Danforth Technical School - Tech Tatler Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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TECH THTLER 67 COfTlfll6IWCEfTlEHT Annual Commencement for 1949 was held on the evening of Friday, October 28. Particularly worthwhile thoughts were presented by two of the many who spoke to the 1949 graduates and their friends. Reports of the two speeches by members of the Tech Tatlefr Report- ers' Club are reproduced here. PRINCIPAL'S ADDRESS Principal W. P. Ferguson departe-d from the usual Commencement custom of presenting a review of only the previous year's activities. Since it was his own twentieth anniversary as Prin- cip-al, and since the year 1950 marked the hundre-dth anniversary of the To- ronto Board of Education, 'he reviewed briefly the highlights in Danforth Tech history over the preceding two decades. In 1929, said Mr. Ferguson, our school was known as Riverdale Branch Technical School. The attendance was small and the staff few in number as compared with the present 1700 en- rolment and staff of 86. First and second year work only was done here, and the students went to Central Technicai Sc-hool for their third, fourth, and fifth years. In 1931 third year classes were started and in 1933 the first graduates of the four- year course received their diplomas. A year later the new wing to the south was added, consisting of a sec- ond gym and about twenty class-rooms and shops. The name was then changed to Danforth Technical School. Attend- ance grew enormously between 1929 and 1932. By 1938 expansion was imperative, a north wing was added, bringing the building to its present form. Much of this growth arose from the ten-year Depression beginning with the Crash of 1929. For parents and stu- dents both realized the importance of getting a complete education and con- tinuing in school longer: and younger lay-offs hurried back to school to. complete the courses which they had deserted to go to work in the palmy days preceding 1929. The opening of World War II in 1939 soon reduced the regular school population to normal proportions. But from 1939 to 1945 the 'school was busy all day fand all night for part of the timel training and upgrading men and women in all branches of the services. During these twenty years there have been many changes in staff. Many of our instructors have been promoted to institutions of higher learning or responsibility. Five have become prin- cipals of schools: Mr. J. McQueen, of Northern Vocational Schoolg Mr. W. B. Wallen, of Ottawa Technical Schoolg Mr. A. Virgin and Mr. Jack Eastaugh, of Bowmanville Training Schoolg and Mr. C. C. Ashcroft, of the Textile In- stitute at Hamilton. Two are professors at the Ontario College of Education: Mr. D. Dadson and Mr. M. D. Parmenter. Two are supervisors for our Board of Educa- tion: Mr. Rae Speirs and Mr. Tom Martin. Mr. R. O. Staples is now a Public School Inspector. Mr. J. W. Dodd .has been elevated to a department headship at Central Technical School. Mr. A. Easton and Mr. B. M. McLean are in the Department of Education. Mr. R. M. Winter and Mr. W. G. Ray- more are professors at universities. C.M.A. CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS Eac'h year the Canadian Manufac- turers' Association, in behalf of its member-firms, presents to the students of Danforth Technical School a con- siderable number of worthwhile scholarships. Mr. W. E. Weaver, Chair- man of the Toronto Branch of the C.M.A., speaking at the school's 1949 Commencement Exercises, presented some thoughts well worth the consid- eration not only of the graduating class which heard 'him but also of all sec- ondary school students in the City of Toronto and their parents.

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66 LAKE SUCCESS Ccontinuedb numbered dials like those on electric irons. When some members were just agreeing or repeating what the one before had said fand this they doll I listened to them in Chinese, Spanish, and even French. We talked things over for a while and looked around the grounds once more. We had a delicious lunch in their wonderful cafeteria. George Town- shend spoke to usg then our own Mr. Pearson talked for a few minutes, but only briefly because he was presiding at a meeting that afternoon. Mr. Riddell from Canada also chatted with usg then we sat in on the continuation of the previous day's conference over Eritrea. They didn't reach a decision and Russia walked out. I hear the Reds are still doing it. Friday Night Howdy Mr. Ice of 1950 at the Centre Theatre fthe only all-year round ice theatre in North Americah was our entertainment that night. It was a beautiful ice-show. But I must confess -weary me I-I slept 'half-way through it. We brought some hot salted nuts back to the room and a few of the girls came down to visit with us. I fell asleep on the sofa but heard that some alert souls stayed till two. Shopping In New Yorlc What a day! What a wonderful day! I must confess I nearly went crazy with excitement when I saw the New York prices. I could make you a dull list of all my purchases but you can just imagine--out of sixty dollars I squandered fifty-eight dollars and seven cents because all we had to provide for was eating fa mere triflej. But I got stung. How? I will tell you later. Saturday We toured New York Saturday af- ternoon and all but three weary souls fmyself includedj went to the Hayden Planetarium. The three of us lounged around, talked, and listened to the radio, and then went out to meet the rest of the girls at Schrafl s about 11.00 TGCH THTLER p.m. We ate, walked up and down Broadway, straining our necks with our eyes as big as -saucers, and then went back to the hotel and bed. A Day of Rest Up at 10 a.m., off to church, back to lunch, rest till 2.00 p.m. and then off to two tours and one radio broad- cast. Rest? Oh! yes. It was really wonderful and I would- n't have missed church or the two mar- velous tours, one to the N.B.C. and the other to the fabulous Rockefeller Cen- tre. We saw the Harvest of Stars broadcast with James Melton, and I made my first :sound on the radio-one of the hundreds of hand-claps. The four of us met and went to find a wonderful restaurant at which to eat our last meal in New York. We walked and walked, staring up at the lights of Broadway. We saw a lovely looking restaurant, so in we went and sat down. Oh, woe! what was left of my sixty dollars quailed at sight of the menu. An humble fish dinner, however, saw me through ,without the indignity of having to work it out over the dish-pan! Grounded We went back to the hotel, preparing to leave at 8.00 p.m. Then the airport phoned. We were grounded because of heavy fog. This is where I was stung. No money for meals on the morrow! And every- one else was almost flat broke be- cause our rooms had cost more than our chaperones had expected. We stayed together in one large room and ate chocolates till 10.30 and then re- turned to our own quarters. Monday We managed to scrape through with a late breakfast at the Automat and then went to the airport. A delicious lunch of cold chicken and potato salad was served, and again I fell asleep. We landed at Malton about 6.00 p.m. Then home to -dinner, and our big ad- venture was ended-to live on only in the deep impressions it had made in our memories. -Mae Genno

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68 The other day, began Mr. Weaver, while listening to a conversation in a Personnel Department where a new employee was being interviewed, I over- heard the employment manager ask the prospective employee: 'Are you afraid of early hours?' The interviewee's face lit up and he replied quickly, 'Oh, no, sir, you can't stop early enough for me! ' Mr. Weaver pointed out the contrast between the two objectives of Security and Opportunity. Over the last few years there has been quite a marked change in the attitude of people seek- ing employmentg they seem to be more interested in security than opportunity. I do not wish to be m-isconstrued on this point of security. To people who have been employed for a number of years, security becomes a more im- portant factor than opportunity, but to young people, I definitely believe opportunity should be the first consid- eration, not security. At the present time prospective young employees seem to be more inter- ested in when they get their next raise, how much vacation they get, pension plans, group insurance, social clubs, and goodness knows what. Their atti- tude is emphatically 'how much the company can do for them' rather than 'how much they can do for the com- pany'. Secunity tends to dull initiative, whereas opportunity stimulates it. The pioneers of Canada, by initiative, de- veloped our country to the point where it now is. To those of you who are graduating tonight I would like to urge that you look for opportunity, and through this you will achieve success -and success will give you earned security. A SCHOOL PROJECT When you pick up the TECH TAT- LER, you little realize the tremendous amount of work that is required to produce such a magazine Several months before the TATLER TECH THTLER goes to press the Masthead Staff, care- fully hand-picked from the student body at large, meet and are assigned the various departmental tasks. Several months pass during which every spare moment is spent gathering copy from the teachers and pupils throughout the school. After the write- ups have been edited by the -student editor and approved by the staff ad- viser, the copy goes to the Printing Department where Mr. George Elms and his senior printers take charge. Once the type-setting has been com- pleted the next job is to make up each individual page according to a carefully prepared dummy . Type matter, half- tones and line-cuts are assembled, al- located to attractive pages, proof-read and corrected by Mr. Elms. The made- up form is then locked in a chase and taken to the pressroom. From this moment on the pressman is responsible for the printed page. Each page-stack is stored away and when all the pages have been com- pleted they are collected in their proper order, glued and bound. This particu- lar series of operations is an important feature of our magazine. Whereas the other Toronto high schools have all or part of their year books produced by outside printing ii rms, Danforth's TECH TATLER is completely manu- factured from blank page to finished volume, before leaving our printing shop. According to the printers, printing the TECH TATLER is the Number One assignment of the year as approx- imately 2,000 students receive copies every year. Surplus copies are carefully reserved to fill the orders which flock in from ex-students. When the last magazine is bound and stacked ready for distribution, the boys heave sighs of relief and look forward to their next assignment which, though important, certainly lacks the rush and deadline fever usually associated with the annual chore of getting the TECH TATLER off the Danforth Tech presses.