Isaac Newton High School - Newtonian Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 18 text:

16 ISAAC NEWTON HIGH SCHOOL I spent a delightful period in a girls’ music class and then just a few days ago I had the pleasure of hearing one of your classes, which had by that time won distinction at the Musical Festival, entertain a session of the Manitoba Edu¬ cational Association. These girls have learned to sing very beautifully and have developed an interest which should give much enjoyment both to them¬ selves and their friends in many hours of leisure. Classes in art, literature and physical training are developing like interests in other arts. The many pic¬ tures and trophies which hang upon your walls tell also of your prowess and enthusiasm for athletic sports. In these days when machines are doing so much of our work, these leisure time activities may well prove to be quite as useful as those which are usually considered to be more practical and important. Thus in many different ways the Isaac Newton Collegiate is preparing you to live, but when jobs are easy to get many boys and girls are being tempted to leave school before their education is completed. Some time ago the Ford Motor Company—a company which em¬ ploys thousands of young men and is in a position to know what counts most for success in the world radioed a mes¬ sage to those boys who are over anxious to leave school. They said “It is all to a young man’s credit to be eager to get to work; it is not at all to his credit to respect the work so little as to be unwil¬ ling to prepare for it. A young man, little more than a boy, spurns his chance at school, throws himself at a discount to anyone who will hire him—all be¬ cause he wants money to entertain his best girl. What does he think he is doing to his future or her ' s?—if she link her future with his. His best girl would prefer that he make something of him¬ self—prepare to start in his chosen line as at least the equal of any boy of his own generation. If he asked her opinion she would probably tell him that. “Of course, we say this with sympa¬ thetic understanding—most of us have been through it. Some of us would hesitate to say just how foolish we were in these matters. O ut of it all, how¬ ever, we have learned one thing; there IS a short cut to work. Whatever you want to be—farmer, mechanic, surgeon, anything that requires knowledge and management—the real short cut is more preparation. If you would make the road to accomplishment a little shorter, go to school a little longer, if you can; it will get you more quickly where you want to be.” GOAL What is there to return to, If there be no more God— A hand of seed, unscattered, Deep-rooted in the sod; An undeciphered gravestone That tears have washed away— What, human, can acknowledge The mouldering lump of clay? What is there to desire When the young bough is bent And the night embraces daybreak, With gesture faint and spent— When man has climbed a lifetime, Through blundering ways of sin, To fall before a gateway That’s barred him from within? What has he to return to, If there be no more God— A sheep that’s wandered in a storm Without a guiding Rod— What, human, can acknowledge Or trace where he must go, When all he leaves behind him Are footsteps in the snow? —MYRA HAAS Some men smile in the evening, Some men smile at dawn, But the man worth while Is the man who can smile When his two front teeth are gone.

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NEWTONIAN 15 7 i iac ' Hetvfou ( olCeyiate ' Joatctccte (Guest Article by Inspector Stevenson) I cannot think of any subject more appropriate for me to write about than this. Both of us are interested in it, you as pupils and I as an inspector. I was, sent to visit your school by the Department of Education because the people of Manitoba are very much inte¬ rested in what you are doing. Perhaps some of you have thought that your education concerns no one but your¬ selves, your parents and, perhaps, the Winnipeg School Board. But because you are going to be citizens of Manitoba and of the Dominion of Canada, every¬ one in the country must be vitally con¬ cerned about it. If you and all the other young people who are going to school receive the right kind of education, this country will be prosperous and happy; if you do not, it will be full of trouble and strife. For this reason I was sent to find out what you are doing and what the Department of Education can do to make your school a better one. Perhaps some of you are saying, “The Department holds examinations. Can it not find out all about our work through these?” It is true that it can find out if you know your science, mathematics, history and some other subjects. It is very important to know something about such subjects—indeed, since the war we are beginning to realize that we must know them if we are to hold our own with other nations of the world. But there are other even more impor¬ tant results of your education which cannot be tested through examinations. Because no one can find out about these without seeing what you are doing and how you are thinking, I had to spend two weeks visiting your school, and I thoroughly enjoyed my visit. I am going to tell you about some of the things, not shown in your written examinations which I found you to be learning. Because you are going to live in a world where people work together in groups, you must learn to work with others, to be considerate of their rights and to accept your share of re¬ sponsibility for the general good. I was at your school at a good time to see how well you are learning this. You were preparing for your Hobby Exhibit. I saw how, in the absence of your prin¬ cipal through illness, each of you as¬ sumed a share of the responsibility and made the enterprise wonderfully suc¬ cessful. I saw too, how you were work¬ ing together in war work, extra-curri¬ cular and classroom activities. What is perhaps, even more revealing, your teachers told me what fine boys and girls you are. The Isaac Newton can well be proud of the fine group spirit which it has developed. Because you are going to live in a democratic world where decisions are made by common people like ourselves, we must all learn to think clearly and to express our thoughts accurately. I was pleased to find that in your mathe¬ matics classes you were not merely learning propositions and rules; you were learning to solve problems. In science classes you were not merely get¬ ting information about the laws of science; you were learning to experi¬ ment, to observe, to draw conclusion and to test your conclusions. In your history classes you were not merely learning the facts of history which would make it possible to pass the exa¬ mination; you were learning how to find information for yourselves, to organize your ideas and to think about social problems. Then I found that in several classes you were doing something which few. in secondary schools do at all and none do more effectively. You were learning to stand before your fellow pupils and to express your thoughts clearly and definitely. I left your school feeling confident that many of you were learning to think and to speak so well that you will be able to play your part as citizens with no little distinction.

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