Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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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]

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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]

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Quietly we have talked the matter over, sifting it thoroughly. Where I disagreed with her, or she with me, we said so, without sharpness, and with the realization that only by expressing such disagreements as we felt, could we eventually arrive somewhere near the solution of the problem of the moment. One thing above all others has, from the beginning, given me confidence in her judgment. Never has she given me a snap deci- sion. It has been her way to take things under advisement , to think them over care- fully, slowly, weighing all the evidence, all the elements that make up the life of the individual girl. Each girl is, to her, distinctly individual — there is no mass-treatment in her mind ! In a school of two hundred and fifty pupils, it has frequently amazed me to find how conversant she is at all times with the details of each girl ' s work and char- acter. It would be easy to overlook many details, but that has not been Miss Cumming ' s way. At length, having thought over the problem under consideration, she offers her counsel, and I have found it, again and again, full of meat — wise and sound, in a way that snap judgments cannot be. It is impossible to express the quality of greatness one feels in talking with Miss Gumming. Is it in what she says, or is it the spirit that looks out from the eyes? How is one to say? In the eyes lies wisdom, born of long experience and vision and perception, and that God-given attribute, Ghristian charity. In the eyes, too, lies a gentle humility and a quiet steadiness. And in the eyes, often, a puckish humour lights the face in a flash of fun like a schoolgirl gamin . Here, then, I have always felt after a talk with her, is someone who knows and truly loves girls and is their friend. And here, as I realize after all these years, is one of the greatest women I shall ever have known. M. H. From a Member of the Staff KNOWING Miss Cumming ' s great aversion to publicity of any sort, my task is not an easy one, but I wish to pay my tribute to one whose retirement is a matter of genuine regret to many girls, past and present, to teachers and parents alike. I had been on the Staff for a long time before Miss Gumming came to the School, and worked in close co-operation with her for ten years, thus having every opportunity of observing her quiet unassuming way of carrying on her work, and her deep interest in, and care for every girl under her charge. I greatly appreciate the fact, that, since my retirement, she has always made me feel that I still belong to the School, by giving me an honoured place at all the functions held there from time to time. Miss Gumming has served the School for twenty-three years with conspicuous ability, with singleness of purpose, and devotion to duty, and has given unreservedly of her time and strength. She has taken an interest in, and upheld the members of the teaching staff. An able French and German scholar, she inspired the girls whom ' she taught, but her aim was not only to give them a knowledge of books or languages, but to develop character, and give them a knowledge of the deeper things of life. During her regime the School fittingly celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its [16]