Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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T smrelziny and tried getting a job and with what abilities he has . . . tried applying' what experiences he has been privileged to receive. I suggest that a challenge is being given to you now at Pickering. Each of you is in a fortunate position. The stimulus is being provided for you here, to go out and be, not only a responsible citizen, but a lcruler in a democratic society. Not all educational institutions are providing this stimulus these days. Do you know that democracy depends on a very few individuals, an almost lrigliteiiingly low percentage ot' the population, who accept responsibilities to defend it not against the comnumists or against Russia, but against decadence, apathy and intolerance in our own society. Some ol' you at Pickering must become members of The Flew . You are privileged, not because your families had the money to send you here, but because you happen to be here and because you are receiving this kind of stimulus. lf the ideals of Pickering can be applied to a little business here in Newmarket. they can be applied anywhere . . . even in big industry, and they can save our way of life. But they must be maintained through never-ending effort by The Few . The challenge will be there. You will go on reacting to it. You have an obligation to fulfil. The fulfilling of it cannot itself be an end for you. You will go on and on till your life ends, trying to fulfil it. Your contribution to society will be measured according to that never-ending effort. And only you yourself can be its true critic. These things l have said to you this evening have great meaning to me. I hope that you are receiving at least some of the message that I intend to convey. The significance ot' the principles and ideals ot' Pickering did not occur to me with great impact until some time after I left this school, but they were planted firmly in my mind while l was a student. l stumbled on an opportunity to apply them. l hope you will always be in search ot' similar opportunities.. THE FIHTII HOFSE CHOIR it , 1 'L LI !

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Too many old boys leave this school, meet the rough and tumble experiences of life outside and too soon, conclude that life at Pickering has no bearing on them in a business or a profession. I am afraid that they have not examined closely enough the possibilities of applying the sehool's ideas to their own lives. To get back to the system in our business. I am not trying to tell you that it works 100 per cent. of the time. Itis a never-ending effort to try to make it work. One hundred per cent. of the employees do not agree with the system at all times. For instance, a skilled worker, a compositor on our staff, not long ago criticized our operation. He said to me, Woi1ldn't it be better if you had a hard-hearted foreman around here telling people what to do all the time and keeping their noses to the grindstone? How am I supposed to know if I'm doing the right kind of job? NVell, it's pretty obvious that that man found it difficult to accept responsibility. Perhaps he was afraid to act on his own initiative for fear of being criticized. To him, it was easier to be told what to do. And arent the critics of the Pickering system thinking the same way as that compositor in our plant? Of course, I know there is no person here tonight who thinks of Pickering in that way. But there have been students in the past and likely staff members too, who were afraid to accept their full responsibilities and maintain their faith in the individual person. Those people always will present problems. You can't have the system working 100 per cent. all the time. And it's not only the critics. NVe too allow our faith to slip. NVe have second thoughts about ourselves and begin to question the principles which we have held for so long. At times like these, we need courage and the help of others to bolster that faith. You senior students will be leaving this school soon. Already each one of You is thinking about a career. Perhaps in the corridor discussions you are talking about how sensational you will be as an Engineer or a Doctor of a Television Pro- ducer. Did it ever occur to you that the glamour in a career is the least. im- portant aspect of it? The only dependable critic will be yourself. XVill you be a good journalist, a flood general manager or perhaps, a good teacher in your own assessment of yourself? That reminds me of a Pickering College old boy whom I met socially in Toronto a few weeks ago. It seems to me that he has been at half a dozen places of higher learning in the several years since he has left Pickering-having difficulty in finding his place in society. He practically lifted me oft' my feet. He asked, What are you going to do, J ake?'l What do you mean, what am I going to do? I asked. NVell, he said, When you leave the newspaper up there in Nevvinarketfi I suppose he thought I should definitely be after Larry Hendersoirs job or producing the great Canadian novel any day now. . Perhaps it would not occur to him that I might not yet have satisfied myself with becoming a good country editor. Perhaps it is time that old boy stopped Twenty-one

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Literary the dream 'r wAs ON A HOT, HUMID sUMMER's DAY soixmwnnicn ix lNni..xN.x that a boy sat with his back against the stout trunk of an ancient elm and a book propped open in his lap. The boy was a huge lad for his age of twelve, almost thirteen, years. He stood pine-tree straight at five feet, eight inches in his stocking feet. His face was one that showed health, strength, determination and a sense of understand- ing. He was not what one would call dashing and even at that young age the beginnings of a squareicut jaw and a slightly hooked nose were apparent. The book in which he was so deeply engrossed was entitled The Life and Works of H enry VII. The boy was reading this with such intent that one would think his life depended upon his knowing the contents of this slightly battered book. He was studying it because the novel had been so hard to obtain. After all he had waited four months and walked seven miles to get this particular volume. Presently his eyes began to water, then his eyelids grew heavy, as if in a desperate appeal for rest, his eyes started to ache. With a sigh of almost dis- appointment the boy marked his place carefully and closed the book. He set it on the grass next to him, leaned back against the massive trunk of the elm and began to think. He thought of his past. How his folks had moved from Kentucky to Indiana for better farming land. He thought he remembered vaguely the small log cabin in which he had been born. Ever since he had been able to stand he had been working, now he rose with the sun and bedded down with the same. That was his past but what of the future, tomorrow and the next day and the next? VVas he to carry on in his father's footsteps - a dirt farmer who had struggled to stay alive all through his existence? NVhere was his place in life? Above him a wood-thrush hopped merrily about, trilling her song of happiness. This distracted the boy from his thought so that presently he fell into a world of dreams. He dreamed that he sa.w a tall man in a black suit and a battered black hat speaking to a crowd that listened to him with a deathly-still awe. The crowd appeared to be listening closely as if not to miss a word of the tall man's speech. The man seemed vaguely familiar, like someone he knew very well but couldn't quite place. Suddenly, rudely, a voice broke into his dreams. He finally placed it as the voice of his mother calling him. Abel the voice carried with it a note of irritation. Abraham Lincoln, I know ye're up there. Come, there is wood to be chopped afore ye get supper. ' -BILL OAYLEY Twen ty-three