Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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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

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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 Voyageuar practice so unbecoming to youthw, and also that ularge scholars who will not obey the rules of the school after being suitably admonished shall be expelled . The Hthree R's,,, with English grammar and geography, were taught, and other languages were added later. ln accordance with the very sound theory that ulearning and labour properly intermixed greatly assists the ends of both-a sound mind in a healthy bodyn, male pupils were permitted to labour two hours each day, and to receive payment for their work, the girls too could engage in usuitable employmentw. Evidently the teachers shared in the common tasks about the school, in 1843, when Jesse H. Haines--the first teacher in the boys, department- was re-engaged, he uagreed to paint the Boys' School inside and out at his own expensef, ln 1857 there were one hundred and sixteen pupils reg- istered, and the construction of a ufarm labourer's dwellingv at this time would indicate that such a large number was too unwieldy for an effective work plan. Instructions from the committee in charge which reflected practices and ideals peculiar to the Quaker religious ethic were far from rigorous-- plainness of dress and propriety of language were to be observed, alight literaturei' ffictionj was aschewed, regular Friends' Meeting was to be at- tended, and the Bible was to be read daily at school. ulformalized plainnessi' was in time abandoned by the Society of Friends, but the ideal of simplicity in more vital ways as an attitude towards life continues to be of significant influence in modern Quakerism and in the Pickering College of to-day. The West Lake Boarding School userved its generation wellv until the end of the summer term of 1865. Responsibility for its upkeep had come to rest largely upon the West Lake Monthly Meeting rather than on the, Canada Half-year Meeting, qualified teachers who were also Friends were difiicult to obtain, and the growing state-system was offering serious com- petition to the school, whose somewhat out-of-the-way location prevented its attracting pupils from a very large area. The Canada Half-year Meeting, moreover, now severed its connection with the New York Yearly Meeting, and with this independence came the revival of a project for a boarding school, which would offer broader and more generally appealing educational opportunities, directly under the care of the New Canada Yearly Meeting. After some ten years of planning and financial organization, construction was begun along much more ambitious lines than had at first been con- templated, and in 1878 the first Pickering College, rising four stories high upon a gentle hill in the village of Pickering, opened its doors to scholars of both sexes. The first Pickering College was a blend of the old and the new. ln this respect and many others, the pattern of living and learning established sixty years ago is curiously reflected in the activities and objectives of the modern school at Newmarket. A dual emphasis marks the published aims of the school at that time: the needs of the young scholars were regarded from a practical point of view having reference to their later vocations in society, and their education was not limited by the academic curriculum. When a student had made his choice of profession, he was required to study only those subjects necessary for admission to that field, and a commercial form was established for those who wished to enter the world of business. 17 7 .