Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

Page 23 text:

THE VOYAGEUR Education and the War by JOSEPH MCCULLEY Headmaster, Pickering College, Newmarket, Ontario NE or THE MOST IMPORTANT MOTIVES that can influence human conduct is love of country. lVlost of us probably learned in our youth those words of Walter Scott commencing with the line, 'cBreathes there the man with soul so dead. It is not merely the particular house or locality that one calls home, but that sum total of traditions, customs, conventions and attitudes that are associated with one's own country. The citizen of Rome prided himself on that fact even though he lived on the furthermost bounds of the empire. It is easy enough to point out that the nation-state is a comparatively recent political development, this fact, however, is truer- that man has always felt a thrill of pride in belonging to his own tribal, national or racial group. That pride has almost invariably been associated with or focussed upon some specific home land-amy countryf' As a motivating force in determining human conduct, love of country or patriotism has been as important a factor as religion, and in some cases the two have been so closely bound together as to be almost indistinguish- able. The reason is basically the same. These two motives are among the strongest human emotions, in the final analysis it is emotions which largely determine conduct. There is another factor which must be recognized. War's appeal is, primarily, not to the base in man but rather to many of his finest feelings. The cynic, of course, reminds us that man is a fighting animal-that wars have been a permanent part of human history and that they always will be. The truth of this is questionable. The great periods of human progress have been periods of peace when man had an opportunity to turn his in- ventive and social genius towards the arts of civilization. Sane men every- where today recognize modern war as the greatest tragedy that can touch the human race. In the last war millions died in the hope that their sacrifice would result in the establishment of a better world. Today young men are enlisting for similar noble purposes-expressed in general terms: to rid the world of Hitlerism and to preserve a way of life that is based on respect for human personality and its basic and inalienable rights. ln some form or other it is this appeal which is made to our young men and not only to our young men but to the total population. It must be recognized that modern war is not fought by professional soldiers alone but that it is the concern of the total community. All our leaders unite today in stressing the necessity of a new Europe-or a new world order based on freedom and equality in the relationships of man with man and nation with nation. 21

Page 22 text:

THE VOYAGEUR :bs Hgugagcur Staff 19118 at H. P. Buchanan R. H. Perry B. A. W. Jackson T. E. Bamford J. Mcffulley IV. R. Henderson by constant pursuing, and who are so jealously sure of our right to that pursuit that we take it as tantamount to a sacred duty. Worst of all is this fact: that if we are not pursuing happiness we are discontented and that, since we do not know what the word means, we continually grasp at the imitations which are offered. Our upursuitw becomes a desperate chase after synthetic pleasures whose obtaining is even more disappointing than their inaccessibility had seemed. Yet let any factor challenge our right to that pursuit or make the pursuit impossible and our misery becomes the stuff of which crime and suicide and madness are made. In such a situation liberty becomes license, rights become prerogatives, and law becomes frustration. Happiness cannot be pursued, for happiness cannot be defined. If man has a sacred duty it is to grow, to realize to the full all his particular and special abilities so that late in life he may say to himself, ul have become a full man and completef' Let happiness and its pursuit be ignored. Let man work his work for the good of his soul, and so that he may not be ashamed when he speaks his own name. Let a man be what he will, poet or priest, merchant or grower or digger, let his work bring him tears or scars, disappointment or pain, frustration it will not, so be it he work. Let him ignore all soft and easy things, all short cuts to bliss, but rather grow to his full stature under the heavens and come to complete fruition under the sun. Then, god-like he may know the perfect happiness of the gods, and, being without desire, find peace. 20

Page 24 text:

THE VOYAGEUR Only this, they say, can make the war worth lighting. Even though the last great sacrifice did not achieve this purpose, we are at war now, hoping that the ultimate result of this struggle may be the establishment of a better world. This is the appeal to which a population responds and it is an appeal basically to idealism. The adolescent cannot remain deaf to this challenge. He will want to do something. Educators must be conscious of the strength of this impulse. It is one of the tragedies of war that whole populations become obsessed by mass hatreds. As the war increases in intensity there is bound to be an acceleration of this tendency. Leaders of the British people have, during the past few months, made a distinct difference between the system of government under which the German people live and the German people themselves. We should recognize that it is impossible to annihilate a whole nation, and further that the Germany of the past has contributed much that is worthwhile in the sum total of western culture. We must continue to hope and pray that the day may come when the German people under better leadership may once again be in a position to make a worthy contri- bution to the arts of civilization. Probably the finest word that has been said on this subject has been uttered by John Masefreld, Poet Laureate: This is no idle boast or empty story, Une of the glories of the English race Is, that we recognize Beethoven's glory, And at his dying moment won his grace, '4For, in Vienna, while the thunder broke, And he, by sickness shaken, sank to death, These memorable words that Master spoke, 'God bless the English, with his dying breath. And of our Poet we have heard you say 'We call him Unser Shakespearef, he is ours, We share him with you as we share the day, The night, the seasons, and the happy hours. 7 uWe are as darkness to each other now, Our common task of bettering Life annulled, We plait new brambles on our Saviouris brow, By sharpening hate our spirits, edge is dulled. '6Upon another morrow, an we strive, Our links of Life, now broken, may unite, Not each for each but both for all alive Opening the other shutters for more light. 22