- ipalities and the school boards with a View of “find- ing a way in which school buildings can be more read- ily Put to the use of tax- payers." Mr. Baillie said that “there is a feeling on vari- ous councils that now is the time to discuss this import- ant aspcct of our school life and involve the community on a greater scale." Mr. Houghton listed a number of vital concerns he wished to pursue as a trus- tee in the next term. He indicated that some of the fault was due to schools being built with glass win- do-ws on-~the lower floors. These included what he felt was a too-high incidence of four-year-olds failing kin- dergarten, the safety aspect of bussing children, the ul- timatc in staffâ€"student rela- t i o n ship communication, more school field trips. “plus Thompson dwelled on the damages caused to schools by vandals stating that “some $67,000 of your tax money has been used by the school- board in the last two years in repairing windows and other damage in the schools." The three Roman Catholic School Board positions went to Malcolm Peake, Father Francis Robinson and John Taylor by acclamation. not running DAVE SCHILLER MAYOR The end of the campaign is fast approaching. On December 4th we will have the opportunity of electing those we want to represent us during the next two years. During the past few weeks I have discussed and stuck to the issues, large and small â€" those who would suggest there are none are simply not listening to the people. Teachers Get Raise (Continued from page 1) otiators decided not to hold out for the last $5.000. “We realize we are still in an unfavorable p o s i t i o n when compared to the public school board. We had strongly emphasized t h e lower end of the teacher pay scale. levels one and two. Pay in the first years wasn‘t at all favorable in compari- son with industry an-d the public service. It is now some better," Tadman told “The Liberal". ONE-YEAR CONTRACT The settlement provides for a oneâ€"year contract ex- piring August 31 and covers 219 York Region teachers. Without degrees these teach- ers now earn $5.400 to $7,800 a year. Teachers with de- grees start at $8,700 a year and theoretically can go as high as $14,300, although none are close to the maxi- mum, according to Sorochan. Peter Sale said he would- n‘t make any rash promises about creating any "utopia" on the school board but would represent the feelings of the community on educa- tion and relay them to the board. He expressed his reason for wishing to become a member of the board as “be- ing my interest in children. I don't intend to use the board as a stepping stone to a higher political reward." Resignations from teacher association members had to go to the board today (Thursday! to be effective. She pledged to do her part in seeing that “your tax dol- lar is spent on education rather than on buildings.“ "As a teacher myself I know the problems facing the educators and students and I think it‘s important to have a teacher on the board." Mrs. MacDiarmid thought it was very important to have a “mother's point of View“ on the board. “I‘m very concerned about greater community usage of schools and I think this can be accomplished to every- one's satisfaction by co-oper- ation. increased co-operation with municipal councils which is very important. To The PeOpIe Of Richmond Hill JACKPOT $500 - 54 No.'s Early Birds 7:15 pm. 20 REGULAR GAMES â€" 3 SPECIAL GAMES MONDAY, DECEMBER 4th RICHMOND HILL lIONS CLUB LIONS HAI.I. STARTING TIME â€" 8 RM. 106 Centre St. East DAVE SCHILLER I don’t know whether to believe you or not, is what Yvette Steel, who plays Isabel Vane, the charming heroine of East Lynne, seems to be telling the dashing, but lecherous Sir Francis Levison, played by Dennis Stainer, as he tries to lure her away from her faithful husband. Sir Francis, a man “steeped in the ways of villainy,” proves to be too powerful We have 9,463 ready-made picture frames in most styles, sizes and finishes at 50‘} OFF. All framed, hanging pictures are 50% OFF the price marked on them. We do Custom Framing at very little ad- ditional cost. HOUSE OF 10,000 PICTURE FRAMES 102 Doncaster Ave.. 889-4346 Open 9 'til 6 Mon‘. Tues, Wed., Thurs, Fri., Sat. Turn right lst light north of Yonge and Steeles. $03.9 PICTURE FRAMES Get Thee Behind Me, Sir Francis "““l““““‘ ““““‘ THE LIBERAL, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Thursd an adversary for the fragile, young heroine, however, and as a result . . . Well, come and see for yourself when the Curtain Club’s first production of the season also sees the opening of it’s new theatre at Elgin Mills and Newkirk Roads. Hiss or cheer as you see fit, from December 2, 6, 9, 13 and 16. Tickets: 884-6052. See story Page 15. ay, 1Photo by Ramon Stringer Nov. 30, 1972