Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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industrial production. agricultural production and military affairs. And you would have been hearing about combining theory and practice. You would have been asked to get out into the fields and the factories and fishing fleets and road gangs. as part of the educative process. and you would have heard continually serve the people as the purpose of education and. friendship first, co-operation second - sorry. friendship first. competition secondf' Mao Tse Tung would never have said co-operation second . You would have been learning in the school itself and from your society about criticism and about self-criticism and these as quite public and formal procedures. And. of course, you would have been indulging. as part of your regular studies. in extensive and detailed criticsm of Confucius and the deviationist leader Lin Piao. I'm not for the moment trying to say that the values your society have built into the educative process are better or worse than those of China but they are not the only values and, indeed. they are under somewhat massive challenge. Challenge that you will have to understand and face. Those of you who are leaving Ashbury can to a much greater extent perhaps begin to choose for yourselves now the kinds of educational ends that you'll pursue. the kinds of educational experience that you want to have. Among the choices that I'm sure is very much in your mind is whether you go to university or not. I hope you've considered this problem very carefully. I'm sure that many of you will want to be at university but I want to ask you to make sure that that is what you want to do. One of the problems of our society is that too much has been expected of the university and the wrong things have been expected of it and it is not and cannot be a guarantor of high incomes and of an assured career. It isn't and cannot be an institution for conferring social prestige. If you have a vocation for a profession and the ability and the commitment to qualify for the limited number of places in medicine. law, dentistry and the others. yes. you should be at university. More important. if you have a real taste for intellectual activity and that's not a word to be afraid of. one to be taken very seriously. then again. yes. you should be at university. or, if you have a desire to learn, to understand, and to appreciate. and if you're ready to make that kind of a commitment now, go! I'm a bit worried that some of these students who are coming to universities may not be ready either for the university or, indeed, for any other kind of formal post-secondary education. I'm a bit worried that some who are ready and should immediately go to university may never perhaps even in the atmosphere of the university break out sufficiently from the pattern of educational experience set by get ter 'QWQBH no m o Main gg-?criicAl ROGi':.::..:OU'S ' INDUSTRIAL ELECTRICITY ' REPAIRS ' ' WIRING ' ELECTRIC HEAT ' 1181 CECIL AVENUE, OTTAWA K1H 726 Telephone 731-7842 28

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Thus far the choices in education have to a very great extent been made for you. They have been made by your parents. they have also been made by the society of which you are a part although not all of these edticational choices by any means have been brought to bear on you through the schools and throtigh this school. Ashbury College or rather from any of the institutions ol' society. Nonetheless what you have learned then and to some extent the way you have learned reflect the values and priorities of your society. They tend lo be individual values rather than collective ones except perhaps in your own peer group where elaborate codes. and they're very rigid ones. do grow up. They have been very competitive values on the whole in this society rather than eo-operative ones except perhaps in games or in plays but even there the stars appear. Your society. then. has educated you perhaps in consumerism. probably less from a school like this which has traditionally had its values set firmly in the things of the mind and in values that are more lasting. but certainly from institutions like television and others that play such an important educative role in society. You have also been educated in the importance of growth. The idea probably has been suggested lo you that things get better as they get bigger and as there are more of them. Had you been born in China. the educational choices made for you would have been quite different. You would have been going to Middle School and there you would have been mixing work and study from the very beginning following the dictum of Mao Tse Tung: Education must serve proletarian politics and be combined with productive labour. The students would also learn other things - that is to say they should not only learn book knowledge. they should also learn tlnlfl ..-., al, i 1 1 QI ' . .gt A 1 v -'45 1 ,r ' ' ' ' .' faq S , ,Q K A - .1 'h-,, Photo by Peter Wilson Frank Mulock receives the History and Economics prizes. Year 5. from Dr. Oliver. 27

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4 ir ,Sig , Y 'is:a.1-w.vr-..rw'.N- society even that very fine pattern set by this school. lf then you are not sure. but you are ready for more study right now. there are alternatives and some very worthwhile ones for Canadian students. One of them, for example. is Canada World Youth, an organization that gives to young people from seventeen to twenty-three a chance to work with people from similar age groups from many countries of the world in projects, first here in Canada, usually in two locations and then in a host-country overseas -in Africa. in Asia, in South America and in Central America. The work that has been done by groups like this is in itself not the most important part of the movement rather it is the provision of an opportunity for young people from vastly different experiences and cultures to work together and to take a look from another perspective at the kind ot' values they hold, the kind of experience they've had. If you do go on to university or to college, then again it will be very worthwhile for the Canadians amongst you to think of organizations like C.U.S.O. which provides for service in the lesser- development countries using skills that you've been able to obtain. There are organizations like the World University Service ry' Canada, with seminars and other projects which will again bring this first experience or this real experience. I should say, of contact with the rest of the world and other countries' cultures. For some, then, I hope that many of you make the choice to expose yourselves to something that can be called culture shock . A shaking from the experience of having to live with and work with and adjust yourselves, to reconcile yourselves to a radical style of life and set of values. Preparations that Canadians who attend Ashbury College receive for this seems to me to be better than in most others because there is in this college. situated as it is in Ottawa. already a community much wider than a Canadian one from which experience can be drawn and the possibility then of participation in a much wider set of values and of thought than many of Canada alone. Nevertheless, the personal experience of having to adjust to a different set of values is something which I suspect even study here or later at university and even simply travel is not enough to get. I suggest that one of the options you think of now or later is some real exposure to a world that is different from the one you've known here. I suggest that you take some risks now or later in your lives. Find a way ofgetting outside ofthe style of life and the values you have now and look back in on them. Canada is only a very small part of the very big world and your part in Canadian society is smaller still. Canadians are not universally loved and we are doing things that don't merit universal love: Consuming more than our share of the world's resources, doing more than our share of polluting. exploiting other peoples' labour and resources, not only for mutual benefit. projecting an image of complacency that we can ill-afford. Canadians, I suggest, will be better world citizens if you can understand these things. feel these things. and appreciate them. through experience. If and when you do. then don't feel guilty: a very sterile emotion if there ever was one and certainly let's not feel apologetic for Canada - no one is interested in hearing us say 'I'm sorry' and besides you and your country have a very great deal to be proud of - but I do suggest that you do something. Do something about building a new and fairer world. economic order. about building a sense of obligation for public service rather than just private gain. about incorporating some new perspectives into your thinking whether they come from China or Africa or the U.S.S.R. or indeed. a trade unionist. or an Indian or a Quebec Independentiste or someone who is really poor living right yy ith it. Whatever you do. however. good luck and thank you. DR. MICHAEL OLIVER 29