AI, iPhones, technology….not something Rotzy favours … but it its invasion is relentless.
It Seems Like….
….students, young and old, were singing Alice Cooper’s anthem “Schools Out For Summer” just a very short tyme ago, but when this week’s Times-Star hits the newsstands, they’ll already be back in the classroom! (*see below) And as has been the case with “From Nakina” since forever….and The Nakina News before that….it’s tyme to remind drivers to ‘adapt’ their driving habits, especially when in school zones, paying particular attention to crossing guards, even more so to crossings where there are no guards. As to school buses, STOP means STOP….whether they’re taking on passengers or unloading them, regardless of being behind the bus or approaching it! And as always, give the kids a brake!!!
No Contract
As we’ve repeatedly been told on the newscasts, the teachers are returning to the classrooms (*see above) WITHOUT new contracts, which yours truly doesn’t find particularly surprising. Not the first tyme, and certainly won’t be the last. What I did/do find surprising….after checking with a couple impeccable ‘sources’ over the weekend….virtually every educator in Ontario, from Jr K/G to elementary, to high school, public, separate and cetera…..aside from colleges and universities….is involved. Sorry, but I can’t give you the number of teachers, nor can I say how many various boards they work for. Sadly, my ‘sources’….one from teaching and one from administration….weren’t aware of what the educators were/are looking for, nor what the board/boards might respond with. Ditto for any deadline….real or imagined. Kinda like nobody wants to be ‘the bad guy’, you think? Well, this contract won’t be settled any tyme soon, and it’s obvious that the Ford government is gonna have to eventually get involved……..maybe even become the villian? Dougie? Nah!
Cracking Down/No Nonsense!
I heard a news report on 92.9 The Grand F/M last week that, for a moment, indicated that an area school board had had it up to here and is gonna take the bull by the horns in respect to flagrant use, misuse and abuse of i-fones….and/or smart fones?….in the classroom, and I’m thinking ”sanity prevails….way to go”!!. (*given that the news report was on 92.9 I’m pretty sure the affected schools are within Haldimand….but does it matter?!….no!) Anyway, with Rotzy being olde, olde-fashioned and a firm believer in the olde-dogs-new-tricks syndrome, I don’t own/rent/need/want one of those said fones. Thank you. If someone needs me, they can find me….usually within 24 hours!….and it’s been like that since we got our first fone when I was 11 or 12. But I digress….back to the big school ‘fone crackdown’. Firstly, yours truly was wrong….thinking they got put in the kid’s lockers….and weren’t allowed to be carried from classroom to classroom. Well, NO MORE of that s–t, pardner!! This board is gonna clamp down on these kids with new rules that’ll make the place seem like Leavenworth! Or so Rotzy thought!! The news reader continued on with a list of about TEN ‘exceptions’ which (for reasons beyond my limited imagination/reasoning) basically allow the student to carry said fone from classroom to classroom. So much for the ‘crack down’, eh?! Well…..I got to thinking about my father-in-law, the late S.B. Rutherford, the former teacher/vice-principal/principal, and how he’d handle this type of situation. In the slide-out middle drawer of his large desk would rest a medium sized ballpeen hammer which he would ‘modify’ the shape/size of the i-fone with, then dump the pieces into file 13. If the student decided to go with ‘cheap throw-away fones’, right next to the hammer sat a 12-inch long leather strap, which would certainly serve as a deterrent. On the other hand, I’d bet that 90% or more of today’s students would have no idea what a strap was/is!
CTC Boycott Now In Effect
Miz Jo and Rotzy went over to the nearby Canadian Tire Store last week, looking for a couple plastic stacking chairs for our balcony/porch. And we found them….identical to the ones we had on our deck up in Nakina, but a much nicer colour. We were searching for something else but couldn’t find it, so walked up to the checkout area. Much to our chagrin we noticed zero cash registers lights on, instead, three or four cashiers guided us to the do-it-yourself-checkout things….I think there were 4 or 5 of them….all quickly filled by us and others, NONE of us having a clue how to operate them, and obviously not wanting to learn how!! Not there, at Zehr’s, Shoppers Drug, etc. etc. Miz Jo tried to explain to the cashier the damned machines were/are taking her job…..we’d just done the same thing at SDM….but she was determined we could do it. WRONG! I handed her the tables, said ”you do it”….then we left. She handed me my Canadian Tire Money….for what will be the last tyme, unless they come to their senses.
*Thought Of The Day…Why do you press harder on the remote when you know the battery is dead?
