Oakwood Collegiate Institute - Oracle Yearbook (Toronto Ontario, Canada)

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CO - EDITORS BRUCE SINGLETON MARISA CASTELLARIN EDITORIAL Ever since the beginning of time, man has en- deavoured to improve his lot on this earth. Such an attempt is called progress . At the dawn of history, man made clothes to protect himself, fire to warm himself and so on. Throughout the centuries he has made many in- ventions to build and construct more efficiently. Progress is the steam engine, the Morse Code, the telephone and the many other discoveries which have been made down through the years. In our own country of Canada we have progres- sed in various fields, to a certain amount. Pension schemes, unemployment insurance, and other legislation have helped those in the country who are in need of assistance. By seUing wheat to Communist countries, Canada is helping to break down the barrier of hatred and suspicion between Communism and the Western World and makes progress toward world peace in this small but helpful way. In Toronto, such plans as the Regent Park De- velopment scheme are destroying the slum areas in order to improve living conditions. Various buildings such as offices, apartments, schools and colleges are being erected to stem the tide of people coming into the city and people who want education. This, too, is progress. You, the structure of Oakwood, are, in a small way, involved in the idea of progress . You have come here to receive your Secondary School Edu- cation after which you will go on to a vocational or university career. Oakwood itself has, naturally, progressed a great deal. Over the past years, the school ' s popu- lation has greatly increased, new teachers have arrived and the school is bigger and better equip- ped. In reference to its academic and extra-cur- ricular activities, Oakwood has advanced to the point where it now reigns supreme over all the other high schools in Toronto. This, indeed, is progress. However, there is also a darker side to this idea of progress. Progress is also gunpowder, the atomic bomb and guided missiles. The dreaded possibility of thermonuclear warfare is suspended, as a sword held by a thin string, over us, ready to descend on the slightest miscalculation. In spite of great efforts, millions of people still go to bed starving. Murder and hatred increase in intensity. The reply to the desire of one man for equality for all people was seen in Dallas, Texas. To the students of Oakwood and especially to the graduating class, may you complete what John F. Kennedy could not: The great unfinished tasks of achieving peace, justice, and understand- ing among all men and nations and of ending misery and suffering wherever they exist . B. Singleton 10

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DR. A. S. H. HILL Your Brave New World — The Challenge! The world for which you are all preparing, into which you are about to enter, is a very strange one. Wherever you will look, in material or spiri- tual culture, you will have entered a period of grave crises which have stamped out private exis- tence as well as public life with the seal of unrest and insecurity. Some perceive in this phenomenon the presage of an era of grandiose progress, others the beginning of an ineluctable decline. As has been the case for a long time in religion and art, even in science, we can no longer find any principle which has not been called in doubt, no longer any absurdity which does not have any de- fenders. To such a degree is this true that it is permissible to ask if there is one truth that might be considered irrefutable and firm in the face of this universal scepticism. The sources of all knowledge, consequently the origin of all science resides in personal experience. This constitutes the immediate, the true reality, that can be conceived. You also apprehend through your sensory perception, either directly by the teaching of your masters, or the medium of great writings. Knowledge has no other sources. Granting an awareness of its pitfalls, and diffi- culties, the knowledge gained from History can be of infinite value in this world of kaleidoscopic patterns. In it you will find the Eternal Verities which can provide the guide so necessary in this era of creative flux. By the Eternal Verities is meant those basic principles which possess the merit for the capacity of reinterpretation through centuries of transcendant change in order to meet the needs of man ' s unchanging heart . Within Canada, your future is going to be very different from the past. La Belle Province lying to the East of us which has always been our neighbour, will be drawn closer to us by innum- erable ties, and it is to be hoped, chief of all, by the tie of a common understanding of each other. Self-interest does not bind peoples together. On the other hand sympathy and understanding do unite. You must prove yourselves their friends and champions, upon terms of equality and honour. Internationally, the challenge confronting you is even more formidable, and bewdldering in its complexity. Nations are simply the individual at large. Consequently, all the subtle variations of human nature play their roles for good and evil upon the international stage. The word interna- tional itself is only a hundred years old — too brief a space in which to assess its full signifi- cance and application. However, yours is a re- sponsibility there also. In its most familiar form, it is to be seen in Canada ' s role as a member state in the Commonwealth of Nations — each soverign in its own capacity. In fifty years, 1914-1964, this association has evolved from a British Empire into a Common- wealth of Sovereign States in which the British are a relatively small minority. Conditions created by World War I called for re-interpretation of the British connection on the basis of the twin prin- ciples of Equality and Honour. Subsequent events evolved the principles of prior consultation by member states when their policies would affect the interests of other members. Again, after World War II of this twentieth century, the principles binding our Commonwealth revealed their vitality by a re-interpretation more in keeping with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This re- cent interpretation has drastically altered its mem- bership and character. It is no longer a British but has become the Commonwealth of Nations, unique in world history as a practical operating United Nations. Great Canadians in those days accepted the challenge of their times. They played the vital roles in creating this Commonwealth of Sovereign States with its diverse races with a mul- tiplicity of tongues and creeds, who can live to- gether by settling their differences in peace. What will be your response to the challenge of an ever flexible Commonwealth? Inspired by the lethal imphcations of man ' s newly acquired powers of Annihilation, a new international organization has arisen. Phoenix-Uke from the ashes of the old, the United Nations Organization and its specialized Agencies present the supreme challenge for your support. The United Nations headquarters in New York is po- litical in its organizations and functions. The specialized Agencies with their respective world Cont ' d on page 35

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