Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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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 .

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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 ln these young Canadians was to be inculcated Ha love of outside exercise . . . . a prominent feature of the institution , and gymnasiums were avail- able during Mwinter and inclement weatherw. A Literary Society was organized which met once a week, when lectures on literary and scientific subjects were heard. Among the distinguished visitors in this connection were George W. Ross, lV1.P., and Inspector James L. Hughes. A student paper was published by the simple and convenient method of having the editors read it to the assembled Society twice a term. Departments of Music and Art were added, and some paintings done under the tutelage of Edward S. Shrapnell, A.R.C.A., the first art teacher, w-ere hung in the present school at the time of the Centenary Re-union through the kindness of Mr. Walton of Aurora. As a final suggestion of the spirit of this first Pickering College, there may be noted the gracious and rather curious survival of the old manual labouri' tradition in the announcement that ustudents who wish may have flower jkots assigned to them for their own cultivationf' I The history of Pickering College nicely exemplifies the truth of a belief often expressed by the present Headmaster that uthere is no growth without a strugglef' A division in the Society of Friends along conservative and progressive lines fthe Separation of 18811, together with financial troubles, occasioned the temporary closing of the school in 1885. After seven years, however, operations were resumed, partly because of aid solicited and ob? tained from Friends in Great Britain by Mr. John R. Harris and Mr. Samuel Rogers. It is noteworthy that the College Committee described the re- opening at this time as Han act of faith , for the same phrase was spoken again in 1927, and ufaithw has continued and will continue to make the school live. To give expression to their faith, the Committee were forunate to secure Willi.am P. Firth as Principal and Miss Ella Rogers, a graduate of the University of Toronto in Modern Languages, as Lady Principalg as Dr. Dorland writes, uso well did they succeed in this joint enterprise that in 1894- they joined hearts and hands to continue, as husband and wife, what was to be their lifeis workf, Dr. Firth came to America from a Yorkshire mill town in the seventies, he became a member llater a ministerl of the Society of Friends, and taught at Oakwood Seminary-a continuation of the earlier Nine Partners-before coming to Canada. His own field was Science, in which he received his Master's degree and afterwards his Doctor- ate from Queen's, but his learning was broad and his teaching exceptionally stimulating. His understanding of youth was matched only by the sympa- thetic and skilful endeavour of his wife, whose interest in the school has never flagged. It was perfectly 'fitting that the hundredth-birthday cake at the Centenary Dinner this year was cut by Mrs. Firth. The activities and objectives at this time differed little from those suc- cessfully established before the closing. Various improvements were effected in the building, a new gymnasium was added, the gift of Samuel Rogers, and the Hold pumpi' was abandoned where the 'corder of the bath had long been established as a technique of justice dispensed by students to their fellows. By 1904 the school had not only reached its peak enrolment of one hundred and twenty students, with some from as far away as Jamaica 18