Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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people who have the courage of their convictions and who learn to live rich and creative lives in the face of jeers from the mediocre. In leaving you, I should like to say this: those of you who are about to join the ranks of the Old Boys have had good training in being members of a wholesome community and at the same time in being individual persons, not carbon copies of the dummies who populate most of our comic books and much of the silver screen. You have nothing to fear of the world it you apply the Pickering way of lii'c, even though Pickering may bc far away. . . . Those of you who are returning will have further opportunities not only for allowing Pickering to help you, but also for yourselves helping Pickering. a note on uso little for the mind E AT PICKERING COLLEGE Kxow VERY XVELL that the principle of progressive education is practicable. Miss Neatby contrasts the graduate of a progressive school to the graduate of a stricter type of school. She says that thc former is ignorant, lazy and unaware of the exacting demands of a society from the realities of which they have been carefully insulated. I believe that the exact opposite is true. The graduate of a strictly-disciplined school would become an excellent servant or a private in the armed forces where a person must conform to other people 's wishes, whereas the graduate of Pickering knows how to be a good citizen because he has had experience in choosing between the bad and good of everyday life. He has an inner discipline which n-o amount ot' outward force can instil in the mind of an individual. How can Miss Neatby say, with such straight-forwardness, that the progressively-educated person is incapable ot logic when every day, he is confronted with situations where he must use logic? If, indeed, he has managed to graduate and pass the Senior Matriculation exams, he has certainly had t-o use a little bit of logic and cer- tainly couldn't have memorized everything off, as Miss Neatby has implied. I have been at both kinds of schools, and can appreciate the value of the ideals of Progressive Education. At the latter kind of school, the student is much happier and relies m-ore on his own decisions rather than on those of his teacher. Miss Neatby has gone to extremes in her definition of a graduate of a pro- gressive school. Naturally most schools are not as completely progressive as Pickering, so that, as a result, her survey has not accounted for the ideal pro- gressive education aimed at in the ideals of Pickering College. I think Miss Neatby has rightly criticized the average public school, even though she has gone to the extremes about it, but she has assumed that the average public school student is progressively educated . The fact is that the student at the average public school is not nearly as educated by the school as by his parents or guardians. - PETEI: l.Em7c: S1',l'Il f'lI

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Now, looking at my Piekering days, I see that one of the most valuable lessons Pickering taught me and my classmates was contained in the responsi- bility the school placed on our shoulders. As the Pickering boy grows older he is given an ever-increasing measure ot responsibility. Ile must make his own decisions about how to spend his time: how much ot' it he will spend on studies, games, clubs, dramatics, Hlee Vlub, the shop, social life, girls, and so on. He must elect his own School tfoniniittee, and through it, he himselt helps to run an important part of l'ickering's lite. In assuming these responsibilities he is helped by the staff but in the long run the important decisions are his own. XVhen he leaves the school to enter adult life through further studies or a 7 2 job, he is not punch-drunk with the sudden freedom and independence he has just won from his parents and teachers. He has already learned that most of the important decisions in our lives must be made by ourselves. The lesson the Pickering boy has learned is that the making ot' these decisions gives us freedom, but that it also forces us to go through the unpleasant business ot' having to make up our own minds. By gradually introducing the student to the responsibilities ot' running his own community, Piekering prepares its sons t'or a useful life in our tfanadian democracy. This may not be apparent to you at the time, but I am convinced that this is one of the important contributions our school makes to our country. There is one other point I should like to make about Pickeringg the way in which it is run teaches its members to live in a genuine community. They soon realize that individual desires must sometimes be suppressed for the common good. We must always be mindful of the well-being ot' others, but we must not allow others to interfere too much with the legitimate demands ot our own person. In Kingston, where I live, there is some concern among parents of very good students about their children 's attitude to studies. Apparently the less academically gifted youngsters, who are in the majority, think that to be a brain is a bad thing. Students who get good marks are considered to be strange and are treated as if they had some sort ot nasty disease. As a result some excellent students deliberately try to get poor marks so as to be liked by the gang. Now this is obviously a dreadful waste, for the world needs not only people with good looks, good muscles, and a good line , but also those with g-ood minds and a lot ot knowledge. Now I remember that when I was here, to be a fine student or a fine athlete or something ot a poet was considered to be rather admirable. Our motto might have been Unity in Diversity and I am sure that the same is still true to-day. So when you leave the School. or when you come back in the Fall, do not be afraid to be yourselves. Make the maximum use of your talents, whatever they may be, and if some of your pals think that you are strange or peculiar, ignore them. I sometimes think that what we need is more individualists, more Fl.ffl'l'll

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ctivities the dramatic club ' Y lII+:AR'1 s IN Tim IIIGI-ILANDS celebrates the beauty, integrity, and dignity of 1nan's spirit, and his eourage before the dark powers that invade his peace and right, Wrote Herman Voaden in an introduetion to Saroyan's play which the Drainatie Club attempted last fall. lt was a more experimental work than the Club has attempted in some years, and its measure of sur-f-ess was due even more than usual to the brilliant three-part set designed by l+'rederir'k Hagan, and a eolnplieated lighting'-plot exeeuted hy Doug' Thomson with Bill Alg'er's assistance. Our photo does not do ,justiee to the groc-ery store, living- rooin, and front porch faeing on a street in San Fresno, California. Shifts of seene were effected by hlaekouts and spotlighting, and free use was niatle of the auditorium spaee fronting the stage for entrances, crosses and exits. The dwellers in this little world of sunshine and storm were Hen Alcxrunrlvr, a penniless poet, his son J0ll'7l'7l.U, .lolzningfs Hrandniotlier, Jlr. Ii'o.wul.' the grover, his hiautiful daughter Esther, Jnspel' fllut'!lregm', who sang' inovingly that his heart was in the highlands and renieinhered his fornier days of greatness as a Sliakespearean actor, and various friends and neighbours. No plot linked the lives of these peopleg rather, they touehed one another's hearts with love and pity, living' with the candid innoeenee of childhood. This mood was well estab- lished by Alfie lluys' fine creation of JOIHl'7IQIj,' relaxed and uninhibited, affevtion- ate and eurious, no one was proof against his eharni, least of all lisflnfr, von- Yl1ll lIIQ'lY and easily played by -lanie Vlifton. Jllilllllqlj, however, was in every Sl'l'l'Hll'4'lI