Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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THE VOYAGEUR -wmv' 4 . . 4'-. A Q -.. G. N. T. W1nnR1NoTcJN ' N. D. BRANDON EAVING us THIS YEAR is Mr. G. N. T. Widdringtriii, fbetter known as Widdy j-classicist, humourist, journalist, filing wizf ard, dramatist, time table expert and athlete. After being with us since the School opened in 1927, his going leaves a gap hard to fill. We say Good Bye regretfully, and wish him every success in his new field of activity. N THE DEPARTURE of Mr. N. D. Brandon f Brandy'lj who leaves us for the business world, we lose scientist, weatherman, anecdotist, bridge expert, fisherman and a person whose association with Pickering for the past eight years has been marked by a generous spirit and a willingness to help others. We are sorry to see him go, but wish him the best of everything in his new endeavour. 25

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THE VOYAGEUR for the world's ills. And most of these cures involve the subordination of human personality to the supposed goods of supernationalistic, racial or class movements. The educator apologizes for his position, as his profession becomes a tool in the hands of the unscrupulous, perhaps he dare not even apologize, but must meekly conform to some type of totalitarian philosophy. Nor is it only in far away countries that these tendencies are evident. In our own midst there are those who are demanding that Canadian youth should be given education and training not dissimilar from that in use in the dictator states. These potential fascists emphasize the necessity of order in the modern state. They demand more and ever more udisciplinev for our youth. They seem determined to deprive our young people of the opportunity of developing as free citizens in a free society, and are already marking out the general lines that all youthful thinking and activity must follow. It was a very wise observer who stated, that if and when fascism came to this continent it would come in the guise of saving democracy. This process has already begun. Selff appointed saviours are even now preparing the way for such a movement. There does not seem to be any serious question, that the issue is already joined. The forces of democracy appear everywhere to be in retreat, educators by their very indifference in the face of the struggle seem to acknowledge their own failure in the past and their inability to do much about the future. It is not to be argued that democracy, as a political instrument, has been an unqualified success. Far from it. We are now at the end of a tenfyear period which has seen the greatest depression in the world's history, and the only relief in the gloom of the industrial picture has been a certain slight upfcurve occasioned, in large part, by the increased expenditures of the nations of the world on armaments. The research group of the Canadian Youth Congress recently issued figures indicating that there are in Canada approximately 400,000 young people with' out gainful occupation. Of these there are many who have gone through the formal educational process, who have now come to the age of maturity and are approaching what should have been some of the most productive years of their young lives, but who have never had the satisfaction of a permanent job of any kind. These young people are denied the legitimate satisfaction of economic security, of marriage and home life. Of almost 15 ,000 young people who took courses of a sort designed to train them for employment under the DominionfProvincial Youth Training Programme of 19374938, some 22 per cent. only were fortunate enough to obtain employment. Able and willing to work, most of them desirous of serving their country, their families and themselves, through the medium of some useful occupation, these thousands of young people, insecure in the present and uncertain and hopeless about the future, form admirable material for the preachments of those who subtly argue that economic security can be obtained by following their doctrines, even though such doctrines mean, ultimately, the sacrifice of those intangible but nevertheless very real values on which our democratic society has been built. fContinued on page 32, 24

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THE VOYAGEUR 26