OPINION -

Pierre Pelletier ppelletier@delta-optimist com

EDITOR: Ian Jacques ijacques@delta-optimist com

REPORTERS

Sandor Gyarmati sgyarmati@delta-optimist com

Mark Booth mbooth@delta-optimist com

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jim Kinnear jimgkinnear@netscape.net

DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Marianne LaRochelle mariannel@glaciermedia.ca

SALES REPRESENTATIVES

John Gallinger jgallinger@delta-optimist com

Ruth VanBruksvoort rbruks@delta-optimist com

Lee Fruhstorfer lfruhstorfer@delta-optimistcom

John Avdic javdic@delta-optimistcom

SALES SUPPORT:

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Kristene Murray 604-946-5171 kmurray@glaciermedia ca

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CLASSIFIED

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MARK BOOTH mbooth@delta-optimist com

S

umming up 36 years in about 350 words.Next week will be my last at the Optimist. It’s time for a new chapter in our lives and we ’ re fortunate enough to able to pursue it, but not before saying goodbye to a community that has meant so much to me and my family

It began as a 22-year-old with an opportunity to eventually write sports for a paper that had extensively covered the North Delta rep soccer team I spent much of my youth playing for. I thought that was pretty cool.

As a kid growing up on the Surrey/North Delta border, Tsawwassen and Ladner were completely foreign to me

It didn’t take long to discover South Delta was a hidden gem in the Lower Mainland, where time nearly stood still while neighbouring cities such as Richmond underwent significant changes.

We purchased our first home in Tsawwassen and later moved to Ladner where we would live for the next 25 years. There were a couple of opportunities to take my career elsewhere but, with two working parents, my job provided the flexibility of being there for my kids before and after school. That might explain how 20 years seem to fly

Along the way there was about a decade run coaching my son ’ s soccer team where we got to know and become friends with some tremendous families

I will always remember the amazing volunteer coaches, managers and administrators in this community and the difference they have made to so many The athletes such as Brent Seabrook or the McNamara twins, Megan and Nicole, who made significant impacts in their hometowns and continued to thrive at the highest levels of the sport

It’s encouraging to see the current mayor and council providing the infrastructure for sports to keep thriving here, from the covered outdoor lacrosse box in Ladner to the redevelopment of Cromie Park and a much-needed new track coming to Delta Secondary The future for athletes’ is bright

And keep those submissions coming into Optimist. Sports will always be an important part of this paper

Is getting rid of letter grades a good idea?

I

My first reaction to this idea was ‘What?’ After reading many, many articles about this proposal, I understand the reasoning behind it but I’m not sure about the outcome longterm. Reading the Optimist online poll, I’m not alone.

It seems that’s the intent of this new grading system is to not judge you based on what you can put on a piece of paper in a given time, but what you learn over time. The challenge is, how do other people know how your work has been judged?

That said, I’m not a psychologist, I’m not an education expert, but as a

’ ve been reading a lot about changes coming to our schools this fall Students from kindergarten to Grade 9 are no longer going to receive letter grades to evaluate their performance. You won’t start seeing letter grades until you hit Grade 10Community Comment

marketer I review consumer behaviour and market trends. My sense is, since we ’ ve taken away many measures of success and competition, we’re creating a generation of expectation, not of reward.

There is a lot of theory about this idea, but there’s a big gap between theory and practice

I’m a university marketing instructor, I read lots of research reports on advertising It’s one thing to review and analyze advertising, it’s something completely different to stare at a blank page and create it. If your study is wrong, no big deal. If your ad is wrong, you lose your client, or your job.

Letter grades might be a lot like Winston’s Churchill’s view of democracy- it’s the worse form of government, except for all others that have been tried. This new method is an experiment will take many years to determine if it’s effective. But is it worth the risk? Letter grades seemed to have worked just fine up until now.

I read an article that asked people in their 50’s what they would tell their younger self. One comment was ‘choose your habits carefully in your teens, they last a lifetime.’

Seems to me those are wise words in this instance as well.