FTLComm - Tisdale - August 31, 2000

A busy morning for parents this morning as the Tisdale School Division launches its new school year. Parents like the one above escorted their children to school to start the first day while others who live further away were parked up to two blocks away from the Elementary school as they drove their children to school. I talked with one of the members of the safety patrol, on the job for the first time and she told me she was a rookie and her beaming face told me she was happy to be on the job. Over at the high I pulled up in front of the main entrance and asked for smiles and this happy couple obliged with a wave and smiles galore as their enthusiasm for the new school year is every bit as high as those folks over at the elementary school Each regular day of school a very large number of parents make morning noon and after school trips to school delivering and picking up their children from the elementary school. The school Division has taken action to help these folks out and four "pick up points" have been established around the town where children can hope a ride on a school bus to the elementary or high school. (We will get you some pictures and specific locations on these in an upcoming story.)

I talked with the elementary principal this morning and she was pleased with the decision by the School Division to offer the new pick up points as this will reduce the high volume of traffic around the school each day. At TMSS the school year is rolling into high gear, the parking lot was full this morning and the football field in absolutely perfect

condition. The football team has been practicing now for over a week and now the field not only has the goal posts in place by the field markers have been installed and the lines all mowed short in preparation for another exciting season. Beside getting the football and soccer seasons underway in a couple of weeks it will be time for the Trojan's try outs as a group of new players will find Tisdale and TMSS as their home for the hockey season which will be well established in less than a month.

These are exciting times to be a student in school as we cross the line from one century to another. This school year, the year 2000 - 2001 and marks the change from the twentieth century to the twenty-first century and these students and history will look back on this time as a landmark that will define the years to come. During this school year there will be a federal election (likely this fall) and with the rapid change in the way things seem to occur now, this school year is bound to be a time of transistion. The children in these pictures will live their lives in a new century but even with extended life expectancy most of them will not live to see the next century. If we look back on what it must have been like in 1900 - 1901 and consider what has happened since then we must shudder a bit to consider what may happen in the decades to come. In 1900 the car though a promise of the future was not a reality to most people relied on horse drawn vehicles to get around. It would be several years before the airplane would be even invented. There were lightbulbs but few homes had electrical power. Refridgeration, radio, television, computers, telecommunications, air condition, plastics, inexpensive food and clothing, all would lie well into the future. In 1900 there was no Tisdale, Melfort or Nipawin and it was only fifteen years since Regina was more than a few cabins on the bald prairie. What lies ahead for these young people is a mystery and we must do all we can to provide them with every opportunity to prepare themselves for the unexpected. We must give them out love, understanding, support, encouragement and every single chance to expand their learning horizon so that they will know our history, our science, mathematics and the very best tools to communicate with us and each other. They must not endure the future but it is for them to shape it to their advantage and the betterment of their children.