Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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THE ASHBURIAN on the subject of the nationalization of medical services, and his well prepared speech was undoubtedly the better of the two. Gale, on the other hand, volunteered to make an entirely extemporaneous speech on a topic which was not presented to him until he had reached the speaker's platform. The topic - All wars are begun for commercial reasons . By virtue of his resourcefulness and quick thinking, he was pronounced co-winner. Among the intermediates, Haslam, with a well-informed address on the results of XVorld VVar II, won top honours, with Fidler a close second, speaking on Stamp Collecting. Campbell II won the junior event with his excellent speech on the island of Cyprus. Messrs D. L. Polk and A. B. Belcher adjudicated the event. THE HILADMASTERS' CONFERENCE Perhaps the best attended and certainly one of the most successful conferences of the Canadian Headmasters, Association was held at Ashbury on january 6th and 7th. It was the twenty-third meeting of the organization. Twenty-two headmasters of schools from Victoria to Halifax, including representatives from the United States, attended the Conference. One of the group was Mr. C. L. O. Glass, presently head of B.C.S. and formerly Ashbury head. Mr. Perry, as President of the Association, provided a full pro- gram for the two days. Six meetings were held, among other matters under discussion were the Brakeley Survey, an investigation of the potential endowment by business firms of Canadian Independent Schools, and the problem of Discipline, which was attacked by a dis- tinguished panel under the chairmanship of S. F. M. VVotherspoon, Q.C. The guest speaker at the School on the first night was Dr. D. K. C. MacDonald of the National Research Council who gave a most impressive talk entitled, A Physicist looks at the Humanities. A service was held in the Ashbury Chapel, and the Conference reached a fine climax with a Dinner at the Rideau Club at which the principal speaker was Sir Saville Garner, the United Kingdom High Commissioner. fe ' . -A x. ..-P. .fx W H cadmasters of Independent Schools

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TH!-I .-ISHBURInI.Y 21 acting as host. This affair saw Ashbury pitted against l3ishop's College School on the motion That the present policy of the Canadian Government in diverting purchase of goods from the L'.S. to goods produced in the L'.K. is a sound one . Despite the fact that the Cana- dian Government denies this is a policy, the motion was hotly contested. Bishops upholding the afiirmative, established many good points and managed to establish a sound basis for their intention. Ashbury, how- ever, also made its points clear, and eventually emerged victorious. XVe are all looking forward to meeting Lower Canada College next vear at Lennoxville. i Much credit for the successes of the two members of the Ashbury Debating Team, Gale and Chamard, must go to Mr. Spencer whose timely hints and coaching helped us considerably. ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSIONS A new innovation this year was a series of round-table discussions held each Friday after lunch under the guidance of Nlr. Vetter. Over the year many topics were discussed, ranging from VVhy Do VVe Go To Church? to Hit Parade vs. Classical and from Age 21 to Public vs. Private School . The natural outgrowth of class discussion periods, this series was most successful and each week a faithful group of students from Grade X up met to express their views. After a time cunning filled the questions and the answers were all given in ambiguous terms but, never- theless we all learned a lot and enjoyed the meetings immensely. VV e look forward to resuming the group next fall. POETRY READNG CONTEST This valuable annual event was held, in the School Chapel as usual, on Sunday, May 4th, under the same conditions as those of former years: the reading of a set piece, a selection of the candidates own choosing, and a sight piece. As no outside authority was available this year, the readings were adjudicated by Mr. Belcher, who awarded the honours as follows: Senior: Hutchison, Intermediate: Lynn, junior: Campbell II. Rowe received honourable mention in the Intermediate competition. PUBLIC SPEAKING CONTEST Unlike the Poetry Reading Contest, this event did not produce as great a number of entries as last year, nevertheless the quality of the performances was high - perhaps even superior to the general level exhibited in previous years, as there appeared to be an improvement in the spontaneity, conviction and ease of delivery of speeches. In the Senior Division, Chamard and Gale were adjudged joint winners. The former expressed authoritative and convincing views

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THE .-ISHBURIAN 9 MATHEMATICS CONI ERl'fNCI . - 1958 Hillrield School was, this year, host to the Alathcmatics Committee of the Headmasters' Association of Independent Schools. The Schools sending representatives were Appelby College, Ashbury College, The Grove Lakefield, Lower Canada College, Pickering College, Ridley College, Trinity College School and Upper Canada College. i The guest speaker was F. R. Britton, B.Sc., .Nl.A., Ph.D., Chairman of the Mathematics Department, NIcXIaster University. Dr. Britton gave a detailed and most interesting History of Alathematics, leading up to our present day approaches to the subflect. Ile placed con- siderable emphasis on the importance of the understanding of language for success in the understanding of mathematics and science. Following Dr. Britton there was a general discussion and question period, most of which dwelt largely with the mathematics at the senior rade level. g Following the discussion period there was a short business meeting at which an invitation was extended by the delegates from Lower Canada College to hold the next session at their school. This was accepted unanimously. After the meeting, and the taking of the group photograph. the delegates were guests of the Headmaster at his residence, then to the School Hall for lunch. After lunch the delegates spent two hours at the XYestinghouse Laboratories, where the time spent was most enjoyable and extremely profitable. At the end of this tour the group was treated to coifee and cakes. Everybody agreed that the day was Hl0SIi enjoyable and rewarding. ENGLISH CONFERENCE The Annual Conference of the Teachers of English at Indepen- dent Schools took place on Easter Monday, at Oakville, with Appleby College in the role of host and Mr. H. C. Hardwick in the Chair. The Conference was attended by twelve representatives from eight of the Independent Schools: Appleby, Ashbury, Hilllield. Lower Canada, Ridley, St. Andrews, Trinity, and Upper Canada, many valu- able discussions were developed. Guest speaker at the morning meeting was Aliss Cordon. a super- visor of the teaching of English in the Public School. She described the current methods in the primary grades of the State School System. These techniques emphasized the use of phonetics in the promotion of spelling and reading skills. Mr. john VV. Dodd, vice-principal of Riverdale Collegiate Institute. Toronto, was guest speaker at the afternoon meeting. He outlined several interesting classroom methods in use in the secondary grades and his talk proved IHOSI stimulating.