Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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To Strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. 9' HE ciiosixo OF THE SCHOOL YEAR has come, and with it most of us can look back over the past few months, and say that we have enjoyed ourselves and accomp- lished the demands set by our goals. lt was a. good year with its bright moments, like winning a hockey game, and its dull moments, like losing a football game. The school had the necessary spirit but there were times when it could have been put to better use than creating cor- ridor raids and such types of trouble. Despite all our fun, ups and downs, and discouraging moments we all set ourselves a definite goal of some sort to attain. To achieve this goal we need to prepare ourselves both physically and mentally so that when we reach our goal wc are of such sound character that we will be able to do our best in our newly acquired capacity. lVith the present horizons on life wc, the newer generation, should develop such a curiosity of mind that there are only a few forces which will hold us back from learning all there is to learn. At the present pace of events there is little time for loitering and waiting for something good to come our way. We should be constantly trying to get every loose bit of knowledge before it passes us by, as every passing bit could probably open a new and more interesting horizon. We should not prepare ourselves for what is to come very soon but rather for that which is to come in the distant future, whether it. be in our generation or not. There is no better place for us to learn and prepare than in school where all we have to do is realize our present position and objectively look at our goals. In school we have the opportunity to learn what a Community is and how to make the community in which we live a more enjoyable place to be in. We learn, in school, the restrictions and responsibilities encountered in any community and how to cope with them and solve any problems. lf it is your desire to be successful you can learn to be so by never giving up, despite the odds, any problem that you face in school. In order to build a better community there must be leaders who are individuals and who a.re willing to do more than their share for their community. Although the world is a school we have schools which are better equipped to develop indi- viduals. The individual is the one who makes the community: not the community making the individual. The individuals that a community needs are those who allow the sun to shine brightest by dispelling the fog that shrouds their com.- munity. The type of individual that we need now and should attempt to build is the one who will attempt the exceptional and not run. Thus the ever-fighting, well rounded individual is the one who will make our communities better places in which to live. He is an individual who works for the common good when he can see through the fog and rain to a newer, better and brighter world to come, RoN HoNs Eight

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u personal word to the students WRITE THESE worms TO YOU on an evening in late June when the corridors are strangely silent, the playing fields at peace and our hilltop settling into a quiet summer of preparation for the year ahead. At such a time one feels sharply the contrast with the school as you know it, a place possessed by the teeming energy of one hundred and iifty young men engaged in fthe pursuit of understanding the World around them and seeking their rightful place in it. And so, looking back on our year together I trust that it has given each of us a truer knowledge of ourselves and, even more important, a better understanding of the people who fill our lives. In this sense. the purpose of education is self- knowledge. This year, then, has been one of good growth for you, if you know more surely something of your strengths and weaknesses, your abilities and limitations. Through such knowledge you are able to make of yourself a better citizen of this community and thus transmit this City not only not less but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us. Self-knowledge of course may never be static. It is a never-ending process, for we change and develop through our experiences as we grow towards maturity. This growth, however, is based on something that does 11ot change, - our belief in the Christian ideals passed on to us by the Society of Friends. From them we inherit our emphasis on the value of each individual and thus endeavour to help him fulfil his potentialities so that he may make a useful contribution to society. The aim of self-knowledge is therefore directed, not to selfish goals of materialistic success, but to the ideal of service to ones fellow man. If you share this conviction, you have well understood the purpose of the Society of Friends in founding our school. At this year 's end, I feel very grateful to all of you who have helped us work toward the beloved Community . In particular, I should mention the members of our graduating class who set a tone and a spirit from which we all profited. Both to those Who are leaving and to those returning in the autumn, I send my best wishes and my hope that we shall all continue to strive towards the ideal and sacred thingsi' for which Pickering College stands. .fir.,,.,1., m Seven

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outh and Cynicism ANY TIMES DURING OUR LIFE we will rtui into an attitude or situation which I will seem insoluble. Vile will perhaps become exasperated or fed up. We will wonder what use there is iII continually striving for solutions and just answers. XVhy should we be upstanding citizens . This is where cynicism develops. This attitude is scorned by Inost of the wiser people. It is unchiistian, un- democratic, un-Canadian and bad. This argument, of course, oIIly adds to the cynicism. Rather than trying to explore the mind of a cynical youth, society tends to push him aside. It is almost impossible for a person to go through adolescence without being cynical for some part of it. However this is not bad, it is good. It shows that the person is thinking, that he has partly travelled the road of truth. But once the adolescent has started his journey it is then that society should aid lIiIn. Society should show him that no matter how corrupt aspects of life are, becoming cynical without being constructive is not helping change the wrong. The cynics must see that the only way to continue their journey is to fight the evil that they dislike. To-day there is a great challenge facing youth. Many ideologies are present. Libetralism, conservatism, communism, christianity, lIiIIduisIn and a score of others. Out -of the demagogeijv and propaganda the young mind IHUST seek the truth. There are Inany conflicting ideas in all the great religions aIId ways of livingg some can be seen on the road of life. A young man becomes confused, 1lI1C'E'I'l3l11. A 'hasty conclusion to that life is useless, and means nothing. Here the adolescent stops his search. Het concludes too soon that he has come to the end of the road. It is he1'e that the cynic must look at himself, and see what worth he is to the rest of society by stopping. He should see that he is useless and not live. Only man can make life goody it is in his power to do so. lt is at this point that the cynic should begin to fight for what he believes is good and right. Then he is being honest with himself and others. The cynic is an integral part of life. ln Inany ways ho is socielys con- science. However he Inust never stop searching, for if he does he becomes hypo- critical. The challenge for the adolescent is to find the right road on which he caII wage his battle for the rights of man. Une of the paths leading to this I'oad is the cynical one. C. Bnnn N I n c