Oakwood Collegiate Institute - Oracle Yearbook (Toronto Ontario, Canada)

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STANDING: Miro Pristupa, Mr. Chapman, Tim Martin, John Macchusi. SEATED: George Sanford, Barbara Corbin, Dragomir Popoff, SENIOR CHOIR The Senior Choir had an interesting and well- rounded musical experience again this year. Our first public performance in the fall was at St. Clement ' s Church, where the congregation enjoyed and were very moved by our performance of the Faure Rquiem. Immediately after, we began pre- paring for the Christmas concert which featured the Requiem as well as Christmas music. After a year ' s absence, the choir again performed most successfully at the Kiwanis Music Festival before going to work on Music Night. This affair was highlighted by the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah and the medley Kiss Me Kate, by Cole Porter. I am sure that the entire choir will thank with me, Mr. Chapman, our conductor and Miro Pristupa our accompanist, for their leadership and countless hours of extra work and devotion. 83

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FIRST ROW: Barb Johnston, Kathy Gaby, Vince Del Buono, Mr. Gordon, Bob Harris, Mary Campbell. SECOND ROW: Robin Sears, Len Rudenko, Peter Tikovt, Bernie Mohr, Marvin Katz, Doug Hennebury, Pradip Shastri, Mark Lang. THE UNESCO ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS PROJECT For over 10 years we at O.C.I, have had the unique privilege of participating in experimental programmes in teaching for international understanding. In a world that is growing ever smaller yet ever more complicat- ed, these experiments may well provide us with the most important lessons of our High School days. And we are the only school in Canada that has had these special opportunities. So that you may know the background of our par- ticipation in this programme you should know some- thing of how the programme began. To begin at the beginning, we go back to 1945 and the founding of the U.N. Besides creating an organi- zation to settle disputes between nations, it was agreed that there must be a number of specialized agencies dealing with problems that bring distress or war to mankind. Among the Specialized Agencies was one desgined to promote understanding among nations — known as Unesco — the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The preamble to its Constitu- tion begins, Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed . Article I of the Constitution states that one purpose of Unesco is to collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples . To fulfil this particular purpose, Unesco undertook in 1953 a large scale project that involved a number of Secondary schools in the Member States — a project that involved students in a variety of experiments to deter- mine to what extent mutual understanding and the elimination of prejudice can be fostered by education. So that there might be some valid form of comparison, participating schools were to be asked to include in their activities studies of one or more of the topics, 1. Human Rights, 2. Life in Other Countries, 3. Aims and Achievements of the UN and its Agencies. In each Member State of Unesco a National Com- mission had been set up to co-ordinate and supervise the various activities involving that nation. This Com- mission was given the task of selecting the schools that would participate in the experiment. In Canada, Oakwood Collegiate agreed to become the Unesco Associated School. All of us students of Oakwood have been involved in the Unesco programme in some way — as members of a class that have done special research and written reports on political, social, economic or religious prob- lems of the Middle-Eastern area — or have done re- search on race and race prejudice or contributed to the Welfare drive to raise money for Unesco gift coupons — or to support Adrian Kitchen in India, or purchase books for the peace library in Hiroshima. Many of us may have been unaware of the fact that we were participating in other areas, in that the geography and history teachers were selecting certain areas of the course of study for particular emphasis if they con- tributed to better international understanding. At times, the art department, the teachers of English, and the teachers of Physical Education have contributed to the experimental programme of this school. Our participation in the UN Model Assembly, at the student seminar each summer at Lake Couchiching, in International Refugee Year activities, in Citizens ' Forum and The Translake Club are evidence of our interest in the field of international understanding. Most probably you are unaware that at the end of each year, the teacher in charge of the programme sends to Unesco Headquarters in Paris a report of the school ' s activities and comments on their effective- ness. A year ago, your Principal spoke to a conference of the Candian Education Association meeting in Win- nipeg on the work being done by Oakwood as a Unesco Associated School. At the conference a resolution was passed urging that action be taken to increase the num- ber of Unesco Associated Schools in Canada. Recently the National Commission for Unesco in Ottawa has appointed Mr. Herb Stewart, formerly of Oakwood to become a field representative to visit all Provinces and Territories in Canada to foster the expansion of the project. We at Oakwood have had an unique privilege in being a lighthouse to increase among Canadian youth a knowledge of the world and its peoples, to engender sympathetic attitudes which will enable us to view other cultures without prejudice, and to develop an understanding of the need for international co-opera- tion. With this privilege must go the responsibility to see that this light is tended and shines brightly. 84