Standardized tests a waste of time: Reader

RE: ONTARIO SHOULD KEEP STANDARDIZED TESTS IN ITS SCHOOLS, EDITORIAL, APRIL 30

The writer of the editorial of 30 April obviously has no idea of what education is all about. It has something to do with helping young people think their way through the problems of life and very little to do with skill in writing tests.

Some of us are old enough to remember the Grade 13 standardized exams. My English teacher taught the same Shakespearean play in Grade 12 and in Grade 13 to be sure we knew it inside out.

We spent two years writing old exam questions to make sure we could answer the questions properly. You see, her job depended on how well we did in the standardized tests and not on whether we learned anything useful about Shakespeare, theatre or anything else.

Teachers would prefer to teach students rather than waste their time processing young people in writing satisfactory answers to standardized questions. Such tests tell us nothing about how well the student is learning, but only how well they have figured our how to answer test questions.

Fred Habermehl

Niagara Falls

Celebrate public health nurses this Nursing Week

From May 7 to 13, Ontario nurses will be joining with our counterparts across the country in marking Nursing Week 2018 — a week to celebrate the profession that we are passionately committed to in order to care for you, our neighbours and community.

Nursing Week is an opportunity to pause for a moment and remember that despite the challenges our profession faces today, we love what we do — as complex and ever-challenging as it is.

The nursing profession offers us all the opportunity to choose a specialty in a number of sectors. Niagara Region residents, for example, benefit greatly from the highly skilled work that your public health nurses do each and every day.

Niagara public health nurses have received specialized education and are highly regulated, highly skilled professionals who work to keep their community safe. The nurses work to prevent illness and disease, focus on health promotion and provide counselling, education, treatment, advocacy, social marketing, community development and healthy public policy. Keeping you safe and well is their goal every day. Your public health nurses manage disease outbreaks and deliver community-based treatment to those with mental illness and sexual health concerns.

Your public health nurses are there for you in local schools, working with your children, on the front lines providing outreach services to those impacted by poverty and homelessness. They provide support to everyone — gay, straight, young or old — and from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds to achieve good health equity for all Niagara residents.

Public health is the foundation of our health-care system. The nurses and services they provide continue to be threatened by cuts.

That’s why this Nursing Week, I’d ask you all to stand up for your public health nurses, and take the time to appreciate the work they do for your community.

Happy Nursing Week to all public health nurses in Niagara region, and thank you for all you do.

Vicki McKenna, RN

President, Ontario Nurses’ Association