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

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j awtttrjan Halt? Srljflfll STAFF 1954-55 Headmaster G. P. KAYE, C.A. School Chaplain REV. J. H. MAUNSELL Senior Master E. R. LARSEN, P.T.I. , B.A. (Brit. Col.), M.A. (Oxon.) Head of Mathematics House Masters C. J. CURTIS, English Ministry of Education Certificate, Copeman House and Scout Master D. G. H1GGS Groves House and Art Master D. W. HYDE-LAY, P.T.I. , E.T.S. (Switzerland) Lake House and P.T. Instructor M. D. ROBINSON, M.A. (Cantab.) Ripley House and Head of Languages Assistant Masters G. J. ARCHIBALD, B.A. (Brit. Col.), M.A. (Cincinnati) Post Grad. (Toronto) , Head of English I. GALLIFORD, A.R.T.C. (Toronto), A.A.G.O. (New York) Music and Choir Master G. S. KNIGHTON Head of Science and CO. Sea Cadets C. E. LONSDALE H. McINTOSH, Saskatchewan Teaching Certificate L. WILDE, M.A. (Oxon.), Post Grad. (Univ. of Munich), Head of History Hobby Shop R. CARR Industrial Arts

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ditoriut (r KlT was Plato who compared the brain to a tablet of wax on which impressions are stamped. It is, of course the impressions we receive while we are young which are most enduring. Our boarding schools in Canada have played an important part in impressing on the minds of several generations of schoolboys ideals which are now our heritage. The tradition is a fine one, worth keeping and guarding as most old- boys of boarding schools acknowledge. Impressed on their minds is the memory of games which helped not only to develop the body but also to create an attitude towards life. On the playing field they learned sports - manship and team-play, the ability to admit defeat graciously and to accept victory modestly. This ideal of self-control, so essential in our daily con- tacts with one another, gained them admiration of friends at school and respect of fellowmen later in life. Important as they are, athletics must take second place to scholarship. There are few real duffers in a classroom and most can make themselves mentally fit. Sincerity of effort builds self-respect and confidence and the more that is done the more one will be capable of doing. The growth of the brain with use is remarkable. The full and proper use of language is an important exercise and much depends on it. The facts related by Homer and Vergil, Cicero and Livy could be obtained from a good translation. But it is the mental exercise which the effort of translating gives that is beneficial to the mind. Then, too, one who does not talk and exchange thought with others, or who neglects good books, will remain undeveloped. A well-developed, well-stored mind is a vital instrument for achieving success in the highest sense of that word. Scholarship has as its ideal a trained, ennobled, courageous mind, not afraid to think for itself, able to distinguish between right and wrong, and capable of great action. Nearly all races have evolved religions that aim at ennobling the mind. They embody conceptions of goodness which reflect the strivings of men to do what is right. The conception that our love of God is best manifested in service to fellowmen has been well expressed in the poem Above Ben Adhem by Leigh Hunt: — I pray thee, then, write me as one that loves his fellow men. Being a Christian is a static condition. Acting as a Christian is a moving forward, a strengthening of oneself, and an influencing of others. Con- sciously or unconsciously we influence others and leave an impression on their minds. Were Plato living now he would want an impression to be stamped by a Christian character upon the minds of the members of his ideal state. The imprint of Christianity upon the wax of the mind is necessary so that the educated and strengthened faculties may be used on behalf of what is good.