Royal St Georges College - Georgian Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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STAFF

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Junior School Principal's Report MACROTERMES BELLICO- SUS lives on the arid plains of Ethiopia. This blind, white termite spins out its existence within a complex structure Q9 metres high by 3 metres widej of galleries, staircases and arches, and within a society, the functioning of which confounds every attempted analysis. Each individual on these giant nests performs his own work with infallible, undistracted skill in the midst of a confusion of others, all tumbling over each other to align bits of earth on precisely the right configurations for warmth and ventilation of the eggs and larvae, and the protection of the nest. Each termite spends his brief life in a social enterprise that extends back into what is for it, the deepest antiquity. ln a month or so an entire generation vanishes, yet the nest can go on for centuries. If two or three termites in a chamber begin to pick up pellets and move them from place to place, nothing comes of it. However, as more join in, they seem to reach a critical mass, a quorum, and purposeful behavior begins. Beautiful, curving, sym- arches, and perfectly metrical ventilated architecture are created. The term stigmergy tincitement to worki was coined to describe this phenomenon. It appears that the product of work itself provides both the stimulus and the in- structions for further work. tThe term would make an excellent motto for the schoolli. But where is the brain that directs this activity? If a single termite is isolated from its fellows, yet provided with every biological necessity, it soon perishes. lt has no existence apart from its life-unit. Termites, like other social insects, appear to live two kinds of lives: they are in- dividuals, going about the day's business with little thought for t0m0rr0w, and they are at the same time, component parts, cellular elements, in the huge, writhing organism of the nest. They are a collective society with the capacity to behave like an organism. Like cells of the human body, each had a function that contributes to the common good of the whole, but each soon dies when separated from the others. lt is fascinating to contemplate these individual animals that seem to be self-transcending in their relation to a dense society. It is tempting to apply such an analogy to the concept of the Christian com- munity. Zoologists caution us not to attempt to offer explanations of animal behavior on human terms. The behavior of insects is mechanical, like small robots, unhuman. We violate science when we try to read human meanings into their arrangements. However, there is no reason why we cannot proceed in the other direction. Perhaps some of the collective activity of termites may shed light on human behavior. lt is in our institutions, com- mittees, and political divisions that we experience our conjures in- telligence. WE build our social edifices through the contributions of many, achieving a collective creation that is far greater than any one participator can bring about. St. George's College is such a construct. Certainly the school has been and is, shaped by individuals, but once that process has begun, it takes on a life of its own and continues to evolve on its own fashion, directing and leading the human cells to its ends. We sometimes try to identify part of this hidden force by calling it tradition, or what Chesterton called the democracy of the dead , but most of it remains hidden. Unlike the termites, the human elements of St. George's can exist separated from the whole, but only because human beings, as the ultimate social animal, belong to more than one nest . Other coextensive communities share the same members. How drive, organization and purposeful behavior can occur within the enormous complex of ten million termites is beyond our present knowledge. Similarly, we find it difficult to comprehend how a College of so many distinct and changing individuals can assume an identity different from any one of its parts, how it can evolve a nature which allows it to be differentiated from other schools, and how that per- sonality can continue to develope. But it does haye life of its own, moulded by individuals and tradition of Church Schools from St. Augustine on. lf uc ignore that, we do it a disscrxicc. AS. liarloiy Principal .l unior School

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STUDENTS