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

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'REPORT OF THE JUNIOR SCHOOL PRINCIPAL SUMMARY OF THE YEAR'S EVENTS MUSIC In a sense, the year began with the choir tour to Europe in June of 1983. We visited Germany, Italy, and France, and sang in Venice, Florence, Rome, and Paris. The choir continues to sing for public events as well as to support the choral tradition of the school in singing Friday services. In the instrumental programme, three sets of bands allow instruction at the appropriate skill and experience level. In addition, we offer an after- school junior band, jazz band, small ensembles and the new and growing area of computer music. Most of the boys in the instrumental programme also take private lessons once a week. Future plans involve expanding the string programme and the institution of instrumental trips such as the one planned for Ottawa this fall. In April 1983, St. George's College hosted, for the second year in a row, the Independent Schools Music Festival at Massey Hall. This event attracted 23 schools from across Canada and involved nearly 1,000 students. Mr. Demierre is to be commended for his outstanding job of organizing this event. We now pass the hosting of this event on to other schools. SPO RTS The physical education programme flourished as usual with regular classes for every boy, augmented by the many teams such as soccer, hockey, swimming, skiing, basketball, volleyball, tennis, baseball, and track and field which compete against other independent schools. The soccer team attended the invitational tournament at St. John's Kilmarnock in Waterloo in October and St. George's hosted a basketball tournament in February. The whole school turned out for a chilly Cross-Country Run in October and for the Track and Field Day in May. CULTURAL In February, the Junior School produced the play, Brother Francis, under the skillful direction of Mr. Stevenson. Also in February, the Junior School Open House was held with demonstrations of basketball, instrumental music, debating, and drama in both French and English. ln November, all the grades of the Junior School attended the ballet Romeo and Juliet at the O'Keefe Centre. Debating, again under the tuition of Mr. Stevenson, has been a highly active club in the Junior School. A large number of debates have taken place within the school, and the debating team has competed against many ol' tlte other independent schools in Southern Ontario. EDUCATION We continued the Norval Science Scltools for the eleventh year. By the time the Grade Iive's go tip next April, we will have held 75 Science Schools at Norval and over 750 different boys from St. George's will have at- tended. An Information Night was held in January to inform parents of boys in Grades 7 and 8 particularly of tlte changes to be implemented in vievv of the Ontario Government's decision to phase out Grade 13. In February, Dr. Ronald Clavier, a psychologist, spent three days discussing drttg education and drug abuse vvith all of the boys in St. George's. This was culminated on the third night with an opportunity for the parents to express their concerns and ask questions. SERVICE In May, the Junior School held a Walk-a-thon lo raise money for the Leukemia Research Fund. Over S6,300.00 was raised for this worthy cause. More information about the Walk-a-thon is described later in the Yearbook. ON TRADITION Tradition has a special significance for St. George's. While, in comparison to other independent schools, this college is a young one, its roots stretch back to the first English choir school founded by the monk Augustine in 597 A.D. 1 have often claitned that St. George's is the best school of the 19th century and such a tenet can only be founded on a reverence for tradition. Chesterton has called tradition the democracy of the dead g it is the conceit of tlte living that purports to have solutions, ansvvers, and techniques to apply to every societal institution. In education especially. there has been wholesale abandoning of traditional practices in the rush of enthusiasm for nevv ideas. ltt the 60's and 70's, the educational establishment rejected elemental approaches, only to retttrn to tltern in tlte back to the basics movement of tlte 80's thovvexcr much the Minister ot' Education chooses to call it forward to tlte l'tntdamentals l. Over 2000 years ago, Socrates made contributions to education that are as valid today as they vvere then. We forget tltat behind tts stretch cetttttrtes and millenia of experience. Obviottsly, ttot all of it is good. New ideas in educatiott attd tlte church tttttst be examined, bttt examined in the light of tradition NK e ignore the compelling evidence of tlte past .tt out peril. As Ogden Ntlsll has said: Progress nttyht have been all rigltt once, bttt it ltas gone on too long novv .

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THE HEADMASTER S ADDRESS Mr. Chairman, members of the Board of Governors, members of the graduating class, boys of St. George's College, ladies and gentlemen: Welcome to our 20th Prize-giving! We come together today to honour not only our l6th graduating class, but also all those boys who have attained high standards of academic excellence during the year. I want especially to express my great admiration for those who, though they have won no prizes, have clearly seen their goals and have struggled steadily toward them. Their rewards, though not the material ones of public recognition, can be nonetheless every bit as satisfying, even if anonymous. To every Georgian who has done his best I say 'Congratulations, and God speed you on your wayl' The end of our 20th year! Here I must struggle earn- estly against the urge to reminisce. Suffice it to say that this is the first year in which no boy presently in the school had yet been born when, as someone in another school was once overheard to describe us, this 'funny little place down in the slums' first opened its doors. To our graduating class, that is more than a lifetime ago. -- To some of us, however, it is but yesterday. Mr. Love may correct me if he wishes, but I think this is known as gaining 'historical perspective'. tHere I am sorely tempted to describe to you in some detail my first en- counter, as a master at SAC, 28 years ago, with a shy, gentle, and poetic young boy in Grade 9, who is now our principal staff softball pitcher and ball hockey forward, great film chronicler of the Second World War, chief resident representative of the Chicago White Sox, and general 'egger-on'.l It is truly amazing what a good education and time can do! But I digress. I draw your attention once again to the graduating class: There are amongst their number five boys who entered this school in Grade 4, and have been with us ever since. As l call their names, would they please rise and be recognized? Bill Henry, Stewart lstvan, Alexei Marcilio, Andrew Pace, and Jeff Ruscica. In recent conversation with one of these young gentlemenel ventured to say, 'Well there - despite ten years in this crazy place, you are perfectly normall' His response to this facile summation of his career at St. George's was immediate and vehement: 'What do you mean 'After ten years in this place I'm perfectly normal? How could l be?' lt is with regret that l announce the departure from our Staff of Gary Haslett, Head of the French department, who has taken a position with Peel County Board of Education: of George Rutherford, Old Boy of this school and former Head Prefect, who is to become head of the English department at Holy Trinity School: and of Steven Harper, an Old Boy of the school and former Prefect who has been on an exchange from Crescent School during this year. Thank you, gentlemen, for all you have given to St. George's. I am pleased to announce the following appointments: From within the present staff, Mr. Gilles Masse as Head of the Foreign Languages Department. QI know he deeply resents my considering French to be a 'foreign language', but in a place like Toronto I can see no other way around ity: Dr. Michael Webb, formerly Head of the Science Department at the Halifax Grammar School, and more recently Professor of Chemistry at Memorial University in Newfoundland. He will be Head of the Science Department: Mr. Richard Holdsworth, presently teaching at Havergal College, will join the English Department: Mr. Eric Timm and Ms. Anne Jensen, presently on the staff of Appleby College, will join us to teach French: And Ms. Suzanne Tevlin, an honours graduate of OCA, will teach art. At this time I should also like to announce the school prefects for the coming year. Would they please stand as I call their names? John Cimba, Head Prefect: Paul Clark, Gregor Gilbert, Tony Hanley, Ian Hardacre, Graham Hunt, George Kerr, Scott Merrick, Jamie Moore, George Skarbek-Borowski, and Keith Stinson. It is not my intent to recount in this report all the widely varying activities of our school year. Suffice it to say that I am always truly amazed at the number of things we are able to accomplish outside the classroom in drama, debating, in the yearbook staff, in the camera club, the pub club, and on the playing fields. The list is almost endless. But my sincere thanks go to all those who organized and directed these myriad events, and to all those who took part in them. My sincere thanks too to Brenda White and her great ladies of the Guild, to David McClatchy and the men of the SGCA, to the Board of Governors for their con- tinuing support, and to the Staff, who have laboured unstintingly throughout the year to make St. George's the great school that it is. I address my final words to the graduating class: you have completed one stage of the battle. As you 'graduate' to higher education, take with you the blessings and good wishes of all of us. Do not forget your old school.

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