Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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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]

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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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founding, and has been kept abreast with the times. The House System was estab- lished, which fosters a spirit of co-operation among the girls; the Houses being named for the founders and builders of the School, who have passed to higher service: — Fairley, Ross, Barclay, and Riddell. A good Library has been installed, largely through the efforts of the Matriculation Class of 1928. Miss Gumming never missed a day of School in her twenty-three years, and it is a matter for congratulation that the pupils have been singularly free from serious illness during that time. She has ably maintained the high ideals and traditions of the School, the evidence of her success being the high standing taken by Trafalgar girls, not only in the Matriculation Examinations, but at the University, where many have been awarded valuable Scholarships, and after graduation have been appointed to important posts in the Scholastic world, and in other walks of life. Miss Gumming has our very best wishes for the enjoyment of a well-earned rest, as we bid her farewell and God speed. M. L. B. From an Old Girl IT has been said that there is apt to be a simplicity about a truly great man that ren- ders difficult the task of adequate description , and it seems to me that those words might well apply to Miss Gumming. To try to express in words what she has been to the school, and to those of us who have been privileged to work with her, is a well-nigh impossible task. In thinking of some of her great qualities one might speak first of the ideal she has always set before us of devotion to work. To do one ' s best — and to be content with nothing less — to work for the sake of the work itself, and the joy that there is in it, has been the standard that she has set by her own example. One might speak, too, of her understanding and sympathy. No one ever went to her with a problem without coming away with some knowledge of how best to meet it, and how many of us have been immeasurably heartened by her assurance that there is always a way out . Her strong belief in the ultimate goodness of things, gave many of us the courage we needed to go ahead through difficult days. Her devotion to the welfare of all connected with the school, is something that can never be measured in words. No detail was ever too small for her careful consideration, and her sound judgment was relied upon by us all. Those of us who were fortunate enough to have been taught by Miss Gumming, will be grateful to her always, for putting into our hands the key whereby we might find countless treasures, and in particular for giving to us a knowledge of and love for the Bible. How often we have been reminded of her words and teaching by hearing, per- haps long afterwards, some of the familiar morning verses . Trafalgar stands today, and will stand in the future, a monument to her great- mindedness and devotion. The traditions that she has established will not soon be for- gotten, and G anada will be the richer for the influence for good she has had upon so many lives. [17]