Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

Page 29 text:

1- VVhile on the subject of staff, hearty congratulations are in order to Mr. Blaekstoek upon his promotion to the post of director of physical edueation. Some of us know at the cost of aching museles how eminently qualified he is for the promotion. There is as inuc-li religion in a game of rugby, in a game of hoekey or in a game of basketball as in a whole ehureh service. How often have we at Pickering heard these words spoken and yet how well we realize their true significance as we go about our tasks here from day to day. For Pickering this has been a particularly successful year in athleties and for this reason we have been able to observe the truth of the above statement. To us the boy who can go through a game and keep his head, the boy who can modestly win and eheerfully lose is showing more religion than the boy who like clockwork goes to ehureh onee a week and then stores his religion in a dusty Compartment of his brain for another seven days. No, we are satisfied that athletics is a means by whit-li the sterling qualities ot' manhood and sports- manship may be produeed. Regarding Exchanges The editors of The Yoyageur wish to aeknowledge with thanks the ninn- erous exehange eopies whit-li we have reeeived and to eoinpliinent all the authors on the universally high standard of sehool journalism whieh they display. Following our enstom, however, we refrain from voieing any individual praise or eritieism, whit-li, eoining from a inueh younger organization, might seem to verge upon the impertinent! 25

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1 11 . 'lllllll ilt . it This year has proved really prolific in that respect. Following the trail blazed by the famous Hooters have come the Jaousi and the Research Clubs, instead of one, two full evenings of dramatics and music have been produced, there has been a tremendous increase in the interest and scope of our Sunday programs of speakers and musicians, as witness the Sunday when we heard a German officer in the morning, a Danish singer at lunch, an Indian speaker after lunch, and an address at chapel service by a Russian! And meanwhile our routine programs of academics and athletics have progressed, we feel, along their two paths of wisdom and stature, marching to the muftied but steady thrum of the lathes in the workshop, and lowing of tl1e cattle on the farm as the juniors pi-offer their novitiate services. 1 In very truth, an activity school. Though not illumined by the bright scholastic high-lights of the previous year, our academic achievements in the year 1929-1930 produced the steady glow of a high average satisfactorily maintained. No scholarship candidates were entered. The upper school class was smaller than the previous year, but our middle school entrieswere the most numerous of our history. They are far out-distanced, however, by this year's numbers when some tive hundred middle school papers will be written, accompanied by an even greater pro- portional increase in the upper school candidates. At least three of our mem- bers are hopeful of something in the line of scholarships, and here's wishing them luck. In athletics this has been without doubt our most successful year. Dwarfing the other accomlmlishments is that of the basketball team in winning the Eastern tfanada Inter-Scholastic Title, and to these players and their coaches we offer our hearty congratulations. Their fighting spirit and unfailing good sports- manship has tremendously enhanced the reputation of the College in the world of sport. The achievement of the football and hockey teams in winning their first league games pales into relative insignificance, but it marks an advance all along the line and they are both worthy of congratulation. The track and field team swept the field at Barrie both in 1930 and 1931 and each time qualified several athletes to take part in the Provincial meet. To both this and last year 's team and coaches we offer congratulations. In conclusion a word of commendation should be offered to those who encouraged and took part in the minor sports, such as soccer, softball, tennis, badminton, or archery, which did so much to while away the tedium of the seasons in between seasons. Elsewhere in this issue mention is made of our regret in losing the services of Mr. T. C. Shore. VVe would like to express here our editorial appreciation ot lnm as an unexcelled teacher, and to wish him all success in his work at Harvard. NVQ- would also like to express a welcome to Messrs. Nettleton, Safford and liouden, the new members of our staff. In their first year here they have made themselves part and parcel of our community, and we feel that in all of their cases we have made valuable acquisitions. 24

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... L:- '4 ' , i . Youth-Whitlier Bound ? UUNER or later every boy of average intelligence, between twelve and twenty years of age, asks himself this question, VVhat am I going to do with the years that lie ahead of me? He begins to realize something of the probable length of his life span. He becomes conscious of the fact that human life is not one year long nor a thousand years long. He knows that he has a certain limited number of years to live, approximating the years of those whom he sees around him who have grown old. He looks about him and sees middle aged and older people in a great variety of conditions of life. Some seem to be living happy and contented lives while others are living in want and privation with the dim shadow of failure ever before them. He wonders what the future has in store for him, and begins to plan for the future. l'nfortunately, many do not formulate any thoroughly well thought-out disposition of the future. They, in later years help to swell the ranks of the drifters and wasters. Others, appreciating the fact that youth is the period of foundation building, deliberately accept the task of planning for the future and of laying foundations that are destined to carry great superstructures which will stand four-square to every wind that blows. U In formulating a plan of life we must remember that while the lack of a life plan may bring calamity, so may the formulation of too idealistic or too flexible a plan. A plan in excess of capacity to perform may lead to ineffec- tual day dreaming and other forms of disintegration. A plan that cannot ac- commodate itself to unforeseen circumstances, which no one can avoid, is likely to bring unhappiness. The good life-plan will consider accidents which may be inevitable. ln attempting to help boys in formulating a plan of life we must remem- ber that what would satisfy ourselves may not be suitable to another. This is a principle often forgotten or ignored by parents who seem to be trying to force their children into the life plans which they themselves have cherished but have been unable to realize in their own persons, or, on the other hand, in which they have themselves been conspicuously successful. Carrying on father's business, going into father's oliif-e, studying music because mo- ther had so wanted to study music, are phrases commonly heard. The plans thus outlined may, of course. in many cases be quite congenial, but close scrutiny will reveal that often the plan is merely that of the parent in which the off- spring has no spontaneous interest. lt is essential to realize at the beginning that the making and following of a plan for producing the wished-for self involves the management of desires. lluman life is so complicated, our capacities are so numerous, our opportuni- ties are so various that it is physically impossible for any one to achieve all his desires in the lifetime allotted. livery boy has a great variety of mental pictures of the person he would like to be, and added to these is the picture of the person he knows himself to be. Une boy I know went about for nearly a year torn by a struggle between the desire that he should some day be a clergyman and that of being an actor. William James has described the conflict among all of his own potential 26