Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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We too can become fine men in this respect and there is no better place to learn and practice tolerance than right here in Pickering Collge. In order for a community to function smoothly its citizens must be tolerant of one another. Very few of us will ever be confronted with the same situation as the good Samaritan, yet we will come up against every day situations in which we may be tolerant. There is an old saying that no one is perfect and if we could keep this thought in mind we would find it much easier to be tolerant of the mistakes of others. Perhaps one of the best places to pract.ice, and in many cases observe toler- ance, is on a school team. As all of you know one of the essential requirements for a successful team, that is, one that wins and in which the players are happy, is to keep your criticisms to yourself and to keep the team spirit up. There are bound to be members of your team that won't be as good as others or who will have an off-day , but be tolerant of these people. You probably know yourself how it feels to be criticized during a game and you know how it lowers your spirit. Therefore if you criticize someone else it is bound to lower his spirit and, since he is part of the team, it is bound to lower the team spirit. This hurts a team very greatly for a team with skill and spirit is a top team. a team with spirit alone is a very good team and a team with skill alone is only a. mediocre team. Another place where tolerance is needed is the classroom. Classes are like teams and they 'too must have the proper spirit. If a member of the class asks what we might consider to be rather foolish and time wasting question we must realize that he is only trying to learn. We should give him and we should give others the opportunity to l-earn by being tolerant ourselves and not pushing the tolerance of others. Of course the most important place for tolerance to be practiced at Pickering is in the corridors, for it is the corridors with the work and bull-sessions that go on there that are the very heart of Pickering. Again we may consider Pick- ering as being a large team and ift must have the proper team spirit in order to become a good school. And surely we all want a good school for we the students are Pickering. If this building were 'to burn to the ground right now Pickering would still exist for we, the students would still exist. But if every member of the student body left this school right now Pickering would cease to exist because the students are Pickering. Therefore the best way to improve Pickering and thus improve ourselves is to keep up a high spirit and to do this we must all practice tolerance. WVe must be tolerant of people making rash statements, perhaps in the heat of an argumentt or without too much thought. If we disagree with a person we can very easily keep it to ourselves and try to understand his point of view. There is no need to start a row in the corridor by talking behind his back or get- ting the boys together to give him a hard time. All our lives we are going to have someone over us-no matter how high you rise in this world you will always have to answer to somebody and it is a good idea to learn proper respect and tolerance for authority now while you are still young. If we can develop a good sense of tolerance now we should have one of the greatest human assets with us for the rest of our lives. DAVID BIILNE Twenty--one

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graphic mind who can memorize whole pages by just reading them through. How- ever I cannot see how a person who in this way accumulates facts in his mind, can be said to be a person of high education. If this was the sort of kno-wledge we were seeking then the fiuictions of our brain could be replaced by a huge file with a calculating machine attached to it, which, upon the push of a button, gives us the required information within a split second. This certainty could not be the purpose of education. It is much more the development of our faculties, the attainment of maximum scholastic achievement and the establishment of firm prin- ciples according to which we shape the conduct of our lives. It lies in the nature of our democratic form of society that the destiny of our nation lies in the hands of each individual. That means that each one of us has a responsibility which, if neglected, is the first symptom of decline and ulitimate downfall. Similarly fatal would be a condition where this responsibility rested in the hands of individuals who are incapable of recognizing the dangers which are constantly threatening to destroy our ideals. There is a tendency in our wealthy democracies to allow shal- low minded business leaders and generals to exert an ever-increasing pressure upon our governments. They draw their support from people who content themselves with a mere -extension of their material possessions. In despising spiritual ideals they act like a cancerous tumour which slowly but surely destroys the sound struc- ture of our society. As demonstrated by the fall of the Roman Empire, wealth and luxury invite vice and drive culture underground. I wonder if the fall of Rome had anything to do with the fact that 2000 years elapsed before a man like Descartes or Berkeley was produced who in their way of thinking matched the thinkers of ancient Greece. It was a time of utter spiritual lbarrenness which followed the flourishing culture of the Roman Empire. If the western world was going to suffer a similar fate there would not only follow a time of spiritual barren- ness but we would also be living under a system -of bolshevistic terror which leaves no room for the so-called Rights of Manf, To prevent such a thing happening is what I think should be part of the purpose of education. VVe do not want to accumulate a great deal of factual knowledge in our mindsg we rather want educa- tion to create in us. an outlook on life which will make us live up to our ideals in spite of wealth and prosperity. ROBERT LANG tolerance E HAVE ALL HEARD THE PARABLE of the good Samaritan, yet each time we hear it I think wc can derive more from it. The main thought I would like to take to-night is the fact that the Samaritan, a man who was not tolerated by the people of the land he was travelling in, had enough tolerance himself to help one of these people. Many of you may be thinking to yourselves now that, had you been in the Samaritairs position, you too would have helped the man lying in the ditch. But I don't think many of you would if you had gone through what he had as an outcast in society. We would expect most men to become very hurt and angry at such deeds for it is a very hard thing sometimes to be shunned and dis- liked for no action of your own. Yet the Samaritan had the wonderful quality of tolerance and he stopped and helped the poor fellow lying in the ditch and gave of his own time and money to help him. Twenty

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Freedom noxusn FREEDOM is so vrraii to us who live here, I have chosen to speak about it to-night. Not only is it vital to us here, but also to the world around us. It is a very difficult word to define as it represents many different things to differ- ent people. If, however, we ask the following questions, we may catch a glimmer of the essential part freedom plays in our separate lives. What are we free from? What are we free to do? Are we free from persecution? Are we free to share equally with others, the responsibilities of the human conununity. Are we free to worship as we desire? Have we liberty to think, speak and act as we see fit within the laws we ourselves have made to preserve human health, safety and justice? And if we have these liberties, are we developing them? Do We treasure them as something a.s essential to us as breathing? It is not enough to make speeches and write articles praising freedom as something good, great, and noble. Freedom is more than a poetic word. It is vital to our lives as human beings. We enjoy many freedoms, some won in older times and others established within the memory of persons still living. 'We have freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and so forth, all subjected to the laws of the land, we all have personal freedoms dating back to the Magna Carta. All these liberties were stated by John Stuart JIM in his essay On Liberty. This is the most complete argument in favour of the individual concerning his liberties or freedoms. I have told you and asked you about the many aspec'ts of freedom. You may think this concerns the adult world only, but that is where you are quite wrong. I would like to show you why. There were two yotmg people about the same age as you and I. We will call them Igor and Peter. They were of average intelli- gence and both had a tendency to be quiet. These boys were very much alike. In fact there was only one big difference. Peter lived in a democracy, Igor unfor- tunately was in a country without freedom. So, Peter attended High School and later was able to go to the university of his choice, and choose his own career. Igor could only go to secondary school and afterward, his career was picked for him. He had no choice but to consent to his superiors wishes. This could ruin a person 's life as he may thoroughly dislike the oecupa.tion which he is in. This is just one ol' the many thousands of examples, and that is why everyone should be concerned about freedom. Not only will your education and profession be affected by the freedoms 'that you possess, but also your social life, family, belongings, and every- thing sacred to you. Freedom concerns everyone in the world. It is something no one can really define, something tangible, yet so intangible. It is knowing that you can say anything, do anything, or go anywhere without being questioned as long as it is within the law. It is something we cannot live without, and still be happy. It is the goal of most leaders, and should be the goal of everyone of us. VVe are tight- ing to preserve our freedom now because if we lose it, it may never be regained. If you make freedom your business, it will be lasting. JOHN PALMER Twenty-two