NOVEMBER 9TH 1983 THE OTHER PRESS PAGE 3 OT HH ER - N-E WSs ae oo Tee Remem OTTAWA (CUP)- Ottawa youths plan to prove they understand the signifigance of Rememberance Day by staging a high school strike and a ceremony of their own. The Ontario Ministry of Education has broken tradi- tion this year and decided to keep public schools open on November 11. But Youth Action for Peace, an organ- ization of 15 to 20 year old activists, has___ different plans. “Initially we were hop- ing for 50 people (to skip school and attend Ottawa’s Rememberance Day cerem- ony) as a symbol of the concern of young people that the warlike way of our parents’ generation will not allow us to have children of our own,’’ says Ted Dymet. “But we no longer have any idea how many people we should expect because the idea has snowballed in the schools.”’ The group plans to as- semble outside the teachers’ college at 10a.m., and after brief speeches march to Ottawa’s War Memorial. The group has plastered posters and distributed leaf- lets at more than half of the high schools in the Ottawa Valley. Dymet says some administrators have tried to block the distribution of information about the strike, but their efforts are futile as increasing numbers of vol- unteers patticipate. The protest will focus on the threat of nuclear anni- hilation and the plight of SS ememberance young people who see no future. ‘This is a statement de- signed to underline the cri- sis that youth is going through at this time,’’ Dy- met said. “The youth in school to- day are dead - spiritually dead. Once you’ve taken away the belief in tomorrow, from-an entire generation, you might as well have put a bullet through their brains.”’ In a letter to Dymet, Ontario’s education officer J.H. Beauchemin said: ‘‘To many children, the word ‘rememberance’ is unfamil- iar and the idea of ‘remem- bering’ something of which they have no personal recol- lection may be difficult to grasp.”’ ‘We believe the best way for elementary and second- ary school students to honor the memory of those who served is by holding a Rememberance Day service in every school of Ontario on Nov. 11.’’ But Dymet says school assemblies traditionally glorify war and fail-to draw attention to the threat of a future war that could end life on this planet. “We want to point out the veterans (of World War Two) were the same age as we are now, and believed they were fighting for a peaceful world. ‘‘Now we must find the same courage for a similar struggle - one to prevent war alrogether.”’ The protest has gained the support of Veterans for Multilateral Disarmament. Students Penalized MONTREAL (CUP)- Stu- dents who miss class, skip exams or fail to hand in papers during a strike at McGill University may be penalized by their profes- sors. The University Senate during a 1980 strike, en- dorsed the students’ right to boycott classes without be- ing penalized. Now, the administration says there is no written policy to protect students. Academic vice-president Samuel Freedman backed up his statement before the support meeting with a let- ter to Student Society pres- ident Bruce Hicks, confirm- ing students have no guar- anteed rights of this kind. Colleges : The Future B.C. College's? “‘One of the most innovative educa- tional experiments of this century,’’ said Dr. John by Ian G. Lyon Dennison during his lecture at Douglas College, Nov. 3. Dr. Dennison has been involved in the college sys- tem in B.C. since 1962 when there was only one post secondary institution; UBC. ‘‘That was the golden age of colleges,’’ states Denni- son. At that time the col- leges were products of the . community for the commun- ity. College funding was 50 per cent federal and 50 per cent from the tax payers, with the provincial contribu- tion at zero. In 1972 the provincial government instituted a pol- icy of making more educa- tion more accessible to peo- ple in remote communities by establishing North Is- land, North West, Northern Lights and East Kootenay colleges. By 1977 the provincial government had taken over the local taxpayers portion of funding, creating ‘‘an open door to intervention,’’ said Dennison. With the centalization of monetary control, control over curriculum was des- tined to follow. Cost effec- tive job training has become the prime objective of some ‘ colleges. A program must produce a productive, guar- anteed employable work- force to be considered cost efficient. Training for immediate employment is a short sight- ed policy as the major employment opportunities in the future will require a more flexible worker that can synthesize information and make decisions with incomplete information. This change means that students must have a more general education. Quebec and Ontario col- leges were established by their provincial govern- ments. The Quebec colleges were to help in the ‘‘Quiet Revolution’ by creating an educated francophone maj- ority. 41 of the 46 colleges are French speaking and mainly concerned with the quality of life issues. They are instructed by the goy- ernment in what they can and can’t teach to reach the required goals. Ontario colleges are con- cerned mainly with job train- ing. Both Ontario and Que- bec colleges are now trying to become more indepen- dent and get away from centralization. In B.C. we are becoming more and more cetiatieed which takes away from the individuality of the seperate colleges. The relocation of programs from one college ~ make to amother and the elimina- tion of duplication of prog- rams in seperate colleges intimates that people will move to an area for their education. This is not poss- ible in the majority of cases as.it is impossible for some people to just pack their bags and move from Kelow- na to Prince George to take a nursing program. What Dennison is _pro- posing for the colleges of the future (hopefully, the near future) is a return to more local autonomy. More com- munity involvement as dif- ferent areas have divergent needs. A core curriculum that will see students become more educated in decision making processes and be much more flexible in the type of employment they will be able to engage in. All this leads us back to the fact that high technology will liberate many people from routine jovs and will information related jobs much more prevalent. The college system has the greates cross Section of people of any of the post secondary institution there- fore has the best opportunity to educate the people that will find the traditional jobs no longer there. It is the responsibility of the colleges to aid in this end as the only way to understand the fu- ture and its consequences is through education. -fuHuaIVA uvas hq sojoqd