Shawnigan Lake School - Yearbook (Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia Canada)

Page 32 text:

SHAWNIGAN LAKE SCHOOL MAGAZINE ' ' Have you ever thought what a wonderful history life on earth is? Dr. Norwood asked. He recalled first nothingness, then the emergence of life, the procession of the years, the growth of living creatures, the appearance of man, man be- coming conscious of himself. They could not escape from feeling that man was pa rt of the process. They knew that, when man became conscious of himself. Jesus Christ came to show us the path. You are part of the process. They could take their share in making the kingdom of Christ come. In this school it would be better or worse according to the part each played. ' Everyone matters. Build your life on a simple belief in God and Jesus Christ. Honour discipline. Back up the auth- ority of masters or of boys having responsibility. Determine to do your task well and learn to obey. Given responsibility as you grow older, do not fail. Concerning games, Dr. Norwood said: It doesn ' t matter about winning or whether your team is the best. It does mat- ter that you should play hard and without fear. Be fair, with- out favour, with unselfishness, every boy fitting into his side and not thinking of his own honour and glory. If you play games in that spirit you will do much to build your own character. If boys thus used their schooldays it would give a real meaning to the three things of which he had spoken. Only if you are an educated man will you learn what true freedom is. After leaving school they would think of serving their gen- eration rather than lining their own pockets. A life was sel- fish if lived for the sake of getting money. It was poor and, in comparison, stupid. Apart from the school and Canada your lives have no meaning, he said. Use your lives in the service of your community and country. In that way lies true freedom and happiness. ::o

Page 31 text:

SHAWNIGAN LAKE SCHOOL MAGAZINE Everything will depend on the faith with which you build and the truth of the ideals you fo ' llow. You are builders. If I had chosen a text it would have been, ' Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it. ' I have not been here long, but I have seen that you are builders, putting up your own buildings, making your own cricket and foot- ball grounds. In the same way, said Dr. Norwood, the boys had to be builders first of themselves. The youngest of them knew that inside him were instincts towards good and evil. He had the power of will, of choice. He could exercise that choice by hav- ing standards. What was he to judge by? There is a temptation to judge by what you can get for yourself at school or when away, by the dollar and all it can buy. You may think that education is something which has a cash value here. It is hard to escape from it because nine-tenths of life is getting enough to eat and build a house and meet material cares. All these things money can buy. The more you have the less there is for anybody else to have. He asked the boys to consider this in their own hearts. He said that each one wanted to be good, wanted to know the truth, disliked ugliness, desired the beautiful. Truth, goodness, beauty are in the hearts of all of you. These I want you to follow — rather than the dollar. The more you have of them the more there is for everybody else. The better they were, he went on, the better for everybody else, for the school and for all who come after. That is Christ ' s teaching, the teaching we are trying to follow in the schools of the Old Country. The reason you honour truth, goodness, beauty is that each of you is human and divine. You have a bodily nature but your spirit is akin to God. Those values you can not help turning to are spirit- ual values and this life is not all ; but the stage is set etern- ally. That is the religion not only of the school but the true religion Christ came on earth to teach us.

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SHAWNIGAN LAKE SCHOOL MAGAZINE IT MAY be of interest to some of those who live at a dis- tance from the School, and are unable to visit us, to know how we spend our time when not actually in school. The School consists of four houses, and routine is so ar- ranged that each house has, in turn, an afternoon a week for boating or boxing, drill, house games, and work. The remain- ing two days, being half holidays, are devoted to games in which every boy joins. Occupations are not, as the name may imply, just a way of employing the time, but are arranged with the idea that every boy shall have an opportunity to participate in all ac- tivities we are able to offer, so that he may not become a specialist, and may learn something of the multitude of lessons to be learned from team work and unselfish effort. Apart from the games, the work undertaken and carried out by the boys, under supervision, is no haphazard work, nor waste of time and energy. It is all done with a purpose, it is constructive, and results in improving and beautifying the School and its surroundings. Surely it is fine thing for boys to be able to look forward to the time when they will return as Old, and perhaps even elderly, Boys, to their School, and then to be able to see the results of work in which they took a personal part. Those who have been to the schools in England have doubt- less revisited their old schools and have perhaps seen their names in lists of the XV. or XI. of earlier days, but can they in going round their old school point to anything they did themselves, barring, perhaps, cutting their names deeply in some desk to its detriment? Their schools were finished long before they arrived on the scene and they had not the chance that the Shawnigan boys have, and should be proud to have. For all that, Old Boys are proud of their own school, and however much they might, as is the nature of boys, abuse the school, the food, the masters, and everything- in any way con- 31