Essex District High School - Argus Yearbook (Essex, Ontario Canada)

Page 13 text:

Modern science has endowed mankind with countless reminders of how . ach life ' s necessities and luxuries cost. We live in an era of cash registers, adding machines and finance companies; our dail’; newspapers remind us constantly of the rising cost of living. We are told so frequently about the price of everything, that we often forget the many things we get for nothing. One has only to gaze into nature ' s boundless realm to find in¬ numerable free gifts. We all enjoy the glorious, dazzling colours of a sunrise. In contrast to this, what is more restful than peaceful, silvery moonlight? We pay nothing for the ethereal beauty of a rainbow, or the delicate design of a snowflake. Flowers are another free gift of nature; there are flowers of all descriptions ranging from a small, blood-red rose to a giant, white chrysanthemum. In forests, one finds rlants of all sizes--tiny plants like the delicate fern and tall trees like the oak. All the e gifts of nature are free for the person who stops to look. Life ' s freest and mo t precious gifts cannot be seen by the naked eye. There is no price for which one. can buy true happiness and con¬ tentment. The faith and trust that one vuman being places in another cannot be purchased for any monetary price. No one can make us pay for our dreams, and no one can make us pay for our prayers to the most powerful existing Authority. Many reorle consider love the ultimate joy of life. Love is free; not only the love of ' one man towards another, but the supreme love of God for humanity. All human beings, whether they are as rich as millionaires, or as oor as church mice, can love and be loved. Many things in our modern life cost a great deal, but let us not forget that the beauty of nature ' s multitudinous forms like the sunset or a rose; the joys of love and hope cannot be purchased with the British pound sterling, the Italian lira or the German marks. . Is it not marvellous that for these precious gifts we pay nothing? Peter Burrell 12CD THE IDB L SCHOOL Education has been defined as the process by which a person devel¬ ops his abilities, attitudes, and general behaviour toward society. From the time of the rigidly regimented educational system of the Spartans to the Oxford university system by wnich the student learns mostly by himself, society never has, does not now, and never will, leave the education of an individual to chance. Instead, the individual is placed in a controlled environment, in which e learns, through com¬ petent guidance and continuous effort, how to meet effectively experien¬ ces and problems in life. This environment is what we know as the School. L

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As we leave to-night we dare not hope to accomplish the spectacular. We ask only God ' s Blessing to help us to live each day to its fullest extent as He would have us do. With this thought firmly embedded in our minds may we, the graduates of 1956, and those students who are destined to become the graduates of the future, go forward steadfast in our desire to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield . OUR GRADUATES GRADE 13: Barbara Ann 3rooker, Elizabeth Jean Chambers, James Emerson Forden, Ronald Arthur Greaves, Marjorie Mae Hill, Shirley Mae Hyatt, Malcolm Alfred MacRae, Jacqueline Gail McLeod, John Howard McPherson, George Alexander McRae, Hugh Wm. Allison Nelson, Christine Olive Parke, Marianne Elizabeth Renaud , James Paul Robinson, Robert David Vanstone, Jack durton VIcary, Shirley Elizabeth Wallace, Carolyn Marie Zoern. GRADE 12: John Andrew Armstrong, Merle Wesley Bridgen, John Cichon, Frank Ray- Danckaert, Gordon Irvine Geddes, Mary Ellen Gilbert, Merle Ann Hardy, Marion Ruth Keane, William Charles Kerr, William David Lord, Emil Steve Matis, William James Moody, Doris Elaine Mulcaster, Carol Ann Myers, Patricia Pearl Newman, Erlan Albert O ' Neil, Joseph Edward O ' Neil, Howard Edmund Parker, Marilyn Ann Patterson, Robert Thomas Pettypiece, Edward Gerald Robinson, Eleanor Helen Santo, Betty Ann Scarlet, Dorothy Margaret Shewan, James Edward Shewan, Lawrence Edwin Wales, Keith Melvin Wall, Arthur George Wass, Gary Leroy Wilson, Helen Marie Wright. SPECIAL COMMERCIAL: Gloria Loretta Bachmeier, James Arthur Brooker, Carol Ann Carder, Laura Inez Collard, Helen Elaine Duncan, Cary Alcide Garant, Constance Catherine Henderson, Helen Hudak, Mary Izgherian, Theodore Joseph Kwaitkowski, Deanna Mae Labadie, Elizabeth Barbara Mohr, Hideko Nakata, Patricia Pearl Newman, Jeannette Louisa Seabourne, Donnalee Jean Stephens, Andy Leslie Ujj, Ruth Ann Van Lith, Shirlie Ann Vivier.

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In t his essay, I shall discuss the ideal school under five aspects, the teaching staff, discipline, extracurricular activities, the cur¬ riculum or course of study, and the purpose, itself, of education. These are not listed in order of importance, because it is obviously impossible for one aspect of education to rival or do without another, and produce the correct result. A person who enters a school with the purpose of teaching young people, shaping their minds, and preparing t lem for life after school must, of course, be prepared for this t.isk. The teacher must himself be well-educated, interested in young, peoplo, have acceptable personal habits, and be of a sociable disposition. He must be a good example to his students, and must practise what he preaches. All In all, today ' s teachers are a fine, outstanding group of hard-working people. It is, and always will be, necessary to have teachers as good as we have now, ond even better, for in an ideal school the students and staff must be in constant co-operation and this ond can be achieved only through thorough training on the part of both. When several hundred students are gathered toother in one building, sitting in desks exactlv alike, learning the same subjects, having lunch on masse day in and day out, boredom, arisin r from this continual same¬ ness, is likely to result in srme sort of discipline problem. This problem is manifested mostly through talking and fidgeting in class, cutting classes, damage to school property, or downright insubordination In extrem- cases. Most schools nev r administer corporal punishment, nor do they.like the idea of wholesale expulsion. Eut, in an ideal school, discipline must be maintained and the continual inf rin ( eraer.t of rules cannot be tolerated. Most often, punishment meted out is in the form of detentions, heavy assignments, or suspension for a short time. In an ideal school, discipline would nut be a problem; at least, not a serious one. Rather, discipline would be maintained and enforced by the student body as well as the staff. Extracurricular activities are designed to encourage students ' free ■lssoclation with one another, in regulated, boneficial organizations. These activities each serve a purpose: sports, to develop the physique and teach pood sportsmanship; rl q. clubs and bands, to develop musical aptitudes and combat shyness; and cadet corps, to develop alertness and the tendency to obey one ' s superiors. Extra activities should not, under any circumstences, be allowed to interfere with studies. In an Ideal school, a student ' s freedom of participation in these activities would be determined by his academic rtanding. This brings us around to by far the most important aspect of a school; by that I mean the curriculum, or course of study. If the school is- to be the arency whereby people strive to make realities of the r hopes and ideals through the development of their offspring, then tht. curriculum of the ideal school must be such that it will do just that, or come as nearly as possible to it. It has been long realized that the continuous study of language, mathematics, and science, contributes greatly to onb ' s reasoning powers and development of mind. Above all, the intense study of the English language is indispensable in preserv ' ng the beauty and proper use of this, one of the most eloquent, beautiful, ond widely used languages on Earth. One should also study history; many lessons and morals can be learned from it, and it develops the memory. It should be grasped im¬ mediately that a dead language is not taught so that one may speak it