Crescent Heights High School - Bugle Yearbook (Calgary, Alberta Canada)

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18 THE CRESCENT BUGLE, 1929 W. ABERHART, B.A “Our Principal”

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THE CRESCENT BUGLE, 1929 17 CRESCENT HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL Graduating from an established institution is an official public recognition of the fact that the student has fulfilled certain educa¬ tional requirements, passed certain examinations and attained a cer¬ tain professional competency. Of course it does not mean that all graduates have an equal education, have passed equally well in exam¬ inations or have an equal competency, but it does indicate that all have sufficient education and competency to be certified by their School, as worthy representatives of the kind of training the institu¬ tion is giving in their specific field. Graduation is not the goal but the beginning of the race. The graduate is supposed to be equipped to face the problems that will come his way in life. This requires more than educational compet¬ ency. It requires personality, ambition and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm makes many a hard job easy. The one who is always questioning his ability or fearing the greatness of the task before him, is handicapped at the very beginning. No matter what the task, set about it with vim and energy. mi. Be ambitious. We must do little things before we attempt the greater. That is true. But there is no great future to the young man or young woman who is content with the smaller affairs of life and takes no thought of the higher or greater matters. Earning a living is surely not all there is in life. Let every graduate of Crescent Heights High School bear in mind that one of the elements in real success is the development of a dis¬ tinctive personality. It is true that success stimulates personal growth, but on the other hand, no great success can be attained by anyone unless he has a fine personality, in other words, unless there is growth of soul as well as knowledge and skill in work. In this machine-mad period of human existence we are apt to forget that the farther away we get from the machine in our work, the more human¬ ity, the more of our own personality we put into it, the more we our¬ selves will grow and make ourselves effective. Your last three years have demanded your entire attention to your studies; you have had little time for anything else. Your course has been crowded with study. You have needed every minute to cover your work conscientiously. Your reading has been largely professional. Now when you take up life’s duties, you are going to find that while there are periods of great stress, perhaps greater than you have hitherto experienced, there will be also lulls when your

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THE CRESCENT BUGLE, 1929 19 hands and your minds will be idle. The way in which you utilize these periods of partial relaxation for your own development will determine more than anything else in the world whether you give that service which will ultimately bring you success. If you are to give high service to others, and if you are to develop yourselves to be happy in times of idleness, to be contented under hardships, to be satisfied as old age approaches, you must have something besides professional training. Opportunities for self advancement do not, as a rule, come in long periods at a time in a busy life. They consist mostly of little hours in between. They may be at morning, noon or night. Many persons never learn the trick of doing something worthwhile in fragments of time. In order to utilize our odd minutes to best advantage, we should not have to decide each time what we shall do during the minute, or we shall spend most of our time deciding. The remedy for this is the possession of a hobby which we may mount instantly and be off with¬ out hesitation. What people have been able to accomplish as a hobby! A blacksmith in smoky Pittsburg became a noted Astronomer. A Burlington, Iowa, grocer became a great Paleontologist. An ordinary housewife in a small village in Ohio became an Authority on Insects. A Grade School Teacher in a crowded tenement district in New York City is a widely read writer on birds. Listen, Crescent Heights Students, this is the first year in the New School. As such, the graduates of this year have a peculiar oppor¬ tunity for special honors. Your Principal wishes you, one and all, the best of success. William Aberhart, Principal.