Churchill High School - Victory Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 8 text:

AWARD WINNERS Marguarite Keeley Isbister Scholarship Governor-General ' s Medal Grade XII C.H.S. Scholarship Victor Curtis Institute of Chartered Accountants Rewa Grade XII C.H.S. Scholarship Barbara Landles Grade XI Commercial Scholarship Lewis Del Rio Grade XII General Course Scholarship lllonna Hrykor University of Manitoba Alumni Scholarship Margaret Campbell Grade XII School Board Book Prize Churchill Merit Awards: Margarite Keeley Susan Hedlin Janet Taylor Michael Trevillion Peter Trevillion Honourable Mention (Previous Winner) Michael Stringham PAGE 6

Page 7 text:

MIKE TREVILLION PRESIDENT’S MESSAGc By the time you assimilate these words, most of you will be celebrating the end of another term. Looking back at the messages of other presidents, I have concluded that I ' m supposed to tell you how much you have e njoyed the year. Though I doubt if anyone will become ecstatic recalling this term ' s memories, I think it ' s safe to say the good times outnumbered the bad. Starting from the beginning, you ' ll remember Churchill enjoyed its first successful football season. And what a season! Picked by the newspapers to ' end up in last spot, Puchniak ' s raiders finished the season with only one loss. With the nucleus of the team returning next year plus the addition of valuable prospects I have nothing but optimism at the Bulldog ' s chances of winning the city championship next season. With the same enthusiasm I congratulate our varsity soccer team who captured their second city championship. The Churchill players have completely overwhelmed all their opponents. Nor can we forget our freshmen basketball team. Though they went through an undefeated season, they lost to Gordon Bell in orve of the most exciting city champion¬ ships ever held. Through their close play however the players gained the respect of their opponents and the pride of all Churchill. Track was another bright spot this year. Most promirtent were our girls ' cross country team, boys’ 4x440 yard relay team, and individuals such as Dick Zeeuwen, Janie Pearson, Keith Wasylik, and Walter Grafton. Though this is being written before the Inter High Track meet, I ' m sure that the depth of Churchill talent this year will assure us of a top position at the meet. Churchill students were active in other areas also. The variety show 66 ' A was both successful and highly en¬ joyable. The Churchill choirs and orchestra enjoyed great success at the Music Festival, and the Drama Club has been very active at the Manitoba Theatre Centre. So much for the happy moments. There was one noticeable black mark in the year worth mentioning. I ' m sure most of you realize that student apathy is growing in Churchill as it is in all other schools. This is most noticeable in our pep rallies and student activities. There are a few students who form the core of our school spirit. The majority of us however are too sophisticated to be embarrassed by cheer¬ ing a team on. It seems as if school spirit is outdated. I am not criticizing this attitude for I too share the same feelings. Take pep rallies for instance. This year, it appeared that when we cheered a team on w e had to force ourselves to do so. It is my opinion that cheering should be spontaneous and done almost unconsciously. Enthusiastically urging a team on should simply be an outlet to our emotions. Organized pep rallies are useless if such enthusiasm is not already present in a student. For a school such as Churchill, which is not old enough to produce pride and enthusiasm through tradition and sentimentalism, we must have a team we are truly interested in and proud of. Then and only then shall we see school spirit at Churchill. To try to induce it in any other way is useless, for few of us have the desire or will to do so — it is not that important to us. Before finishing, I would like to extend my appreciation to those students who formed the nucleus of our school activities. They are too numerous to list, however I would like to pay special recognition to Carol Quarnstrom, our vice-president, Susan Nosworthy, secretary-treasurer, Gerda Weber, frolic committee head. Laurel Blacker, pep club com¬ mittee head, and Peter Stringham and Cathy Riggall, editors of this fine year-book. Finally I thank Miss Rorke and Mr. Cook, my staff advisors, and Mr. Madder for aiding me in my responsibilities. In closing may I say that this year has been very ful¬ filling as president. I shall look forward to visiting Churchill in later years. Honoured and proud, I shall often recall that for one year I had the opportunity of serving this fine school. STUDENT COUNCIL PAGE 5

Page 9 text:

VALEDICTORY Walt Whitman wrote in a slightly different context than the one that applies today: Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me, leading wheverer I choose. In another poem the same poet write: Our life is closed, our life begins.” I suggest that both of these quotations have a par¬ ticular applicability to those of us who, toway, are pre¬ paring to leave Churchill High. We are taking to the open road. We are healthy, free and light-hearted. The twelve years of life that we have spent in our school are ended, and our new life in the wider world beyond is beginning. Perhaps this is what rebirth means. Part of our life is dying, but a new life is being born. Now a gauntlet has been thrown down. It is the challenge of the world beyond the school. Some of us will pick it up. Some will not. But we must surely know that if we fail to pick it up, to that extent we will have failed parents and teachers who have guided us onto this path. We will fail more than that. Our province and society is making an increasing effort, as time passes, to improve opportunities for our education. In the past ten years the number of students registered in Grade XII has doubled in Manitoba — there are two of where a decade ago there was one. This must be. The world is moving at an accelerating pace and we must adapt to it or be left behind. Thus more pick up that gauntlet and look for¬ ward to further learning either in a school or at a job. It makes relatively little difference which it is. Surely Everett Hale wrote the last word on this when he wrote, a hundred years ago: I am only one But still I am one. I cannot do everything But still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. The failure to gan an education is a heavy loss. Surely this has been clearly illustrated in our lifetime. Russia is a classic example. In a period of two or three gener¬ ations that country moved from medievalism to the point where it made the first successful launching of an astro¬ naut into space. The metamorphosis that took Western Europe hundreds of years was, through intensive educa¬ tional programmes, telescoped in the U.S.S.A.R. As the people have become more skilled thre Government appears to be becoming less authoritarian. It raises the question: Does a dictatorship dare to educate the people? As students we may have charged that Churchill High is a di ctatorship. But it is obvious that such a change can only be made lightly. The school is, very literally, a voluntary association of teachers and pupils. Our parents can no doubt force us to attend classes but learning must be done by the decision of the pupil. This surely applies to our teachers. In this age of alternative opportunities it is inescapable that they teach by choice. For teacher and pupil this is a great privilege. In many countries of the world such institutions and such learning is not possible. Would Prime Minister Ian Smith of Rhodesia, for example, dare to let teachers and parents and pupils establish this voluntary relationship, for the education of the native people in Rhodesia? Would his concpet of a white, master race survive the aducation of the natives. Perhaps our challenge could be measured by visualizing our school moved with all its staff, its opportunities, its perogatives, its libraries and the kind of home environ¬ ments experienced here — all moved to a native town in Rhodesia or India or South America. There our teachers would work for twelve years with successive classes and turn out students with their minds improved and their ability for self expression enhanced. What would be the impact of this crowd of trained people on their community and their country and their continent? It is difficult to conclude anything but the impact would be immense. The impact would be more obvious in a country where education is very limited. But though here it may be less obvious, it will be no less real. In the class graduating here it may be less obvious, it will be no less real. In the class graduating today it is hard to believe that there are not many who will make a great contribution to community and country. It is a tribute to our parents and antecedents that education here is taken so much for granted that the trained person is considered the norm. This ability to mak a contribution is directly traceable to our parents and teachers. All of us are, in large measure, a product of the influences that were brought to bear upon us. Perhaps Walt Whitman best expressed the whole re¬ lationship of parent and teacher to child or pupil when he wrote: A child said What is grass? fetching it to one with full hands . If you interpret that question widely enough, surely it is the whole substance of our learning process to this graduation climax. It does not seem ex¬ travagant to suggest that the success of those of us who are graduating today and the failure to be here of some who have fallen along the path is related to the fullness and gene rosity with which that question has been asked and the persistence with which it has been asked. We have been fortunate in Churchill High. I do not believe that there is one of us who has ever gone to a teacher in our school and asked What is grass? — or a more sophisticated equivalent — and has been turned away without a full and generous answer. As answers came more questions came, and, over the years, our teachers have given us that precious and irreplaceable thing — an education. Parents, as well, through assis¬ tance we had no right to demand or, indeed, to expect, have re-inforced the effectiveness of our teachers. So as we flow past the mouth of this particular educational river towards the world ocean beyond, we are very conscious that we could not have navigated alone. We have been taught, in the words of John Ruskin, that there is no wealth but life, and that, without education, life would be a very meaningless thing. If this is correct — and w« firmly believe it to be correct — then parents and teachers have combined, to give us the greatest of all possible gifts — ultimate gift of a life with meaning, a life with purpose. Susan Hedlin PAGE 7