Letters, July 29

Opinion

Long-standing grading problem

Re: Not making the grades (July 25)

The graph shows an astonishing jump from 15 per cent to 40 per cent for the very highest achievers (90 per cent to 100 per cent averages in high school) over 12 years. There was a 50 per cent increase in this cohort in just two years, 2019-21.

This alone should be proof that the high school system is not grading realistically. But the problem goes much further back.

After six years of night school, I took the plunge and enrolled at university as a full-time day student in 1981.

My intro geography class was held in one of the theatre classrooms — a massive hall with tiered seating. The room was essentially full at the beginning but by the Christmas break at least a third (closer to half, as I recall) of the students were gone.

Giving students false confidence in their “achievements” in school is setting them up for failure in the real world.

How could educators not know this?

It would be interesting to see a similar chart for the first semester drop-out rate for Manitoba universities.

Allan Robertson

Winnipeg

 

Granted I’m 68, a grandfather, and old school, but my view of the current public school performance is that it sucks.

We somehow have come to accept that poor performance is OK as long as you feel happy. What a crappy way to go through life.

It’s painful to watch a high school student working at your local store unable to make change when the cash register doesn’t do it for them!

This started 30 years ago when the Prairie provinces agreed on a math curriculum that focused on problem solving without ensuring you have basic arithmetic skills to solve the problem. I recall a meeting at Salisbury-Morse Place School introducing the program to parents of Grade 1 students and I was vocal about the road this would lead to: students unable to solve the problem because they can’t do the math. Students will either score 90 and above or fail miserably, but that’s OK as long as they are happy.

It’s taken 30 years, but I told you so.

The standard must start with the university requirement and work back from there.

High school final exams — yes, you have to get stressed and study — must be written by the university to establish entrance requirements.

The time for coddling has long past, and yes parents, you need to help your kids with their homework and take responsibility for your child’s success.

Bill Allan

Winnipeg

 

Bet on electric buses

Re: Transit hydrogen fuelling station expected before end of year (July 25)

Coun. Janice Lukes announced the city is going to invest millions of dollars in more hydrogen fuel cell-powered buses and a specialized fuelling system as part of an exercise to reduce CO2 emissions from the diesel-based bus fleet.

Perhaps Coun. Lukes is unaware that the bulk of the hydrogen produced in Canada is made from natural gas in Alberta and significant amounts of CO2 are released in the catalytic process. When one adds in the energy used to compress and transport the gas from Alberta one has to wonder whether any CO2 reduction will actually occur. I guess if CO2 is produced in Alberta it does not matter?

A better investment might be in electric battery buses using off-peak green hydroelectric power produced here in Manitoba, and the buses would actually cost less to purchase from New Flyer based here in Winnipeg. The councillor hopes government grants will offset the very expensive hydrogen route, which seems like shaky economics to me.

Andrew Dickson

Winnipeg

 

Memories of Aganetha

Re: Queen bee (July 23)

Thank you, Jen Zoratti, for your wonderful tribute to Aganetha Dyck, a remarkable artist and an equally remarkable woman. I took a group of my university students to see her show featuring the wedding dress at the WAG in the 1990s.

While they were awed by the exquisite work wrought by the bees in the main exhibit, I recall one of them being moved to tears by one of the smaller ones: the women’s handbags that were slit open, as if in an act of violence, revealing the innocent contents within.

Aganetha was not only a generous mentor, she was also a generous donor of her work to arts organizations in support of their fundraising efforts. The legacy of her work will endure, and her memory as a generous, completely original (and often irreverent) artist will remain alive, in the Canadian arts community and beyond.

Rosmarin Heidenreich

Winnipeg

 

Still waiting for improvements

It is my understanding that it is the purpose of a hospital ER to provide immediate care for possible life-threatening conditions. This functions to ensure quick diagnostic treatment for the more critical cases.

A few days ago, a member of my family was admitted to the ER at a Winnipeg hospital. The waiting room was already full and he was put on a bed in the hallway where there were several other patients, also on beds. He was seen by a doctor at about 6 p.m., 14 hours later. Several tests were ordered and he was finally discharged at midnight, 20 hours after admission. The icing on this particular cake was that the results of the final medical tests were interpreted to this patient by the nurse at the doctor’s direction.

It is my opinion that this entire medical process highlights the serious malfunction of our current emergency hospital services. In spite of promise after promise for remediation we do not appear to be any further ahead. It is my understanding that changing current emergency service conditions won’t be an easy fix, but this is beyond tolerable for people seeking emergency care. This particular case is not unique, but its presentation serves to highlight the fact that what emergency services we have cannot responsibly care for the demand for more immediate medical intervention.

This is not a criticism either of how triage is managed, but the bottom line is that so many people need to be initially assessed that this overload places patients who are waiting, also with possible serious medical conditions, in precarious positions. The current reality is that many people going to emergency at this hospital, or possibly other hospitals are in for very, very long waits.

This singular case underlines also the serious lack of the number of hospital ERs, the disproportionate number of staff to deal with the high number of patients, the lack of more minor injury clinics, and more than likely, the lack of money to pay for everything.

Mary-Jane Robinson

Winnipeg

 

Nice to see good roadwork

After years of bitterly complaining, mainly to myself, about having to annually play potholes “dodging slalom”; I must commend council for their efforts in addressing this serious problem.

Rather than literally throwing down thousands of buckets of asphalt mix, city staff now professionally lay down appropriate strips of hot mix asphalt paving to make driving many streets more smooth and indeed safe.

It’s also great to see that when warranted, entire sections of streets — including Lakewood Boulevard last year, and most recently Marion Street from Archibald to Tache — are first being milled and then completely overlayed with asphalt pavement, often in a matter of days as opposed to weeks and weeks of reconstruction.

Rick Lambert

Winnipeg