Brentwood College School - Brentonian Yearbook (Mill Bay, British Columbia Canada)

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HEADMASTER ' S REPORT (Delivered by the Assistant Headmaster) Over the past ten years I have received some very strange orders from the Head- master ' s desl . I thought the height of our bizarre relationship had been reached a couple of years ago when one afternoon I found the following instructions on my desk: Please collect 12 large boys, proceed to Duncan, and help return Susie to her pit. Of course I did exactly as instructed. It turned out that Susie was a huge bull elephant. Even this event pales however into relative nor- malcy alongside my situation at this moment. Two weeks ago another mysterious missive read: On June 19th you Mr. Bunch will be Head- master for the day. - and, in this capacity, I now wish to extend to you all a very warm wel- come on this our 10th Annual Presentation of Awards ceremony, and to report to you some details of our welfare during the past year. Our academic life continues to be most sat- isfactory. Of those 7 •candidates who wrote ex- aminations for British Columbia Governmental Scholarship awards in June 1970, 2 achieved financial aid at the first class level and 4 at the second class. Amongst our present gradu- ating class, those seated here with us this af- ternoon, there are several students who have already gained admission to North American universities of some prestige. Our Head Pre- fect, Wade Davis, made application to Prince- ton, Harvard, Brown and Williams - was ac- cepted at all four, and will commence his under- graduate studies in September 1971 at Har- vard university where he was named a Freshman Scholar, one of 90 so named from the Freshman class of 1,200. Graham Vink, a Senior Prefect, will commence his pre- medical studies at Stanford university, and Benjamin Koo and Larry Sughroue have also received acceptance from the Ameri- can universities of their choice. Four grad- uates are proceeding to studies at Albertan universities, and of the 21 students who have reached a sufficiently high academic standing to make Early Admission application to our own provincial universities, several are already receiving favourable replies. As the university needs of our graduates become more sophisticated there is a greater call for many more students to write the Am- erican College Board examinations. These na- tion wide tests demand that a student performs with a score of 700 or better out df a total of 800 before he can hope for serious consideration from any noteworthy university. Amongst many other worthy candidates, James Roberts, John Wilson, Peter Farran, Graham Vink and Adrian Carter all received scores in excess of 700, the latter Adrian Carter, registering a full score of 800 in Spanish and 770 in French. In the Annual University of Victoria Hu- manities and Science Symposium competition, entries were again submitted by several stu- dents, and a poetry collection of James Roberts was named as a Presentational Winner. This collection forms a small part of the Humanities display housed in the room at the south end of the Cafeteria. We do hope that during tea you will take a few moments to enjoy these ex- hibits. The Mathematics Department under the guidance of Mr. Burrows sponsored a nine-man team for the Ontario Junior Math Contest. Of the nine, seven were named to the Vancouver Island Honour Roll and one Grade XI student, Paul Davis, placed fourth amongst all students competing from 35 Vancouver Island schools. Our debating team has grown considerably in prowess, not to mention in cynicism, since it was first mentioned to you last year. In March, spearheaded by Wade Davis and Gra- ham Vink, we gained the Hammerskjold Trophy for the British Columbia High schools cham- pionship. In the following month the same stu- dents headed the Provincial Delegation to the National Finals in Toronto. In this competition Graham Vink was named a national finalist - a most impressive performance when one consid- ers only isix were so honoured from the 80 or so students competing. Our summer term exchange programme instituted Ikst year has continued very satisfac- torily in this current term. Two of our Grade X students have spent the term at Lakefield School, Peterborough and two others at Trinity College School in Port Hope. In exc ' hange we have enjoyed as our guests in Grade XII, Alan Austin and Hugh Ambrose from Trinity Col- lege School and, in Grade X, Stephen Jones from Lakefield School. It has been a delight to have these gentlemen with us and I would like to take this opportunity to wish them well in the future and to assure them they will always be welcome guests in our school - with or with- out their harmonicas. Visitors to the school throughout the year have often been surprised, but always thrilled, to find many of our students so actively en- gaged in the ever-growing Fine Arts Depart- ment. This programme, featured on three af- ternoons per week, has students singing, act- ing, potting, painting, blowing, thumping, scraping - even tie-dieing. I would ask parents who discover that their son ' s entire underwear is now tie-die pink, not to be too alarmed - it ' s all in the cause of ART. In all seriousness however, whilst recog- nising the new value and acceptance of these courses in terms of graduation programmes, we at Brentwood do very sincerely believe that the Fine Arts are first and foremost a very vital part of any young person ' s development. 5

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SPEECH DAY 1971 This year Speech Day was a very special occasion - we celebrated our tenth anniversary. In the circumstances it was deemed appropriate to keep the occasion purely domestic and no guest speaker was invited. Instead the Head- master ' s report was delivered by t he Assistant Headmaster, while the Headmaster himself took the place usually allocated to the guest speaker and reminisced about the last ten years. The day ' s activities started at 12:15 p.m. with a highly successful concert performance by the Band and Choir. The auditorium was filled to overflowing with parents and friends who gave both groups a very enthusiastic ovation. There followed a break for lunch and at 2:30 p.m. the presentation of awards ceremony be- gan. The Headmaster ' s report is given below but no amount of cajoling will persuade Mr. Mac- kenzie to allow his comments to be commit- ted to print. He claims that they might con- tain evidence which may be later used against him and, if his hilarious accounts of the activ- ities of former Brentwood boys is close to be- ing accurate, then indeed he may have a point. One can certainly see that he would not wish the imagination, initiative and daring of former students to give ideas to those who are yet to come. This year, there- fore, he pleads to be excused from being quoted and suggests that, if anything is to be reported, perhaps it should be the core of his final message to the boys in which he said that the school had achieved a most enviable repu- tation which should be guarded closely and nurtured carefully by them and future genera- tions of Brentwood boys. Once again he remind- ed them that the Brentwood way was by no means the most comfortable but, if results were to be the criteria, then surely it was a highly ef- fective one. This was said to be the most enjoyable Speech Day ever and certainly the reactions of the many hundreds of parents and friends pres- ent would seem to confirm this thought. Even the weatherman, who ' has been so unkind to us these last months, co-operated magnificently and we had a day of sunshine. 4

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A cultural statement is made thereby, no less important than the student ' s academic state- ment in the classroom, or his physical one on the playing fields. In subsequent years we shall attempt to extend these enrichments, whilst for the present we are grateful for the many pleasures provided during the past year by Mr. Johnson and his Choir, by Mr. Boel and his Band, by the Drama group and by Mrs. Smith ' s artists. The former art work in the Cafeteria and we cordially in- vite all our guests to enjoy these exhibits dur- ing tea. The already established programmes in Flying and Driving grow apace. Mr. Nash the staff supervisor of those dreadful young men in their flying machines reports that 12 stu- dents have attained their Private License dur- ing the past year, bringing the grand total to 60 qualified fliers since we began the pro- gramme six years ago , and a staggering total of 2,500 flying hours recorded in the College Log Book. On the ground, 42 students have been taught to handle a car. Needless to say these boys took neither their training nor their example from staff drivers. Although it would be difficult to claim that the results of our sporting activities this year have been world-shattering, there have been many fine performances by individuals and groups. First worth of mention is the fact that in Swimming, Badminton and Tennis our teams claimed the Independent Schools champion- ships. In Rugby our five years supremacy has unfortunately been broken, but a close scrutiny of the season ' s results reveals that Shawnigan Lake School was the only school team to beat us. Even as I report this, I can feel Mr. Carr breathing heavily down my neck and begging me to counter with the fact that in Rowing that same school ' s Nemesis was at last broken in the Vancouver Regatta on May 2nd. On this occa- sion the arrival of our first VIII at the finish line ahead of Shawnigan Lake School was a milestone in our rowing career. Mr. Yorath reports that for Track and Field this has been a most valuable building year, but personal acclaim must be given to our Grade XII student, Brian Hawksworth, who during his years with us has claimed no less than 12 Independent School titles. Likewise in badminton, under Mr. Orr ' s guidance we wish to offer our conratulations to David Wilkin- son who reached the semi-finals of the British Columbia Provincial Championships. The swim- ming programme got off to rather a slow start due to the arrival of the long-awaited pool cov- er. Once erected I overheard many snide re- marks comparing it with the barrage-balloon which I guarded so zealously during World War II. Of course I insisted that it be removed im- mediately and from that moment on Mr. and Mrs. Pitt have conducted a very full programme of both social swimming and Red Cross training courses. Many boys at all grade levels have qualified for Red Cross recognition. There will be but few changes in our staff when we reconvene in September. To Messrs. Nash, Pope, Evans and Keble who are leaving us we offer our thanks, our most sincere thanks, for all the support they have given and our very warm wishes for their future success. To those who will once again assemble here may I offer to each - to Governor, academic staff, to administration staff, to domestic staff and maintenance staff, a very sincere appreciation for your invaluable contribution over the past year. It is customary at this moment for the Headmaster to conclude with a few final words to the graduating class. Therefore with the promise of brevity, may I request this privilege and ask that I be allowed to change both the direction and the emphasis of my remarks from here on. Gentlemen: In recent years it has become customary, even fashionable, for people of my generation to adopt one of two attitudes to you, each, it seems to me pathetically objectionable, and both in no small part responsible for the coin- age of such spurious terms as adolescents and generation gap. Either, on the one hand, adults have sympathised and commiserated with you, have Offered you sentimental solace, seeming to recognise, even bolster the supposed uniqueness of your situation in the world today. Or, on the other hand, and this seems to me a trifle more disgusting, we have blemished our own dignity by seeking your camaraderie in the guise of fraternisation or togetherness. I cannot find it in my heart to adopt either of those platforms in these my farewell words to you. You are not the first to face adulthood with problems, nor will you be the last. These problems are your due, your right, your obliga- tion: they are different only in type not in de- gree from those experienced at a similar time by all other human beings, and in your answer to them you will define or fail to define your own dignity. Therefore I wish to throw a chal- lenge to you, to hurl a gauntlet before you, to dare you to live fully, to commit yourselves to a life of deed without word, a life of ambition and achievement without arrogarfce. I know my English Literature students will bear with me if I confess that I can find no bet- ter words to utter this challenge, than those which the Victorian poet Alfred Tennyson, put into the mouth of Ulysses. Standing before an apathetic and confused crew, he said:- Come, my friends, ' tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite 6