Madam Speaker: Order, please. The hour being 5 p.m., time for private members' hour.
Ms. Marianne Cerilli (Radisson): I move, seconded by the member for St. James (Ms. Mihychuk), that
"WHEREAS in 1994, the Provincial Government eliminated health education as a required course from Kindergarten to Grade 8 and proposed to eliminate physical education as a required course in high school; and
"WHEREAS since 1994, the Provincial Government has backtracked with directives to split the time between health and physical education as a new curriculum is developed; and
"WHEREAS this has resulted in chaos, confusion and inconsistency in the curriculum taught and time allotted to both health and physical education in our school system; and
"WHEREAS both of these courses are recommended as compulsory from Kindergarten to Grade 12 by a number of studies including most recently the Surgeon General's Report; and
"WHEREAS quality health education and physical education taught in the school system, by professional teachers trained in these areas, should be viewed as a preventative health measure to address various problems from teen pregnancy to obesity, suicide and depression, increased smoking, dating violence, alcohol and drug use.
"THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba urge the Provincial Government to consider re-instituting health and physical education as two required courses from Kindergarten to Grade 12; and
"BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Assembly urge the Minister of Education to consider immediately implementing curriculum and teacher training to ensure these programs are available to Manitoba children and youth."
Motion presented.
Ms. Cerilli: Madam Speaker, I feel incredibly strongly about this issue and about this resolution. I do not think that there is something that this government has done that has been more backwards in its changes in the curriculum requirements for physical education and health education.
Since they have gone through the number of Education ministers that they have had, they have made a number of changes in this area. They have gone from having a required course in health education from Grade 1 to Grade 9 in this province to now having no required health education course. They have decided instead to put health and physical education together into one course to develop a new curriculum, and overall this has reduced the time that is going to be spent both on health education and on physical education in our schools.
At the high school level, after being berated across the province by the community, they backtracked on their initial decision to eliminate physical education as a required course. Now, again, they are wanting to combine health education and physical education and, again, reduce the requirements and the time that will be spent on ensuring that students in our schools are given these preventative health opportunities.
Madam Speaker, the rationale that the minister and the government use with this is that they needed more time for the core subjects. They then have increased the requirements in English and Language Arts, and they want to have more time for core subjects. It seems that the government has done this without any research, because all the contemporary research will show that, actually, having healthy, active, young people improves academic performance. It improves concentration, it improves productivity, it improves discipline, and it improves their intention span, their co-operativeness and all those other attributes that you require to have strong performance in academic scoring in academic subjects.
The rationale and the reason that the Minister of Education (Mrs. McIntosh) has given when we asked questions on this issue is she always says "where are you going to get the time?" All that we are saying is let us put it back the way it was for the kids that are from six years old to 14 years old, and let us go beyond that. Yes, we are saying let us go beyond that, and let us make a required course for health education and physical education as well in the high schools. By the way, Madam Speaker, that is nothing more than is recommended in the government's own reports. Whether it is the Postl reports, whether it is reports coming out of the Children and Youth Secretariat working groups, everyone is saying you have to have school courses, required courses for health and physical education, right up to Grade 12, and that is what we are recommending in this resolution.
Our rationale for this is we have read the reports, and we understand that if you do want to help academic scoring, if you do want to have kids that pay attention in school, if you want to start reducing some of the problems that we are feeling in this province, you have to have active kids. We are not seeing improvements on the after-school hours. We now live in a culture where there are more video games, there is more television, there are more movies. Kids are less active. [interjection] The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Doer) say kids on an average are watching 22 hours a week. I have read studies where it is as much as 30 hours a week. How do you compete with that? How you deal with that is make sure that kids in school at least have their 25, 30 minutes at the elementary level a day.
This is the same government that also, with a previous minister, wanted to get rid of recess. Not only do they want to get rid of physical education at the high school level and are cutting in half the time for physical education at the elementary level, reducing it by 25 percent I should say, now they want to have 75 percent of the time in an 80-minute per week schedule of physical education and only 25 percent of the time on health education.
Of course, as I have said, in this day and age that is completely going in the opposite direction. We also live in a day and age when a lot of parents are concerned about the safety in their neighbourhoods. They are not as likely to just allow their child to go on the street on their bicycle and have unsupervised playtime outside. There is a lot more structured activity. Kids are losing that time after supper when they would just go out and play and do active recreation and active play, and we have to be aware of that. We have to ensure that kids have good quality physical education programs, as well as supervised recess and lunch hour, so they can have that active playtime as well as have quality physical education and quality health education.
On the health education side, the rationale for that, you do not have to look any farther than this government's 10 years of lost years for kids in Manitoba. It has been 10 lost years.
* (1710)
Too bad for those kids that started school or were born in 1988 and started their life or started their school life in Manitoba. We have the highest rate of children being taken into care in Canada. We have the highest rate of teen pregnancy in Canada. We have seen a 12 percent increase in the last four years on drug abuse in this province by youth. We have the highest rates again this year of child poverty. We have some of the highest rates, particularly in northern Manitoba, for youth suicide. We have the highest rates of violent crime among youth. We have the worst gang activity for youth gangs in the country, and we have some of the highest rates for long-term unemployment of families in this country, high accident rates for youths as well.
All of these things could be addressed to a large extent by good preventative health education, and when you have issues like that, particularly in the area of violence, of teen pregnancy, of drug and alcohol abuse and use, you have to ask yourself: what can we do in a large systemic context to deal with these problems? Not the little pilot projects in different parts of the province, the little pilot projects coming out of the Youth Secretariat, but what can we do in a systems approach to deal with these issues, because they do affect all children and youth in Manitoba. That kind of prevention would be put in place by good quality health education, of course delivered by trained professionals in all of our schools. It could be supplemented, as we said today in Question Period, by suggesting we have nurses in the schools again.
Previously, under a former minister of Education, this government had implemented a life skills course. It was an excellent course. The curriculum contained a lot of good preventative issues in the curriculum that could be included in a good health education course. That life skills course was put in one year. They trained the teachers. They trained the professionals in the school system. They did the in-servicing. Then, a couple of years later, what did they do? They pulled the course. The same thing has occurred. It is no longer a required course, and the Minister of Education (Mrs. McIntosh) can chirp from her seat, but I can tell you as well after being in the system myself, that that created a lot of chaos. I know from talking to a lot of teachers that there was training put in place, and no sooner did they finally have all of their school organized so that they could implement that life skills course that this government, again 180-degree direction turn, and they change their mind, a new minister, pull out the life skills course. They did the same thing on health and physical education.
I have a letter here that the minister's deputy had sent to the then head of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation where they had to send out a letter to clarify what they were doing because there was so much confusion in the school system.
An Honourable Member: Because they kept changing it.
Ms. Cerilli: That is right, because they kept changing it, and they had to, by dictum from the Department of Education, try and send out letters throughout the year to clarify it. Still we have chaos out there; still there are no standards. We still do not have the curriculum that the minister has been promising now for two years. I understand it is going to come in for the school year starting this coming September, but we will have to wait and see for that. But in that curriculum who is going to be teaching this course, combined health and physical education? Right now, there has been no attention given at the Faculty of Education where teachers are trained. How are people going to be trained for this new course?
There has been a problem with the decline of specialists in physical education because of the policies implemented by this minister and this government, where we are seeing a decline in the people in the schools who are specifically trained to teach physical education. That is a serious concern because, if we want to see the benefits that I have talked about for having physical education in the schools, we have to make sure that it is taught by people who know what they are doing and understand the challenges for young people learning and benefiting.
One of the other things that this government has done in their approach to physical and health education is they seem to have taken the attitude that the physical education course over the years has not resulted in increased activity by adults and an increased impact. If that is the approach that they are going to take, by then, if there has not been success so far of removing the requirements for those courses, it is completely backwards. That means that you have to do more, not completely take out those courses or do less.
So, Madam Speaker, I guess I just want to conclude by saying that this government has made a lot of mistakes in its mandate, and I can tell you that this is one of them: the changes that they are making in health and physical education by reducing the time in the schools that young people will have the opportunity for physical education, particularly in those early years, particularly at the junior high age when young people need more opportunities to be active. They need to work with professional teachers who understand that age grouping and can make them feel comfortable. They are going through all sorts of changes in terms of their bodies and their self-image. They need to have those physical education and health education courses.
Also, I want to encourage the minister to read the research, to look at the Surgeon General's report, to read the Postl report, to read the recommendations from the Youth Secretariat, to read the many, many reports that are coming out, whether it is from the Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation or other agencies and to reconsider this reduction in health and physical education for the young people of Manitoba. Thank you.
Hon. James McCrae (Government House Leader): Madam Speaker, on a matter of House business, I would like to announce that the Standing Committee on Public Utilities and Natural Resources will meet on Tuesday next, June 9, 1998, at ten o'clock, in Room 255 to consider the Annual Reports for 1996 and 1997 of the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation.
Madam Speaker: To repeat the information from the honourable government House leader, for the information of the House, the Standing Committee on Public Utilities and Natural Resources will meet on Tuesday, June 9 at 10 a.m. in Room 255 to consider the Annual Reports of the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation.
Hon. Linda McIntosh (Minister of Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be able to rise and speak on this resolution. I do not accept all of the assumptions of course that were made in the member's comments. I appreciate her urging me to reread all the things I have already read, but it appeared that she seemed, from her comments, to think that I have not read them, which is an erroneous assumption along with a lot of other erroneous assumptions which we have come to expect and actually come to rather enjoy in an amusing kind of way from members opposite, because it is a challenge to keep up with the number of erroneous assumptions that they make. It is almost as hard to count as the number of false points of order that the opposition House leader constantly rises on. I found it quite amusing this morning when he jumped up--that is physical activity--to acknowledge that we could recite with him his standard patter on his--I think he holds the record for the most false points of order in the history of the Legislature. He gets lots of good exercise and physical activity which is what we are talking about here today of course.
* (1720)
At any rate, we do appreciate the opportunity to correct some of the false impressions that have been once again left on the record by the opposition about the priorities of the government and the way in which we are proceeding. I think the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Doer), from his chair of course, is indicating false impressions, knowing full well which they are because they were carefully written out and talked about in their caucus I am sure before they bring them here. Or maybe again, there is no preparation in their caucus for these things, who knows.
We are extremely aware of the need for health education and for physical education for students in Manitoba. The direction that the government has taken is set out in New Directions. I think it is very clear for all to read and all to understand that the physical education curricula and classroom instruction will undergo significant changes in order to shift the emphasis to an emphasis on physical well-being. That is aside from just straight exercise. I have said it before in the Chamber, Madam Speaker, that it is not enough to just do straight physical fitness exercises a la the old curriculum or straight rules of team sports a la the old curriculum. It is very important that students know what happens in their bodies while they do these things. So topics of health which explain how the body can improve by virtue of being physically active--
An Honourable Member: This is a keeper.
Mrs. McIntosh: The Leader of the Opposition has said this is a keeper, and I think this is great that he understands that, that he understands the link between health education and physical fitness.
When students understand how the circulation of the blood flows through the body, what that does to the brain, the oxygen that comes forward, their learning does improve. But they understand as well not just what the member for Radisson (Ms. Cerilli) has said, that physical activity will lead to improved learning, they understand why as well.
Ms. Cerilli: I just wanted to clarify the record. I am the member for Radisson, not the member for Transcona, and maybe the minister can tell us if she does not agree that children learn by doing.
Madam Speaker: The honourable member for Radisson does not have a point of order.
Mrs. McIntosh: Of course, I get them all mixed up over there, the member for Radisson. Madam Speaker, the member for Radisson has said children learn by doing, and she is absolutely right. They learn by doing physical activity how to do physical activity, but they do not automatically learn from that what is happening inside their bodies while that activity is taking place.
The member for Radisson made strong points about how physical activity leads to an enhanced ability to learn, and she is correct in that. It is important for students to understand why that happens as well, so that their physical well-being will be lifelong and not just for the duration they are in school. That is why we talk about lifelong learning. Understanding why they learn better is an important piece of physical education, one the member does not acknowledge or want to see occur for children.
This emphasis on physical well-being will mean that aspects such as knowledge about health and fitness, including nutrition, stress management, prevention of health problems and issues, safety and violence protection, as well as fitness and exercise, will be the focus of an integrated physical education curricula. Physical education will be designed to lead students to lifelong fitness and to emotional and mental well-being through a healthy lifestyle. We feel that that direction set out in New Directions is an important one to underscore.
The development for the new curriculum for integrated health education and physical education started in the fall of 1996, and the intention of the integrated curriculum is to provide every student with the opportunity to learn about well-being in a holistic way and not as a separate, isolated entity. In this way, students can learn about healthy productive ways and means with which to offset life's stresses in a positive, preventative fashion and so carry this knowledge with them throughout their lives. Students will be involved in leisure development, in fitness development, in sport development.
The health component, as planned, will be permeating all subject areas such as in health science and social studies, and there will be outcomes for these subjects. For the core subjects, there will be standards testing so the health outcomes will be tested. There will also be supplementary health courses.
The integrated approach places the emphasis on prevention, not intervention. I hope the member is listening because it is her resolution, and I thought she felt it was important enough to listen to the debate on it.
An Honourable Member: We are listening. We are hanging on every word.
Mrs. McIntosh: Well, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Doer) says he is hanging on every word, and I note the member for Radisson (Ms. Cerilli) is now turned around to listen as well, so this is very good.
An Honourable Member: We have been listening all along.
Mrs. McIntosh: Well then, would you like to have a little test to see what you recall from what I said, the member for Radisson? Do you want a standards test on what I have said so far? You were not listening properly, my dear. Oh, well.
The focus will be on physical well-being, community health, safety, social/emotional well-being, dental health and nutrition, with emphasis on areas such as family life in middle years, drug awareness in Senior l and Senior 2, decision making, conflict management, and learning to say no, for example, will also be part of the instruction.
Consistent with New Directions: A Foundation for Excellence, the curriculum development process involves educators and stakeholders. A curriculum development team and a review panel were established in December of 1996. Committee work began in January of 1997. The department has indicated to its educational partners that until the new curriculum is introduced, schools are to continue using the existing curriculum. The curriculum development team will be meeting for a total of 10 days throughout this current school term, and the review panel will meet again four times to review the work of the curriculum development team. Additional external and internal consultation will also be held.
The division of time, Madam Speaker, under the new framework is expected to move to 25 percent for health education and 75 percent for physical education from Kindergarten to Grade 5 and maintain an even 50-50 split for the Senior 1 and Senior 2 levels. Schools have the flexibility to extend or reduce the time allotted for any subject area as long as they adhere to the minimum requirements of the instructional day. Therefore, a local decision may be for a school to choose additional time for either physical education or health education depending upon their own school plans and their own perceived school needs.
* (1730)
In the new framework, there will be a clearly defined vision and direction that shall be taken for the development of physical education and health for Manitoba's school system. As well, general learning outcomes will be stated along with specific learning outcomes for each year.
There are different models for education. One is health oriented, the other is sport oriented. For instance, in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control has a concern about the physical inactivity of students in the 21st Century, thus there is a trend in curriculum development in the States towards using sport to teach about physical activity, promote physical activity and develop movement skills or sport skills. This is a shift from focusing on the sport itself to using sport to teach competencies and well-being. Sports will still, of course, be part of the curriculum but they are for a different purpose, that of physical activity and participation.
Concentration on one sport, of course, will continue to be possible for those students who wish to effect such concentration, but such concentration will not be part of the instructional programming. By focusing instead on activity and participation, all students will be included in physical education.
The other western provinces, including our two NDP neighbours in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, are also proceeding this way in physical education. The desire is to help students develop, be motivated to have a healthy, active life and get students excited about physical activity that they understand and that will be lifelong. A skills-based curriculum will be used. For example, the movement of throwing overhead can be used in a variety of physical activities and sports including throwing a ball to someone, serving in tennis or pitching a baseball, things of that sort. Research shows that the movement must first be taught before the student can use it for a sport, and research shows that students must be given a choice of activities so that they become comfortable with their level of participation.
We wish to instill in our children a sense of positive self worth. We want them to have a solid sense of self esteem that comes from a keen awareness of well-being and a knowledge of how to apply those principles in their everyday lives. Madam Speaker, we believe the thrust that we are taking does more than simply teach calisthenics or rules of particular team sport. The approach that we are taking that helps students to understand why the activity is important for the strong development of the body and the intellect is the best for the students of Manitoba. We are agreed with this by our NDP counterparts in Saskatchewan and British Columbia as well as by our Tory counterparts in Alberta. Because we believe this is a much better approach than the outdated one of yesterday that the members of the opposition wish to cling to, we cannot say that you can separate an understanding of well-being from physical activity.
So, therefore, with regret, although I believe the member is well intentioned, we cannot support her resolution, which is supported by the opposition as well. I would urge her to start thinking to the future rather than relying on the past. There are good things coming from the past. We will not throw those out. But we do need a fresh approach for a new millennium and a generation of children who are not naturally active as they were in days gone by. So I thank you very much, Madam Speaker.
Mr. Edward Helwer (Gimli): Madam Speaker, I would like to make some committee changes.
Madam Speaker: The honourable member for Gimli, with committee changes.
Mr. Helwer: I move, seconded by the member for Pembina (Mr. Dyck), that the composition of the Standing Committee on Public Utilities and Natural Resources (for Tuesday, June 9, 10 a.m.) be amended as follows: the member for Charleswood (Mrs. Driedger) for the member for St. Norbert (Mr. Laurendeau); the member for Brandon West (Mr. McCrae) for the member for Riel (Mr. Newman).
Motion agreed to.
Mr. McCrae: Madam Speaker, on a matter of House business and for clarification, the Standing Committee on Public Utilities and Natural Resources that will be meeting next Tuesday at 10 a.m. will be considering the Annual Reports of Manitoba Public Insurance for the year ended February 28, 1997, and February 28, 1998, which is, I think, the same thing I said before, only a little different.
Mr. Gerry McAlpine (Sturgeon Creek): Madam Speaker, I am really intrigued by this whole episode as far as this resolution, and there are some good things that are in this resolution.
What really strikes me as interesting is the fact that they have gone to the trouble of introducing this resolution, thinking it through, and I am sure that this is one that has been given a lot of thought on their part with a view to find some criticism with what the government is doing, the direction that the government is going.
What does strike me as amazing is that the member for Radisson (Ms. Cerilli) introduces it but she does not seem to have any support on that side. She does not have anybody to come to this Chamber and speak in support of it. [interjection] No, they want to pass it; they want us to talk to this. They want us to put our comments on the record. They do not have a view on this because they are not addressing the issue.
It is clear to me anytime that I introduce a resolution in this Chamber, I have people over here that are going to speak to it and communicate what my views are on that. I think it is important that we as legislators convince other people rather than just throw this out there and then ask somebody else to defend it for you. The opposition have demonstrated that today.
Madam Speaker, there is merit in what some of the resolution is indicating here, but I do take strong exception to the fact that the second WHEREAS and the third WHEREAS, since 1994 the provincial government has backtracked with directives to split the time between health and physical education as a new curriculum is developed. That is totally wrong. In the third WHEREAS, "WHEREAS this has resulted in chaos, confusion and inconsistency," the inconsistency and the confusion has come from that side of the House.
I think that most people know where I stand in terms of health and physical fitness, the importance of those, and I do agree with the fact that whereas quality education and health education taught in the school system by professional teachers trained in these areas should be viewed as a preventative health measure to address various problems from teen pregnancy to obesity, suicide and depression, increased smoking, dating violence and alcohol and drug use. A lot of those things are going to be interrelated, but this is not going to be a catchall as far as people taking physical education or the phys ed program in school that they see as not being provided.
I do not know where they get the idea that phys ed is not part of the curriculum in the province of Manitoba. It is something that if you take this thing through kindergarten to Grade 10, it is part of the curriculum. That has not changed and if they get the required credits as far as phys ed is concerned by the time they complete Grade 10, then they do not have to take phys ed in Grade 11 or Grade 12. I would hope by the time they get to Grade 11 and Grade 12 that these young people would have learned the responsibility by that time that they would do this on their own. I realized the benefit of that, maybe not at the same level that we are talking here, but I will tell you, I learned the appreciation and the necessity of physical fitness and health care as far as my way of life. I would think that the people, the young students, when they get to the point of going through the programs that are offered through our curriculum today, would be able to achieve the same thing.
So I do not agree with the fact that we are in a situation of chaos as far as the provincial government in terms of backtracking with directives to split the time between health and physical education. I disagree with that totally, and it has resulted in chaos and confusion. As I said, the chaos and confusion has been created by the members on the other side of the House and that is really too bad.
* (1740)
I always have difficulty with anybody who tries to elevate their own importance or their own credit by beating somebody else down and the opposition are really good at that. They are trying to do that, but, you know, that does not work today. It is not effective, and that it what this resolution is doing. It is trying to find fault with the system, and the system is to suit everybody. Well, we as government cannot be all things to all people because the people who are going to be taking a proactive approach with their physical fitness and their health, taking responsibility for those things, are the ones that are going to benefit by this. Those who do not want to do this, I do not care how much government we have, they are still not going to do it and we are going to put a lot of money into it in order to get them to do it.
They have a different approach on the other side. They take more of the police-state kind of attitude in saying: look, here it is, this is for you, and you have got to do it. Whether they want to buy into it or not. I have difficulty with that. I think it is a matter of education in terms of the people who are going to subscribe to this, and I think it is important that that be instilled in the minds of the people who are going to benefit from this. It is not going to be on the same premise that this resolution is suggesting.
The other thing I wanted to address was the fact that my involvement in sports activities in terms of counselling athletes--the importance of putting the right attitudes in the minds of people who are going to achieve certain goals. Any one of us here today can be anything that we want to be. I say to all the athletes that I am involved with in my other life outside this Chamber: look, it is all in how you focus in what you want to do, because you can be anything that you want to be, and it is 90 percent attitude towards the goal that you want to achieve and 10 percent talent.
It is all in what is in your head. If we are going to put these ideas in the minds of the teachers that this is not good, or the students, and that is going to translate into the minds of the students, then we are going to be in real serious trouble. We are going to have a police state or a socialistic approach to this whole thing, and that is never going to work because people are not going to take responsibility for something that government is going to do.
That is where we have come in the whole approach as far as this government is concerned. Business has taken responsibility for the business community; teachers taking responsibility--rather than just working with a particular curriculum, coming up with their own ideas, being innovative, making it interesting for the students. I mean, we sit here as legislators and bring in curriculums and all those things that we think that these young people should be working with and learning, but there is more to it than the textbook. There is more to it than what is drawn down as far as recreation and health.
Everybody is a person unto themselves, and they have to take responsibility for the things, the challenges that they are going to face. We are all different, Madam Speaker. We all have different challenges. But the honourable member, with this resolution, is trying to put everybody together. They are all the same. It just does not work. What might be good for one person may not necessarily be good for another. That is the difficulty that I have with resolutions like that and the mindsets that the members across the way have. I would hope that they would have a better understanding of what people do or what they are capable of doing for themselves. It is a lot better if people do these things on their own, rather than saying you have to do these things.
I think it is really important that governments understand that. Certainly this government has looked at this and realized. That is why I am here in this Legislature, Madam Speaker, because of this 16 years of socialistic rule in this province that we are still feeling the pains of that socialistic mentality. It is only now in the last few years that people are understanding and appreciating that we as government have to be facilitators, not being the people who say this is what you have to do and setting the laws the people do not want.
Madam Speaker, I think that if the honourable member were to think this resolution through with the idea of giving the students, the teachers, the communities, the education communities, the responsibility of doing what is best for the young people and the people who are going to grow on and live with the idea that physical education and physical fitness is important to their own well-being, it is certainly not going to come by saying to the students that this is what they have to do. Because as soon as they finish that, then they figure they have completed that, they have reached that stage in their life and they do not have to do it anymore. That is something that we have to do for the rest of our lives.
It was really gratifying for me today to go out to Unicity and to attend the seniors, the Manitoba Society of Seniors event at Unicity and to see the elderly people going through physical fitness and exercises that they are learning to do because they realize the importance of that. I daresay that many of those people who went through that, who were out there today, they probably did not even have physical fitness in their curriculum, but now they have realized this and they realize the importance of it. It is an individual thing, and I would hope that the honourable members over there could finally see the light: do not take the responsibilities out of the hands of the individuals but give them the opportunity to do things on their own rather than having things stuffed down their throat.
Madam Speaker, I cannot support this resolution, and I will not support this resolution and the thinking that is coming from across the way with this resolution. Thank you.
Mr. Peter Dyck (Pembina): Madam Speaker, it is interesting the members opposite talk about talking at a resolution when they bring out the resolution onto the floor and in fact are not prepared to put their own comments on the record. [interjection] Well, they are saying they want to have a vote. We need to have more information coming from the opposition as to what to vote on. Obviously, they are not prepared to debate this resolution so we need to continue to talk about this to get the correct information on the record. So thank you, Madam Speaker, for the opportunity to be able to speak about things that are important to all of us, which are health and physical education.
* (1750)
Madam Speaker, before I get into the more meaty part of the resolution, I just want to indicate that the schools that I represent, being Morden Collegiate, which is in Western School Division, and Garden Valley Collegiate in the Garden Valley School Division, put a very, very high emphasis on physical education and on the well-being of students.
In fact, I had the opportunity on Monday of this past week to be able to participate in the awards night which was held at the Morden Collegiate. If the number of students who got awards and who were presented with certificates is any indication of the priority that they are putting on in this area and the schools certainly, it is a very high priority. Many of the parents, and of course staff and students, were present at this gathering. It was great to see the opportunities that were being given to the students out there specific to the whole area of physical activity within the school and within the classroom.
Further to that, Madam Speaker, tomorrow morning I have an opportunity to go to the Morden Collegiate and do the ribbon cutting for a tennis court which is being funded by the local community. The parent advisory council went out and raised monies in order to be able to upgrade and to update the outdoor tennis court. So it is great to see what the communities are doing in the schools specific to physical education which, of course, is a great part of the healthiness of an individual.
But Garden Valley Collegiate had the official opening of their outdoor track three weeks ago. I had the opportunity to run on this track, to be involved in the--we did not do the ribbon cutting, but we tore the ribbon by running through it on the track.
An Honourable Member: Ripped it to shreds.
Mr. Dyck: We ripped it to shreds, as an honourable says here, and absolutely right. But I enjoyed that. It gave me an opportunity to, first of all, be a part of this official ceremony but also gave me an opportunity to run.
As the honourable member here for Sturgeon Creek (Mr. McAlpine) has indicated, it is important for everyone to be physically fit and to be able to, in this way, enhance their own lifestyle. I know, also, and I have indicated this before, that he is a runner and does an awful lot of running and certainly puts me to shame in that area. But I admire people who have the self-discipline to do that on an ongoing basis.
Madam Speaker, this government clearly recognizes that if our students are to achieve a good sense of personal and physical well-being, physical education and health issues are not enough. They are important, but much more is needed to support the development of our students' sense of well-being. I want to just elaborate on that a little bit. As I indicated in my comments that when students have everything in order, being their own physical well-being, being education, being health, when all of these mesh in the proper way, this adds to the sense that students have of themselves and their own well-being. As educators and as schools, certainly, this is something that we foster and that we want to see take place in the lives of our students. We can teach them all the chemistry and all the physics and math that is out there, and the English, but we need to support this also with the physical aspect which is specific to their own well-being.
First and foremost, it is important to understand that a student's sense of well-being is affected by many factors. First of all is the personal background, and I think that all of us here would agree that we feel good. It is a part of our being that we feel good about where we come from and what we have done. Now certainly not everyone feels that way, and it is unfortunate, but this is something that we want to continue to foster as we continue to educate our students. Family background is a big part of it as well, where we come from, what we have done, and this is also what we are trying to instill within our students. The honourable member mentions family values and certainly very important that we continue to foster this that we continue to encourage our students to develop what they have. If there are deficiencies that they see within their own families, this is maybe something that they can help to improve in their own families as they grow up and as they establish their own families.
Madam Speaker, the learning environment is another one. Certainly, as educators within our education system, we are trying to establish an environment within our province, within our local communities, an environment that is going to be conducive to learning. Having been involved in the school board in Garden Valley for many years, I know that this was a great emphasis that we placed on our school division and within our schools that we had an environment which was conducive to learning, which was conducive to the well-being of students. This would give them the opportunity to be able to mature and to be able to be people who could contribute in the local community and, of course, in the province and the world abroad.
This government believes that students' personal and social development is a responsibility shared by the school, the family and the community. For this reason, the Department of Education and Training has ensured that students, parents, educators and other partners can participate in this regard.
Second, Renewing Education: New Directions, this government has clearly identified the outcomes of this personal and social development. Manitoba graduates will be expected to, and I just want to enumerate a few things that they are expected to do at this time.
First of all, they need to demonstrate personal and social responsibility. They need to demonstrate positive attitudes and habits for lifelong learning. They need to set goals and priorities and personal worklife. They need to plan and manage personal resources to achieve these goals. They also need to demonstrate creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit, demonstrate initiative and persistence to complete tasks, to demonstrate positive attitudes towards and understand the meaning of responsibilities and benefits of active citizenship at a local, provincial, a national and international level.
That is what we as educators but also within our schools are attempting to teach our students as they grow up, as they mature, and then of course as they graduate and then go into the world. The honourable member for Concordia (Mr. Doer) talks about a task force that went out and did a survey of the communities specific to education. I would just like to suggest to the member for Concordia that certainly it was a good report. I think it clearly identified and indicated what the sense was out there in the communities. So it certainly reflected the mood and the feelings that were out there. Certainly I am proud of the fact that we came up with a good report, but I must get back to my text here.
Students also need to understand and apply expectations for ethical and moral behaviour. They need to demonstrate a sense of self-worth and self-confidence; respect human diversity, including individual and cultural differences. Madam Speaker, just to again elaborate, at noon today we had the--
Madam Speaker: Order, please. When this matter is again before the House, the honourable member for Pembina will have five minutes remaining.
The hour being 6 p.m., this House is adjourned and stands adjourned until 1:30 p.m. Monday next.