Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

Page 16 text:

y4l o6e to tke dll I L lI I wm . . . . From the Head Girl of the School As we go through life, we meet few people who command both our wholehearted love and our sincere admiration and respect. These few must have a profound effect on our lives, particularly if they help to form our characters, as Miss Gumming has for many years. Many of us have been taught by her, but all of us see her every morning in the Hall when we come up for Prayers. Every day, for twenty-three years, Traf girls have said Good morning. Miss Gumming to the white-haired figure in the centre of the platform. But next year we will not hear her quiet cheerful voice leading the prayer. That office which Miss Gumming has made peculiarly her own, will be fulfilled by another. It will be someone else to whom we take our notes, after an absence. We will miss her half- anxious Are you sure you are feeling quite well now? All these little familiar things have endeared her to us. But they are only the outward form of something, we sense so vaguely, that we can express it but clumsily. It is the feeling of a huge spirit, living in a little body, and look- ing out of her eyes. Beside her courage and tactful honesty, we feel a kind of serenity and benignity which make her slightest order promptly obeyed; not through fear of punishment, but lest we will endanger her good opinion of us. Miss Gumming has an amazing memory, for at the end of term, as she sees each girl, she makes an accurate and kindly comment about her work. It gives one a little impetus to try harder, to feel thus noticed. It is these seemingly insignificant things which make us feel that though she be replaced. Miss Gumming ' s niche will not be filled for many years. It has been dug with infinite love and patience in the soil of our hearts. I can not pay a fitting tribute but can only grope to express my feeling of grate- fulness for having gone through Traf under Miss Gumming. Those of us who will not return next year, will miss her as much as any, because, when we came back to look around Miss Gumming will not be there to welcome us. I can only say to you Miss Gumming, If our wishes for your future are fulfilled, you will be happy. L. B. From a Mother of a Present Girl IF one may pharaphrase St. Paul, when one is a child, one thinks as a child and speaks as a child, but when one becomes a parent, then, indeed, one needs must put away childish things. And it is as a parent that I write now of Miss Gumming, in her capacity of Head- mistress. I knew her first many years ago, when, in another school, she guided my mind [14]

Page 15 text:

With grateful hearts, we give our thanks to you For help and guidance, in each time of need. For the example, in both word and deed We girls have tried to follow, old and new. When we have failed, your words have given us heart To strive a little harder, the next time Whatever heights, that we have tried to climb You ' ve shown us how to choose the better part. And through the years, your influence will not die But be a blessing to us every one We will not fail to keep the standard high Of life , and games, and work we know well done. For all the blessings you have brought our way Your grateful children give you thanks today. [13]

Page 17 text:

and tongue among the intricacies of the French language. Looking back, I have a clear picture in my mind of her keenness, her aliveness, as she taught our French classes week by week. She had an engaging way of stepping suddenly up on the seat attached to the front of the front desk, in order to have a better view of us all! It was as if, from on high, she could see farther into our minds ! But I have long felt that our full appreciation of those who have taught us, comes after we have left school and gone out into life. So, in a sense, I never knew Miss Gumming until, eight years ago, I went to her as the mother of a very young prospective pupil at Trafalgar. From that moment, I began really to know her and to realize the great privilege of knowing her. The relationship of parent-teacher is a delicate one, and can be a very precarious one. Even a strong-minded parent must admit that our children are our Achilles ' heel ' ' . Through them, their development and actions, their failures and successes, we are capable of being mortally wounded or sublimely elated. It is, therefore, a bit of oneself that one is putting into the care of the teacher for several hours each day, or, as in the case of boarding-school, for several months of the year. The parent-teacher relationship should and can be one of the closest and most valuable of all that life offers. But, like all else in human nature, it depends on one basic foundation, the willingness of both sides to co-operate. The touchy, fussy or indifferent parent, the impatient or indifferent teacher, cannot contribute fully to the harmony that should exist. It is, then, with a grateful heart that I write of Miss Gumming as the Headmistress who for a good many years has guided the development of my daughter in her school life. So much lies in the Headmistress ' hands. She is responsible, not only for the scholastic standing of the school, but, what is of infinitely greater value, the forming of the characters of the future women of the nation. In this modern world, when woman ' s part in life is fuller than ever before, when there is more need for courage and innate fineness of character and Ghristian example among women, such a responsibility becomes even more a privilege. In all my interviews with Miss Gumming, (if one may use such a stiff word for the talks in her study in which she puts one so at one ' s ease) I have been struck repeat- edly by the realization that Miss Gumming has been aware all along of the greatness of her task. She has been aware of its difficulties and its joys, of its possibilities and its limitations. One of its limitations lies in the hands of the parents themselves. Of what use is it for the school to attempt to train by rules of conduct which the home-training flouts or ignores? In that direction lies Miss Gumming ' s courage. She will not flatter parents! To many, that may be a bitter pill! Where is the parent who does not like to hear sweet words about his offspring? But the wise parent knows that the teacher who looks deep below the surface of the child ' s actions and mind, and has the courage to tell the parent what she sees, be it never so bad — there is the real friend of both child and parent. It is as friend that I think of Miss Gumming. She has been, in our years of mutual consideration of my daughter, a friend in the truest sense. Again and again, in facing the complex problems of the modern adolescent, I have turned to her for counsel. [15]