Page 4 The Other Press January 18th 1983 the end is near... COMMON CORE COMMON SUBJECT AREAS. OCCUPATIONAL CORES MECHANICS AUTOMOTIVE HEAVY DUTY INBOARD/OUTBOARD SPECIALISATIONS CARPENTRY / JOINERY CARPENTRY BENCHWORK ELECTRICAL METAL FABRICATION ELECTRICAL SHEET METAL BOILERMAKING IRONWORKING STEEL FABRICATING PIPING PLUMBING SPRINKLER FITTING by Nancy Powell Walking past the library you will notice a petition posted on the glass protesting the posib- ility of Douglas College cance- lling the Academic programs. The petition is there becau- se of bill C-115, better known as the National Training Act, which Douglas College may introduce as soon as Septemb- er of 1984. ; a ‘ "Fei is to be utilized nationwide in colleges and ot- her post-secondary instutut- ions to ‘‘establish a national program to provide occupat- ional training for the labour force and thereby to better meet the needs for skills cre- ated by a changing economy and to increase the earnung and employment potential of individual workers.’’ Translated into common En- glish, it means that the Fed- eral Government is going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to transform people in- to human robots to fill non- existent jobs and spend non- existent money. The plan looks simple: stud- ents are first up-graded in ba- sic subject areas (reading, wri- ting, and math), known as the Common Core section. _ After_completion of the Co- mmon Core, students are then channeled into different ‘‘ Oc- cupational Cores’, where | general training is taught, i.e. carpentry or mechanics. All students must first com- plete the Common and Occup- ational Cores or show mastery of the areas before progres- sion is made to the specializ- tions category. It does sound a lot like 1984 alright; very rigid and dehum4 inized Why is there no organized student opposition to this? The present government has| so successfully fucked-up the school system in B.C. it’s al- most useless to attend school} anymore. By not having the choice of taking academic courses, we are being denied an extremely important aspect of education; human growth and awareness.} If academics are lost in fav- or of ‘‘Occupational training,”’ we will be undoubtably be fac- ing a future of unfeeling, un- thinking, unaware people. ““ Each of us is responsible for everything and for every human being.”’ Dosteyovski| Get up off your backside and do something! nuclear awareness group by Annette Murray Most of us are aware of the growing presence of the dis- armament movement. On On Thursday, January 27, the Nuclear Awareness Group. (NAG) will present the film ‘‘If You Love This Planet’’ in rm.# 1715, between 12:15 and 2:00 P.M. The film features Dr. Helen Caldicott, the cofounder of Physicians for Social Respon- sibility and an outstanding fig- ure in the ant-nuclear move- ment. This National Film Board documentary offers some excellent insights into the issues of the global arms race. The screening is only one of the upcoming events sponsor- ed by NAG this semester. On Thursday Febuary 3 an in- formal seminar on Jonathan Schell’s book ‘‘The Fate of the Earth’’ will be held in the low- er lunchroom between 12:00 and 2:00 P.M. Interested stu- dents need not have read the book to attend. The Nuclear Awareness Group was formed at Douglas College last April. NAG prom- otes a rational debate over the arms race and makes pertinent -information available. _ NAG rigidly supports the enforcement of the recommen- dations issued by the Canad- by Naz ‘‘Registration seemed very efficient,’’ said returning stu-. dent Annette Murray. ‘‘I hope the questionare provides jobs because I expect that the B.C. Government, Bill vanderZalm in particular, will ignore it.” Students in general were quite relieved with registra- tion this semester. Some stu- dents spent as little as forty- five minutes in the entire reg- istration process which is much less than the one hour plus that it took to get through | the fall 82’ registration. A questionare was handed out which inquired as to whet- her students were recieving the courses which they had originally intended to register: f ia ian Government at the United Nations Special Session on Disarmament in 1978: 1.A comprehensive test ban trea’ 2. A halt to flight testing of new strategic delivery vehicles 3. Prohibition of all fissionable materials for weapons pur- poses. 4. An agreement to limit and. progressively reduce military spending on new nuclear wea- pons systems. Anyone interested in learn- ‘ing more about NAG should contact Micheal Lacusta at 536-1285 or Barbara Eby be- tween 3:30 and #:30 P.M. at 936-2454 Or 591-1111. y Sean Valentini bhoto b Much of the same staff who assisted in the fall registration returned to the same positions for this semester. This put tra- ining of new staff to a min- imum and aided the efficiency of the registration process considerably. The layout of the entire registration process was extremely effective and by restricting the stations all to one area, general confusion was minimized. All in all this was probably the smoothest registration in the recent history of Douglas college. The entire college staff should be commended as to it’s effectiveness. Let’s hope this will set a precedent which will continue for years to come.