Dear Sir or Madam, I am from Europe and you might say that the issue of using Imperial or not in Saskatchewan classrooms is none of my business. Yet, Canada and Europe have now one thing in common: both use the metric system. I am Imperial and US Customary literate, but both were and are not taught at school here. That is how it should be in metric nations. It seems that businesses and trades which have been refusing for years to adopt the metric system are now complaining about the schools not delivering Imperial literate people. This is not your fault, it's theirs. Their intransigence has caused these problems, and they should pay the price for their attitude. Let them train their people in Imperial, or better, let them give up their resistance and go metric at last. There is not any trade or industry where Imperial (or US Customary) is 'essential'. There is only stubborn conservatism that keeps both alive. Don't look south of the border but follow the rest of the world. The US does not use Imperial but Customary, a set up which differs in many aspects with Imperial. Please, do not take this retrogade step. Teachers who are still opposed to metric could use Imperial only in their classroom, justifying it as a 'learning experience'. Why should Canada remain stuck in the limbo between two entirely incompatible systems of measurement? It would have been better if you had decided to press your Government into completing the changeover to metric, ending the 1983 Metric Moratorium. Yours sincerely, Han Maenen The Netherlands
