Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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Dear Girls: As I begin this letter, the word that flashes into my mind is change . For all of us at Trafalgar this has been a year of many changes, big and small; changes in staff, timetable, rules and boarding school routine, to name but a few. Our city, too, is changing with breathtaking speed — new buildings, new roads, the subway, all progressing at top speed to be ready for Expo ' 67. Our province also is undergoing rapid political, social and educational changes. Indeed, this twentieth century is the Century of Change, and the whole world is changing so fast that many people — not only you young ones! — are confused, restless and even fearful. It is hard for you to realize, I ' m sure, that the Electronic Age and the Space Age are as young as you are, and that, when I was at school, radio and air travel were in their infancy, and television, jets, computers and nuclear weapons did not exist ! In this changing, scientific and materialistic world, it is hard sometimes to believe that anything is permanent. Yet, looking out of my study window, I see the trees putting forth their leaf buds, as they do every spring. Then I realize that Man makes the changes, while the universe itself is unchanging, and, if the changes are to be for the better, Man must build his civilization on a foundation of the permanent values. This brings me back to Trafalgar, your alma mater, and what she wants for you. She is quite an old lady now; she will celebrate her eightieth birthday in 1967 — and it is startling to think that I have known her for more than half her life, since I first went into Upper II in 1926! Like all old ladies, she has changed in appearance and outlook, and yet she still has the same personality, and she wants to pass on to you, her daughters and granddaughters, the values in life that she has found good. Sometimes she seems a bit old-fashioned, but really she is wise. In 1867, when Donald Ross wrote his will and fovuided the school, he said that its object was to qualify young persons for discha rging in the best manner such duties as ordinarily devolve to the female sex . Of discipline, he said that it should appeal as much as possible to the moral sense of the students, who should be taught to regard the school as a second home, where good conduct on their part is certain to ensure them all offices of kindness, consideration and affection . Put in modern words, this means that Donald Ross wished, and Trafalgar still wishes, to give you sound learning, respect for hard work, the ability to think for yourselves, good judgment, high standards of integrity, loyalty, honesty and courtesy — and with these you will be able to face whatever changes life brings to you. May God bless you all ! Affectionately, Jean E. Harvie. [5]

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[4]

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HAVE you ever paid a visit to the pound cupboard? You must have; it is one of the centres of our school life, almost as popular as Miss Harvie ' s office, though not quite so much so as the mirror in the senior locker room. You must have pounced on the debris spilling out on the floor, and clawed through it looking for your lost oxfords or biology notes. Everyone has. Without pound, we would be lost, or at any rate, our misplaced possessions would. Looking through this magazine might be a little like rooting through that pile in pound. You will probably find many articles that interest you no more than do those dirty gym shoes belonging to someone else; but you might discover something important to you, perhaps even your own, that will make all the wading through the debris worth while. Here are the bits and pieces of our school life, otherwise lost, stored away in this cupboard . And what is more, there is no lock on it. So go ahead — root through it, enjoy it, criticize it if you like, because it was made for you, because it is yours. [6]