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

Page 33 text:

Self-Awareness You, Perception, and Living Hey, where ' s your head at? People can be so busy trying on different personality masks that they fail to discover what is underneath the shame. Socrates said, Know thyself . One must achieve this level before understanding anyone or anything else. At school, the masks mentioned above involve WHO WILL GET COLOURS? WHO WILL COME FIRST IN HIS CLASS? WHO IS COOL? Over-concern for one ' s image can distract him from a realization of himself. DESIDERATA: If you compare yourself to others, you will become vain and bitter. This goes on constantly at T.C.S. ; the effects can be seen every day. Vanity and bitterness resulting from image comparison tend to dissolve confidence. Set your own standards for yourself.

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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

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To know who you really are, you must be able to perceive. Perception depends almost entirely upon what is desired. . . you will find what you are looking for. It involves seeing through the jungle which covers everything to reach the inner truth. Perception ties in with so many ideas. D. H. Lawrence wrote: THE DEEPEST SENSUALITY The profoundest of all sensualties is the sense of truth And the next deepest sensual experience is the sense of justice. Lawrence is, in effect, saying that truth is love. The Bible says God is Love ; if you can find your inner truth, then you can find God and love. You can even be God, Love and Truth. When you can do so, perception becomes clear, and it is possible to establish what is of import- ance and reality. This is perspective. A lack of it results in distortion. For ex- ample, academic marks tend to grow out of proportion. They can become more important than actual learning and interest, and lead to frenzied worry. Why is this so? Possibly because marks involve the existence of study privileges, prizes, and a slight matter of $4000! Aldous Huxley, in a book called Island , tells of a way to make things such as marks disappear. Read it and find out. It deals largely with reality. A dull life and an unsatisfied self can result from being too cautious. Forget about consequences for a while. Babe Ruth had a high strike -out average, but he hit more homers than anyone else did for a long time. If you are one who tends to waste time, try living for those who are not. Keep in mind that you might be able to do those things which they lost their opportunity to try for. Over-enthusiastic anticipation of a good thing often turns to frustration when the ' good thing ' just doesn ' t happen Live for now. The best things in life occur spontaneously. Cat Stevens sings, then I found my head one day, when 1 wasn’t even trying. a ii s ii I li ti i p a 8 c 8 ti fi a s t ii 6 Bill Horne 24