Thanks for the response from the acting DM. I guess my concern with a modified program is, you know, if we put the emphasis on early childhood, whether it be preschool or child care, daycares, playschool-type activity or facilities, and we have teachers and assistants in that facility working with the kids and if they are not taking a course that’s fairly rigorous and that gives them a high level of skill, I would think that we’re kind of cutting off our nose to spite our face in that we’re

not getting the best we can for the kids in this program.

I don’t know why the program has been modified. Maybe I’m wrong in my assumption. I would hope that we would try to train our people to the highest standard possible so we can provide the best programming possible to our children.

Under instructional and support services, curriculum review and revision and so on, I noted when we were discussing the business plan that the department is publishing a Science 30 text. I immediately wondered why we are publishing textbooks. It would seem to me that this is an activity that isn’t necessary. Surely to goodness there must be Science 30 texts already published elsewhere in the wide world that we could acquire without having to go through the work of developing and publishing a text. Could I get an explanation as to why it is that we’ve decided we need to publish a textbook?