Appleby College - Argus Yearbook (Oakville, Ontario Canada)

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From September until May the Cadet program is in progress. This program is compulsory for grades 9 and 10 and it involves a multi- tude of activities. Most people are under the general impression that the only object of Cadets is to prepare for the annual inspection. This basi- cally means drill, marching, more drill, and more marching. How- e er. Cadets also includes the Northward Bound Program and all the Pre-North activities here on the southern campus. The boys how- ever often fail to establish the con- nection. You can ' t have one with- out the other. Perhaps if the boys were able to realize this they would not find the Parade aspect so un- bearable. This year the activities for the Cadets other than going up North included; Map and Compass train- ing, a standard first aid course (the boys must pass the final test in or- der to be allowed to go up north), canoe dumping and rescue, and for the Grade lO ' s, a trip to Winona Ritle Range to use the FN rifles of the Canadian Armed Forces. There are also many other useful activi- ties which are just too numerous to mention. With regard to the annual in- spection, it went quite smoothly this year, contrary to Mr. Larsen ' s e.xpectations. Every year bad weather threatens to confine us to the arena. This year however, the weather was beautiful; sunny, but not too hot. The Inspection also fell on the same day as Appleby ' s Annual Open House so the crowd was even larger than usual. Things got under way at about two o ' clock and the actual parade was over by about two thirty. The corps looked sharp and the boys did their best; what more could one ask for? Following the parade there were displays of various cadet activities and then everyone returned to the Main Field for the Headmaster ' s speech and the Inspecting Officer ' s remarks. The Head ' s remarks were complimentary, which was a nice change from two days earlier. The boys seem to frown upon the Cadet program, but come In- spection Day and they all seem to try their best and participate wholeheartedly. 136 Dave Stevenson CADETS . S :

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E.R. I The idea is to challenge a per- son so they find something within themselves which they did not rea- lize existed. This can have an elec- trifying effect on somebody who normally perhaps, was doubtful about his own ability. I know it had an effect on -me, which has lasted ever since. There are a lot of things in life which need doing that you may not like the idea of do- ing. This is the whole idea of duty. (H.R.H. Prince Charles commenting on his six month stay at TIMBERTOP, Australia and Gordonstoun, Scotland: Time magazine May 15, 1978). With the educational experimen- tation that was carried on in Ontario during the 60 ' s and early 70 ' s, large numbers of schools at the secondary level were realizing that something had gone wrong. The traditional form of education no longer met the demands of our youth or prepared them for a rapidly changing society. The Pu- blic System went through the up- heaval and lowering of standards brought on by the permissive phi- losophy of the Hall-Dennis Report and the ending of external Senior Matriculation examinations. The traditional Independent Schools tended to ignore the disastrous ex-