Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

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4 GRAND F L AG, r

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The “Why” in Society Children, I believe, before the beginning of their formal schooling, before their curiosity has been channeled and programmed and their perception altered by a society demanding conformity, see and ex- plore their environment through a question mark. Everything is new, past experiences are limited, and the mind does not always follow a logical course. It has not been conditioned to ask Why?” within a structured framework as those so conditioned do. This conformity among adults stimulates a desire and a need for an alternative that will allow a fruitful, meaningful life of learning and experience. But can we find this freedom in our modern society? Are we in danger of losing our ability to question because of machines that cannot argue, that demand a great deal of our attention, and that with- draw some of life’s experiences from us through automation”? Are our rules so restrictive that we are in danger of losing our faculty to wonder? Those who do not realize this dilemma face the gravest fight: an in- dividual who cannot or will not think is an easy victim to the peril of a society which is a slave to itself (or could the reason for this ignor- ance perhaps be that we have already accepted as right” our modern society, and now are content to exist within its limited boundaries, allowing it to evolve in the confidence that such evolution will bring man to the pinnacle of perfection?). Man, thinking man, created the society with which we now exist, and in its creation, the creator” had to remove himself from society and look objectively from the outside to the inner core. Surely modern man has not come to the point where he cannot examine himself with- out simultaneously including a reflection of society ' s bounds? Man can still change his restrictions, adapting them to new levels of automa- tion, but only if he retains the willingness to think, and think objec- tively from without the conformity of society, even as a child views his own environment. The key here lies in our method of education: it must be developed so that we can recognize our constructed limitations, yet maintain the ability to think. Particularly in the early years of his formal train- ing , a child should first be taught to reason, to examine himself in relation to his environment, before he is presented with the results of our modern society and its automation. Education in thought preceding education in fact can bring man out of the rut of blind and passive acceptance of a society whose natural evolution will not necessarily mean perfection. C. E. Pinnington