Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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The Voyageur meaning of sportsmanship. Basketball, Hockey, Baseball, Elections, the Christmas Banquet, Track and Field, Exams., and Garrett Cane memories enter our minds never to be forgotten. I think I should express on behalf of the committee a sincere vote of thanks to several people for their contribution to our school life and for their co-operation with us. First of all it is only fair that we thank you, the students, for putting your faith in us for leadership and for your con- tinual willingness to co-operate all year. Secondly our thanks goes out to our genial staff representative to the student body, Harry Beer, for his exceptionally fine guidance. The Head- master and the rest of his staff must also be mentioned gratefully in this connection. Lastly I think it would be unfair if we didnit congratulate Daniel Sherry and Donald Dewar, receivers of the Garrett Cane. Their contribution to school life left nothing to be desired. Yes, the year 1941-42 was truly a great one. We had fun, most of us studied hard, and we learnt to be sportsmen in the real sense of the word. I think we as a student body have fulfilled the ideal of the school expressed in the Oath of the Athenian youth: aWe have transmitted this city not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.', With real confidence I believe that the school of 1942-43 will do likewise. VICTORY by OWEN SEAMAN Ye that have faith to look with fearless eyes Beyond the tragedy of a world at strife, And know that out of death and night shall rise The dawn of ampler life: Rejoice, whatever anguish rend the heart, That God has given you the priceless dower To live in these great times and have your part In Freedom's crowning hour, That ye may tell your sons who see the light High in the heavens--their heritage to take- UI saw the powers of darkness take their flight, I saw the morning break. 15

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The Voyageur remarks that chemistry never did him any good, he is not criticising chem- istry but rather making a very damaging personal admission. . Along with the factual learnings of the classroom go other associated learningsg these contribute directly to the personal and social aims of edu- cation. Henry Ford has said: It doesn't matter much what you study, the important thing is, what is it doing to youw. Such a statement places a hand on the shoulder of every teacher. The challenge is to seize upon the opportunities for developing free men. An emphasis on ideas, rela- tionships, and general methods of thinking helps to produce straight think- ers, an awareness of the importance of attitudes helps to produce curiosity, open-mindedness, and tolerance. To guide oneis students to a respect for knowledge, to encourage them to finish the job no matter how unpleasant, to inculcate a respect for good workmanship-such things are not only possible in formal academic situations, they constitute an objective that far outweighs any puny strivings towards 5092 in June. The fact that these aims are diflicult of attainment should not blind us to the possibility ofat- taining them. It remains to re-emphasize the fact that objectives of education must always be viewed against the background of their social implications. The citizen must be prepared to accept his share of responsibility in co-operative living. It follows that the teacher must always be on the alert to bring life situations into the classroom, and to point the teachings of the class- room towards socially signiiicant ends. The practice of self-discipline fdiscipline from withinl and the voluntary acceptance of group discipline ldiscipline from without! are important to every citizen. Likewise the concept of freedom controlled by law forms a basic idea of a democratic system. The story of manis past offers many opportunities to drive home these great principles that are surely to shape his future. In conclusion, it seems prudent that we should be aware of the poten- tial values of academics before relegating them to an inferior place in the educational scheme. Under proper guidance, a course in algebra does something more than provide the student with an opportunity to dominate a system of ideas and test his skill against a fairly objective standard, it can also be used as a basis for the promotion of healthy growth-factual, personal, and social. R.E.K.R. END OF TERM NCE AGAIN school closes in the Spring and with our departure from Pick- ering we stop living in the present and start living in the past year. We think back upon opening day when we met old friends again and were introduced to new. We recall the early Hbull-sessionsi' where we told each other of our academic aims and our athletic hopes. We look back on the football season when we learned the skills of the game and, moreover, the 14

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The Voyageur From West Lake to Newmarketi' ROM THE EARLIEST DAYS of the Society of Friends in England, Quakers - have maintained a consistent educational tradition. The philosophy inherent in that tradition has been marked to this day by a belief that uthe object of .... education .... is to give every opportunity for the good principle in the soul to be heardwg and by a complementary conviction that an academic program should be supplemented by growth-inciting interests of a social, physical, and spiritual nature. The ideas and attitudes implied by these beliefs came to Upper Canada in the early days from England, largely by way of the United States. Inspired by Ackworth School, estab- lished in 1779 near Pontefract in Yorkshire, New York Friends Yearly Meeting opened in Dutchess County in 1796 the Nine Partners Boarding School, this coeducational frame and clapboard structure-with a frontage of nearly a hundred feet-represented to the pioneer Quaker groups in what is now Ontario the best Friends education which was at that time available to them. There were no holidays at Nine Partners, attendance there in- volved a long separation from home for Canadian children, as well as con- siderable expense, in spite of the creation by American Friends of a special fund for young scholars coming down from Canada. By 1838 the Canada Half-year Meeting had recognized that the elementary instruction offered in or near the local meeting houses, with but few boys and girls proceeding to Nine Partners, was inadequate, monthly meetings, therefore, were in- structed Mto open subscriptions to defray the expense of a Boarding School in the provincef' The Methodists had already established Upper Canada Academy at Cobourg, and within a few years the Anglican, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches were to found denominational institutions of learning. It remained, however, for Joseph John Gurney, brother of Elizabeth Fry, to move the Canada Half-year Meeting to decisive action. Wealthy friend of political and social leaders on both sides of the Atlantic and one of the most distinguished Friends ministers of the day, Gurney not only contributed financially to the projected Friends school, but also selected personally a site 'cadmirably adapted for a manual labour boarding schoolw on the old Danforth Road in Prince Edward County, about four miles west of Picton. With a red brick house for the girls and a frame house for the boys, both departments of the West Lake Boarding School were functioning-as separate units, it is true-by the spring of 1842. For 5512-10 per annum board, tuition, pens, ink, and paper were pro- vided the young Canadian scholars. The school discipline seemed not unreasonable: the committee strongly recommended, for example, that those pupils Hwho are in the habit of chewing tobacco wholly abstain from a : 1Material for this essay has been abstracted by Mr. F. D. L. Stewart from the paper One Hundred Years of Quaker Education in Canada: The Centenary of Pickering College , prepared by Professor Arthur G. Dorland of The University of Western Ontario, read before the Royal Society of Canada, May, 1942. Dr. Dorland is a former student and teacher of the school, the father of three 'gold boys , and a member of the present Board of Management.J 16