Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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The Voyageur that government departments of education recognize the great need and provide adequately for it. The folk high school movement in Denmark revitalized a decadent economy and in little more than a generation pro- duced a sane, co-operative and highly cultured people. A programme of adult education, intelligently conceived and suited to our own needs might, similarly, improve our own Canadian life! Status and Training of Teachers We must develop a new respect for the place and importance of the teacher. In 1939 the Canadian Teachers, Federation made a survey and reported that Hmore than half of the teachers of Canada were living on the lowest possible level of self-supporting penurious existence? A more recent report indicates that in 1942, 32 per cent of all Canadian teachers received salaries of less than six hundred dollars a year. This is not good enough! How can such a profession attract persons with the ability, the training and the personality that the importance of the task demands? No fee is too high for engineers who develop power or run our factories. No fee is too large if we can save the life of one sick child. But we expect those who train their minds and souls to work for less than a pittance. At the same time I believe that we must improve our teacher-training institutions throughout the whole country. Their courses must be modern- ized and extended in terms of the new needs and demands of the new age. It must be frankly admitted that, to-day, the qualifications of many of our teachers are far from adequate if we are to demand of them the vision, the intelligence, and the training that are necessary. The Cost I Such a programme as l have outlined will take money-a lot of it! Considering our ability to finance a war l do not believe that any longer will the excuse of lack of money be satisfactory to the Canadian people. The costs of educational reform have been carefully estimated in the recent C.N.E.A. report. We know that Canada can afford it, she can not afford DOI tO. uWhat shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul . What shall it profit a nation to win a war and lose the peace by paltry, hesitating and inadequate provision for the nurture of its most precious asset-its children, in which any hope for the future rests! STAFF NOTES . . . To our Tutorial Staff which, in September, was the largest in the School's history, and gradually was whittled down by the armed forces until only one was left, many, many thanks for all the variety of tasks they did so well. To Dan., Ghent, Jimmy, Doug., and Des., we wish best of luck and a speedy return! '18

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The Voyageur selection programme using educational methods. Ultimately such a pro- gramme must be incorporated in all our schools. In many parts of the country we have established special schools and curricula for the dull and backward child. This is good,-and necessary- but there is an equal, or greater, necessity for special training for those children who are above the average in ability. One of the greatest faults of our democratic societies has been the tendency to H level downi' to a dull standard of mediocrity. ln spite of all the criticism levelled against the old English Hpublic school , land much of it has been amply justifiedj, they have nevertheless provided in these schools a fine concept of public service. We should select from our schools the ablest students and provide for them a special training for leadership in all areas of our life,-not only for business and the professions but, above all, for politics and public service. Education for Public Life Many of our best citizens scorn public life. There is, perhaps, some justification for the use of the term upoliticianl' as a term of reproach. While we may admit that there have been self-seekers in our political life we have been fortunate in Canada that so many of our public men have been sincere and public-spirited. But, if we wish to maintain and improve the quality of our public life we must present to our children the opportunities therein as most desirable vocations and adequately prepare them for their tasks. The responsibilities of government are now too great to be left to the manipulations of the illiterate or untrained. Scholarships and Bursaries The privileges of higher education are at present denied to many children because of economic inability. We have woefully inadequate systems of scholarships and bursaries. To provide the special training I have sug- gested We must greatly increase the number of such awards. The Federal Government has alrady promised to finance education for returned soldiers. There is no reason why this precedent should not be continued for the normal needs of peace-time. Ontario is, this year, inaugurating a series of provincial scholarships. A large Canadian mercantile firm has recently made a substantial donation to the University of Toronto for scholarships in a certain field. And it would be a good idea if many of such awards provided for the exchange of students between the provinces and ultimately between countries to develop sympathetic understanding and to promote sound national and international attitudes. Adult Education Education must no longer stop at a certain point in adolescence. Our world is changing so rapidly that provision must be made for adults to keep abreast of the changes in the world in which they are living. Much adult education is now being done by private agencies, but we must demand 17

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The Voyageur CHAPEL SETTING FOR THE CHRISTMAS SERVICE LTHOUGH Sunday morning at Pickering is left free for church attendance in Newmarket, the evening is reserved for a religious service of our own, inter-denominational in character, at which the Headmaster, the Staff and occasionally outside speakers, address the students. The first three services of the Fall Term are taken by the Headmaster, as they are an appropriate time for the explanation of the philosophy of education, underlying the school. In a sense these first services are the most important of the school year, for it is in them that a new student catches, for the first time, the true spirit of Pickering and the heterogeneous group begins to feel that sense of community without which our school could not function. At the close of the third service the new boys are enrolled as full-fledged members of the group and thereafter there is no distinction drawn between them and the other students of the school. Other services throughout the year that have proved to be particularly inspiring are the Thanksgiving Service, the Christmas Carol Service, which many friends and visitors attend, the New Year Service, the Easter Service and the Farewell Service at the close of the Spring Term. These are all taken by the Headmaster and constitute, in our opinion, the best teaching that Pickering provides. In a school such as ours where so much stress is laid 19